Ugly, expensive & unwelcome free school building in Brondesbury Park to be decided next week

A particularly ugly temporary school building has been proposed for a corner site in Brondesbury Park to house the Marylebone Boys Free School for just two years.  On its website the school explains:

We are delighted to announce that a planning application has been submitted for our second site which will be a brand new, purpose-built modular school building in Brondesbury Park. It’s on the site of the former Swiss Cottage Special School located on Brondesbury Park between The Avenue and Christchurch Avenue.

Although the location is not as close to our final site as we might have wished, we are delighted that it is on a plot which allows for modular construction (which is quick) and that there is good outside space on site and nearby.

There are good transport links via buses 98 (bus stop Christchurch) and 206 (bus stops N and S, Brondesbury Park/The Avenue), Queens Park station on the Bakerloo Line, and Brondesbury Park station on the London Overground.

This site has been planned so that if there are delays to our permanent site – which now looks certain not to be ready in time for September 2017 but will be completed during the school year 2017-18 – four year groups can be accommodated at Brondesbury Park.

There will be fully equipped science labs, a library and ICT resource centre, music practice rooms, design and technology as well as art, changing rooms and onsite sport, and full kitchen and dining facilities.

Although planning issues are important I find it extraordinary that the government, through its free schools programme,  has money to throw away on what amounts to a major building project that will exist for only two years.

It may be that after Marylebone moces on the building would be allocated to another free school project such as that for  the Avenue Special Free School LINK proposed by some existing Brent special schools.  However that is a smaller school with different requirements that is part of a hybrid development which also includes housing. LINK

 Transparency is not helped by the Council Planning site referring to the Avenue planning application (15/0169) as  situated at 3-7 The Avenue and the Marylebone application (16/0169) as Land at the Junction of Brondesbury Park and Christchurch Avenue.

Taxpayers will be paying twice for new schools on the site at the same time as local councils are banned from planning and building new schools.


The ostensible reason for Marylebone Boys School to move is that its present site couldn't house the September 2016 intake. Is it really likely that the temporary building above will be ready in 6 months or so?  Would it have been more sensible to suspend new intakes until the Marylebone Boys School new site in North Wharf Road in the Paddington Development basin is ready?

What is the total cost of the two buildings?

Although Brent Planning is advocating approval of the plan at Wednesday's Brebt Planning Committee (7pm Brent Civic Centre) there have been objections from local residents and Cllr Shaw:

• Impact on parking for local residents, finding a parking space is already difficult and will be more difficult after the opening of another school. 

• The school will be disruptive even if only for 2 years – the previous application was for a limited number of children from Brent who would be bussed in so there would be minimal disruption. 

• The proposal is for 480 children making their own way, while 6% currently travel by car the school is expanding and the future number is unknown. 

• The new site is some way from its present site and catchment. 

• This number of staff and pupils would put strain on local bus and train services at peak times. 

• The noise level from 480 pupils in a residential area would be immense. 

• Local residents have no possibility of benefitting from this development as the school is for students living 
in Marylebone. 

• It is stated that pupils will be taken by double decker bus to sports facilities – there are currently no buses 
this size on nearby roads and this will add to disruption. 

• The four storey nature of the building will be imposing and completely out of keeping with the current 
residential buildings. 

• The area is at risk of total over-development, the current residents suffer with noise, traffic, privacy and 
parking being constantly eroded. 


Cllr Shaw raised the following points: 

• Unacceptable impact of traffic and pollution on the area from a school which is not for Brent residents 

• There are a number of major developments in the area which will also add to this. 

• Transportation has not provided any solutions to date. 

• Extra buses will be needed which will add to the chaos.

Full report HERE

NUT London Mayoral Hustings on Monday - what are the issues?

From the NUT

NUT call on the next Mayor of London to defend education and help teachers create a just society for all.

 The NUT will be holding a London Mayoral Hustings on Monday March 7th 6pm at the union's headquarters at Hamilton House, Mabledon Place, WC1H 9BD, near Kings Cross, off the south side of Euston Road. 

The meeting will be introduced by Christine Blower, NUT General Secretary. The flyer advertsing the event lists the issues that matter to London teachers: London's schools are under threat London is a city full of creativity, talent and potential. Our schools and teachers are amongst the best in the world. Yet this sucess is under real threat. Spending cuts School budgets across London face 12% cuts under Government spending plans. In some boroughs, the losses could be over 20%. That would mean understaffed schools, bigger class sizes, more children's needs unmet and a narrower curriculum. 

 Teacher shortages

 Talented, hardworking teachers are being driven out of London's schools by excessive workload, the lack of affordable housing and an exam factory culture which demoralises both staff ansd children. Poverty and unaffordable housing Almost 4 in 10 children in the capital grow up in poverty. Unaffordable rents force too many families into unsuitable housing. These conditions impact heavily on children's education and their schools. Lack of school places London needs 113,000 more school places to meet demand. Yet our Councils have neither the funds nor the legal powers to open new schools. Stand Up for London's Education 

The NUT believes that every child deserves the best. We have produced a Manifesto for London's schools calling on the next Mayor of London to defend education and help teachers create a just society for all. Help stand up for education Come along to our hustings and other local campaign activities across London.

Issues to be addressed:

• A good local school for every child
• Affordable housing for children and teachers
• Education – invest, don’t cut
• All children deserve qualified teachers
• An equal chance for every child in London
• An end to child poverty in London
• An end to exam factories

Proposals to put forward:

• A good local school for every child
• Affordable housing for children and teachers
• Education – invest, don’t cut
• All children deserve qualified teachers
• An equal chance for every child in London
• An end to child poverty in London
• An end to exam factories

- See more at: http://www.teachers.org.uk/campaigns/london-manifesto#sthash.MZheSnug.dpuf

Ask your MP to 'stick around' next Friday for the vital NHS Reinstatement Bill

Next Friday March 11th  Caroline Lucas will take the NHS Reinstatement Bill back to the House of Commons. [1] I have emailed and tweeted Barry Gardiner MP  to ask him to attend the debate.  I hope others will do so for their constituency MP.

The private members bill has received cross-party support and has among its signatories Jeremy Corbyn, who signed up before becoming Labour Party leader.

The bill would reinstate the secretary of state’s responsibility for the health of UK citizens, something the Health and Social Care Act removed. It would fully restore the NHS as an accountable public service by reversing 25 years of marketization in the NHS.

Many MPs return to their constituencies on Thursday nights but thousands of people have signed a petition urging their representatives to vote in favour on the NHS Reinstatement Bill next Friday. [2]

Caroline Lucas MP said:

I hope that MPs stick around next Friday to have a say on the future of our health service.

This mobilisation of grass roots campaigners and NHS staff is hugely inspiring. Across the country we’re seeing people making a stand against the ongoing marketization of our health service. The NHS is saddled with a wasteful internal market, and increasingly widespread outsourcing of services. When you add this privatisation to the near-constant Government attacks on the NHS workforce you can see why so many people are supporting the NHS Bill.
 
The NHS bill would put the public back at the heart of the health service. MPs now have a chance to put their commitment to a public NHS into action by backing this bill on 11th March.

If we work together we can save our crisis ridden health service for future generations.

[1] The NHS Reinstatement Bill:

[2] Petition in favour of the NHS Bill  

Will the Wembley luxury flat bubble burst?

Wembley Park from Barn Hill this morning

Few local people are able to buy or rent the luxury flats that are being thrown up by Quintain and other developers in Wembley Park and it now looks doubtful if overseas investors will be interested.

Morgan Stanley warned this week that  prices of upmarket London flats could fall by as much as 20% this year reflecting the impact of stamp duty increases on buy-to-let homes, a weaker global economy and Brexit fears.

The Evening Standard quoted Trevor Abrahamson, head of Gentree International:

Asian buyers - from Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and China - are walking away from their commitments to buy properties in, for instance, east London and None Elms. They would rather lose 10% than complete for purchase and lose a lot more, even before the developments are complete. The changes to buy to let is the 'straw that broke the camel's back.'

In pockets of London's newly developed areas, where there is a lot of speculative developments, the outcome could quickly turn nasty with buyers drying up, developers having to cut prices and investors dumping their newly acquired flats before construction of them has finished.

The area around Wembley Stadium is rapidly looking like a jumble of unchecked, speculative development rather than the pastel shaded mixture of homes and parks pictured in consultation documents of yesteryear. Dominated by rabbit hutch flats with high spec kitchens, private student accommodation and hotels, the regeneration is beginning to look high risk.

Coincidentally  RIBA have published a study of 'rabbit hutch' homes and concluded:

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Based on our sample, the average new home in England is only 92% of the recommended minimum size.

The average one bedroom home from our sample of 1,159 homes across 41 sites
is 46 sqm. It is 4 sqm short of the recommended minimum for a single storey, one bedroom home for two residents.

4 sqm is just a number. But in lifestyle terms it means...
The equivalent of a single bed, a bedside table and a dressing table with a stool.

3 sqm is the equivalent of a 3 seat sofa and a desk and chair.

4 sqm is the space that allows you to work at home at the computer in the day and also have an extra sofa when you’ve got friends round in the evening. 4 sqm might not sound like much but it could make everyday life a lot more comfortable.

The average three bedroom home from our sample of 3,418 homes across 71 sites
is 88 sqm. It is 8 sqm short of the recommended minimum for a two storey, three bedroom home for five residents.

8 sqm is just a number. But in lifestyle terms it means...
The equivalent of a single bedroom and the furniture you’d expect to t comfortably within it. 7 sqm is the equivalent of a galley kitchen and a coffee table. 8 sqm is the single bedroom you’re missing. It’s the space for a new arrival to the family, the space that means the kids have a room of their own or a spare room for a guest to stay over. It’s the space that could take the kitchen out of the lounge and the sounds
a and smells that go with it.

Brent Youth Parliament elects new officers

From Brent Council

Members of Brent Youth Parliament (BYP) which represents almost 75,000 young people elected their new leadership team recently.

The new executive was elected after speeches and voting among all 72 young people who are members of the parliament, representing their school, youth group and organisation.

The new executive for 2016 are:

• Leesha Varsani – Chair
• Najib Rahman – Deputy Chair
• Shivani Trivedi – Media Representative

In addition, Dilan Dattani was elected as Brent's UK Youth Parliament representative and Jai Patel as deputy representative.

Leesha, who is a sixth-former at Alperton Community school, said:

I want to make sure we are the voice of young people in the borough and that our views are heard among councillors. There are many important issues facing young people and I want to make sure BYP has an impact.

BYP was founded in 2007 and is made up of young people aged from 10 to 19 years old, from all walks of life. It works with the local authority and its elected members to improve services for young people and represent their views.

For more information please email byp@brent.gov.uk.

Defending the Council's role in allotment management

I could only attend the first half of last night's consultation  meeting on self-management of allotments. My impression by the time I left was that the majority of the large audience of allotment holders was sceptical about such a scheme - although that might have been changed by later presentations.

Council officers made it clear from the beginning that the consultation did not constitute a recommendation for allotments to be self-managed, 'nor is there a requirement to do so.'

Despite persuasive speeches from  Richard King of Barnet Allotment Federation and Richard Wiltshire of the National Allotment Society (there were other speakers later) the Q&A sessions revealed problems, not least (although it was said to be only a few hours a week), the amount of work involved in self-management (budgeting, managing lettings, rent collection, bank account, public liability insurance, dispute management) seemed daunting. 'We just want to get on with gardening' someone muttered.

The self-managed Allotment Association would take over maintenance of trees, paths, fencing and water and the question immediately arose of the inequality between allotment sites where some would face flooding problems or contain a large number of mature trees that would require maintenance.

Such inequalities would require such allotments to put up rents in order to have a fund to cover major expenditure while others would require less of a contingency and so would have lower rents. A response that there would need to be a 'levelling off' between sites  before they were handed over to Associations was not very convincing.

The audience were not much impressed by the guest speakers revelation that self-management had increased rents and that this was justified by the new freedom they had to improve the allotment.

Speakers from the audience suggested there was a need for an overall body to manage cross-borough waiting list rather than each independent self-managed site to have its own waiting list.

The argument, particularly from Barnet, that self-management was preferable to poor council management ('Easy Council' Barnet wants to get rid of everything anyway) was not in general favourable received, with  praise for the work of the current Allotments Officer, in allotment management, training, promoting organic gardening and sustainability and the overall Council food growing strategy,  despite more general criticisms of the Council.

Brent has 22 allotment sites, only one of which is currently self-managed, with the 21 managed by the Food Growing and Allotments Officer. At the end of January 2016 there were 1,064 plots of which 1,029 were let and a waiting list of 201 individuals.

Officers did refer to the Council's need to make savings and the possibility of budget cuts in the service but also stated that there were no plans to sell off sites to developers.

The legal position is that Section 23 of the Small Holdings and Allotments Act 1908 puts the Council under a duty to provide a sufficient number of allotments with powers to improve, maintain and manage allotments. However, he legislation does not set minimum standards and these powers are discretionary - not a duty: 'Each individual authority can decide how to use these powers and what proportion of its resources to allocate to the service.'

The proponents of self-management quoted this as a reason to opt for self-management as it would be easier to defend allotment provision if it was self-financing.

The almost forgotten 'Big Society' was quoted.

Brent Uncut (if only!) event on March 12th

At the Green Party Conference there was a discussion on whether we could work as part of a 'progressive alliance with the Labour Party. Opinions and experiences were mixed with some claiming that although Momentum had come out of the Corbyn leadership campaign it was little more than an election machine for the Labour Party who would back any Labour candidate, regardless of whether they supported anti-austerity or Corbyn, as a defeat would be seen as a blow for Corbyn.  I hope to post a video of the discussion later.

Meanwhile Brent Momentum has sent out the following invitation. Brent Momentum's event is called Brent Uncut, although of course Brent Labour Council has cut local services to the bone as a consequence of central government slashing local governnment finances. I  would be interested in any comments you wish to make.

What would Brent look like without austerity? Brent Momentum with Brent Trades Council and Brent Fightback presents Brent Uncut: Fighting Austerity for a Better Borough. Come along for a day of workshops and discussions, with:

Shelly Asquith (National Union of Students), Melissa Benn (journalist, writer, campaigner), Dawn Butler MP,  Muhammed Butt (Leader, Brent Council) and Michael Pavey (Dep Leader, Brent Council).

Participate in workshops on: education, transport, health, energy/climate, housing, PREVENT, welfare/disability and culture.

Brent Uncut will be held from 10 - 4 pm on Saturday 12 March 2016 at  Neasden Methodist Church, Neasden Lane North, NW10 0AF.

Please sign up and share via Facebook.

You don't need to be an expert or have been to events like this before. Everybody has great ideas and contributions to make for how we can improve our local area. Come along and be part of the movement for a more democratic, equal and decent society.

In solidarity,

Team Momentum

Where places are available in Brent secondary schools after September 2016 offers

Yesterday was 'offer day' in Brent for Year 6 children to hear news of whether their applications for a secondary school place for September 2016 had been successful. Children who applied by post, rather than electronically, will receive a response today or tomorrow.

The full quota has been filled by most Brent secondary schools with Ark Elvin (formerly Copland), Crest Academy and Newman Catholic College (boys only) having vacancies or small waiting lists.

The table below gives details of how the places were allocated and is worth studying in terms of equal opportunities. Is there an equal distribution of children with special educational needs? What is the impact of 'feeder primary schools' for children from primary schools without such links? What proportion of places go to children with siblings already at the secondary school? How many places were offered to current Year 6 children at the two 'all through' (containing both primary and secondary schools) Preston Manor and Ark Academy (Wembley Park).

There is a continuing imbalance  of school provision between north and south Brent which will be worsened if the proposal for a new North Brent secondary free school goes ahead and if the proposed Gladstone Secondary Free School continues to fail to find premises.

The plight of children who are only children or the oldest in the family (ie no sibling connection), who do not attend a feeder school or the primary department of an all through school, without SEN and who live some distance from their desired school is particularly concerning.

Guidance for parents who are not happy with their school place allocation is available on the Brent Council website HERE