Residents' 'grave concerns' over Wembley 'Twin Towers' proposal

Impression from the developers's consultation

 Brent Planning Committee will be visiting the Chesterfield House site at the junction of Park Lane. Wembley High Road at 9.40am on Saturday April 2nd. This is the 'twin towers proposal LINK

Planning Committeee members have been sent the following in  advance of their visit by Denise Cheong,  Former Chair, Friends of King Eddie's Park, Friendsofkingeddies.blogspot.com
Wembleychampions.blogspot.com :

Dear Planning Committee members, Wembley Central Ward Cllrs, Preston Ward Cllrs, Hub Group and Council Planning Case Officer

I understand the planning committee are due to visit the above site tomorrow (Saturday 2nd April) morning regarding planning application 15/4550.

I write to kindly urge the Planning Committee to give the following viewpoint due weight during their deliberations whilst they conduct tomorrow's site visit.

Please note during your site visit that (at the time of writing) several local residents from Princes Court and Keswick Gardens Residents Association, as well as members of neighbouring Park Lane Methodist Church are opposed to the height and scale of the proposed scheme.

Whilst residents appreciate the City's need for greater housing provision and welcome Hub Group's proposed donation to the Council for King Eddie's Park, we have grave concerns over the impact of a development that will be (although set back, at its heighest) twice the height of the opposite existing Elm Court flats and nearly three times the height of the existing Chesterfield House office block.

Mr Neidhardt notes in his report that pedestrian accidents have occurred at the junction of Park Lane and the High Road. This is a notoriously difficult junction for local residents to walk across. Please observe the existing pedestrian crossings at the junction during your site visit and consider the impact the proposed will have on the area even with any alterations from Transport For London (TFL) to the junction. Also, kindly observe the existing bus stops in the vicinity on the High Road which TFL note already operate at full capacity. You may also possibly observe heavy traffic queues on Park Lane tomorrow (as discussed at last year's planning committees for planning application 14/4208, heavy traffic from the junction of High Rd and Park Lane down past The Methodist Church and King Edward VII Park is a norm on Park Lane, and further evidence of the real need for this junction to be re-worked).

I await further communication from other resident members of the aforementioned plus neighbouring roads. I will update you all as soon as I have collated such responses and prior to Wednesday 6th April's Planning Committee.

Brent and Harrow GLA Candidates named

The £1,000 deposit appears to have kept out any minor independent candidates in the Brent and Harrow GLA Constituency. The candidates announced today (in alphabetical order) are:

Rathy Alagaratnam UK - Independence Party UKIP
Joel Davison Conservative- The Conservative Party Candidate
Anton Georgiou - London Liberal Democrats
Jafar Hassan -  Green Party
Mahmood Akib - Respect (George Galloway)
Navin Shah - Labour Party

Brent Council clarifies Kingdom flytipping and litter patrols contract proposal

I put a number of questions to Brent Council about the proposed Litter and Flytipping patrols contract LINK which is being discussed at Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday next week.

These are questions and responses:

1.    The report states that the Kingdom operatives will be paid at a lower rate than current Brent staff because they perform a different role. One of the differences cited is that they will not represent the Council in Court as part of their enforcement role. I would have thought that if there is an appeal against a fixed penalty notice or a refusal to pay that the Court would require the officer who spotted the infringement to appear as a witness. Is that your understanding?

The Kingdom role will be to undertake patrols to issue on the spot fines for littering. Our own waste enforcement team undertake more complex and weightier investigations, mainly of illegal dumping offences. The two activities are intended to be separate but will complement each other. Our own officers are professional enforcement officers who will investigate and prepare cases and then attend court to present them. It's complex and usually done without witness evidence.

In terms of Kingdom acting as witnesses, last year they issued over 50,000 FPN’s nationally and had less than 30 trials whereby the offender pleaded not guilty. Approximately 75% were paid which negates the need to prosecute. Out of the remaining 25% the vast majority plead guilty by letter or personal appearance or are found guilty in absence. The remainder of cases are remanded for a trial. In these instances, there may be the need for the issuing officer to attend court as a witness only. They would not be preparing and presenting the case.

2.    Can you clarify the total number of staff that Kingdom would deploy on the contract. Will there be a supervisor and manager in addition to the four ‘on the street’ operatives? Would the supervisor also be deployed on the street? Would there be a separate Kingdom admin support worker or would that be provided by the Council?

The Kingdom model proposes the following dedicated personnel. The supervisor would be deployed on-street as necessary.

            4 Enforcement officers

            1 Senior Enforcement Officer

            1 Supervisor / Team Leader.

            1 Admin officer

3.    As the contract was not put out to competitive tender is it possible to give like for like costings for  in-house provision of the service?

The costings from Kingdom and their anticipated resource allows for a like for like comparison with an in house service. However, each job role would be subject to the council's job evaluation process. That review has not been undertaken so the exact cost of the staffing element is not known. Also, any assumption that existing resource can be used to support an in house model is not tested. One benefit of the Kingdom model is that it complements rather than draws from existing resource. An in house model would obviously see the council retain all fines income so it could create more revenue, although experience in Ealing suggests that non-payment may be a more significant factor with an in-house service. The downside is that it would transfer the financial risk from the contractor to the council. The council would need to commit to the cost of staff and equipment without the absolute certainty of recovering that cost. Also, it is hoped such an initiative would correct behaviour over time so less fines would be issued. A contracted pilot arrangement offers better flexibility in that it can be changed or terminated without liability.

What's intended is a pilot and this will allow us to test the model and costs. When the full procurement process commences, any in house option would be considered alongside a bid from Kingdom (should they bid) and any other firm. The benchmarking from the pilot will ensure we have a clear idea of costs to compare.

Brent Council has ignored Community Asset Transfer expression of interest for Wembley Youth Centre claim - the Centre closes tomorrow

Jaine Lunn submitted this as a comment on my posting about tomorrow's closure of the Granville and Wembley Youth Centres LINK. I think it deserves a more prominent position.

The article in the Brent and Kilburn Times you referred to to in your earlier posting  LINK  is not factually correct: 

"Granville in Anson Road, Cricklewood, and Wembley in London Road, will close for good on Friday, after the town hall failed to find an outside organisation to take over its day-to-day running."

Wembley Crime Prevention submitted an expression of interest in a Community Asset Transfer in early February of this year for Wembley Youth Centre. Brent Council  confirmed receipt  and acceptance of the Expression of Interest but so far WCP have not received a  further response from Brent Council. 

Wembley Crime Prevention has been to every community meeting and consultation with regard to Youth Services Provision in the borough.  Muhammed Butt himself is well aware of how important Wembley Youth Club as a base for Wembley Crime Prevention's projects and WCP's  active campaigns "Just Don't" refering to young people carrying knives, and their petition to ban shops from selling knives to under 21 years old without ID, along with active involvment in mentoring and mediation in preventing gang activity in KFC and MacDonalds particularly in Wembley but over the whole borough.

I have also heard from a reliable source that Roundwood will close too, as only 3 staff have been retained for a further 3 months as a ploy to " make it look good until the dust settles" as I understand they have been discussions with the YMCA who wish to run this facility, which is the only way they may have a chance of getting any young people through the door.

Wembley Crime Prevention have, and were until yesterday, running most of the projects at Wembley Youth and Community Centre, along with Junior Collins who has been employed by Brent Council as Youth Leader at this facility for 25 years. Boxing classes for Male and Female Youth, Self Defence classes for Females, Taekwondo, Basketball , Football, Street Dance, Homework Club, Mentoring for Young People who have or are susceptible to being involved in Gang culture. The majority of assets housed at this Youth Club are owned by Wembley Crime Prevention charity, and they have consistently invested in upgrading the facilities such as installing a new kitchen and bathrooms a few years ago. 

These projects have and still are being funded and supported by "Children in Need" and were featured on the recent fundraising live programme on BBC1 in November 2015 aswell as BBC News London. WCP is also funded and supported by Wembley National Stadium, Sport England, Mayor of London Fund, Edward Harvist Trust, Grassroots, Asda Wembley, MacDonalds, Daniels Estate Agents and the now defunct Ward Working fund of Brent Council. All Youth projects have now been temporarily suspended as of yesterday because of Brent Councils decision. So where does that leave the young people of Brent? 

Will they go the Roundwood Facility? I doubt it. It is common knowledge, and it has been outlined at many community meetings, the only reason the Roundwood facility would be kept open as a hub is purely because of the financial implications incurred by Brent Council. Roundwood was funded by £4.997 million from National Lottery, and it would involve a payback the same as Stonebridge Adventure Playground if it were closed. Roundwood has never been popular or utilised by young people or ever would be for many reasons, one of which it is only open for 4 hours a week, 2 hours on a Monday and Friday and has more staff than patrons, runs no projects, and despite having "state of the art facilities", and where its situated.

However I do question the role of Brent Youth Parliament ( whom the council continue to finance at a cost of £60K per annum) who is purported to play a "valuable role within the Council's decision making process" surely we should have heard something from them, as it has been reported they would be part of the consultation process and strategy for the future. I would have thought they would be shouting from the rooftops " save our Youth Services" if only to protect their own existence. Sad to say I have not heard a whisper or seen any comments from anyone representing BYP.

Greens call for Parliament recall over Tata Steel crisis

The Green Party has added its voice to calls for Parliament to be urgently recalled in the wake of the potential closure of Tata Steel sites across the UK.

Caroline Lucas MP has written to the Prime Minister, to make the case for urgent government action to support the sector.

Lucas said:

This week’s crisis in Port Talbot and elsewhere has not come out of the blue – Britain’s steel industry has been in trouble for a long time now.  Yet the government appears to have been asleep on the job. 

In December, the Business, Innovation and Skills committee of MPs noted, in its review of the government’s response to last year’s Redcar steel crisis, that other EU countries – including Germany, France, Italy and Spain – have done far more to protect their industries from the collapse in global steel prices, and the dumping of excess steel by China. 

Yet Sajid Javid has had the gall to blame the EU for not introducing tariffs on Chinese steel that is being unfairly dumped on world markets and putting higher quality European production at risk, when it was precisely the British Government that blocked higher tariffs proposed by the Commission.   No wonder some are concluding that ministers are refusing to protect our steel industry in order to attract Chinese finance for Hinkley Point and pretending it’s about free trade. 

The Prime Minister’s reluctance to contemplate public ownership shows yet again a government putting ideology above practical support.   Time is now of the essence.  Opposition parties need to collectively step up to the plate vacated by Tory ministers, and come together to formulate a plan not only for protecting the 40,000 jobs now at risk, but ensuring a long-term, low-carbon future for Britain’s steel industry.  That’s why I’m adding my voice to the increasingly loud and urgent calls for Parliament to be recalled.

The party’s leader, Natalie Bennett says her party “stands ready” to get behind an “appropriate” solution to the crisis.

Bennett added:

The government appears to be caught off guard by the potential closure, they knew the dire state of Tata’s finances, yet did nothing about it.

There is a growing perception that the government is putting its relationship with China above fighting for stronger anti-dumping measures to protect our industry.  The Prime Minister is failing this vital manufacturing industry at a time when the US is readily able and willing to introduce tariffs.

The Green Party stands ready to get behind an appropriate government-led solution that works with the steel works owners, unions and communities to find a solution that keeps the plant open, secures people’s jobs and the economic base of entire communities, while they advance towards more energy-efficient, modern production methods in which the UK could be world leaders.

Children's activities for Easter holiday at the Yellow Pavilion

 The Yellow Pavilion is off the pedestrianised Olympic Way opposite Wembley Park station

Yellow Pavilion Easter egg hunt with Lindt
Thursday 31st March ◦ 14:00-16:00 ◦ free ◦ booking not required
Follow our trail around Wembley Park and help the Easter Bunny solve clues to find hidden prizes. Starts at the Yellow Pavilion.  Children must be accompanied by an adult. All finishers will receive a special treat from Lindt. Contact yellowpavilion@wembleypark.com  for details.


Fabric dyeing workshop
Friday 1st April ◦ 14:00-16:00 ◦ age 8+ ◦ free ◦ booking not required
Come and learn techniques for dying your own fabric. Create tie-dyed spirals, sunbursts and stripes; try watercolour effects with ice dying; and give the ancient Japanese technique of Shibori a go. Contact rbeeson@quintain.co.uk for more details.

DecoPatch
Monday 4th April: 14:00-16:00 ◦ age 5+ ◦ adults £2.50, children £1.50 ◦ booking not required
Come and join us for a fun time, learn new skills, get your creative juices flowing and make new friends.
Decorate a cardboard or MDF item using a similar technique to papier-mâché, but with designer tissue papers.
 
Glass painting
Wednesday 6th April ◦ 14:00-16:00 ◦ age 5+ ◦ adults £2.50, children £1.50 ◦ booking not required
Come and join us for a fun time, learn new skills, get your creative juices flowing and make new friends.
Decorate a glass item for display using markers and paints.
Contact shyamdarsh@hotmail.com for details.
 
Fabric printing workshop
Friday 8th April ◦ 14:00-16:00 ◦ age 8+ ◦ free ◦ booking not required
Come along and learn some techniques for printing on fabric. Have a go at batik, simple screen-printing, block printing and more. Contact rbeeson@quintain.co.uk for more details.

NUT Adopts new policy on Climate Change

NUT Conference passed the following Climate Change Motion


CLIMATE CHANGE MOTION

Conference recognises the following:

1. Keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius or below is essential if human civilisation is to be sustained and there is to be a future for our children;
2. Doing so requires sharp cuts in CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions on a very rapid timescale;
3. This requires 75-80% of known fossil fuel reserves to be left in the ground;
4. The technology exists to make a transition to a sustainable carbon neutral society with gains in living standards for the majority of humanity at an annual cost little greater than the current cost of annual fossil fuel subsidies, but this is incompatible with high levels of inequality and a society based on aspiration for luxurious lifestyles;
5. That growth will have to be primarily in those areas of the economy that enable this transition to take place;
6. The world’s wealthiest countries will have to make cuts in emissions of 8-10% a year (on top of those made by exporting manufacturing and related pollution to China and other countries);
7. Governments will have to put our economies on a war footing and take charge of necessary investment in sustainable energy, transport and urban planning because the private sector is not doing what is necessary;
8. This will not happen while the needs of our planet and our civilisation are held to ransom by the short-term profitability of the fossil fuel industries; and
9. This has profound implications for the structure and content of our education system, both in terms of content and values.

Conference instructs the Executive to call on the Government for:

i. The production of national plan for the most rapid possible transition to a carbon zero economy, including an immediate reversal of the current Government’s withdrawal of support from wind and solar energy;
ii. The most rapid possible retrofitting of all school buildings to make them as carbon neutral as possible (as part of a concerted plan for all publically owned buildings);
iii. An end to restrictions on solar panels by heritage considerations;
iv. A re-examination of the curriculum to put sustainability and the values of a sustainable society at the heart of it;
v. An immediate abandonment on fracking domestically and an embargo
on the import of any fracked gas or tar sand oil from any other country;
vi. The most rapid possible transfer of fossil fuel subsidies to sustainable energy generation and the phasing out of coal power without Carbon Capture Storage by 2023; and
vii. The most rapid possible socialisation of power generation.

Conference further instructs the Executive to:

a. Negotiate with the DFE on a new curriculum and seek support from other education unions;
b. Convene a working party of all interested teachers to work with relevant campaigns, like Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and Campaign against Climate Change, to find all the aspects of the current curriculum that can be developed to draw out a sustainable content and to examine those areas or values that need to be challenged and changed and produce model alternatives; making 2016-17 the year of the Green Curriculum;
c. Work with these campaigns on developing termly themes that link educational content with active citizenship and encourage our members to push them in schools;
d. Encourage union bodies at all levels to support national and local demonstrations and campaigns against fracking and climate change, negotiate with local authorities to make our schools carbon neutral solar power stations and press governing bodies to adopt a green school plan of action;
e. Take this issue up with other unions through the TUC, our international counterparts bilaterally and through Education International, supporting initiatives like the German TUCs new ‘Marshal Plan’ for Europe; and
f. Affiliate to the campaign against climate change:

Campaign Aims and Objectives

The Campaign against Climate Change (CCC) exists to push for the urgent and radical action we need to prevent the catastrophic destabilisation of global climate.
The destabilisation of global climate has become the very greatest threat to our planet and everyone on it – with the possible exception only of all-out war with modern weapons of mass-destruction. We do not know how much irreversible damage we have done already but we know that if we do not act now the effects will be many times more devastating still.
1. The CCC exists to secure the action we need - at a local, national and, above all, international level - to minimise harmful climate change and the devastating impacts it will have. To that end the CCC seeks to raise awareness about the gravity and urgency of the threat from climate change and to influence those with the greatest power to take effective action to do so with the utmost speed and resolution. Where ignorance, short term greed and vested interests stand in the way of the action that is urgently needed, the CCC exists to fight against all of these things.
2. In particular the CCC brings people together for street demonstrations, designed to get together the greatest number of people possible, and to create a mass movement to push for our goals.
3. The CCC seeks a global solution to a global problem and aims to push for an international emissions reductions treaty that is both effective in preventing the catastrophic destabilisation of global climate and equitable in the means of so doing. To be effective such a treaty needs to secure such reductions in the global total of greenhouse gas emissions as are deemed by the broad consensus of qualified scientific opinion to be necessary to prevent harmful climate change. The CCC aims to campaign against those with the greatest responsibility for preventing or delaying the progress we urgently need towards an international climate treaty.
4. The CCC recognises that the issue of the destabilisation of global climate has enormous implications in terms of social justice and global inequality. The damage to the earth’s atmosphere has so far been done mainly by the rich nations but it is the poorest who will suffer the greatest and most immediately. The CCC recognises that any solution to the problem must be as fair as possible, incorporating principles of social justice and not exacerbating global inequalities.
5. The CCC aims to bring together as many people as possible who support our broad aims of pushing for urgent action on climate and reducing global emissions. The CCC does not therefore campaign on the important but more detailed questions of how best to achieve these emission reductions and recognises that supporters will have different and deeply held views on these issues.

Granville and Wembley Youth Centres to close on Friday

I published this on Brent Council's Youth Service cuts on October 9th 2015:

The proposed retention of the Roundwood Centre means that there will be less money for other aspects of the youth service and the Wembley Youth Centre and Granville will no longer be funded  from April 2016.  They will be handed back to the Council's Asset Management Service and presumably sold off. The running costs of the Poplar Grove Centre will in future be met by Brent River College.

Today the Kilburn Times LINK reports:

Brent Council is to close two youth centres and the remaining two will change the services it will offer.

Granville in Anson Road, Cricklewood, and Wembley in London Road, will close for good on Friday, after the town hall failed to find an outside organisation to take over its day-to-day running.

I am afraid that there was never a real chance that an outside organisation would run the centres without funding and I suspect the Council knew this.

Look out for regeneration proposals at the two sites.