EDUCATION - INVEST, DON'T CUT March & Rally Nov 17th

The cuts being implemented by the Conservative Government put education at risk. Increased funding is desperately needed to safeguard our children’s education. We are asking the Government to change course and invest, not cut.

What the NUT wants:

• School funding – Extra money in the system to support reform of the funding system – and more money for all schools to fund higher costs and the impact of inflation.
• Post 16 funding – Restoration of cuts already made – and real support for sixth form colleges.
• Send and early years funding – fair funding for these vital areas of education
• Funding in Wales – an end to the funding gap.

Invest Don’t Cut Education Funding Rallies

The rallies are an opportunity to make policy makers listen to our concerns about the impact of education funding cuts, and act on our demands to increase education funding. Spread the word and encourage colleagues, friends, family and neighbours to attend and support our aims.

London NUT March and Rally - Thursday 17 November 2016
Assemble for March: 17:00, Whitehall, (Opposite Downing Street)
Rally: 18:30, Emmanuel Centre, Marsham Street, SW1P 3DW

Farm Terrace Allotment Campaign 'disappointed' by National Allotment Society's press statement on their case

From Farm Terrace Campaign LINK

We are extremely disappointed by the National Allotment Society 's recent press release regarding the result of our Judicial Review regarding the deregulation of Farm Terrace.

The press release stated:

Although the decision itself went against Farm Terrace there are many useful comments within the Judgment that the National Society can rely on to protect allotment sites in the future. Within this judgment we now have a legal definition for ‘exceptional’. This judgment has also confirmed that the underlying purpose of the Allotments Act 1925 is to control the disposal of allotment land and that the guidance affords greater safeguards against the appropriation of land because of the value placed on allotments by the Secretary of State.

Unfortunately, we do not agree that there is now a legal definition for 'exceptional' circumstances' and we do not believe that the guidance affords greater safeguards against the appropriation of allotment land because of the value placed on allotments by the Secretary of State. In fact we think it increasingly weakens the law regarding it.

It is saddening that although the National Allotment Society supported our case they have not been in contact with us since the ruling to discuss how we could work together in the future. In addition the statement makes no reference to the continued threat that urban allotments are under from property development.

We are also aware of a recent freedom of information request that has asked in those cases where the government deregulated under exceptional circumstances if the local authority made a case for an exception.

This is important as this is referenced in The National Allotment Society's statement and if the local authority hadn't made a case for exceptional circumstances the deregulation decision could have been made on unsafe grounds.

Who was really responsible for the Granville Centre debacle?

Last week I published Cllr Duffy's interchange with Cllr Mashari in which he called for her resignation over the Granville and Carlton Centres in South Kilburn. LINK

Cllr Mashari claimed that the proposals for regeneration  of the sites came under the Property portfolio which Cllr Butt, leader of the council, holds, rather than Regeneration. Property covers council ownership of buildings and sites and Brent Council has a policy to realise the value of these assets to address their financial plight.

The Granville proposal was put to the Cabinet by Margaret McLennan, deputy leader, rather than Butt who chairs the Cabinet.  Other South Kilburn proposals on the agenda at that meeting, Phase 3a and Site 18,  were put by Cllr Mashari.

It has not been possible to find the full list of responsibilities of each portfolio holder including the leader and deputy, as up to date details do not appear to be available on the Council website.

The report about Granville was written jointly by the Strategic Directors for Resources, and Regeneration and Environment.

Philip Grant points out in a comment on the earlier post:

However, both of those Directors, Althea Loderick (Resources) and Amar Dave (Regeneration and Environment) were new to Brent, having taken up their posts in June 2016, having previously been in Waltham Forest and Essex respectively. So they probably knew very little about Kilburn, and may not even have visited the area from their new offices in the Civic Centre before they put their names to the report.

The contact officers for the report were:

Althea Loderick
 Strategic Director of Resources

Sarah Chaudhry
 Head of Property

Tanveer Ghani
 Project Manager

Dale Thomson
 Regeneration Manager

There is only a cursory reference to the Granville Nursery Plus (and not by name) in the report and none to the Granville Kitchen.

 Given the economic deprivation found on the South Kilburn Estate  and the presence of many protected groups the Equality Analysis attached to the report is clearly deficient - particularly the last sentence:

Appendix 4: Equality Analysis Stage 1 Screening Data

What are the objectives and expected outcomes of your proposal? Why is it needed?

The proposal covers the phased redevelopment the Carlton & Granville Centres, Granville Road, London, NW6 5RA to deliver new homes, an Enterprise Hub and additional community use space.

Who is affected by the proposal?

The proposal is relevant to residents in South Kilburn, small businesses in the area and the South Kilburn Trust. As the premises proposed for re- development are largely unoccupied and will shortly be vacated by the remaining users, there is no impact for existing users.

Could the proposal impact on people in different ways because of their equality characteristics?

The proposal will deliver new workspace accommodation for up to 30 small businesses as well as new housing for households in housing need. To the extent that some protected groups are over-represented among households in housing need or seeking employment opportunities, the positive impacts of the proposal may offer particular benefits to these groups.

Could the proposal have a disproportionate impact on some equality groups?
If yes, indicate which equality characteristic(s) are impacted

No, other than as noted above.

Would the proposal change or remove services used by vulnerable groups of people?

The proposal will provide new or improved services that may be used by vulnerable groups.

Does the proposal relate to an area with known inequalities?

Yes.

Is the proposal likely to be sensitive or important for some people because of their equality characteristics?

Yes – although the proposal is not seen as sensitive, it may offer important new opportunities for some protected groups and more generally.

Does the proposal relate to one of Brent's equality objectives?

The proposal relates to the following objectives:

            To know and understand all our communities 


            To ensure that local public services are responsive to different needs 
and treat users with dignity and respect 


Recommend this EA for Full Analysis?

No.

Although according to Cllr Duffy, recently  Cllr Butt and Cllr McLennan have met up with him, Kilburn councillors and  Granville and Carlton users, to discuss the situation,  some of the responsibility may rest with them for the original failure to recognise the needs of the community. The potential confusion between the Property and Regeneration roles of Cllr Butt and Mashari, and the involvement of recent Strategic Director appointees, may mean that the resulting consultation failure and furore, may have been more cock-up than conspiracy.

For reference here are the Minutes of the July 25th Cabinet Meeting:

Brent Tories call for Brent Council to return to committee governance rather than Cabinet

Brent Conservatives have tabled a motion for the Council meeting on November 21st calling for Carolyn Downs, CEO, to formulate a commitee meeting of local government for Brent Council.

They claim that the Cabinet system, where most decisions are made by just 8 of 63 councillors, 56 of them Labour, is not working.

It is likely that many of the Labour Group, who feel excluded from key decision making, will be sympathetic but reluctant to publicly support the call.

Model of decision making in Brent 
 

This Council believes that the Cabinet system in Brent is not working. 

The Local Government Act 2000 allowed Councils to adopt different models of government - Brent chose the cabinet model - but we believe it is time for a change. 

We instruct the Chief Executive to formulate a "committee model " of government, whereby all main committees make their own decisions, which are then put to Full Council for approval. 

We believe that this model gives much greater involvement for more members and is a more open and transparent method of running the Council. 

The Chief Executive should present this report to the January Council meeting. 

Brent Conservative Group

Brent Council poised to lease out 8th floor of Civic Centre to HMRC agency

Civic Centre office floors

Brent Council appears to be likely to lease the 8th floor of the Civic Centre to the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) and Executive Agency of Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC).   The 7th floor is already occupied by Air France.

The space has been marketed by Colliers International who were also agents for the Brent Town Hall. Their advertisement can be view HERE.

Potential occupation has been limited by the fact that there is no public access to these floors and any access change would require additional expenditure.  A report going before Cabinet notes that interest in leasing the space has also been expressed by Job Centre Plus and the Brent Clinical Commissioning Group.  The latter would have advantages in terms of developing the working relationship with the Council. The VOA would be a back office operation with no 'public facing' role.

It is proposed that the space be leased for 10 years with a 5 year rent review and tenant break option.

Meanwhile Job Centre Plus has expressed an interest in property at 6 St Johns Road Wembley.

The report LINK notes:

3. Letting to the VOA also should significantly contribute to that [Property] savings target. It is not commercially sensitive to note that it should save £80k annually based on 2016/17 business rate figures, as these become the responsibility of the VOA. However, it is important to note that these savings are predicated on the 2016/17 valuations and not the 2017/18 revaluation. Therefore, these savings would likely be offset by a probable increase in rates.
   

The likely revenue from the lease has been deemed commercially sensitive and is available to Cabinet members but not the public.

Cllr Butt admits wrong doing in the 'tarmucking' of local street. What now?

Nine Chandos Road (or nearby) residents attended the Brent Connects-Willesden meeting at the Willesden Green Library last night and five of them spoke against the council's policy to replace paving stones on walkways with tarmac.

Points made included:

• an overview of the reasons why residents were upset about the loss of paving and the destruction of trees
• the failure of councillors to answer emails about the issue from their residents 
• a question on why the council were wasting £129,000 on one street when funds were needed elsewhere
• complete replacement of the whole footway was unnecessary and spoilt the character of the area
• claims that there had been consultation with residents were false. The single meeting that had taken place was at the instigation of residents.

Cllr Long was personally addressed and admonished by a resident who said she had been particularly adversarial to the community in her emails making her view clear that urban landscaping is unimportant given the crisis in social care and the election of Trump. Reflecting on Cllr Long's attitude a resident called for the council to work with them not against them.

A resident brought up the Willesden Green Library debacle and the residue monies collected from that project and asked why those monies couldn't be given back now in the form of paving repairs as a goodwill gesture for the the asset stripping that occurred then.

Mohammed Butt met with the group after the meeting for about 10 minutes and according to residents accepted that the council had indeed gone about this very badly and apologised.

A resident told Wembley Matters:

He appeared to accept the point that we were angry, that this was a waste of money and that it could be better used elsewhere. When pressed about halting the decimation of our street, he spoke of legal obligations though this was vague I think he meant people tripping and couldn't provide any evidence on figures for people claiming for tripping in Chandos Road. He then said it was more or less impossible to interrupt the process that was taking place as he would be seen to renege on the council's own decisions - I put it to him he could interrupt and someone (probably him) has the power to put a stop to it and send the contractors to another site. He wouldn't give any concrete assurances. When he left I think the general consensus was he took our points on board and whilst it may not stop the ruination of our street it may stop them bulldozing over the needs of other residents' streets.

The residents Facebook RAT-Resistance Against Tarmac is HERE

Young Eco-Warriors: New 'Cleaner Streets' App for primary schools

Bapchild & Tonge School 'Eco-warriors' using the app to report litter

Brent Council already operates the Cleaner Brent Phone App for reporting flytipping and much else.  Could we see Brent schools using something similar in the future?

Primary schools across the country are invited to join a national clean-up mission, using the latest technology to help make the area around their school cleaner.

Environmental reporting app, Love Clean Streets, was successfully used by Eco-Schools across England in July this year. The successful pilot study took place with 11 primary schools from Rochdale to Kent and has resulted in the Love Clean Streets Board committing to develop the app further for use within the curriculum.

Year 5&6 Woolmore Primary School Students making a report of a vehicle part on the pavement

The modified app, developed specifically for primary school children to use, will be launched in schools throughout the UK in early 2017 and will be fully functional as a tool for both learning and taking action on local environmental issues in school catchment areas. Teachers involved in the pilot study reported considerable learning skills and educational value across the curriculum, positively mentioning benefits to Personal Social Health Economic, litter education, use of technology and demonstrating relevance to our everyday lives, encouraging pupils to be active citizens.

Max, aged 9, a pupil from Middleton Parish C of E Primary School in Middleton, North of Manchester, took part in the pilot study in the summer term which involved looking around the school grounds for environmental issues to report. He said: "The app is good as you can inform people of the areas you don't like and they will then make the environment a better place to live in."

Susannah Butcher, Eco- School leader at Bapchild & Tonge School, said: "The children had a lot of fun taking part in the project. It was an excellent chance for us to do some real work in trying to combat the problem of litter in the school area. " Pupils liked that they could take a picture, detail the problem and send it off themselves. They liked it even more when an overflowing bin outside the school as reported at lunchtime and by end of school at 3.15 it had been emptied!

"This project highlighted a variety of local environmental issues and raised questions with the children, which ensured they were fully engaged and motivated by the task. Smart phones and tablets are big part of children's lives, so showing them how these can be used in a positive way made the lesson really enjoyable for them," said Susannah.

Sophie, aged 11, a pupil from Bapchild & Tonge School in Kent, said: "I hate seeing litter on the way to school. With the app I can let someone know there is litter and it is cleaned up." Love Clean Streets Founder, Ian Blackburn, said: "We believe that educating the next generation on the importance of keeping our environment clean is a step in the right direction to ensure our world is a cleaner, happier place to live for generations to come. By getting involved with the LCS Education Project, children will ensure the issues do not go unnoticed and will inspire their peers to follow their lead."

Primary schools across the UK are invited to register their interest in taking part next summer by contacting Ian Blackburn on +44 203 126 4885 or emailing ian@bbits.co.uk. A further announcement will be made next spring when the revised app for primary schools has been tested and is ready for UK roll-out.

Benefit Cap starts this week - some helpful resources

More than 120 parents attended this morning's Parents' Forum at Chalkhill Primary School.  The agenda included a presentation by Neil Gann, Welfare Reform Project Manager on the benefit cap which comes into force in Brent this week.

To help people affected by the cap I am publishing the presentation here as well as videos and documents that may be of help to those affected.

Click on lower right hand corner to view

CLICK HERE TO SEE BENEFIT CAP TOOLKIT