Brent looking for Air Quality Champions. Interested?

The recent hot weather, despite welcome sunshine after many grey days, brought along its own problem - air pollution. LINK

It seems a good time to pass on this invitation from Brent Council:

Could you be Brent's next Air Quality Champion?

Brent Council is looking for volunteers to take part in its Community Air Quality Champions Programme.

The programme aims to raise awareness of local air quality initiatives and the steps people can take to help improve local air quality.

Champions will help members of their local community to engage with local air quality initiatives, and take part in major air quality events in the borough. This includes Clean Air Day in June and sustainable travel options throughout the borough such as car clubs, cycling, and electric vehicle charging points.

Chris Whyte, Operational Director of Environmental Monitoring Team said:

This is a fantastic opportunity for anyone who is passionate about air quality in their area. We know that people want to get involved but may not be sure how to get started, so we're here to support and guide them. This is the next step in our close work with local residents and air quality groups, helping to make Brent a great place to live and work.

Anyone living in the borough with an interest in improving the local community can join, and give as much or as little time as they wish.

Training will be provided to Air Quality Champions by the council's Environmental Monitoring Team on local air quality issues and useful information for volunteers.

To become an Air Quality Champion email us at ens.monitoring@brent.gov  or fill in the attached registration form.

We are all in this together and can only stop air pollution together…

Seymour Zajota

Air Quality Projects Officer

Environmental Monitoring Team

Regeneration and Environment Services

Brent Council

020 8937 3027

Spanish Castles at Preston Community Library - Friday afternoon

DfE approves Village-Woodfield MAT NEU considers Judicial Review

The headteacher of The Village School, Kingsbury, told staff on Friday that the Department for Education had approved the formation of a Multi Academy Trust (MAT)  by the two schools. The MAT will come into being on September 1st 2018.

The decision follows months of campaigning and strike action by members of the National Education Union. In a press release the NEU saluted the staff at the Village School  for 'their magnificent anti-academy campaign to stop the privatisation of their flagship special school.'

The NEU announced that they are now looking at taking legal action through a Judicial Review and pledged to continue to fight academisation at every step. They said that part of the problem in Brent is that the Labour Council have 'an inadequate opposition to the loss of their schools from the Local Authority. This policy must change and we will continue our campaigning to do this.'

On a related issue the NEU has written to Damian Hinds MP, Secretary of State, to express concern following  information received via  FOI requests to The Village and Woodfield over the due diligence undertaken by Mr Greg Foley who was paid as a consultant when he was also the Chair of Trustees at Woodfield School.  The NEU allege that during this time he was paid through his company School Business Strategic Services (SBSS) an average of over £7,000 a month for a period of 28 months. That fact that the school could claim 20% VAT back makes no difference to the amount SBSS was paid according to the union.

The NEU calls for an investigation by a relevant financial watchdog and has written to the DfE and Brent Council in similar terms.

The current edition of Private Eye magazine describes the financial payments outlined above with invoices totalling some £240,00 over the period, and states that the school accounts do not list the payments under 'related party transactions' (where one party has control or influence over another) as required by law.  Headteacher Kay Charles told Private Eye that the contract with SBSS had begun before Mr Foley joined the trustees and 'he took no part in decision making over its management.' She said she would raise the fact that the contract has not been listed as a related party transaction in the 2016 and 2017 accounts with the school's auditor.

'It's OUR Tricycle not YOUR Kiln!' Bank Holiday demonstration draws big crowd

It was a record breaking hot early May Bank Holiday and the heat was on the Tricycle Theatre management today when local people who attend the theatre and cinema assembled to protest outside the theatre at the name change to 'The Kiln.'

They complained about lack of consultation with the local community and the theatre and cinema's customers and lamented the loss of the historic links of the original name - ironically links that the billboard outside the theatre described. (below)  One demonstrator commented that as customers they should have been consulted and that as Brent Council had given the theatre 1,000,000 for the refurbishment the Council should also have had a say and discussed the proposal with residents.  Their council tax had helped pay for the refurishment.

'It is not the private property of the directors,' one demonstrator said, 'It is a community facility - it belongs to all of us.'

Another demonstrator, a local man who has attended the theatre and cinema for decades, went further saying that the action of the artistic director was one of a piece with other community losses in Kilburn.  He spoke about the loss of local pubs and the demise of community projects with local people feeling a loss of control as things that really mattered to them were taken away or shut down. Now, he suggested,  the community outreach work of the Tricycle seemed to be threatened in the wake of the relaunch.

Two young women spoke about what they had gained from the drama workshops held at the Tricycle and how this has increased their confidence and social skills.

It is likely that there will be more demonstrations and protests before the new season opens with a petition already gaining more than 1,000 signatures. Sign the petition HERE.

Reminder: 'Keep it in the Ground' meeting urging Brent to divest from fossil fuels - Tuesday 8th May

 

 

Do you want to do something about climate change? Come to this meeting, hosted by Divest Brent and Brent Friends of the Earth, and find out what you can do. We will hear from an experienced campaigner (supplemented by video clips) about the role that divestment (disposing of fossil fuel investments) has to play generally and in particular, locally, look at ways to encourage Brent Council’s wish to divest their Pension Fund which has nearly £40 million invested in fossil fuel companies. We will look at divestment success stories and why it is so effective. We will also look at other ways to transition to clean, renewable energy – and most importantly what you can do to contribute to this transition.

Doors open at 7 pm - come then for an opportunity, before the formal evening starts at 7.30 pm, to talk to people in Brent who are already working to combat climate change - and there will be another chance for informal discussion when the formal evening finishes at 9 pm.

 

Tue 8 May 2018

 

Meeting room
Watling Gardens Estate
97-135 Shoot-Up Hill
London
NW2 3UB
View Map

 

Kilburn (Jubilee) tube

FREE BUT BOOK ON EVENTBRITE HERE

The Tricycle Theatre: 'Keep the Name!' Protest tomorrow (Monday) 11am

There will be a Bank Holiday Monday protest outside the Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn High Road against the proposal to change its name to The Kiln.

People who wish to see the Tricycle’s name retained are urged to bring placards, banners etc outside the theatre at 11am. The TV programme London Tonight is expected to be there unless a more important London story breaks.

The organisers say they are protesting for two main reasons. This is what they told me.:

Firstly, there was no consultation: See this comment from one of over 100 people on nextdoor.co.uk who have voiced their opposition: 

Just went to the jazz evening at Willesden library cafe. There were 29 people there. Every single one of them signed the petition! All angered at the name change. All wanted the ‘Tricycle’ name to be retained. Most spoke of their annoyance at the change. They were a mixed group of young and mature people, men and women, 14 black people, six of whom were men and one of whom a Rastafarian young man was vociferous in his criticism of the change. The other signatures were white and also of mix gender. I am pointing this out only to show that the theatre and its name is loved by Brent residents of every ilk and to prove that there really is a whole-hearted rejection of the name change! I did not have to even try to persuade a single person to sign the petition.

Secondly, there is no support for it - literally none.  Not one person. It’s a sad case of groupthink by the management of the theatre because we’ve been speaking to hundreds of people for the last three weeks and NOT ONE has voiced support - 1083 have signed an online petition LINK 750 have signed paper petitions outside the Tricycle cinema. 

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Muhammed Butt re-elected as Brent Leader

Muhammed Butt was re-elected leader of the Labour Group on Brent Council at their Annual General Meeting. As Labour have 57 out of 60 seats on the Council (three to come at the delayed Willesden Green ward election) this makes him Leader of Brent Council to be rubber-stamped at the first Full Council meeting.

Butt told the assembled councillors, including 19 or so new ones, 'The terrible decisions are yet to come.' Not terribly reassuring and it is a pity he didn't tell the electorate that.

Butt defeated Roxanne Mashari comfortably but there was praise for her speech on the importance of transparency and the need to allow debate.

The Standing Orders were adopted, but not after some objections and a promise to keep them under review. As I understand it this means that Muhammed Butt will nominate members of the Cabinet and the main committees himself, rather than allocate roles from a list elected by the whole group. There may be a hustings.

I have not yet heard whether their terms of office and that of the leader will be extended.

Petition: No more one-party councils: We demand a fair voting system for local elections

I had a number of chats overnight with people from all the parties (except Ukip) at the local elections count at the Civic Centre about the voting system for local elections. Even some Labour activists, despite their euphoria over the results, recognised that the final result (excluding the three councilors still to be elected in Willesden Green) of 50 Labour and three Tories did not match the proportion of the vote each party gained.

The  Electoral Reform Soicety has an on-line petition which may interest readers. You can sign it HERE

This is the commentary on the petition:

England’s voting system is bust. Millions of votes are cast aside, while people feel forced to vote for a ‘lesser evil’ and parties are handed huge, unwarranted majorities.

We demand a change in the voting system for local elections in England and Wales – so that results reflect how people actually vote. Scottish local elections use a proportional voting system.

Northern Ireland has used a fair and proportional system for local elections for decades – and in 2007 Scotland joined them.Wales will soon be giving councils the right to choose. Now it's time England caught up.

It’s time for a proportional system where no one has to ‘hold their nose’ at the ballot box, and where there is healthy competition – rather than a politics of ‘one-party states’ and uncontested fiefdoms.

We call on party leaders to back real reform. Britain deserves a democracy where votes aren’t thrown on the electoral scrapheap – but where there is real choice and where our voices are always heard.