Brent councillors to get £1,800 allowance rise - some responsibility allowances reduced

Brent Full Council will be recommended to approve a rise in each councillor's basic allowance from £10,201 to £12,000 at the Annual Meeting on Monday. The decision, based on an independent review, was held back until after the local elections.

Last year the total paid out on allowances was £1,135111.91. In addition to the basic allowance some members are paid a Special ResponsibilityAllowance (SRA)  with only one payable to any one member.

There are constitutional plans set out on Full Council papers that involve the merging of the Standards and Audit Committees into one, the setting up of a Licensing Committee and a proposal to abolish the Equalities Committee (on the grounds that the Pavery Report has been successfully implemented).

The main SRAs for the leadership team are unchanged and there are some reductions.  Planning Committee members will be paid an SRA of £2,177 (reduced from £3,266), Chairs of Brent Connect forums  reduced from £4,911 to £1,250, Principal Oppositiom leader allowance reduced from £13,042 to £6,000, Chief Whip of the ruling group reduced from £5,639 to £4,000, the Mayor reduced from £9,181 to £7,141 and Deputy Mayor  from £7,141 to £3,234.

The Chair of the new Licensing Committee will be paid an SRA of £3,234 and th Chair and Vice Chair of the merged Audit and Standards Committee £1,500.

Full details HERE (See Appendix 2, pages 71-71)

Butt loyalists rewarded with Cabinet posts

The Brent Cabinet is expanded to nine members in the new administration. Tom Miller loses his place with the Willesden Green election not taking place until June 21st. If elected he could enter the Cabinet at a later date with the Community Safety portfolio currently allocated to Butt. Cllr McLennan appears to have no portfolio at present but the important Finance responsibility is not yet covered despite Butt's statement at the AGM that 'terrible decisions' are yet to come.

Cllr Agha who served as Chair of Planning Committee in a period of many controversial decisions, when Cllr Marquis was on maternity leave,  joins the Cabinet as Lead Member for Schools, Employment and Skills. He is a fellow Welsh Harp councillor of Cllr Mashari who challenged Cllr Butt for the leadership. He was closely involved with pushing through the redevelopment of Chesterfield House, known locally as the Twin Towers development, and a host of the Quintain high rise developments around Wembley Stadium.

Cllr Krupa Sheth (Wembley Central)  joins the Cabinet as Lead Member for Environment and Cllr Southwood moves to Housing and Welfare Reform.

Cllr Farah moves to become Lead Member for Adult Social Care, a new post created by removing it from Cllr Hirani's brief which is now Public Health, Culture and Leisure.

With Cllr Agha leading on schools, Cllr Mili Patel is now Lead Member for Children's Safeguarding, Early Help and Social Care.  The separation of schools from children's social care is significant as the combination arose from concerns that the two aspects of child provision should be integrated for better efficiency as a result of institutional failures in preventing the deaths of children.

Cllr Tatler remains Lead Member for Regeneration, Highways and Planning.

With Cllr Marquis' pre-election announcement that she did not want to stand for Chair of Planning Committee I understand that this most has now gone to Cllr Denselow.

The chairs of the three Scrutiny Committees, Cllrs Kelcher, Ketan Sheth and Long remain unchanged.

Brent Cabinet to reconsider Pedway funding following proposed sale of Wembley Stadium

An urgent item has been put on the Brent Cabinet agenda on May 21st to re-examine th funding decisions for Olympic Way Improvements (including the replacement of the Pedway by steps) 'following the announcement of the possible sale of Wembley Stadium to a private individual/company.'

The £18m allocated to the scheme proved extremely controversial during the recent local election with residents suggesting that the money would be better used to tackle potholes and dangerous pavements throughout the borough. LINK

There have been persistent reports that the Football Association, currently owners of Wembley Stadium, have not been convinced that the replacement of the Pedway is desirable, while Quintain have cited aesthetic reasons for the replacement in the context of their overall Wembley scheme. Quintain would have been the recipient of the £18m.

To comply with the Council's Constitution on urgent decisions notice has been given to Matt Kelcher, Chair of Public Realm Scrutiny, that because of the urgency the usual 28 days notice cannot be given but 5 days will suffice:

Quintain need to continue with design development for Zone C works including the steps to be in a position to award a contract in September 2018 for the manufacture of the precast steps for installation in December 2019/January 2020. This being the only window available for the installation prior to Euro 2020. In light of recent news that Wembley Stadium is proposed to transfer from Football Association ownership to a private individual/company, Cabinet is being asked to re-examine the funding decision made in July 2017 to contribute funding for Olympic Way Improvements to enable the Council to advise Quintain accordingly.

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Anyone for tennis? Tomorrow or Sunday

Address: 16-18 Coles Green Road, London NW2 7ER

Willesden Green council election set for June 21st

From Brent Electoral Services

The countermanded poll in Willesden Green has been rescheduled to take place on Thursday 21st June.

The Notice of Election will be published on Wednesday 16th May. Nominations will be accepted between 10 and 4pm from Wednesday 16th May to Thursday 24th May. Please contact either me or Matt Willis if you would like to make an appointment to submit a nomination.

Any candidate already validly nominated in the ward does not have to resubmit a nomination. By law, existing candidates cannot withdraw their nomination at this stage.

The deadline to register to vote for this election is 5th June. The postal vote deadline is 6 June at 5pm and the proxy deadline is 13th June at 5pm.

Regarding election expenses, in a countermanded poll the candidate spending limit is doubled. All candidates should continue to record their spending and report everything in a single return after the election. There is no need to complete a separate return for spending incurred before the poll was countermanded.

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.