Apply for Neighbourhood CIL: Workshop 17th May, deadline 30th June

Via Brent Council

The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) is a planning charge which enables financial contributions to be made towards the delivery of infrastructure in Brent. 15% of CIL receipts generated must also be spent on projects that meet priorities agreed in consultation with the local community. Brent Council is accepting applications for Neighbourhood CIL projects that improve the local area and mitigate the impact of development. Your project could benefit from share of approximately £4 million.

The closing date for applications is 30th June 2018. The application form and guidance can be found on the following Brent website: www.brent.gov.uk/cil (scroll down to ‘spending CIL’). If you have any questions about the application process, please email CILadmin@brent.gov.uk.

A training workshop will be held to support applicants:

·       17th May at 1.30-4.30 pm;

The workshop will take place at CVS Brent Training Suite, 7 Rutherford Way, Wembley HA9 0BP. Please ring at CVS Brent (5 Rutherford Way) if no one answers at the Training Suite.
Complimentary tea and coffee provided. 

To register for the May 17th workshop register HERE


Round 1 allocations HERE  I am waiting for details of Round 2.

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Spurs help tackle a load of rubbish in Wembley

Gary Mabbutt gets down to work (Picture: Tottenham Hotspurs)

From Keep Wembley Tidy and Wembley Central and Alperton Resdients' Association

As part of Spurs commitment to the London Borough of Brent during its season playing at Wembley, Club Ambassador Gary Mabbutt joined volunteers from Keep Wembley Tidy (KWT)/Wembley Central & Alperton Residents Association (WCARA) and Alperton Community School to help pick up litter around the streets of Wembley.

Keep Wembley Tidy and WCARA are volunteer groups formed by residents to encourage the community to work together for a cleaner, greener, safer area in which to live. Both organisations are working with Brent Council to encourage residents to join community clean‐ups which are being organised as part of the ‘Love Where You Live’ campaign. The campaign calls upon Brent residents to show their love for local areas by taking small steps to create a cleaner and greener environment.

Kay Carroll, volunteer resident, said:

Our dedicated volunteers work tirelessly collecting litter and reporting fly-tipping hot sports. Each litter pick we collect 20-30 bags of waste comprising of beer cans and bottles, fast food packaging and confectionary wrappers. We have recently formed WCARA with a wider remit than KWT, and we are keener than ever to clean up our local area. We would like to thank Gary Mabbutt and Tottenham Hotspur for their support in today’s litter pick.

Gary Mabbutt said:

Looking after the area you live in and helping the environment is something we should all take pride in. With Wembley being the Club’s home for this season, I am pleased to have been able to offer a helping hand to help keep the area tidier.

 Keep Wembley Tidy and WCARA would also like to thank Lee Meaden and Milko from Veolia, who kindly donated litter pickers, bags and gloves to the resident group. Their staff also arranged for the prompt collection of bags of rubbish after the event. 

Spurs have recently announced that it will be sourcing more environmentally sustainable alternatives to single-use plastic and will continue to do so as part of its commitment to phasing out single-use plastics from all operations. The Club will not be stocking plastic straws, stirrers, cutlery and all plastic disposably packaging that accompanies these items.

St Modwen sells Wembley Central Shopping Centre

St Modwen Properties today announced it had sold its 118,000 sq ft Wembley  Central Shopping Centre along with the 86 bed Travel lodge to an unnamed buyer at an undisclosed price.

The company also sold its Longbridge Shopping Park and together the sales represented 27% of their retail portfolio.

The sale occurs at a time of retail sales decline as a result of the current ecnomic situation  and consumers' switch to on-line sales.

Major companies shedding retail property raises questions about Brent Council's  strategy of creating a retail corridor from Wembley High Road to the LDO at Wembley Park. Brent planners often stipulate retail units on the ground floor of new medium and high rise developments. The new build on the High Road frontage of the old Copland High School is expected to include retail LINK.

In Wembley Park, the site of the current Stadium Retail Park that include Currys and McDonalds is ear-marked for redevelopment. LINK

Clearly the buyers of Wembley Central Square must see some prospect of an adequate return on their investment but it will be worth keeping a wary eye on the pattern of development in the future.

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