Three worthwhile projects to get Brent Neighbourhood CIL grants

It is a pleasure to give details of three Brent projects that, subject to Cabinet approval on Monday, will receive funds from the Neighbourhood Community Infrastructure Levy. Cabinet has to approve any NCIL grants above £100,000. Extracts below are from the report to Cabinet

Citizens Advice Brent (CAB) 
 £248,000

CAB seeks to refurbish and transform its current premises to deliver a new Community Hub resource for residents of Brent. The Hub will be open to CAB partners and all residents of the borough; particularly the most vulnerable who form the majority of users. 


The refurbished hub will provide: 

·      Expanded space - the space will be reorganised to offer public access 
PCs, brighter and more inviting interview rooms and a welcoming 
reception area 


·      Reorganisation of facilities - including terminals for people to make 
online benefit and other claims, assisted by Digital Assistants to navigate 
a number of websites 


·      Improved facilities - this will create a pleasant working environment for 
users and staff and improve the client experience 


·      Improved Health & Safety- The refurbishment will make the premises 
fully compliant with Health & Safety and equality requirements; and 


·      Environmental efficiencies - The project will be energy saving and 
improve the office carbon footprint. 


CAB is based in the Willesden CIL Neighbourhood but provides services to all Brent residents. It is a registered charity (no. 1049632) and company (no. 3091835) where people access advice and support to manage a range of issues including welfare benefits, housing and homelessness, debt, 
employment and immigration. The Hub will also develop the skills of volunteers. 

The Sickle Cell Society 
£133,958

The Sickle Cell Society has operated in Brent for 40 years from 54 Station Road, Harlesden. This project aims to refurbish the current premises and create a new, fully accessible, ground floor space which will be used for sickle cell support and focus groups, events, and for individuals and families to drop- in for confidential support and advice. It will also be available for any local community organisations to meet. This will fill a local void in amenities for these groups. 


Works will include: 

·      Lease of the neighbouring ground floor shop space and connecting this 
new space to the existing ground floor space 


·      Developing the ground floor to offering expanded community access of 
the facilities; and 


·      Creation of a new modern ‘shop front’ across both properties which will 
help to enhance the visual appearance of Station Road. 


The Sickle Cell Society has secured the lease for 56 Station Road from its own resources and submitted a change of use application for the ground floor. Consent was granted in December 2018. 


The Sickle Cell Society is a registered charity (no. 1046631) and company (no. 2840865). The current headquarters play a key role in educating people about the sickle cell and management techniques. Services delivered from the building enable those affected to better support themselves, empowers carers and provide peer forums. In addition to local visitors, the expectation is that the refurbished premises will be used to host growing numbers of visitors from the wider London community, across the UK and other parts of the world 


 

St Catherine’s Hall 
 £150,000

St Catherine’s Hall, Neasden was burned down in a major fire in September 2018. Prior to that it offered one large community hall, which was used by seven regular hirers 


An insurance payment will fund the restoration of the building as it was. NCIL funds are requested to increase the capacity of the building to accommodate more spaces for local community groups and to improve the visual presentation of the building on Neasden roundabout. 


This project will provide the following additional facilities: 

·      Creation of a second floor - providing a second large flexible hall which can 
be divided in two with its own toilet and refreshment facilities 


·      Creation of a new toilet and refreshments facilities, which will free up one 
room for two new small group meeting rooms; and 


·      Creation of a visually striking foyer area which will make use of the hall 
easier but will also enhance the look and feel of the Hall site on Neasden roundabout. 


·      All the new spaces will be available for hire by local community groups seven days a week. 

The hall is based in the Willesden CIL Neighbourhood but the expanded community facilities will benefit the whole borough. 


NOTE

St Catherine’s are holding a community consultation on Saturday. The is the message that the vicar, Rob Harrison posted on The View from Dollis Hill Facebook LINK
Last September, St Catherine’s Church Hall was burned down in an arson attack. This year, we will be rebuilding it as a Community Hub for Neasden.

The key question is: what kind of Community Hub does Neasden need?

On Saturday 13^th March there is an open Consultation Day to hear and share suggestions about what kind of facility we should build to serve Neasden for the coming decades.

If you would like to take part in this consultation, please reply to this post. 

The Consultation day begins at 10.30am on Saturday, and will finish at 3.00. Lunch will be provided for those staying for the whole event.

The morning session will focus on the kind of building that Neasden needs. The afternoon session will focus on the kind of resources that will be needed in that building.

The voice of local residents is vitally important to helping us build what Neasden most needs.

He added the following note today:

A call to Polish and Romanian members of our community. 

At present, over 40 people of our local communities have booked in to take part in the Community Hub Consultation at St Catherine’s Church on Saturday (10.30am - 3pm). Looking at the list of names, there is no representation of the Eastern European communities who are an important part of our Neasden Community. As we seek to build a Community Hub for Neasden, it is important that as many local needs as possible are expressed and heard. If you know people who could bring a perspective from those parts of our community, I would be delighted to include them in our consultation.

Brent drivers face £40 fine if they don't comply with request to stop engine idling

From Brent Council

Motorists in Brent are being encouraged to switch off their engines when parked for over a minute to reduce air pollution in London. Engine idling creates toxic air in London which damages the health of people in Brent. Drivers who are parked in in the borough, and idling for over one minute, will be asked to switch off their engines by Brent Council’s Clean Air officers. If they refuse, the drivers can be issued with an on-the-spot fine of up to £40.

Toxic air leads to 9,000 people dying prematurely every year in the capital and a child born in London in 2010 will lose two years of life expectancy because of air pollution.

Brent Council is working hard with residents to improve our air quality, including: providing free cycle training courses for residents, increasing the number of electric street charging points in Brent and encouraging the use of car clubs with electric cars.

Cllr Krupa Sheth, Cabinet Member for Environment said:

Engine idling damages the health of people living in Brent by increasing the amount of toxic air we breathe. I urge everyone who drives in Brent to help us clean up London’s toxic air by reducing the time their engines idle while they are parked. If drivers who have been parked for over a minute refuse to switch off their engines they may be issued with an on-the-spot fine. Let’s reduce engine idling to make Brent healthier.

Housing, waste & road repairs lag in Brent Council performance

Brent Council's Cabinet will receive data on the Council's performance at its meeting on Monday March 11th. Performance is recorded as a RAG (Red, Amber & Green) rating, often known as the traffic light system, according to performance against targets.

The report includes comments on the reasons for good or poor performance. The majority of ratings are Green or Amber but discussion centres on the Red areas and the action officers are taking to improve performance.

Some of the stand-out Red items are (target in brackets):

Proportion of waste recycled (Year to date) which is up to Quarter 3): 38% (45%) In 2016-17 the London average was 33% with Brent at 36.4%. Bexley was top at 52.1% and Newham bottom at 14.1%.

Residual waste collected (YTD): 51,283 tonnes (49.489). The more residual waste collected and the lower amount recycled increases the Council's landfill costs.

Timeliness of repair of highways defects(YTD): 56% (98%) See notes on document below.

Times taken to re-let empty council homes with minor defects to be addressed (YTD): 39.1 days (24)

Time taken to re-let council homes with major defects to be addressed (YTD): 90.4 days (76)

Tenants' satisfaction with council housing repairs (YTD): 75.6% (82%)

Waste and highway repairs are both out-sourced, Council housing has been brought back in-house but repairs are contracted out.

Click on bottom right square to enlarge

Wembley & Alperton Residents' Meeting March 18th

Lots of questions to be answered after Extinction Rebellion spoke at Willesden Green Library

I only heard about Saturday's Willesden Library Extinction Rebellion meeting when a friend picked up a leaflet a couple of days ago so it may have been lack of publicity that meant only 20 or so people turned up - not helped by transport issues on a Wembley Event Day of course. Of those only about a quarter were Brent residents.

The climate crisis is a major issue and Extinction Rebellion (XR) have been successful in publicising the climate emergency through actions such as blocking London's bridges. At the same time Greta Thunberg has galvanised school students across the world and there are already 500 separate actions planned for March 15th.  On the other hand our parliamentary representatives were resolutely ungalvanised with only a handful turning up for the House of Commons debate earlier this week. 

I hoped that XR would provide some answers about how to bring about the necessary changes if our planet is to remain inhabitable by humans.

The first part of the meeting set out the issue (see the video) at some length while the second part (not videoed - my battery ran out!) addressed XR's aims and methods. It was the second part where I began to feel disappointed. The evangelical zeal of the speaker did not make up for what seemed sometimes naive assumptions and an ignoring of the political and economic context in which we seek change.

The speaker, Dan Carpenter stressed the peaceful, non-violent, nature of XR's actions and their good 'respectful' relations with the police. He made links with the tactics of  Martin Luther King and the  Black civil rights movement in the US (the police reaction to that was far from peaceful) and Gandhi.  Carpenter set out the tactics as:

Respectful
Disruptive
Sacrificial
Backfire

'Sacrificial' is when you agree to be arrested and 'Backfire' is when the effect of your arrest is to backfire on the establishment. I was concerned that slides of a neat, clean and modern prison cell was shown to indicate that prison wasn't so bad and British policeman were described as nicer than those in other countries. We have to be realistic and recognise that prisoners are sometimes beaten and there are deaths in custody in the UK - and this is particularly true of black people. I would not want young people to have an unrealistic picture of what is involved. Although it was mentioned that a criminal record may impact on the existing employment of participants it was not emphasised enough that for young people still at college or university, it might have an impact on their future employment.

It was clear that XR gave people the chance to make a contribute at different levels and that a willingness to be arrested was only one way of contributing alongside others presenting lesser risks, and that training was also offered in non-violent techniquesand other aspexts of the campaign.

It was when what all this action was meant to achieve was addressedf that I felt a sense of anti-climax. One of the key slogans of the climate movement is 'System Change: not Climate Change'. This indicates that climate change/chaos can only be combatted if the capitalist system with its emphasis on growth and every increasing consumption and exploitation of the planet's resources is changed. This means major social change, redistribution of wealth within and between nations and much more.

These are XR's aims:

1. The Government must tell the truth about the climate and wider ecological emergency, reverse inconsistent policies and work alongside the media to communicate with citizens.
2. The Government must enact legally binding policy measures to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2025 and to reduce consumption levels.
3. A national Citizen’s Assembly to oversee the changes, as part of creating a democracy fit for purpose.

I think this, to put it mildly, underestimates the extent to which politicians, industry and multi-nationals will resist giving up on capitalism, and the depth and breadth of the changes needed.  How exactly will the Government reduce consumption levels? How can the media be made to communicate the messages?  Citizen's assemblies, chosen on a jury/lottery type system, have been used to devise referendum questions and have been suggested by Caroline Lucas for this purpose, but to oversee massive societal change and create a new democratic system?  Where does this leave the very notion of government if a Citizen's Assembly 'oversees' the changes? Citizen's assemblies would be made up of individuals rather than political parties.

All these questions bubbled up in me and may, to be fair,have been satisfactorily answered, but no space was given at the event for questions or discussion.

Parking chaos in Kings Drive will worsen when new bungalows replace garages

Kings Drive is a pleasant council estate in Wembley with a mixture of blocks of flats, town houses and terraced houses. It has many mature trees and grass verges. Apart from Kings Drive itself (a dead-end road) it consists of cul-de-sacs including one which at present is for car parking only, but where four bungalows are due to be built.

Parking problems have increased recently with more tenants having cars. The curtailment of the estate's already unreliable 206 bus route on the increased number of Wembley event days has unfortunately served an incentive to car ownership.  Residents argue that the removal of parking spaces and the addition of 4 bungalows when the garage site off King's Drive is redeveloped LINK will mean more parking problems.

Padlocks have appeared on the garages that are presently on the site and residents have been told it will be cleared ready for demolition by March 22nd.

When the planning application to demolish the garages currently occupying the car park site and build bungalows instead was made, the Council argued that the garages were under-used. Residents responded that they had been deliberately run-down and not let.  The Council argued that spaces on Greenhill Way, off Kings Drive, could be used for parking but that is some distance from the estate and is often full of cars, partly by council workers who park there to avoid parking charges and walk to Brent Civic Centre.

At present residents in Saltcroft Close suffer frequent missed waste collections because the bin lorries are unable to access the close because of parked cars.  Grass verges have been turned into mud when cars mount it to gain access or to actually park their cars when no other spaces are available.

King's Drive resident Dawn Condouriodise has protested to Brent Council CEO Carolyn Downs and councillors about the issue:

Dear Ms. Downs,

Despite a petition signed by 100+ concerned residents against losing our garages and car park, and confirmation that Kings Drive was/is indeed full to capacity by parking surveys carried out by Brent Housing Partnership/Council, during the planning process, planning permission was still granted to eliminate our garages and car park and replace them with 4 bungalows with gardens and parking spaces.

Kings Drive is lined with cars head to tail every day and after 6.00 the small car parks throughout the estate are packed with cars, double parked, treble parked and in desperation, on the grass.

We all know about the increase in knife and gun crime around London and Wembley is no different. Only recently a man was found shot dead in his car in Greenhill Way, a distance away from our estate, and the police have now placed signs ‘Criminals Beware’, on the very street that Brent council suggested residents park after our car park is demolished.

Is that where I should look for a car space at 9.00 every night when I return from visiting my mother in a nursing home? That’s if there is a space after all the cars that line the car park every night are forced out onto the road. If not, how far from my safe zone will I have to go.

As well as many young families, there is an ageing community up here and we’ve always felt safe in the confines of our estate until now, with the prospect of being forced out to roam the streets for a parking place.

Is Brent Council really willing to put the safety of residents, some who have lived here for over 50 years at risk, in their quest to build these 4 bungalows, that we were lead to believe were affordable housing, but which we discovered were not, as confirmed when my neighbour requested being put on the waiting list for one, and was told by Brent Housing Partnership at an estate meeting, that they were to be private and she couldn’t afford it.

Use London Transport? This is a no through road with a bus stop at the bottom of one side of the steep hill we live on, where 2 elderly women were recently mugged in daylight and another bus stop at the bottom of Kings Drive where gangs congregate at night and mugged my neighbour as he was walking up the road and incidentally also where my mother was mugged years ago twice, in broad daylight. Would you want your mother or daughter to walk up from there? or to be searching there for a car space after dark?

We all know about the need for more housing to accommodate the increasing influx of people to our area and around Wembley Stadium thousands of homes are being built continuously.  Isn’t that enough without destroying our safe area.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought Brent Council was responsible for the safety and welfare of its residents, or is empire building their only concern now, whatever the consequences.

The worrying question is what is more important to Brent Council, the safety of its residents or 4 bungalows ? I fear the latter.

I can only hope I am proved wrong for the sake of my safety, the safety of all the anxious families involved with that petition and everyone in this area who use the car park.

Brent Council's Operational Director of Housing, Hakeem Osinaike  replied:

Thank you for your email of 19 February, which has been passed to me for a response. I am very sorry to hear about your concerns and hope that the contents of this email will go some way to allay some of your concerns.

You are right, the Council has granted planning permission for four bungalows on the site you refer to, following the statutory consultation process. This project is part of the Council’s new affordable home programme, in conjunction with the Mayor of London’ Building Council Homes for Londoners programme. The programme’s main objective is to increase the supply of good quality and affordable homes for the residents of Brent. 

London has a housing crisis and Brent has been hit hard by this. Currently in Brent, we have 3,397 households on the Waiting List who have been identified as being in priority need for housing and more gets added every day. From our current stock and supply from Housing Association partners, we currently let about 600 homes a year. It is therefore clear that we need to do something significant to address this issue, which is why we have started a programme to build over 800 new homes across the borough. Land as you may already know is in short supply in London and Brent in particular. Brent has therefore targeted sites which are under-utilised and in our ownership in the first instance, because this minimises the build costs and enables us to start work solving this crisis as soon as possible.

As part of the planning process, parking will always be part of the consideration for a new development and due regard will be given to the needs of current occupants and the households who will live in the new homes. Having said that, whilst we do not wish to trivialise the impact or give undue consideration to the problems caused by reduced parking, we have to consider a balance between parking and our ability to deliver solutions that go in some small way to solving the very real housing problems that people on low incomes are now facing.

I am sorry to hear that you feel frightened and unsafe in the area and I am truly sorry to hear about the bad experiences that you have had in the past. I would however suggest that should you be concerned about your safety in future, you should report this to the Police in the first instance.

I apologise if this is not the response you wanted to hear, however the need to supply more council homes is now a priority for the London Borough of Brent.

This is clearly a problem with no easy answers: we need more council housing but not at the expense of existing tenants, we need fewer cars on the road but must have viable and safe public transport alternatives, and the council should recognise that 'car-free developments' often result in transferring additional parking demand to nearby roads.

Commenting on this article, Michael Pavey, Labour councillor for Barnhill ward said:

"It is ludicrous to remove garages when the parking in an area is already overwhelmed. We absolutely need new homes in Brent, but this cannot be at the expense of our existing communities. Residents have been crystal clear in their opposition to this scheme from the very outset but sadly the Council has consistently ignored their concerns." 

Join conservation work at the Welsh Harp on March 16th - more fun than the gym!

You are invited to join me for our next Friends event on: Saturday 16th March, 10.00am – 12.30pm Each month a great group of individuals come together to do extremely useful conservation and maintenance work around the Centre using basic gardening tools, to gain skills and meet new people. This work supports the activities of the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre including over 3000 school children that attend the Centre each year and improves the biodiversity of the woodland habitat. What will be the tasks at the next event? There are quite a few tasks that need to be done to the new pond area to make it suitable for school groups and to help plants and wildlife thrive over spring: Planting in and around the new ponds Sand the new wooden fence Transport creatures from the other ponds into the re-lined big pond What else do you need to know? All welcome! Young people aged 17 years and under need to be accompanied by a responsible adult, each individual child under 11 years old will need an adult with them at all times as we are using sharp tools.  Tasks can be adapted or alternative tasks available for all levels of involvement. Tea, coffee and snacks, steel toe cap wellington boots, tools and gloves are all provided.  Wear comfortable outdoor clothing suitable for gardening. Please meet inside the Education Centre. We have achieved a lot since these events have started and we will continue to address many other aspects of the WHEEC Habitat Management Plan that need attending to. If you would like a copy of the management plan or information about the group, please email me: deb.frankiewicz@thames21.org.uk. Hope to see as many of you as possible at the next event! The Centre is at the end of Birchen Grove (off Blackbird Hill) NW9 - go through the big green gates at the end of Birchen Grove and the Education Centre is on the left.