Democracy breaks out in Brent Labour as key positions contested

The Brent Labour Annual General Meeing  next Saturday will see elections for Leader, Deputy Leader and Cabinet positions I understand from well-informed sources.

This is part of the normal democratic process but takes place against the background of internal tensions that included Councillor Butt's attempt to select his own deputy.

Following the election the posts have to be confirmed by Full Council but that is usually certain given the Labour majority - unless the results are very close and susceptible to abstentions at Council.

These are the current positions and responsibilities:

Leader of the Council

Councillor Muhammed Butt

Responsible for:

• Community Planning and Partnership
• Strategic Regeneration
• Voluntary Sector
• West London Alliance
• Health and Wellbeing Board (chair)
• Mayor's Development Corporation
• Executive and Members Services
• Legal Services

Find out more about Cllr Muhammed Butt.

Deputy Leader

Councillor Michael Pavey

Responsible for:

• Finance
• Performance Management
• Complaints and FOI
• Council as Employer (HR)
• Equalities
• Procurement
• IT

Find out more about Cllr Michael Pavey.

Cabinet Member for Employment and Skills

Councillor Roxanne Mashari

Responsible for:

• Customer Access
• Skills
• Jobs and Employment
• Business and Enterprise
• Welfare
• Poverty
• London Living Wage Advocate

Find out more about Cllr Roxanne Mashari.

Cabinet Member for Environment

Councillor Eleanor Southwood

Responsible for:

• Environment
• Transport
• Public Realm
• Sustainability
• Highways
• Parking
• Transportation
• Street Lighting

Find out more about Cllr Eleanor Southwood.

Cabinet Member for Children and Young People

Councillor Ruth Moher

Responsible for:

• Early Years
• Schools
• Special Education Needs
• Early Help
• Children's Social Care
• Youth Services
• Troubled Families

Find out more about Cllr Ruth Moher.

Cabinet Member for Adults, Health and Wellbeing

Councillor Krupesh Hirani

Responsible for:

• Adult Social Care
• Health and Wellbeing
• Public Health
• CCG

Find out more about Cllr Krupesh Hirani.

Cabinet Member for Housing and Development

Councillor Margaret McLennan

Responsible for:

• Housing
• Private Sector Housing
• Landlord licensing
• Planning
• Building Control
• Property and Asset Management
• Facilities Management
• Brent Housing Partnership (BHP)

Find out more about Cllr Margaret McLennan.

Cabinet member for Stronger Communities

Councillor James Denselow

Responsible for:

• Community Cohesion
• Community Safety
• Community Resilience
• Arts, Leisure and Sports
• Trading Standards
• Licensing
• Libraries
• Communications
• Registration and Nationality

Find out more about Cllr James Denselow.

Barry Gardiner and Natalie Bennett to speak at tomorrow's 'Backwards on Climate Change' demonstration

#GoingBackwards on Climate Change

Backwards march down Whitehall on 8^th May  Assemble Nelson's Column, Trafalgar Square at noon

 

“Instead of making excuses tomorrow to our children and grandchildren, we should be taking action against climate change today.” said David Cameron at the Paris climate summit.

On Sunday 8^th May the Campaign against Climate Change will be joined in London by Vivienne Westwood’s Climate Revolution, families and many others to challenge Cameron to explain to their children and grandchildren why his government has spent its first year in office going backwards on climate change, including dramatic cuts to funding for clean energy and warm homes. The message will be brought home in an original protest style: a backwards march down Whitehall exactly one year after the Conservative government took office.

Other ‘Going Backwards’ protests will be taking place the same weekend in cities including Bristol, Leicester, Leeds, Nottingham and Manchester.

Protestors in London will be assembling at Nelson’s Column, Trafalgar Square from 12pm.

“Record-breaking temperatures and a melting Arctic might seem a long way away from the UK but the impacts of climate change are here now, and we’re running out of time to act” said Suzanne Jeffery of the Campaign against Climate Change. “People hit by ‘once in a generation’ winter floods in Somerset, York, Cumbria, and other vulnerable parts of the UK are all too aware that things are changing.”

The action will link together the different ways the government has backtracked on climate action, and the harmful impacts these policies are having today. Colourful performances, staging and poetry, will bring the issues to life and challenge Cameron and Osborne to live up to past promises.

Esther McWatters from Bishops Stortford said “Having children motivated me to start campaigning on climate change, for example helping local schools put solar on their roofs. To find out that George Osborne has just cut over a billion from solar energy and given the same amount in tax cuts to oil and gas companies is shocking.”

Campaigners will highlight the government’s short-sighted infrastructure policy, including spending a planned £15 billion on new roads, while bus services are cut. “Air pollution is now a public health crisis across our country with 40,000 people dying prematurely and children and the elderly the most affected by breathing toxic and illegal air,” explained James Thornton from ClientEarth. “ClientEarth will take the government back to court because of its failure to clean up the air we breathe and we are going to show them people want action.”

 

The threat of a new runway at Heathrow is a key issue for London. This is expected to breach the UK’s climate limits, producing the same carbon emissions as the whole of Kenya, as well as bringing noise and air pollution to the local area.

Another health concern for both families and older people is the impact of cold and damp homes. The UK’s houses are some of the worst insulated in Europe but funding cuts for energy-saving measures mean the rate of improvement is just a fifth of what it used to be.

“Homes that leak heat are bad news for our fuel bills, damaging to our health - last winter 15,000 people died from living in cold homes - and also very bad news for the climate” said Becky Methven from Fuel Poverty Action. “The cuts to public funding really are terrifying.”

Frack Off London, Talk Fracking and Vivienne Westwood – backed by a spirited anti-fracking choir – will address the latest fracking information and underscore the very serious mistakes being made by our government trying to push through fracking in the UK.

“As the government blocks the cheapest forms of clean energy – onshore wind and solar, other countries are benefiting from new technologies. Green jobs are lost while money is wasted on subsidising dirty fossil fuels. Ultimately this means that as the planet heats up we are missing that vital window to act on climate change” said Claire James from the Campaign against Climate Change.

The protest is supported by organisations including Greenpeace, Biofuelwatch, War on Want, Campaign against Climate Change, Campaign for Better Transport, ClientEarth, Climate Revolution, Fuel Poverty Action, Global Justice Now, HACAN, Plane Stupid, Frack Off London, Reclaim the Power, the Solar Trade Association, Talk Fracking, Time to Cycle. 

Speakers will include Asad Rehman, Friends of the Earth, Suzanne Jeffery, Campaign against Climate Change, Barry Gardiner, Shadow Minister for Energy and Climate Change and Green Party leader, Natalie Bennett.

South Kilburn's new park to open this afternoon

At 12.30pm today the  Woodhouse 'urban' park will open in South Kilburn's Albert Road accompanied by festivities.  LINK

The park is smaller than its Chalkhill counter-part (see below) but has some robust high quality adventurous play equipment.

The Chalkhill Park has had a major impact on the quality of life on the Chalkhill Estate - providing a free (unusual these days) social space for the community to mingle and relax and following its carefully planning, which involved residents, caters for all ages.

It is much appreciated by local residents as 'our park' and has not seen any major vandalism, young saplings have survived and the only issues have been litter and regular maintenance.

It will be interesting to see how Woodhouse will fare situated as it is now in a mixed social area which includes new private developments.

Greens hail their 'biggest and best campaign in London to date'

The Green Party has recorded its best ever election results in London where Sian Berry, the Green Party’s London Mayoral candidate, came third and the Party retained its two London Assembly seats.

On the Assembly, councillors Sian Berry and Caroline Russell replace Baroness Jenny Jones and Darren Johnson, who have both stepped down after 16 years of outstanding service.

The Scottish Greens enjoyed a superb night, growing their representation from two MSPs to six. In winning election, 21-year-old rising star Ross Greer became the youngest-ever MSP .

Reacting to the outstanding results in the capital, Natalie Bennett, Green Party Leader, said:

The Greens standout results in London demonstrate how a positive campaign with good ideas for London can resonate widely with voters. We thank all our candidates, activists and supporters for delivering our biggest and best campaign in London to date.

Sian Berry said:

Today is a victory for the politics of bringing Londoners together not dividing them. I’m proud that Londoners have voted for good, positive ideas in such numbers. In every vote Greens have cemented our position as the number three party in London, coming third in the vote for mayor, on the Londonwide list and in a majority of constituencies. The immediate priority for Greens on the London Assembly now will be to push the new mayor to make the right decisions on road-building and estate demolitions and to clean up our city’s filthy air.

In the local elections, the Green Party saw strong results in the West Midlands and the South West. In Stroud, where Natalie visited on the eve of the poll, the Party retained five councillors and added three gains. The party retained all its councillors in Solihull and made two gains. The party now have 27 Green Party councillors on 11 councils in its growing West Midlands powerbase (including making a breakthrough in Cannock Chase and winning a hard-fought seat in Worcester that led to the Tories losing control of the council). The party also won a first-ever seat on Weymouth and Portland council.

Reacting to the local election results, Natalie said:

My thanks to everyone who voted Green yesterday, particularly those who voted Green for the first time, of whom I know there were many.

I also want to thank all of the candidates, members and supporters who helped us to stand in the largest-ever number of council seats, 54% in these elections compared to 25% in 2012.

That reflects the growth and development of the Green Party since then, with membership five times larger, and we’re looking forward to the county elections next year to further increase our representation.

The new Green councillors will join a team who are dedicated to standing up for the most disadvantaged, to taking real steps to alleviate the ever-worsening housing crisis, and to helping communities live within the environmental limits of our one fragile planet.

The breakthroughs we have made mean more councils will now have Green voices, voices that scrutinise, challenge, and ask tough questions. Sadly, we have lost some long-term, dedicated, valued councillors in Norwich, Oxford and other places. I thank them for their years of service to their communities and the Green Party and am sure that the parties there will be bouncing back in coming years, with strong representation still on both councils.

The final Green tally of English council seats will not be known until Sunday when the Bristol City council count is completed. Bristol is the Greens’ stronghold in the South-West and the party is poised to increase it representation from 14 councillors.

The Scottish Greens increased the presence in Parliament threefold and achieved almost a 14% increase on their best-ever total in the regional vote across Scotland.

Turning her attention to Scotland, Natalie said:

This was a great night for the Scottish Green Party and they are taking a great team into Holyrood. As well as the much respected Alison Johnstone and Patrick Harvie, Ross Greer will be the youngest MSP and land reform campaigner Andy Wightman will be a formidable force.

After the GLA plenty happening in Brent next week.

These are the final results for the London-wide seats on the London Assembly. I am sure that Sian Berry and Caroline Russell will do a good job in getting the Green Party's concerns on the Mayoral agenda but it is a pity that Brent's own Shahrar Ali will not be joining them. A few more votes of 'Green on Orange' would have secured a seat for him at the expense of Ukip to the benefit of Londoners.

However now it is time to turn our mind to other issues including the preposterous attempt to push through several major controversial multi-million planning applications at TWO Brent Planning Committee meetings to be held next week before Saturday's Labour AGM.

That AGM may also see the airing of leadership issues as well as changes in Lead Members and committee memberships.

How Brent and Harrow voted on the GLA London List

Party	Votes	Percentage
Animal Welfare Party	1570	0.90
Britain First	2560	1.47
British National Party	1254	0.72
Liberal Democrat	8538	4.89
Christian Peoples Alliance	2154	1.23
Conservative Party	58219	33.34
Green Party	9151	5.24
Labour Party	74028	42.39
Respect	4213	2.41
House Party	765	0.44
UKIP	7151	4.09
Women's Equality Party	5039	2.89
Total	174642	100.00
Rejected votes	2565
Turnout		43%

Breakdown of Mayoral votes in Brent and Harrow constituency

These are the first and second preferences for the London Mayoral vote recorded in the Brent and Harrow GLA constituency

Candidate	Party	1st pref	2nd Pref	Total	Order
Sian Berry	Green Party	7432	24333	31765	3
David Furness	Britsih National Party	1113	2208	3321
George Galloway	Respect	3787	9980	13767
Paul Golding	Britain First	2206	4789	6995
Zac Goldsmith	Conservative	67131	21125	88256	2
Lee Harris	Canabis Safer than Alcohol	1669	4291	5960
Sadiq Khan	Labour Party	75260	28821	104081	1
Ankit Love	One Love Party	777	3034	3811
Caroline Pidgeon	Liberal Democrat	6552	20492	27044	4
Sophie Walker	Women's Equality Party	2923	11419	14342
Peter Whittle	UKIP	3742	11498	15240
Prince Zylinski	Independent*	1185	1690	2875
	Total of good votes	173777	143680
	Rejected votes			2565
	Total Ballot Papers counted 177207

Brent and Harrow GLA Constituency result

Share of Poll

UKIP	9074	5.19
Cons	59147	33.86
Lib Dem	11534	6.60
Green Party	9874	5.65
Respect	5170	2.96
Labour	79902	45.74
	174701	100.00