Brent Cabinet discusses vital report on implementing plans to tackle Black inequality in Brent

At 10am today the Brent Cabinet has a very important item on the Brent Black Community Action Plan.  It constitutes 10 detailed work streams on all aspect of the Council's work: 

1.    Early intervention: children, young people and families 
2.   Enabling and strengthening community leadership through capacity building  
3.   Developing community spaces – run and managed by local communities 
4.   Supporting the black community and voluntary sector - grant funding and procurement 
5.   Support for employment and enterprise 
6.   Accountability and engagement 
7.   Internal review of processes within the Council  
8.   Homes and homelessness 
9.   Tackling health inequalitieS
10. Embedding equality and diversity within the council workforce.

 Unfortunately there is a possibility that most publicity will be given to a parallel plan to review the names of  places in Brent associated with people involved in the slave trade, including Gladstone Park.  Although symbolically important and perhaps an 'easy win' the resulting furore may drown out the vital and more difficult work involved in tackling current inequalities in education, work, health and housing to name just some of the work streams.  As a veteran of the anti-racist campaigns in education in the 1970s I remember how the work we were undertaking in schools was derailed by rows about whether 'Baa, baa black sheep' should be banned. Slave trade names are important but have to be kept in perspective.

As an example of the detailed work this is Workstream 1 - Early Intervention: children, young people and families:

1.Working with schools to influence school curricula to:

·      support young black boys with developing self-esteem, self-worth and confidence in the classroom, and through coaching and mentoring in schools

·      ensure positive Black History is being taught.

School Effectiveness officers will continue to work with schools to encourage the teaching of black history. Good practice examples in Brent include schools, which have been awarded the United Nations ‘Rights Respecting Schools Award’, reducing inequality and promoting inclusive societies.

Officers will ensure schools maintain a focus on the progress of priority groups & will continue to support the ‘Raising Achievement of boys of Black Caribbean heritage’ project, building on the success in improving outcomes in Year 1/2 of the project.

2.Recruitment drive for black school governors. This includes encouraging schools and Governor training to include unconscious bias and anti-racism training. Recruitment processes for school governors are ongoing. A recent focused campaign resulted in 25% of recruited governors identifying as being Black/Black British. The governor training offer will be developed to include unconscious bias and anti-racism training.

3.Creating an assured way of life for young black people by enabling them to fulfil their ambitions and aspirations relating to education and work through:

• enabling young people to explore and express their aspirations, which will include making them aware of opportunities available to them. This could also include confidence-building and making them feel ‘accepted’ and that
• they do not have to work twice as hard as their non-black peers to achieve the same levels of positive outcomes for themselves
• supporting parents with their own aspirations and to understand the aspirations of their families and children, and how they can enable their children to thrive
• institutions, including FE colleges, reviewing their support to ensure it is enabling young black people to discover and achieve their aspirations and removing structural racism and unconscious bias and barriers.

Looking at the pinch points in a young person’s life (birth, starting school, transitioning from primary to secondary school, selecting GCSE subjects and beyond) we need to look at ensuring:

•  that the institutions and individuals who are influencers in a young person’s life at various stages possess the cultural competence to understand and respond to the context, pressures and barriers young black people can encounter at every critical stage in their lives. Training will be essential.
• young people are enabled and given the ability to prepare for and handle situations. This includes developing personal resilience skills and creating spaces to have difficult conversations, possibly in school. These conversations could be trauma felt or experienced, directly or indirectly
• that institutions deploy trauma training for professionals working with young people to support them with trauma and other issues faced
• space and opportunity for young people to act as leaders and influencers
• opportunities for young people to learn about black history which can enable self-worth and aspirations to grow
• opportunities to celebrate achievements, for example, through an annual Youth Pride of Brent Awards evening hosted by the Council.

Actions in this section will align with actions in work stream 5 regarding support for employment and enterprise. Parents will be supported to access early years entitlements and the 30 hours free childcare offer through the Progress for All project.

Family Wellbeing Centres will provide parents and carers of 0-18 year olds with access to support services and programmes to develop their confidence and life skills.

Trauma-informed practice training will continue to be provided for professionals working with young people. Schools and colleges will be supported to access training in areas of cultural competence, unconscious bias and anti-racism.

Working with YBF and the Beckmead Trust, integrated youth activities will be provided around the new Alternative Provision school at the Roundwood Centre from January 2021. Youth engagement through a series of podcasts exploring issues and concerns for young people.

With The Beat London, the council recently commissioned a special 

• ‘Time to Talk Covid-19’, phone-in to discuss why the BAME community is disproportionately affected by Covid-19
•  Brent Youth Parliament gives young people who may feel marginalised the opportunity to have a voice.

Alll the work streams can be accessed by following these LINKS

Community skips in all Brent wards during September - up to 5 bulky items with proof of Brent address

In honour of the Great British September Clean, happening over the month of September, the Community Skip will be touring the borough and stopping in every ward.

Drop up to five bulky items free of charge, with proof of a Brent address. Representatives from Veolia will join the council’s Neighbourhood Managers to help sort items and ensure they are recycled and reused wherever possible.

To ensure everyone can maintain social distancing, you may be asked to queue. Hand sanitiser will be available.

Dates and locations are as follows. Please note that events may be cancelled or postponed at short notice. We advise that you check back. Restrictions apply, please see below (ward in brackets).

• 11^th September 2020, 10am-midday, Bramshill Open Space (Harlesden)
• 11^th September 2020, 10am-midday, Elmstead Avenue junction Preston Road (Preston)
• 12^th September 2020, 8am-10am, Townsend Lane (Fryent)
• 12^th September 2020, 10am-midday, Woodside Avenue near junction Woodside Close (Alperton)
• 14^th September 2020, 10am-midday, Tubbs Road outside the Pocket Park (Kensal Green)
• 15^th September 2020, 10am-midday, Henderson Close (Stonebridge)
• 16^th September 2020, 10am-midday, St Gabriels Road near the junction of Walm Lane (Mapesbury)
• 17^th September 2020, 10am-midday, Chalkhill Road (Barnhill)
• 18^th September 2020, 10am-midday, Gooseacre Lane (Kenton)
• 18^th September 2020, 8am-10am, Peel Road Ada Road (Northwick)
• 19^th September 2020, 9am-11am, Queensbury Parade junction with Winchester Ave (Queensbury)
• 19^th September 2020, 8am-10am, Chaplin Road near junction with Farm Lane (Sudbury)
• 19^th September 2020, 10am-midday, Burton Road near Waterloo Passage (Kilburn)
• 22^nd September 2020, 2-4pm, Quainton Street (Welsh Harp)
• 23^rd September 2020, 10am-midday, Christchurch Avenue near junction of Chatsworth Road (Brondesbury)
• 23^rd September 2020, 2-4pm, Cooper Road (Dudden Hill)
• 24^th September 2020, 2-4pm, Randall Avenue (Dollis Hill)
• 25^th September 2020, 2-4pm, St Pauls Ave (Willesden Green)
• 25^th September 2020, 10am-midday, Monks Park between the shopping parade service roads (Tokyngton)
• 26^th September 2020, 10am-midday, Kingswood Avenue junction of Harvist Road (Queens Park)
• 26^th September 2020, 8am-10am, Rosemead Ave close to number 20 (Wembley)

 

The Welsh Harp Reservoir Story – Part 3

Thank you for joining me again, on this third stage of our journey through the history of “the Welsh Harp” (our local reservoir – not the musical instrument!). In Part 2, we saw how the enterprise of W.P. Warner had made the name of his tavern synonymous with the reservoir beside it. This time we’ll explore changes, on and around the reservoir, into the 20^th century.

1. The Kingsbury dam and its overflow, c.1900. (Brent Archives online image 1341)

At first, not much changed. The area of water was mainly surrounded by the meadows of local farms, and attracted visitors to the countryside just beyond the expanding urban sprawl of London. Water flowing over the dam to feed the River Brent was a popular sight, across the fields of Gravel Pit Farm at Neasden. West Hendon had developed slightly, but there was still lots of open space nearby.

2. Cool Oak Lane, with its causeway and bridge across the reservoir's northern arm, c.1900.
   (Barnet Local Studies Centre image 3284)

The Metropolitan Railway’s Neasden Works expanded, with a new power station to supply its electric trains, which were introduced from 1905. The Canal Company, which still owned the reservoir, refused to let the Metropolitan use water from its Feeder for cooling purposes, so they had to sink two wells for that purpose. It was the First World War that finally brought more industry to the area.

The airfield at Hendon already had a small aircraft factory, run by the Grahame-White company, when the war broke out in 1914. Other companies making planes for the rapidly developing aerial warfare were soon active in the area, such as the Aircraft Manufacturing Company (“Airco”) in Colindale and Kingsbury, Handley Page in Cricklewood and later Hooper & Co in North Wembley. In 1917, Handley Page designed a prototype seaplane, hoping to sell it to the Royal Navy, and their R200 was test-flown from the Welsh Harp. They did not receive an order, so the seaplane never went into production.

3. Scale drawings of the Handley Page R200 seaplane. (Courtesy of the R.A.F. Museum, Hendon)

By 1917, the slopes of Dollis Hill down to the reservoir were also the home of the Mechanical Warfare Department. Its role was to design and test tanks, for use to try and break the trench warfare stalemate on the war’s western front. By 1918, one of the designs it was working on was a modified version of the Mark IX tank, and on a misty morning in November 1918 the world’s first amphibious tank was tested on the Welsh Harp reservoir. 

4. A Mark IX amphibious tank entering the Welsh Harp, November 1918. (Image from the Tank Museum)

Earlier this year, a friend interested in military history sent me a link to a short film that includes (at the end) footage of this test. It had been used as part of a French article on First World War tanks, and was described as a ‘Duck Tank being tested on the pond of Dolly Hill’! This “top secret” Department remained at Dollis Hill until 1921, before being moved to Hampshire. Its main buildings, surrounded by a high wall, were in the Humber Road area. It is remembered in the street name, Tankridge Road, and a section of the wall remains at Walton Close.

5. Remaining section of Mechanical Warfare Department wall, Walton Close,     Dollis Hill, c.2010.

 6. Aerial view of the reservoir in 1919, with West Hendon beneath the plane’s wing, and Dollis Hill beyond.

The local aircraft industry was badly hit when the Government scrapped its contracts for planes once the war had ended. One company at Hendon made use of the unwanted aircraft to offer pleasure flights to paying customers. The photograph above appeared with an article on the subject in “Flight” magazine, in June 1919, and shows a view across the reservoir to Dollis Hill.

 7. The railway viaduct, seen from the Edgware Road bridge, 1921. (Barnet Local Studies Centre image 871)

The 19^th century had seen first canals, then railways, develop as important methods of transport. This scene from 1921, of the Midland Railway viaduct crossing the eastern arm of the reservoir, was soon to change dramatically as the rise of motor vehicles meant a need for better roads. The North Circular Road was constructed during the 1920s to help heavy commercial traffic avoid having to drive through Central London. Its proposed route would take it just south of the Welsh Harp, and by 1926 this section of the reservoir was filled in, and the River Brent put into a culvert, so that the road could pass under the brick arches of the viaduct.

8. New housing at Dollis Hill, and over the reservoir at Kingsbury, late 1920s. (Brent Archives image 570)

The construction of the North Circular Road opened up the northern slopes of Dollis Hill for development, and by the late 1920s new streets were appearing between Brook Road and Links Road. These can be seen in the photograph above, together with what must be the start of the Post Office Research Centre at the top of the hill. Across the reservoir, new suburban homes were also being built in the Church Lane and Wood Lane areas of Kingsbury. In 1928, Willesden Urban District Council bought 40 acres of land on the Kingsbury side of the Welsh Harp, planning to use it as a cemetery, which would lead to disputes that lasted until 1965!

The rapidly growing population at Neasden and Dollis Hill prompted Willesden Council to open a recreation ground on their side of the Welsh Harp. They also built a Neasden branch library, overlooking it, at the corner of Aboyne Road and the North Circular, which opened in 1931. In keeping with a growing fashion for open air activity, this had a reading terrace at first floor level.

 9. The reading terrace at Neasden Library, 1931. (Brent Archives online image 2926)

One of the open air activities which had grown in popularity at the Welsh Harp during the 1920s was “sunbathing”, although it was not popular with everyone. By 1930, there was growing opposition among local residents to the visitors who came to the reservoir’s banks to bathe in the nude. One man complained to the Council that, while walking home to the Edgware Road from Old Kingsbury Church on a Sunday evening, they had come across ‘a bunch of stark naked men…. Hardly a pleasant sight for a man to have to pass with his wife!’

Matters came to a head one weekend in June 1930, when 40 men and women of the Sun-Ray Club (‘some wore no clothes, others wore slips or bathing drawers’) were confronted by a crowd of around 200 local people. Despite the presence of four policemen, who told them that the sunbathers were on private land, with permission from the owner, and that they had no right to interfere, the crowd attacked the bathers and drove them away. Kingsbury Council dealt with the issue in a more dignified way, when they received a deputation (not a new idea) from the National Sun and Air Association in May 1931, although they also decided against sunbathing!

10. Extract from the minutes of a Kingsbury Urban District Council meeting on 6 May 1931. (Brent Archives)

On the reservoir itself, the Brent Sailing Club was formed at the Old Welsh Harp Inn in 1930. A less tranquil use of the water also began the same year, when the London Motor Boat Club held its first speedboat racing event at the Welsh Harp. Larger speedboats were also used to give thrill rides for paying customers, as shown in this newsreel film from 1932.

 11. A motor boat race on the Welsh Harp reservoir in 1937. (From the collection of the late Geoffrey Hewlett)

The 1931 speedboat racing season had celebrity guests at its opening, the aviator Amy Johnson and actress Anna Neagle. Amy had lived at Roe Green for nine months, before the solo flight to Australia that made her famous, and then had a flat at Vernon Court in Hendon Way. By coincidence, it was Anna Neagle who starred as Amy Johnson in a film about her life, after her tragic death in 1941, while flying as a wartime pilot in the Air Transport Auxiliary.

12. Anna Neagle and Amy Johnson at the Welsh Harp, April 1931. (From: ‘Amy Johnson – Queen of the Air’)

The south-east corner of the reservoir saw rapid industrial development along its main roads, and on the reclaimed land, in the late 1920s and through the 1930s. One of the factories by the junction of the North Circular and Edgware Roads made mattresses. The company was Staples, and the busy corner was soon known by that name. The traffic lights here became well-known for the jams that built up, as seen below in 1937.

13. Staples Corner in 1937, with the mattress factory bottom left. (Barnet Local Studies Centre image 4920)

When war came again in 1939, Dollis Hill again had a part to play. Secret underground bunkers were built for the Admiralty at its Citadel office building, on the corner of the Edgware Road and Oxgate Lane, and for the Cabinet at “Paddock”, beneath the Post Office Research Station in Brook Road. It was rumoured that a flying boat was moored on the Welsh Harp, ready to fly Churchill and other key leaders to safety from their reserve War Room if necessary, but I have no proof for that story. It was the research station that developed the first electronic computers, used at Bletchley Park for code-breaking during the war, and Tommy Flowers, who led the team that made them, is remembered by the modern street name, Flowers Close.

14. The aftermath of the West Hendon bombing, February 1941. (Barnet Local Studies Centre image 5105)

It was not those key targets that were hit during the Welsh Harp’s worst bombing raids of the Second World War. Early in 1941, Germany was testing new designs of high-explosive bombs, and dropping a single bomb in a raid, so that its effects could be seen afterwards. One of these exploded above the Ravenstone Road area of West Hendon on the evening of 13 February 1941, flattening 40 homes, killing more than 80 people and making around 1,500 homeless. At the opposite end of the reservoir, a V2 rocket hit one end of Wykeham School in March 1945. Luckily no children were there at the time, but seven people were killed in nearby homes.

Just as it had during the First World War, the reservoir played its part between 1939 and 1945. A Hendon Sea Training Corps was formed in 1941, and its young volunteers learned some boating skills on the Welsh Harp, as well as on land at a school in Algernon Road. Production at many factories was changed, to produce equipment for the war effort. Hickman’s works on the North Circular Road had been shopfitters, but by 1943 their carpenters were building wooden landing craft, which were tested on the reservoir before being handed over to the Royal Navy. LCAs were “Landing Craft, Assault”, which carried a platoon of up to 36 soldiers, from ships around ten miles offshore, onto the beaches of Normandy on D-Day.

15. The Hickman's workers aboard a completed landing craft, 1943/44. (Image shared by the son of a worker)

Next weekend we’ll visit the Welsh Harp in more peaceful times. I hope you will join me then, for the final part of this series.

Philip Grant

MP and Assembly Member join battle against the Jubilee line screechers

Barry Gardiner MP and Navin Shah London Assembly Member for Brent and Harrow have backed local campaigners whose lives have been blighted by a loud screech made by Jubilee line trains at a curve in the track in Kingsbury.

For over 2 years, houses that back onto the Jubilee Line’s Kingsbury Curve and farther afield have been affected by the increase in noise levels from the passing trains.

Residents are unable to socialise or relax in their gardens.  People cannot sleep.  Those working from home in the heat of the summer are unable to open their windows due to the noise disturbance.  The Jubilee Line is on the Night Time network so on Friday and Saturdays, when it starts running again, there will be no let-up through the night.

In desperation, two neighbours from either side of the tracks, Anne Bovett and Karen Flaum, met by chance and decided to take action.  Having written to TfL on a number of occasions and urging neighbours to do the same, they have now presented their MP Barry Gardiner with a petition of over 200 signatories asking him to take up their request for the speed limit on the Curve to be re-introduced, believing this will curb the noise.

Quotes from neighbours:

•  The noise is affecting my ability work from home as I can’t open the window.
•  We can hear the noise from our house 200m away
•  Cannot hear anybody in garden or hear TV or phone when train passe
•  We are long overdue for some peace
•  The frequency of the trains results in a continuous barrage of noise.
•  I cannot stay in the garden for any length of time.

Due to the pandemic, rather than go door-to-door with the petition, Anne Bovett and Karen Flaum posted individual copies into homes in Ravenscroft Avenue, Uxendon Hill and surrounding roads and hoped that neighbours would sign.  They did!

 The campaigners sent the petition to Barry Gardiner who wrote to Andy Byford, Commissioner at Transport for London asking that he:

• provides an update regarding the progress that has been made to investigate possible solutions and take readings at affected properties
• passes on the documents provided which sets out the concerns of residents so that they can be reviewed and assessed by the appropriate team when investigating the solutions available.
• ensures the request of the 205 signatories for a reduction in speed to 20mph on The Kingsbury Curve is appropriately considered as a possible measure to improve the noise pollution that residents are having to endure.
• ensures that affected residents are consulted throughout this process and they are provided with assurances that the necessary steps are being taken by TfL to address their concerns.

Navin Shah went as far as to threaten to pick up a banner and join the campaigners when he wrote to Heidi Alexander, Deputy Mayor for Transport:

Over two years TfL’s efforts at lowering noise levels at the above location(s) have failed and local residents are seeking renewed and urgent action to get their quality of life back from the persistent intrusive noise. I am writing to you to express my strong support to their concerns and help my constituents to regain the ‘quieter life’ as they put it.  

FYI in early June this year, grease output of the track lubricant on Kingsbury curve was increased to reduce the screeching of rails but this has failed. Recently Mr Barros the TfL Noise and Vibration engineer visited the locality and confirmed the noise levels had increased. His report is awaited to confirm the current situation 

I am hugely disappointed that despite so many investigations, inspections, email writings not a hint of the progress of equal to a tip of a pin can be presented to the residents of the area. I feel ashamed because this is the only task I have failed for residents. Please note I want to see demonstrable progress and want it as soon as possible otherwise I will have no alternative but to pick up the banners along with others and start campaigning with the local  residents without any ifs or buts. There must remain the urgent need and genuine desire for bringing back noise level to a bearable level for residents any further delay would be unacceptable for the goodwill and respect we have for each other.  TFL must act now, please.

The Director of Assets for London Underground told the Kilburn Times LINK that they were aware of the concerns of residents who lived around the Kingsbury Curve and had been told that recent work on the track had not reduced noise sufficiently.  They will investigate additional measures including alternative lubrication for train wheels. 

A wider solution which would require more fundamental change was suggested by Cedric Lynch who commenting on the story said:

Train wheel treads used to be machined to a slightly conical shape that allowed them to roll quietly round curves because the flanges did not have to touch the rails to make the wheels follow the curve. This wheel shape was found to cause "hunting" (a rapid oscillation) at high speeds on British Rail trains and was changed to a perfectly cylindrical shape that stopped the hunting but caused screeching on curves. Perhaps the solution is to go back to the conical shape on Underground trains, which do not go fast enough for hunting to be a problem.

CMA: Mis-selling or unfair contract terms on leasehold homes will not be tolerated.

In the light of our recent coverage of leasehold issues in South Kilburn and the number of new developments across Brent it is welcome that the Competition and Markets Authority is opening enforcement cases against developers.  Please note that apart from the named developers letters are also being sent to others.

This is the CMA's Press Release issued yesterday:

As part of its ongoing investigation, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is today opening enforcement cases focusing on certain practices of:

• Barratt Developments
• Countryside Properties
• Persimmon Homes
• Taylor Wimpey

The move comes after the CMA uncovered troubling evidence of potentially unfair terms concerning ground rents in leasehold contracts and potential mis-selling. It is concerned that leasehold homeowners may have been unfairly treated and that buyers may have been misled by developers.

The CMA’s action relates to the following areas of concern:

Mis-selling

• Ground rents: developers failing to explain clearly exactly what ground rent is, whether it increases over time, when increases will occur and by how much.
• Availability of freehold: people being misled about the availability of freehold properties. For example, the CMA found evidence that some people were told properties on an estate would only be sold as leasehold homes, when they were in fact later sold as freeholds to other buyers.
• Cost of the freehold: people being misled about the cost of converting their leasehold to freehold ownership. When buying their home, the CMA found evidence that some people were told the freehold would cost only a small sum, but later down the line the price had increased by thousands of pounds with little to no warning.
• Unfair sales tactics: developers using unfair sales tactics – such as unnecessarily short deadlines to complete purchases – to secure a deal, meaning people could feel pressured and rushed into buying properties that they may not have purchased had they been given more time.

Unfair contract terms – ground rents

• The use of unfair contract terms that mean homeowners have to pay escalating ground rents, which in some cases can double every 10 years. This increase is built into contracts, meaning people can also struggle to sell their homes and find themselves trapped.

 

Alongside these issues, the CMA will also be looking further into ground rent increases based on the Retail Price Index (RPI) and may take enforcement action should it find evidence of unfair practices in relation to these. In particular, the CMA is concerned about the fairness of escalating ground rent terms linked to RPI and that these are not always effectively explained by developers when discussing RPI-based ground rent with prospective homeowners.

 

The CMA will also be investigating certain firms who bought freeholds from these developers and have continued to use the same unfair leasehold contract terms.

 

The CMA has now written to Barratt, Countryside, Persimmon, and Taylor Wimpey outlining its concerns and requiring information.

 

How the case proceeds will depend on the CMA’s assessment of the evidence. Possible outcomes include legal commitments from the companies to change the way they do business, or if necessary, the CMA could take firms to court.

 

Andrea Coscelli, CMA Chief Executive, said:

It is unacceptable for housing developers to mislead or take advantage of homebuyers. That’s why we’ve launched today’s enforcement action.

Everyone involved in selling leasehold homes should take note: if our investigation demonstrates that there has been mis-selling or unfair contract terms, these will not be tolerated.

 

Alongside its enforcement action, the CMA is also sending letters to a number of other developers, encouraging them to review their practices to make sure they are treating consumers fairly and complying with the law.

 

For people who own, or are looking to buy, a leasehold property, the CMA has produced written and video guidance, which offers advice on a number of issues, including what people can do when faced with fees and charges they consider unjustified.

 

The CMA will continue to work with the Government on its reform plans for the leasehold market, including supporting the move to ban the sale of new leasehold houses and reduce ground rents for new leases to zero.

 

It's the London Borough of Butt! Leader sees off challenge & strengthens his position

The first part of Brent Labour Group's AGM saw Cllr Muhammed Butt easily see off a challenge from Cllr Abdirazak Abdi. Butt got more than twice as many votes as his opponent with fewer than a handful of abstentions.

With the Labour Group officer positions going to members friendly to Butt and appointments for particular Cabinet positions under his control, Labour insiders interpret the result as consolidating Butt's power and patronage, leaving him in perhaps his strongest position  yet since he replaced Ann John in 2012.  

By the next Local Council elections in 2022 he will have been Leader for 10 years having been Ann John's deputy previously.

With only one Liberal Democrat and 3 tame Conservatives in opposition and firm control of his own party, Butt is now likely to lay claim to an outstanding record of political and electoral success.

Perhaps that record will help him move on to other political pastures...

Brent Standards Committee upholds councillor's freedom of speech

The Audit and Standards Committee has published a 2 year record of its decisions. LINK

I was particulalarly pleased to see this decision:

23.10.18

Complainants

6 Councillor(s)

Complaint

Complaint regarding comments made, and published on social media (blog) by a Cllr about his removal from a committee.

Outcome

Decision under Initial Assessment Criteria:

Complaint was not considered to disclose sufficiently serious potential breach of the Code to merit further consideration as the Cllr was entitled to express the views he did as a matter of freedom of speech.