The site beside the main railway line at Northwick Park
The Community Garden will run in a strip parallel to the railway line
The local community came out in force last night to puts its weight behind plans for a Community Garden in Northwick Park. The idea hatched up initiaally by a group of Northwick Park dog walkers has gathered support from local residents, professional gardeners and Brent Council. After a presentation on developments so far and an explanation of the principles of forest gardens residents fed-back on the plans and made their own suggestions for what the garden should contain. The group is a registered charity and has its own Facebook page HERE. One of the essentials is that in order to get funding for the project it needs local people to indicate their support - the more the better. The project introduces itself:
In
a special area of Northwick Park we are planning on creating a naturalistic
green space where local residents, schools, visitors to the area including
Northwick Park Hospital can unwind, learn about trees, plants and wildlife, and
harvest seasonal produce. The produce will be organically grown without
pesticides, herbicides or chemical fertilizer.
The
garden design will be based on the permaculture concept. Permaculture mimics
natural patterns within ecosystems. The ecosystem will take care of the garden
in the long term. It will be a self-sufficient and sustainable natural
development.
Fruit
and nut trees, shrubs with edible berries, herbaceous perennial with edible
leaves, flowers and herbs may feature in the garden design. It’s also important
that we provide places for people to sit within the community garden and enjoy
the natural surrounding.
The
charity called ‘Northwick Park Community Garden’ was established in October
2018 to put all this in place. We are going to apply for Community
Infrastructure Level (CIL) funding in December 2018. We’ll keep you updated on
progress.
The construction of the garden will be done via the permablitz process where volunteers gather together to build the garden LINK. This is usually done in one day but a bigger project will need several phases.
The fascist graffiti that was painted on the railway footbridge bridge linking Kendall Road and Gladstone Park has been painted out ahead of the community 'paint out' that had been planned for 5pm this evening. LINK
As I understand it Network Rail had also undertaken to remove it but a local resident beat them to it.
A clear message to fascist individuals or groups that they are not welcome here.
UPDATE FROM A READER November 14th: A resident had done the initial paint-out and then Network Rail followed overpainitng not just the area of fascist graffiti but all the other graffiti too, in regulation green. Yesterday evening a number of Brent residents and councillors gathered at the bridge in a gesture of solidarity with the people of Dollis Hill.
Brent Council is consulting on how social housing is allocated to people on the housing waiting list. This is what they say:
Residents are being invited to have their say on how the council allocates social housing in Brent.
The council is launching a consultation that asks
people to give their views on the criteria for distributing the limited
number of social houses currently available.
Brent is proposing changes to ensure that social housing is shared
out fairly to people in need. These changes include a proposal to give
residents in temporary accommodation priority for social housing that
becomes available on the estate where they are living, so that they
don't have to move neighbourhoods. Another change looks at giving
priority to homeless families living in temporary accommodation on an
estate that is being regenerated to move into social housing within the
same area.
The full list of proposed changes is available online here.
The consultation will end on 22 January 2019, ahead of the Cabinet
decision's in March with the agreed changes then set to begin in April.
Cllr Eleanor Southwood, Cabinet Member for Housing and Welfare
Reform, said: "It's really important that social housing is distributed
fairly given the chronic shortage of genuinely affordable homes in
Brent. We are asking for as many views as possible. These changes impact
everyone on the waiting list.
"We do have ambitious plans to build more homes in Brent, but these
changes work with the limited supply of homes that we have available to
us right now."
Brent last reviewed how it allocated social housing in November 2014 and made changes to its scheme in January 2015.
Detailed proposals are not available until you actually start the process of filling in the on-line consultation AVAILABLE HERE so I have reproduced them below:
To see all the options click on 'read more' below.
Dear Brent Patient Voice members and friends “Who would be a doctor?” is the topic of our public meeting and debate on Thursday 15th November next at the Learie Constantine Centre, 40-47 Dudden Hill Lane, NW10 2ET at 7pm (refreshments from 6.30)
We are focussing on the strains and stresses facing GPs. They are our
first and principal port of call when we need to access NHS services.
Yet
Practices are merging or closing;
Workload problems are leading to burnout or early retirement;
The NHS wants GPs to do more to relieve the load on hospitals;
Plans to boost GP numbers are way off target;
Few GPs welcome extra admin and new organisational structures.
What are the answers?
Will switching to digital help reduce workload?
What does Primary Care Home mean for doctors and patients?
How do new roles such as healthcare assistants, community pharmacists and nurse practitioners fit in?
We are fortunate to have recruited highly qualified speakers to lead our debate. They are Dr MC Patel, new Chair of Brent Clinical Commissioning Group, and long-serving Brent GP, and Dr Pauline Foreman, Medical Director for Practice Support at the Royal College of General Practitioners, and also a GP in Hertfordshire.
We look forward to seeing you on 15th November. Please take
this as notice of our AGM from 7 to 7.20pm that day, including reports,
minutes and elections to the Steering Group. We urgently need someone to manage our communications and mailshots like this one. Please contact me at robisharp@gmail.com if you can help. I can also supply a flyer for this meeting if you can put up one in your surgery etc.
Although in Barnet the West Hendon Playing Fields are also a resource for Brent residents. You may wish to contribute to the consultation.
HAVE YOUR SAY – THE WEST HENDON PLAYING FIELDS DRAFT MASTERPLAN
Public drop-in session at the West Hendon Community Hub Tuesday 13th November. You can come and look at the draft masterplan and provide feedback. The session times are: 10.30am – 12.30pm 3.15pm – 7.00pm.
Address:
Gadwall House, Perryfield Way
Hendon, Barnet,
The Sport, Leisure and Culture Consultancy (SLC) has been appointed to
undertake an appraisal of the options available to Barnet Council for the
development and creation of a sports hub with associated community
facilities at West Hendon Playing Fields
From Barnet Counci:
In line with the strategies' recommendations, the council
has appointed The Sport, Leisure and Culture Consultancy (SLC) to
undertake an appraisal of the options available to the council for the
development and creation of a sports hub with associated community
facilities at West Hendon Playing Fields.
Give us your views
Please give us your views on the options by completing the online questionnaire(External link).
We welcome responses from everyone including organisations interested
in the future development of these sites. We would also like to hear the
views of people from outside the London Borough of Barnet area.
To request a questionnaire in an alternative format, please:
email: nicola.cross@barnet.gov.uk,
telephone 020 8359 7404, or
write to us at: Greenspaces, London Borough of Barnet, North London Business Park, Oakleigh Road South, London, N11 1NP.
How we will use your feedback
SLC
will use the results of the engagement to inform the development of an
options appraisal report for consideration by the council. This will
lead to the development of a draft master plan for the delivery of the
preferred option, which will be the subject of further engagement later
in the year. Amendments will be made as necessary to the draft master
plan following this further engagement, and it will be brought to a
meeting of the Environment Committee. Subject to the outcome of this
meeting a full public consultation on the final master plan will then
take place.
Brent Council has opened cosultation on the Brent Local Plan Preferred Options. It is a highly detailed document detailing possible developments in Brent divided into stages of 0-5 years, 5-10 years and more than 10 years.
The borough is divided into 7 'places' (Central, North, North West, South, South East, South West). The main growth areas with far-reaching proposals are in Central (Wembley Central and Wembley Park). South East (Cricklewood, Willesden Green, Kilburn, South Kilburn) and North West (Kenton, Preston and Northwick Park).
Wherever you live in Brent you may be surprised that redevelopment of familiar buildings or areas is on the agenda. For example in Central (Wembley) ASDA, Kwikfit and The Torch pub on the corner of Forty Lane and Bridhe Road are included. Both sites of the College of North West London in Wembley Park and Dudden Hill will be freed up by a move to a new building in Wembley. Along with the college in Wembley Park the shopping centre next door (Curry's etc) and McDonalds are due for redevelopment. In South Kilburn the sites of Carlton Vale Primary and Kilburn Park Primary will be up for development if the schools move to a new site as well as all the planned redevelopment of the remaining blocks on the estate.
The document gives a list of developments that are on stream as well as possibilities. This is a list of residential developments in Wembley Park already given planning permission.
Northwick Park (above) is the main development site in North West Place:
There is potential for some tall buildings, subject
to being a high quality design. These should respond to the height of the
existing hospital buildings, stepping down towards the MOL (Metropolitan Open
Land) and areas to the north. The appropriate height, extent and location of
buildings will be identified within a masterplan for the site. Consideration
will need to be given to the site’s location next to MOL to ensure that there
is no inappropriate impact on its setting. Part of the site also falls within
the Ministry of Defence (MOD) safeguarding zone for RAF Northolt, in which the
MOD will need to be consulted if development is over a certain height – 15.2m
for development that occurs within the boundaries of the University of
Westminster Campus and the majority of the hospital campus, and 45.7m for the
hospitals eastern car parks and residential accommodation.
Furthermore, there is an area of green space located
to the rear of the student accommodation, which has an open space designation.
Whilst it might be appropriate through the masterplanning and development
process to relocate or disaggregate this open space, overall no net loss will
be acceptable. This will be in addition to satisfying the urban greening
requirements and providing sufficient children’s play space, in line with
London Plan policies G5 and S4. Running adjacent to the site’s southern
boundary is the Capital Ring. Development should not impact upon the
functionality of the Capital Ring, and should seek its enhancement wherever
possible.
Interestingly Chancel House, the former DWP building in Neasden Lane, is ear-marked for a 6 form entry secondary school and college. As the local authority is not allowed to provide new schools this will be a free school unless a Labour government, committed to not creating any new academies or free schools (policy is not absolutely clear), is elected.
I do urge readers to look at the document in full because it is impossible to cover all the details in this article. These are proposals that will transform your neighbourhood over the next 10 years.
The quickest way of giving your comments is by completing the online survey. HERE
Alternatively you can email us or send Brent Council your comments by post by
using the addresses below. When responding by e-mail or post, please use
the Local Plan Consultation Response Form (.docx, 19.4kB) and set out clearly the page number, paragraph, policy, figure or image your comment relates to.
Post: Paul Lewin, Team Leader Planning Policy, Brent Council, Engineers’ Way, Wembley, HA9 0FJ
The deadline for responses is 5pm on Thursday 3 January 2019.
Full Option document. Click on bottom right corner for full size version.
Graffiti on the railway bridge linking Kendal Road and Gladstone Park
Ariel view of the bridge
Local residents spotted fascist graffiti today on the Kendal Road railway bridge that crosses over into Gladstone Park.
This follows an earlier episode when racist and fascist graffiti was found near Jewish homes in the area. LINK
That graffiti was removed by loacl people in a clean up and similar action will be taken regarding the swastika above. On Tuesday evening at 5pm local people and anti-racist actvists will don rubber gloves and bring paint and brushes to get rid of this unwelcome sign of the presence of fascist sympathisers in our midst. Meet at the bridge.
An organiser of the 'paint out' said:
Our community is
saddened and angered that fascist graffiti has again appeared in our
happy multicultural area. We are going to paint it out in a show of our
strength. We won’t be divided by hate!
These stickers have also appeared in the area:
The NSZ (Narodowe Siły Zbrojne - National Armed Forces) was an anti-Nazi and Anti-Soviet Polish resistance movement often accused of anti-Semitism although that has been challenged as Soviet propaganda. After a split in the organisation in 1944 NSZ-ZJ (the Lizard Union) was formed which appeares to have been a more extremist wing. LINK
Universal Credit, the controversial new integrated benefit system, is being rolled out in Brent. This is the Council' announcement:
The government's long-awaited Universal Credit is being rolled out in Brent from November 2018 on the following dates:
21 November 2018 for Harlesden Job Centre
5 December 2018 for Wembley Job Centre
This means that residents with a change in circumstances or
those moving into Brent making a claim for the first time will have to
apply for Universal Credit instead of the benefits listed below:
Housing Benefit
Job Seeker's Allowance (income based)
Employment and Support Allowance (income related)
Income Support
Working Tax Credit
Child Tax Credit
The six benefits above will be merged into one single payment -
Universal Credit. Unlike many of the existing benefits, Universal Credit
will be paid once a month, rather than weekly, fortnightly or four
weekly as housing benefit is traditionally paid, and will be paid
directly into the claimant's bank account in arrears. This is a change
for many residents who currently have their housing benefit paid direct
to their landlord.
The government wants all Universal Credit
claims to be both made and updated online. If residents do not have
access to the internet, they will be able to visit one of the above Job
Centres for assistance. Each Job Centre will have a front of house team
specifically set up to help and assist residents to make and maintain
their Universal Credit claims online.
To make an application
for Universal Credit, residents will need to apply directly to the
Department for Work and Pensions via their website https://www.gov.uk/apply-universal-credit There is also a free helpline available for those that need any extra support: 0800 328 5644.
Councillor Eleanor Southwood, Cabinet Member for Housing and Welfare Reform said:
These are huge changes, particularly for residents who are already
struggling to get by. The first port of call for formal advice is the
DWP, who are implementing the changes. However, I want to remind
residents that the council is here to help and you should contact us if
you're worried that you might be falling into rent arrears or if you
need support with your council tax.
Who in the Future will be Affected by
Universal Credit (UC)?
1. To date, of the 1 million households now on UC, the vast majority (except in
local pilot areas), have been the unemployed. However that is about to change.
From now on across the country all new or updated benefit claims (with a few
exceptions) including those in work who receive Tax Credits have to be made
through UC.
2.DWP also
plans to force everyone on benefits (including those on Working and Child Tax
Credits) to claim UC even if there has been no change in their circumstances.
DWP has refused to initiate transfers of Tax Credit claims on to a UC regime.
Instead people have to initiate UC applications, a fraught and costly process.
Testing forced transfers, called ‘managed migration’ by DWP, is due to start
for some Tax Credit recipients in July 2019.
3.Nationally,
DWP’s plans mean 3 in 4 of the planned total of 7 million families on UC, would
be in work. So of the estimated 16 million people nationally in families
receiving UC, around 12 million would be in working families.
Background
4. This note outlines the Department of Work and Pensions’ (DWP) plans on UC as
at early November 2018. These plans have changed many times. DWP has said they
may change again if more problems with UC come to light.
5. UC has been criticised by welfare and other advice
agencies after cases of severe hardship came to light and a series of analyses
on the impact of UC especially after funding was cut. Arguably UC has become so
discredited that what its future should be and indeed whether it should have a
future is a matter for serious political debate.
Why have People found the UC Application Process so
Fraught?
6. Firstly the forms are very lengthy – running to tens of pages. Secondly DWP
want people to fill them in online. Even experienced advisers find the process;
setting up accounts, locating and scanning in all the documents which DWP
require to ‘verify’ a UC claim, often takes many hours, not counting
verification visits to DWP offices.
7. DWP’s own research found barely half could complete the
process without help. One in 4 claimants were not able to claim at all without
help. Many have found applying for UC more difficult than applying for Tax
Credits.
The UC application process is most intimidating and unsuitable for those with
poor language, writing or IT skills.
The process especially frightens those with mental health problems eg anxiety,
as DWP’s own research shows.
8. Thirdly the risks, if things go wrong, have been
largely put on to the applicant. Imposing on applicants financial penalties
arising from the complex UC application process, is unreasonable given the
widely known problems people have faced in completing UC applications to DWP’s
satisfaction. Government November 2018 changes have reduced, but not removed,
risks imposed on people when those on Tax Credits are forced to apply for UC.
9. If people do not successfully apply within 1 month of a
DWP deadline they risk losing ‘Transitional Protection’ which protects, for a
while, their money if UC pays less than they get with Tax Credits. Further DWP
only allow UC claims to be backdated by one month – less than the 3 months
allowed for backdating of some benefit claims.
Do Tax Credit Recipients lose Money?
10. First of all, UC claimants face gaps in payment imposed by DWP in two
stages. The UC system builds in a gap in payments, reduced in the 2018 Budget
to a minimum of 3 weeks, after applying for UC. On top of that gap 1 in 5
claimants have faced on average a 4 week delay by DWP (ie on top of the 3 week
gap) in receiving some or all of their money. DWP do not expect the % facing
additional delays in some UC payment to be reduced during 2018.
11. Indeed there may well a big rise in the current UC
claim processing delays by DWP under the strain of a six-fold increase in the
rate of new UC claims planned by DWP for 2020 plus the more complicated
circumstances of future UC claims with working income and child care costs,
(unlike the mainly simpler unemployed cases so far).
12. Secondly amounts paid under UC differ from what
working families get on Tax Credits. Some would get more money under UC. But
overall working families face a net loss on average of about £250 a year on UC,
after the 2018 Budget measures notably the higher work allowances. The Budget
reduced, but did not end the losses.
13. UC losses are bigger for (mainly female) single
parents, and disabled people loss of Severe Disability Premium.
UC hits women more. The combined impact of tax and benefit changes hits women 7
times as severely as men.
14. UC’s Minimum Income Floor has adverse impacts for many
self-employed people eg taxi drivers, often BME.
15. Tax and benefit measures in the 2018 Budget only
partially offset the overall losses since Summer 2015 from for instance the
benefit freeze. Overall tax and benefit changes reduce income just for the
lower income groups.
Does UC Contribute to a More Hostile Environment for
Workers?
16. As well as financial losses, UC can intrude into peoples’ lives. Under the
UC regime, workers can be pressed by DWP to job search to increase hours or
earnings. This is worse for some eg single parents with child care duties.
17. For the first time workers are now at risk of
‘sanctions’ – loss of benefit. UK has the 2nd most demanding set of
‘benefit conditionality’ terms out of 39 countries. Under UC sanctions are 4
times more frequent than pre-UC.
18. Insisting everyone has to apply for UC online is not
user friendly, especially for those nervous of computers.
Is Universal Credit Actually Simpler?
19. One advantage claimed for UC is ‘simplification’ with 6 benefits rolled up
into 1. The comparison is misleading: no one person ever receives all 6
benefits simultaneously. It is also partial: UC does not include some benefits.
The difficulty of making UC claims shows that any ‘simplification’ is not
usually to the advantage of applicants.
20. Other aspects of ‘simplification’ may not help people.
Paying UC as one payment may be convenient for DWP, but it means women will
lose out when all money goes to one person, the higher earner, usually male. At
the moment Child Tax Credit and the childcare element of Working Tax Credit
typically go to the woman in a family.
Women with no direct access to money find it more difficult to leave when
facing domestic abuse or violence.
Are there Other Benefits of UC?
21. DWP has claimed UC increases work incentives. That is so, but to a very
limited extent. For the (1 in 3) people in work facing the highest effective
tax rates they are cut from slightly over 90% to 85% with UC. The evidence is
such incentives have little effect. Using sanctions implicitly admits that the
work incentives are not effective.
22. DWP has argued that benefit take-up will rise under
UC. But the user–unfriendly nature of UC, its toxic reputation and what an
official report calls DWP’s ‘culture of indifference’, reduce the chances of
higher take-up.
23. The DWP says that UC will reduce fraud and error. The
NAO report refers to ‘a lack of evidence’ on this claim.
Conclusions
24. Government UC plans will increasingly affect people in work. Recent changes
to UC have reduced the delays and the financial costs for workers, but not
eliminated them. Reducing delays and more funding are not enough to make UC
suitable. It is very user-unfriendly and intrudes oppressively into peoples’
lives. A harsh UC regime drives people into taking unsatisfactory work, putting
downward pressure on work T&Cs – a core union concern.
25. There is a very strong case for Trade Unions to call
on political parties to back ‘Stop and Scrap UC’ and, so long as UC continues,
urging councils to minimise the impacts. Some Boroughs have set up information,
advice and advocacy services eg Tower Hamlets, and others have committed to not
evict tenants in arrears as a result of UC.
26. Pushing more people on to UC should be immediately
halted, whilst a fundamental review considers the options.
