The Grunwick Lions roar again in Willesden

The 40th Anniversary Grunwick Exhibition opened to private view at Willesden Green Library  this evening and will be open to the public from tomorrow (Wednesday).

The Exhibition commemorates the Grunwick Strike which from small beginnings in 1976 grew to national proportions affecting the relationship between trade unions and the Labour government of the time and changing the nature of British trade unions and their attitude to women and migrant workers.

Among the guests this evening were several of the original strikers and some of those who organised in their support as well as younger activists who were inspired to organise and mount this Exhibition.

The Exhibition, on the 2nd floor of the Willesden Green Library is free and open from Monday to Friday  9am-8pm and Saturday to Sunday: 10am-5pm (Willesden Green tube - Jubilee line)
95 High Road, Willesden NW10 2SF.

Brent Labour Group's Away Day Blues

Word reaches me that Brent Labour Group's recent Away Day with senior officers in a Cricklewood Hotel gave some councillors the blues  - and it was nothing to do with the Tories!

Apparently Carolyn Downs, Brent Chief Executive, gave them a pep talk, explaining that it was difficult for her and the officers to work constructively with a Group suffering from such a marked lack of cohesion and goodwill,

An external facilitor worked with the Group on exercises to improve bonding. There may even have been a little mindfulness.

Reports indicate that it didn't work very well as later some critics of Cllr Butt's leadership were allegedly accused by at least one councillor of racial bias against him.

Meanwhile questions are being asked about the £18,000 plus allowance being saved by the non-appointment of a replacement for Cllr Pavey.  Is it going back into Council coffers? When the Cabinet was reduced from 10 to 8 the saved allowances were distributed amongst the remaining members of the Cabinet.  LINK

Hear Melissa Benn on motherhood, daughters, selective education and much else on Thursday

From Brent Culture:

Melissa Benn will be giving a talk at Kilburn Library this Thursday 20th  October

6.30-7.30pm

Kilburn Library, 42 Salusbury Road, London, NW6 6NN

Melissa is an author, commentator and journalist and member of the famous Benn political family, daughter of the late Tony Benn and sister to Hilary Benn MP.  She is also a local resident.  She has written and campaigned on many issues but is most known for her views on education.

On Thursday Melissa will talk about the seven books she has written; Public Lives, One of Us, Madonna and Child: Towards a New Politics of Motherhood, School Wars: The Battle for Britain's Education, What Should We Tell Our Daughters?: The Pleasures and Pressures of Growing Up Female, The Truth About Our Schools, Death in the City. 

She will also be talking about her current campaign to end selective education.

It promises to be a lively evening and will include a question and answer session so get ready to voice your own opinions!   

Get involved with 'meanwhile' plans for Corrib Rest tonight

From Transition Town Kensal to Kilburn

Transition Town Kensal to Kilburn, working with other local groups and individuals, plans to re-open the Corrib Rest pub on Salusbury Road as a community hub. This is with the owners permission (of course!) for six months, possibly longer. We’re opening the doors on Tuesday 18th October so everyone can see the space, find out more and get involved. We want as many people as possible to contribute to setting up, running and enjoying the new pub!

Address: Corrib Rest pub, 76-78 Salusbury Rd, London NW6 6PA

7pm - Doors open and time to look round the building
7.30-7.45pm - Welcome and presentations
7.45-9.30pm - Mingling - this is your chance to find out more, meet the people planning to run each section, give your input and get involved:

Community pub
Spice Caravan and other catering
Cycletastic bike repairs and sales
Maker and skills workshops
Freelancers co-working space
Core planning group - open to new ideas and help with marketing, graphic design, admin and all locals with time to volunteer to help the project.

We are looking for help in many areas including graphic design, marketing, admin, running a pub and everything relevant to setting up a new not-for-profit enterprise in a meanwhile space. Your experience and skills are valuable to us. Can you volunteer some time in the set up or regular running?  Come along and let us know.

A bar will be run by QPCS PTFA and snacks will be supplied by Spice Caravan - both in return for donations.

Let us know if you are coming (if you haven't already) corribrest@gmail.com  and please bring friends and neighbours, and tell us if you have a particular interest.

Best,
Meanwhile@Corrib team

PS For anyone not aware of the term 'meanwhile' in this context it means using an empty space for a limited amount of time until it is developed by the owners.

Health Partners Forum on Wednesday will discuss Brent STP

The STP is going to NHS England on Friday!

Brent Patient Voice calls for no action on STP until public properly involved and consulted

Robin Sharp of Brent Patient Voice has submitted a critique to Carolyn Downs (Brent Council CEO) and others responsible for the NW London Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) which will have a major impact on health provision for years to come.

This is Robin's covering email:

Dear Colleagues

I am pleased to enclose for your consideration a critique by Brent Patient Voice of the draft NW London Sustainability and Transformation Plan of 30 June 2016, as placed on the NW London Collaboration website on 5 August.

You will see that this is a long document, though by no means as long as the draft STP.

Rather than simply complain about the proposed cuts in finance and services, as would be tempting, we have spent quite a lot of time examining the document in detail. This has been challenging because so much critical information has been withheld.

Nevertheless our conclusion is that at the level of detail the Plan, if it is a plan, does not withstand scrutiny and in that sense is not fit for purpose.

This is disappointing, though we do understand that the haste of preparation and the non-involvement of clinicians, councillors, CCG Governing Bodies and the public were ordained by NHS England.

We are asking you to advise NHS leaders to slow down this process dramatically and to open up the issues of radical change to primary care to doctors themselves and the public.  Surely it must be obvious even to the top of the NHS that this will not work without substantial consent?

We understand that you are ready to share with the public the next version of the STP shortly after 21st October. We urge the relevant bodies not to sign any agreement or contract by 23 December without fulfilling both the letter and the spirit of the law requiring the involvement of and consultation with the public in major changes to the provision of healthcare or without explaining how the bodies involved can lawfully commit to these plans. We also believe that the STP relies on a level and type of data sharing that has neither the consent of the public, nor the sanction of data protection law, and that the latest National Data Guardian review is unlikely to resolve this.
 

With best wishes

Robin Sharp
Chair Brent Patient Voice

Robin Sharp
Chair Brent Patient Voice

John Lister speaks about the NW LONDON STP here LINK

Wembley Green Car Park pre-application proposals to be presented at Planning Committee

The Brent Planning Committee on October 19th (7pm at the Civic Centre) will be given a Presentation by Quintain on one of the biggest sites  in the Wembley Masterplan.  This is a pre-planning application so most of the information will only be divulged that evening. No plans are published in advance.

Given the controversy over recent developments at the stadium and elsewhere in Wembley this is an opportunity for residents to get a glimpse of what is in store. This is a large housing development with blocks of flats up to 26 storeys.

This is what is published on the Committee Agenda:

Green Car Park, First Way, Wembley

SCHEME:

The Reserved Matters for the development of Plot E03 pursuant to outline planning application reference 15/5550 (the Quintain Masterplan).

Proposed construction of 1 to 26 storey building to provide 743 flats (397

 private rent and 346 discount market rent), 490 square metres of communtiy

or employment floorspace Use Class D1 / B1), 91 coach parking spaces for Wembley Stadium events, energy centre for outline consent area and associated external amenity space, cycle storage, hard and soft landscaping and accesses to the highway

PART 1 DEVELOPMENT PRESENTATIONS

Introduction

1.     This part of the agenda is for the committee to receive presentations on proposed developments, particularly when they are at the pre-application stage. 


2.     Although the reports are set out in a particular order on the agenda, the Chair may reorder the agenda on the night. Therefore, if you wish to be present for a particular application, you need to be at the meeting from the beginning. 


3.     The following information and advice only applies to reports in this part of the agenda. 


Advice to Members

4.     These proposed developments are being reported to committee to enable Members of the committee to view them at an early stage and to comment upon them. They do not constitute applications for planning permission at this stage (unless otherwise stated in the individual report) and any comments made are provisional and subject to full consideration of any subsequent application and the comments received as a result of consultation, publicity and notification. 


5.     Members of the committee will need to pay careful attention to the probity rules around predisposition, predetermination and bias (set out in the Council’s Constitution). Failure to do so may mean that the Councillor will not be able to participate in the meeting when any subsequent application is considered. 


Further information

6.  Members are informed that any relevant material received since the publication of this part of the agenda, concerning items on it, will be reported to the Committee in the Supplementary Report.

Public speaking

7.  The Council’s Constitution only provides for public speaking rights for those applications being reported to Committee in the “Applications for Decision” part of the agenda. Therefore reports on this part of the agenda do not attract public speaking rights.

Cabinet to consider Brent's STP

The Brent Cabinet will be considering a report on the Brent and North West London Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs) on 0ctober 24th, three days after the draft NW London STP is due to be delivered to NHS England.

The Brent STP fits within the NW STP and is meant to consider Brent specific issues which are listed as:

The Brent specific health and well-being gaps have been identified as:

o   · Common mental health disorders (CMD): large numbers and projected to increase - in 2014, an estimated 33,959 people aged 18 to 64 years were thought to have a CMD

o   · Severe and enduring mental illness: affects 1.1% of the population

o   · Mental well-being: the percentage of people with depression, mental health issues or other nervous disorders in employment is 23% also lower than both the England rate (36%)

o   · Significant and growing challenges to provide housing which potentially further undermine mental wellbeing

o   · Childhood obesity: Brent is in the worst quartile nationally in terms of the % of children aged 10-11 classified as overweight or obese – 38%

o   · Diabetes: by 2030 it is predicted 15% of adults in Brent will have diabetes

o   · Long Term Conditions: 20% of people have a long term condition

o   · Dementia: prevalence of dementia in people aged 65 years and over is 2,225 2016) (and 80% of prevalence is diagnosed)

o   · STIs/HIV: 1,404 STIs per 100,000 population compared to 829 in England

o   · Health-related behaviour: physical inactivity: worst in West London; nutrition: 47% get 5 a day; tobacco use; alcohol; take up of immunisations

The Brent specific care and quality gaps have been identified as:

o   · Caring for an ageing population: 35% of all emergency admissions in Brent are for those aged 65 and over; once admitted this group stays in hospital longer, using 55% of all bed days.

o   · End of Life Care: Brent has one of the highest percentages of deaths taking place in hospital in the country

o   · Primary care: wide variation in clinical performance; Brent is in the worst quartile nationally for patient experience of GP services.

o   · Long Term Condition management: Brent is in the worst quartile nationally in terms of people with a long-term condition feeling supported to manage their condition.

o   · Cancer: Brent is in the second lowest quartile nationally in terms of GP referral to treatment for cancer and worst quartile in terms of cancer patient experience.

o   · Serious and long-term mental health needs: people with serious and long term mental health needs have a life expectancy 20 years less than the average.

 Clearly these are extremely serious issues and the test is whether the STP, which many see as a cover for cuts, will address them. The full report going to Cabinet is below: