GREAT NEWS! Pensioner's power is back on

Shortly after I posted the story below that John Healy was still without power and tweeted the link to Wates Group and Brent Council an electrician from Jaylec visited John late tonight and has restored the power. John had made the appointment before the South Kilburn Housing office closed at 5pm.

John told me, 'That should be the end of my 'leak saga' which lasted exactly three weeks. The kitchen is almost dry but my carpet will probably take a week to dry out. It is nice to have everything working, even though my fridge is empty.

I am glad for John but I do hope that councillors will review this case with Brent Council and Wates Living Space to see how their communication and procedures could be improved in such an emergency.

48 hours after leak repaired pensioner still without power

Disabled pensioner John Healy is still without power in his flat in William Dunbar House in South Kilburn 48 hours after the leak which flooded his kitchen was repaired.

He was expecting a visit from Brent Council's out-sourced repairs service, Wates Living Space, to assess the situation and hopefully restore the power but they have not called.

He is without full power in his kitchen and also in his sitting room and bedroom.  He first reported the leak more than two weeks ago.

Foxy mystery in Willesden Green

A friend in Willesden Green has told me about mysterious goings in in her garden. In a clearing in her woodland garden, frequented by a local fox, she has found over a number of days a soft toy where she leaves out eggs and Vegemite sandwiches for the fox.

When she told me that a toy rabbit had been left I said, 'You watch, it will be Eeyore next.' It was.

The soft toys have that distinct smell of fox and when I visited today Eeyore and Rabbit had been washed and were hanging out to dry on a very blustery day.

I am hoping that a grateful fox won't be dragging Christopher Robin into the garden next.

Speaking exclusively to Wembley Matters the recipient of the foxy gifts said:

I think this is the fox's way of saying 'thank you' for the food and leaving me with a gift in exchange. Rather than mangling the soft toys it is obviously holding them very gently in its jaws as there is little damage. The arm of one of the bears has been torn a little but that may have already been done so, apart from the smell, they are fine.

It may be that a lonely fox has been taking them from a child's garden as companions although it does seem to get on well with the local cats.

There may be a child in the neighbourhood who is sad and missing her much loved soft toys. Now that they have been washed, they are ready to be returned to their owner and I hope his or her parents will see this story and get in touch with Martin.

If you think that the toys belong to your child please get in touch with me at martinrfrancis@virginmedia.com with a note giving some clue of a name etc on the label of one of the toys.

Brent Council should reinstate the role of Allotments Officer to tackle overgrown plots and poor billing

The overgrown allotment next to my plot at Birch Grove, Kingsbury

I was pleased to see Cllr Janice Long take up the issue of Brent Council's allotments at the recent Full Council meeting. It is a subject that has been covered on Wembley Matters several times.

Cllr Long said that she was receiving a lot of complaints about the state of our allotments: the billing process is disorganised, the council does not therefore know who no longer requires their allotment and the result is that many are left overgrown - 'a mess.'

She went on to say that the Council had got rid of its Allotments Officer (something I campaigned against) and the work had  'been dumped on someone in the parks department.'

Long mistakenly said she thought that allotments had been converted to self management, in fact allotment holders except for one site turned this down but the Allotments Officer was nevertheless made redundant. There are however allotment representatives who can liaise between allotment tenants and the council.  There used to be an incentive of free plot rental for people taking on this role but I am not sure this is still the case. My allotment site at Birchen Grove has recently elected a new representative and I hope this will result in some improvement. However I think the problem will only be resolved if Brent Council decide to reinstate the Allotments Officer position - there is a lot of potential income in those plots that are not currently being cultivated.

Cllr Krupa Sheth, lead cabinet member for the environment, responding to Cllr Long said, 'We definitely want to get the best out of our allotments. I'll take this back to the parks team and make sure the billing is done properly as well.'

Watch out for major traffic delays in Wembley area Saturday evening

Major emergency works to a collapsed sewer at the junction of Wembley Park Drive and Wembley Hill Road and Joshua v Povetkin boxing at the stadium (gates open 5.30pm) means that there are likely to be major delays to traffic, including local buses, during the evening, restricting local residents' ability to move around the area,

Event Day parking restrictions will apply.

UPDATED: Brent Civic Centre, or Quintain billboard?

Brent Civic Centre from Olympic Way (from the 2018 Open House website)

This weekend (22 and 23 September) it’s the annual London “Open House” *. One of the buildings you can visit and tour as part of this event is Brent Civic Centre, but if you rely on the outside view of the building shown on their website, you may be in for a disappointment. 

(Contributed)

 

The reality of the view, as shown by this photograph taken by a local resident earlier this week, and shared with me (thank you), is rather different. Parts of Brent’s highly praised Civic HQ may not be the most picturesque architecturally, but do they really need to be covered up with a huge advertisement?

The advertisement, for Quintain’s Tipi Rental flats, makes a striking addition to the area, but is this what public buildings are meant to be for? For some reason, it makes me think of the Soviet Union during the Stalin era. Is that an appropriate image for our Civic Centre to project?

You may, like me, wonder how this use of a prominent Wembley Park landmark was allowed to happen. The answer lies in application no. 17/4177, which was dealt with by Brent’s Planning Officers, not its Planning Committee, in October 2017. This was an application for advertising consent, for the ‘installation of a non-iIlluminated advertisement banner to the side elevation of the Brent Civic Centre.’

The application drawings showed that the proposed banner would be 30.25 metres high and 9.45 metres wide. They also included an elevation drawing, showing what the proposed banner advertisement would look like:-

 

I have researched the law on advertising consent recently, in connection with the adverts which have covered the tile murals in the Bobby Moore Bridge subway, at the Wembley Park Station end of Olympic Way, since 2013. The law is set out in the Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) (England) Regulations 2007.  Regulation 3 says that:

‘A local planning authority shall exercise its powers under these Regulations in the interests of amenity …’ and that,

‘… factors relevant to amenity include the general characteristics of the locality, including the presence of any feature of historic, architectural, cultural or similar interest.’  

By inviting visitors to the Civic Centre for Open House week-end, Brent Council would appear to claim that the building is a feature of, at least, architectural interest, but this does not seem to have carried much weight when it exercised its powers ‘in the interests of amenity’.

That does not come as a surprise to me, however, as when it considered a similar application LINK , it failed to take into account the historic and cultural interest of the tile murals, a major piece of public art welcoming visitors to Wembley Park, which it allowed to be covered with adverts! I may write more on that subject, another time.

The decision letter of 20 October 2017 on application 17/4177, was addressed to a Mr Welbourne of Leeds (who I presume was acting as agent for Quintain) and signed by Brent’s Head of Planning. It granted consent for an advertising banner on the side of the Civic Centre for a period of 5 years. The reasons for giving consent were:

‘The proposed development is in general accordance with policies contained in the:

Brent’s Development Management Policies (and)
Council’s Supplementary Planning Guidance 8.’

I have not checked through all of those planning policies, so can’t say whether or not I agree!

You may think that at least Brent Council is getting some income from allowing this advert to be displayed on the side of the Civic Centre. But perhaps not. I have heard (unofficially) that the part of the building with the advert attached actually belongs to Quintain, as part of the deal with Brent for building the Civic Centre. Can anyone confirm whether that is true or not? Is it our Civic Centre, or just a Quintain billboard?

* See the Open House website LINK  for details of all the interesting Brent buildings and architecture available to visit this week-end.

UPDATE

Asked for a comment on Philip's article a spokepserson for Brent Council said:

“With Government funding to Brent being cut in half, we’re having to find new ways to generate income to help meet that shortfall, which can then be spent on protecting services that matter most to residents, so this isn’t just an adverting sign, it’s a sign of the times.

“To get the most out of the space on the side of the building, we are partnering up with Wembley Park who, as well as having excellent contacts with Wembley event organisers, also offered the council the most amount of money in a competitive tendering process to use the space, under an agreement which will also ensure that adverts displayed there are in line with Brent values.”

Standing together against racism and Islamophobia in Dollis Hill

The T-shirt says: There are two types: they are either your brothers in faith or your equals in humanity

Standing together in solidarity

Local people, including members of North West London Stand Up To Racism, received a warm welcome tonight at the Al-Majlis and Al- Hussaini Centre in Dollis Hill when they visited to express support and solidarity after the previous night's attack. The Chair and Secretary of Brent Trades Council were amongst the visitors.

The group were invited in to share in the celebrations and the atmosphere was positive with clear determination that such episodes would not be allowed to divide the community.

I was struck particularly by a very articulate lower secondary boy who was keen to explain his faith and at the same time emphasise his respect for all religions by explaining the meaning of the slogan on his T-shirt.

Women visitors were welcomed with  food and sweets and speeches were made thanking them for their support.

There was a low-key police presence at the Centre in Edgware Road as well as effective stewarding by the Centre itself.

Earlier Brent Council had issued this statement from Cllr Muhammed Butt, leader of the council:

Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have been injured and all those affected by the serious act of violence which took place outside the Al-majlis Al-Hussaini Center last night.

We are in close contact with the police who are looking into this as a possible hate crime. However, we are reassured that the police do not believe there is an ongoing threat to Brent's Muslim community. There is absolutely no place for hate in our borough. Violence like this will not be tolerated.

We visited representatives at the centre this afternoon and will give them all the help they need.

Brent has one of the most diverse communities in the UK and we are extremely proud of this. We will not allow cowardly acts like this to spread fear and hate amongst our residents.

Wembley sewer collapse will mean severe traffic delays for up to two weeks

From Brent Council

Due to a sewer collapse on Wembley Park Drive near the junction with Wembley Hill Road, Thames Water are doing emergency works and four way, four phase temporary traffic lights have been set up to control traffic. Clarendon Gardens has also been closed to assist with traffic flows.

It is estimated that these works will take up to two weeks to complete and delays in the area are expected to be severe, especially during peak times. There will be clashes with events at Wembley Stadium, the boxing on Saturday and potentially Spurs v Barcelona.