Anti-academisation strike action at The Village Special School escalates as Labour Chair of Governors refuses to half process while alternatives are investigated

Last week's picket line

Staff at The Village  Special School, Kingsbury will strike again on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of next week over plans, led by Brent Labour whip, Cllr Sandra Kabir, who is the school's Chair of Governors, to academise the school.

Over 100 staff staged another 2 days strike on 16^th and 17^th January and the school was closed to all pupils. The strikers said that they would have called off their strike if Cllr Kabir had agreed to halt the process for just 2 months while alternative models of partnership could be investigated with Brent Council. However the Chair has not agreed to what the strikers called a very reasonable request.

Lesley Gouldbourne (Joint Secretary of the National Education Union) said that Brent Council had expressed its opposition to the academisation of Brent schools and that The Leader of the Council Cllr Butt had said that he wanted The Village “to remain in the family of Brent Schools.” He has agreed to put his view to staff, parents and Governors.

There is a consultation meeting at the school tonight for parents and staff. It is not open to the public. 

Some parents have expressed their opposition to academisation and were on the picket line. They have started a Facebook group HERE .

The National Education Union National President Louise Regan attended last week's picket  and said that the fight against academies was a national priority for the National Education Union. 

Kevin Courtney, the national NEU Joint Secretary, also attended and said that in academies local accountability vanishes. Governing Bodies are replaced with Trustees with no staff, parent or local council representation. “Public voices are silenced and private voices get louder” he said.

Cllr Kabir has circulated her Labour colleagues with the arguments for academisation in the face of opposition from both Brent Central and Brent North Constituency Labour Parties and national Labour Party opposition to academisation.

Please make your views known regarding the Governing Body's proposal on academisation (Consultation closes February 9th) by filling in the questionaire HERE or emailing matconsultation@tvs.brent.sch.uk

NOTE: Green Party policy opposes academisation and free schools seeing them as a form of privatisation that removes democratic accountability of schools, worsens staff conditions of service, and enables schools to employ unqualified teachers. Greens favour the integration of academies and free schools into the local authority system with improved accountability and financing.

New report: Urgent action required to tackle London’s dangerous air quality

From the Institution of Mechanical Engineering
 

London’s nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels similar to Shanghai and Beijing

 

Dangerous levels of pollution in the capital are identified in a new report by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, which calls for urgent action to prevent illness and death.

With NOx levels at Paddington station in breach of European limits regarding NO2 for outdoor air quality, the report calls on Government to work with Network Rail to deliver the complete electrification of the main rail lines between Britain’s principal cities and ports and in major urban rail networks. Currently up to 70% of trains passing through the station are powered by diesel engines that are exempt from regulations for modern diesel trains.

Other pollution hot spots include the Bakerloo and Victoria lines, which have the highest levels of airborne respirable dust levels. But currently the impact and level of poor air quality is not well understood, and the report calls for the introduction of a coherent national scheme to monitor emissions from different modes of transport so that informed targets can be set. 

London’s commuters are most at risk during the morning rush hour, with the concentration of pollutants 13% - 43% higher than during afternoon or evening peaks. Another of the report’s recommendations is that incentives should be introduced to encourage freight deliveries outside of peak hours.

Philippa Oldham, lead author of the report and Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, said:

“London is currently ranked as 15^th out of 36 major global cities in terms of overall air quality, lagging behind other European cities such as Berlin and Vienna. The capital needs to prioritise this issue and create a modern Clean Air Act that takes a holistic approach; it must not just target individual sectors, but encourage everyone to play a role in reducing emissions.”

The A breath of fresh air: new solutions to reducetransport emissions report recommends that Government and industry work together to:

1.     Introduce a national monitoring system, across the different types of transport, recording all types of pollution, to create a coherent picture against which national targets can be set.

2.     Develop incentives for cleaner technologies and encourage the phase-out of legacy vehicles with poor emissions record across the network (for example diesel cars and trains).

3.     Consider incentivising freight and logistic operators to make deliveries outside peak hours.

4.     Conduct a series of trials on existing diesel railway rolling stock, new bi-mode trains and in major stations, to understand the level and effect of exposure to pollutants has on commuters and railway workers.

5.     Conduct a series of trials to understand the impact on the individual of exposure to pollutants in overground and underground railway stations, ports, airports and bus stations.

6.     Create a positive and dynamic campaign that informs the public of the health benefits of switching to lower-emission modes of transport.

7.     Government to work with Network Rail to deliver the complete electrification of the main rail lines between Britain’s principal cities and ports and in major urban rail networks.

8.     Fund research through the Clean Air Fund and Innovate UK to create programmes to clean up various transport modes.

Free Community English Classes in Brent

Big Garden Birdwatch - a Kingsbury garden perspective

Guest post from a Kingsbury resident
 

If, like me, you are lucky enough to have a garden, one of the pleasures of life is to watch the birds that come to enjoy it with you. Next weekend, Saturday 27^th and Sunday 28^th January, sees the RSPB’s annual Big Garden Birdwatch LINK . On a good year, I can see 8 to 10 different species of birds in my garden in the course of an hour, but if the weather is bad, perhaps only 3 or 4. 

There are some birds which we only see a few times each year. Our garden backs on to the Jubilee Line, and most of our occasional visitors fly in from the railway bank. I suspect that many of them live in Fryent Country Park, which shows the great value of this local nature reserve, and of the wildlife corridors which link it to gardens in the residential areas of Brent.

Yesterday our garden was visited by a Green Woodpecker, which stayed for over 15 minutes and allowed me to take some photographs. I have put three of these together, to illustrate its interesting feeding behaviour:

Although it nests in holes in trees, the Green Woodpecker uses its long beak mainly for eating its favourite food, ants. It can sense where there is an ants’ nest under the ground, then pecks to make a funnel-shaped hole directly above the nest. It seems to know that the ants prefer a site beside our garden path, so that they can easily excavate safe chambers for their eggs out of the sand that the paving blocks rest on. 

Once it has made the hole, the woodpecker puts its beak down, and flicks out its tongue to gather ants. Then it throws back its head, while pulling in its tongue, so that the ants go straight into its throat. It does this a few times, then hops a short distance before making another hole, or looking for another nest to harvest.

It will often be two or three months before we see a Green Woodpecker in our garden again, so the chances are that it will not appear in our Big Garden Birdwatch results. The bird seems to know that it must give the ants’ nests it has raided time to recover before visiting them again, a sensible and sustainable approach to managing its food resources. As well as being a beautiful bird, this woodpecker certainly has “Green” credentials!

Cllr Duffy resigns from Brent Labour Group in protest over asbestos issue

Cllr Duffy's new seating position between Tory front bench and Cllr Carr

Cllr Duffy (Kilburn) resigned from Brent Labour Group  at the beginning of tonight's Full Council Meeting over the lack of support from the Group over the Paddington Cemetery asbestos issue (covered below).

Despite support for Duffy from Cllr John Warren (Conservative Group leader) the Mayor refused to allow discussion of the issue.

Cllr Tom Miller, a member of the Labour Group, tweeted:  'Frustrating at #BrentLive to have people trying to wedge in serious issue of asbestos without sorting out an agenda item or using the correct process generally. Gah.'

Later in the evening the Chair of the Audit Committee appeared to believe that a lengthy private discussion of a report on the asbestos dump and the participation of two independent members of the committee, made an independent inquiry unnecessary as they were satisfied  with the officer's report.

Brent Holocaust and Genocide Memorial Day 2018 - The Power of Words

Thursday 25 January 2018, 7pm to 8.30pm, Brent Civic Centre, Engineers Way, Wembley HA9 0FJ

 

See events in: Civic centre events, Other council events, Festivals, Arts and culture events

Brent Council is to recognise, commemorate and show respect for all victims of genocide on Thursday 25 January 2018 with a programme at Brent Civic Centre from 7pm to 8.30pm. Light refreshments will be available at 6.45pm.

The programme will begin with a candle lighting ceremony to remember the victims of the Holocaust and genocide survivors around the world including Bosnia, Cambodia, Darfur and Rwanda.

The theme of this year’s event is ‘THE POWER OF WORDS: words can make a massive difference – both for good and evil.

The Holocaust and subsequent genocides took place because the local populations allowed persecution to take place and did not speak out. We aim to remember victims of the Holocaust and other genocide survivors with real life survival stories of what happened in the past in order to prevent it happening again in the future. We will also talk about the steps of genocide and how this builds up to a climate of fear and hatred against particular members of society.

Please join us for an evening of reflection with speakers and communities who have been affected by the Holocaust and other Genocides around the world including Bosnia, Cambodia, Darfur and Rwanda. The programme will also include poetry, music, Holocaust survivor speaker, choir and refreshments.

This free event is open to everyone and registration in advance is not necessary.

Damning photographic evidence of reckless asbestos removal at Paddington Cemetery

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 'We expect our children to be safe when we send them to school. We do not expect the Council to poison their air'

Cllr John Duffy has written the following email to Brent councillors:

Since I wrote my last email, I have received fresh photographic evidence from a resident that is most disconcerting. On the 1^st of December 2017, the council employed a firm to remove approx 15 tonnes of contaminated soil from the graveyard. This procurement seems to have been done in haste as the company employed are not, as far as I can research, experts in the removal of contaminated and waste and their employment followed no proper procurement rules - as if often the case for Brent. I  also do not know whether they are licensed to carry the contaminated waste.

The company removed the soil by mechanical shovel, which is totally the wrong way to proceed. The way the operation was carried out raised a considerable amount of contaminated dust. The council did not supervise the operation or ensure a risk assessment took place. The operation failed to fulfil the basic H+S standards when dealing with Hazardous /Contaminated waste. The use of the shovel and the removal should be carried out in a more controlled fashion to try and limit making airborne dust. The area was fully open to public while the operation took place ,the waste was then placed in an open lorry rather than a locked skip which is required in guidelines on the Control of substances hazardous to health (COSHH).

However the worst aspect of the operation was that it took place just feet from the children's playground/garden of  Salusbury Road Primary School.  No risk assessment was done and no effort was made to inform the school to keep the children safe inside during the operation.  Furthermore no effort was made to contain the dust clouds.

The CEO, the Leader of the Council and Lead Member for the Environment must now stop trying to impede an Independent Investigation establishing the full facts of how the waste arrived at Paddington Cemetery and the question of whether workers were instructed to work without protection. 

However, the first thing we must do as a priority is to contact the school and find were children and staff present during the operation. This can be done by comparing class timetables against the work schedule.(I have copied in the head of the school) and establish why the school was not informed that the operation was going on.

I am concerned that the Leader and Cabinet’s decision not to insist on an independent investigation and their failure to ensure the workforce be interviewed has brought the council into disrepute and undermined the workforce human rights. 

I will be moving at tonight's meeting that we set up an independent investigation, as set out in my previous email, to reassure, the workers, residents  grave owners and the school we have nothing to hide and there will be no more cover-ups.

Cllr Duffy adds:
 

I would like to thank Baroness Jones for adding her support to the Friends of Paddington Cemetery. Hopefully, we will now see the commission of an Independent Investigation, where all the individuals who were exposed to asbestos will be interviewed.I believe it is the duty of the CEO and the Leader of the Council, along with the Lead Member for the Environment, to cease the prevarication and answer the questions Baroness Jones has raised.

Namely - 

(1)      Did Council officers knowingly send waste contaminated with asbestos to Paddington cemetery in August 2015 in spite of the fact that they understood it would be disturbed during the burial and gardening process and this would lead to the work-force being exposed to the asbestos?

(2)      On the 24^th June 2017, did Council officers instruct workmen to work on the mound without protective overalls and masks and training?  I believe this to be a very serious matter that put both the workmen and public at risk .

(3)      Why are the CEO, Leader and Lead member for the Environment unwilling to contemplate interviewing the workforce who have been exposed to asbestos since August 2015 and including those exposed to the contaminated dust on June 24^th 2017?

On Friday I spoke to ACAS and they told me it is the responsibility of the CEO as the senior officer to ensure the council fulfils its duty of care to the council’s employees.  This means they should take all steps, which are reasonably possible, to ensure their health, safety and wellbeing. Demonstrating concern for the physical and mental health of your workers shouldn’t just be seen as a legal duty. Legally, employers must abide by relevant health & safety and employment law, as well as the common law duty of care, but they also have a moral and ethical duty not to cause, or fail to prevent, physical or psychological injury, and must fulfil their responsibilities.  I am sure everybody is aware that this would include knowingly instructing workers employees to work in an area contaminated by asbestos without protection.

Support 'Trees for the Triangle' - bring beauty & clean air to Kensal Triangle

Kensal Triangle ResidentsAssociation have launched a campaign to plant more trees in their area and are calling for support to persuade Brent Council to help fund the project. Supporters should email Trees@ktra.co.uk