Sadiq Khan's estate regeneration guidance 'worse than useless' claims Sian Berry, Green AM

West Hendon residents put up terrific resistance to social cleansing by Barratts and Barnet Council

From Sian Berry, Green Party London Assembly Member

The Mayor’s manifesto pledge to estate residents will be broken unless his estate guidance is rewritten from scratch.

That’s my verdict on Sadiq Khan’s ‘good practice guide to estate regeneration’ for councils and landlords on how to handle estate regeneration. The document is out for consultation until 14 March and it’s vital Londoners respond to it to say it’s not good enough – see how to send in your comments in just a few minutes here.

My full response to the draft guidance says it is worse than useless – it rips up the Mayor’s manifesto promise that ‘estate regeneration only takes place where there is resident support’ and does nothing to ensure residents on estates can block demolition of their homes.

The language in the draft is vague and it is unclear what, if any, conditions will be imposed on how councils and landlords to qualify for funding or the Mayor’s support for planning applications.
Most importantly for residents, the Mayor plans to break his promise and not let them make the final decisions for their estates or say there should be an independent ballot. How can they trust any part of the engagement process when they know their views and plans can be completely ignored at the end?

I say the guidance needs to be rewritten from scratch, working with Londoners to get it right.

My response to the draft guidance outlines three key demands on the Mayor that Londoners should ask for:

1. No demolitions without an independent ballot
2. Clear conditions for councils to meet, or no GLA funding
3. Expert support for resident-led plans

I ask for full transparency on the current state of estates, and on all aspects of the business case, social and environmental impacts of council’s plans.

The final guidance also needs to set measurable goals so the Mayor can be held to account, including goals to reduce the number of homes demolished and for a number of resident-led plans to be adopted.

Tell the Mayor what you think by 14 March

UPDATE Flytipping and Litter fines NOT DISCUSSED PUBLICLY at Scrutiny tonight

As he is now a member of Scrutiny Committee there will be a chance for Cllr John Duffy (Kilburn) to get to the bottom of the Kingdom contract which employs operatives to issue Fixed Penalty Notices for litter dropping in the borough, at tonight's meeting..  Duffy has raised the issue of the legality of the contract as well as whether the Council has received 'best value for money' from the arrangement.

One of the documents tabled has been withheld from the public. The public report can be found HERE

UPDATE

When it came to the agenda item this evening Carolyn Downs, CEO said that the public and press should be excluded from the meeting because of the 'below the line' report. It apparently contained information that had not yet been communicated to Kingdom. I suspect this means that it contains a recommendation to end the Kingdom contract and perhaps to provide the service in-house. Downs also said that it was unusual to have a paper discussed before it had gone to Cabinet. Councillors who are not on Scrutiny were allowed to stay as they are bound by confidentiality rules.

Separately Cllr Duffy protested at the withholding of documents he had requested from Downs.  He'd discovered that there were no minutes of the meeting where Kingdom was awarded the littering contract. He'd then asked for any notes that officers had taken at the meeting. Downs refused this saying that these were private notes by officers and that if they were released it was likely that officers would stop taking notes at meetings for fear that they would be made public.

Duffy asked, 'What's the point of electing councillors if officers are going to make the decisions?'

Surely in a Council with nothing to hide scrutiny should take place in front of press and public? 

Greens call for 'emergency intervention' on NHS & Social Care ahead of budget

The Green Party is calling for ‘an emergency intervention’ to steer Britain away from the brink of the crisis in the NHS and social care, and to clampdown on air pollution which is estimate to end 40,000 lives prematurely every year.

The Greens are also calling for the Government to protect small firms from the business rate hike, raise tax for the richest, stop corporation tax cuts and reverse a planned tax hike on solar panels.

The five demands from the Green Party are:
1)      An emergency aid package to protect health and social care services
2)      Toughest ever action on air pollution
3)      Protection of small firms from Business Rate hikes
4)      Ensuring the richest people and biggest corporations pay more tax
5)      Reversing the solar tax hike

Jonathan Bartley said:

This budget must be an emergency intervention to steer Britain away from the brink of multiple crises.

After years of privatisation and underinvestment the future of the health service now hangs in the balance, and social care services are at risk of collapsing. If the Government is serious about working on behalf of the majority of people in this country then they will unveil an emergency aid package to protect health and social care services. We know that funding a world class healthcare service will cost more, which is why the Government should reverse their planned cuts to corporation tax and their tax giveaway to high earners. Failing to properly fund health and social care would be a dereliction of duty from this Government – and would leave any claim they had to be standing up for working people in tatters.

Caroline Lucas MP said:

There is an air pollution emergency happening in Britain – and the Government has to act now to tackle it. The Chancellor should immediately raise vehicle excise duty on new diesel cars, to send a signal to the market that this fuel must be phased out. The freeze on the fuel duty escalator should also end – thus freeing up billions of pounds which the Government should plough into public transport, walking and cycling. In recent years the cost of motoring has dropped considerably while the price of catching the bus or train has skyrocketed – if we’re serious about reducing the amount of toxic fumes in our air we’ve got to shift people out of cars and onto affordable public alternatives.

The Chancellor must also use this budget to get a proper grip on Britain’s climate policy. At a very bare minimum that must mean reversing the solar tax hike that’s set to hit community groups and schools – and it must mean more support for onshore wind too.

International Women's Day event at Brent Civic Centre March 8th

The day will include a Grunwick40 'We are the lions' talk.

Have your say on how Community Infrastructure Levy is spent in Brent

From Brent Council

Brent Neighbourhood Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Priorities 2017-2020

Title of consultation

Brent Neighbourhood CIL Priorities 2017-2020

Who is consulting?

Planning Policy & Projects

Why are we consulting?

When developers receive planning permission for some larger, new developments, they're required to make a payment to the council. This helps fund local infrastructure improvements. This payment is called Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL). Of this, between 15-25% of the funds has to be allocated by the Council as Neighbourhood CIL.

On the basis of feedback received from this consultation, the council will decide how to prioritise spending on particular Neighbourhood CIL funded projects. These projects could be delivered by the council if they relate to council assets, e.g. a park. The council could also deliver projects that are good ideas, but where no other body came forward to deliver them. Alternatively, the council could allocate funds to local community groups where it believes that these groups can deliver the projects themselves.

To streamline the running of Neighbourhood CIL in the borough, Brent has been divided into five local areas: Harlesden, Kilburn, Kingsbury and Kenton, Wembley and Willesden. These are large enough to generate funds that can deliver relatively big projects if this is what the community decides the funds should be spent on. The areas are, however, also  small enough to encourage communities to feel they are likely to benefit from the projects that are delivered. Ultimately, the decision on what to spend the funds on still rests with the council, but we will provide clear feedback on how we have come to any decisions.

Links

Consultation

CIL Cabinet report

CIL appendix

Schools to face £1.8m business rate bill for solar panels

Research by Jenny Jones, a Green Party member of the House of Lords, suggests that schools could face a business rates bill totalling £1.8 million if the Valuation Office Agency goes ahead with plans to remove the exemption for small non-domestic installations.

Of the 74 education authorities in England and Wales that responded to FOI requests, they were responsible for 821 schools with almost 14,000 kW of solar power capacity installed. Scaling that up to all 174 education authorities suggests a total business rates bill in the region of £1,800,000 per year.
 
Jenny Jones, the Green Party’s voice in the Lords said:

It's utterly absurd to penalise schools for investing in solar panels. Schools obviously face bigger financial challenges than this, but the business rate charges will stop any plans for more solar panels. Schools I have visited see them as a triple investment - in their energy costs, their pupils' education, and their future.

My research shows there is huge scope for schools to install more solar panels. While some schools have installed panels on most of their buildings, many currently have few or none at all. The Government should ditch these plans to charge rates on small solar installations and support more schools to join the clean energy revolution.

Quintain consult on Fountain Studios/Stadium Retail Park redevelopment

Stadium Retails Park and McDonalds

Fountain Studios

Quintain continues to vacuum up property around Wembley Stadium and is now consulting on what they call the 'Fulton Quarter Master Plan'.   This is the redevelopment of their acquisitions between Olympic Way and Fulton Road covering the Stadium Retail Park, McDonalds and Fountain Studios (excluding the College of North West London).

The site

Quintain state:

Our proposals include transforming the car dominated Stadium Retail Park and Fountain Studios into a pedestrian-friendly mixed use development with new homes, flexible space on the lower floors that could be used for educational, commercial and/or retail  uses and a number of significant public realm improvements.

We are holding a public exhibition to provide you with an opportunity to view our early concepts for this new site and leave your feedback.

The public exhibition will run from 9th to 11th March at Unit 71 (first floor next to Ping Pong) at the London Designer Outlet (LDO), Wembley Park Boulevard HA9 0QL.

Thursday 9th March 4pm-8pm
Friday 10th March 4pm-8pm
Saturday 11th March 12pm-4pm.

More information: www.yourwembleypark.com
 info@wembleypark.com
 0800 307 7564

Pubic Inquiry Into Diversion Of Harrow School Footpaths Finishes

From the Open Spaces Society

The public inquiry, which opened in January, into the diversion of two footpaths across Harrow School grounds, ended this week.  It lasted for nearly six days instead of the scheduled three.  The inquiry was prolonged partly because of the number of objectors to the scheme.  These included the Open Spaces Society, Ramblers, Harrow Hill Trust and many local people.

Harrow School wished to move public footpaths 57 and 58 which have for centuries run in a direct line across its grounds.  Footpath 57 follows a north-south route between Football Lane and Pebworth Road.  Unfortunately, the school built tennis courts across the path in 2003, instead of first moving the footpath.  Local people wanted the path to be reopened but instead the school sought to move the path around the obstructions.

Footpath 58 runs in a direct line between the bottom of Football Lane and Watford Road, and the school has applied to move it to a zigzag route to avoid the current configuration of its sports pitches.

Harrow Council, instead of requiring the school to remove the obstructions in accordance with its duty under section 130 of the Highways Act 1980, agreed to move the paths, but because there were objections the matter was referred to the Planning Inspectorate.

At the public inquiry, the council and the school had legal representation, but the objectors represented themselves.  Appearing as objectors at the inquiry were Kate Ashbrook of the Open Spaces Society and Ramblers, Gareth Thomas MP, Harrow Councillor Sue Anderson, Brent Councillor Keith Perrin, Paul Catherall of the Harrow Hill Trust and local residents Christopher Eley, Gaynor Lloyd, John Parker and Margaret Roake.  Others had submitted written objections.

Says Kate Ashbrook, general secretary of the Open Spaces Society and footpath secretary of the Ramblers Buckinghamshire, Milton Keynes and West Middlesex Area:

We are united in our wish to prevent the school from moving these popular footpaths from their ancient direct routes to suit its own convenience.  The old routes have better views of Harrow-on-the-Hill one way and of the City of London the other.

They are shorter and have a sense of purpose, for those enjoying informal recreation and those using the paths to go to work or the shops.

We believe that, since the problems on these paths are of the school’s own making, it should resolve them by removing the obstructions rather than moving the paths.

We strongly hope that the inspector, Alison Lea, will find in our favour and that the paths will remain on their current routes.