1,400 petitioners will call on Brent Council to divest from fossil fuels at tomorrow's Cabinet Meeting

 The start of the long-running patient campaign to persuade Brent Council to divest its pension fund from fossil fuels

 

From Divest Brent

For over 3 years campaign group Divest Brent have been working to persuade the Council to divest its Pension Fund from fossil fuels. In 2019 the Council declared a Climate and Ecological Emergency and specifically agreed to redirect investments to renewal, sustainable and low carbon funds. Indeed some investments have been made in this area but the majority of the Pension Fund is still invested in funds which include fossil fuels. 

 

Extract from the Climate Emergency Strategy

 

Simon Erskine, Co-ordinator of Divest Brent, said:

 

We welcome any moves by the Pension Fund to invest sustainably and to help with the transition to renewable energy – but the fact is that whatever green investments the Fund may have, while it continues to invest in fossil fuels it is part of the problem.

 

Having achieved nearly 1,400 signatures Divest Brent is now ready to submit its petition to the Council. On April 6 Councillor Matt Kelcher will present the petition to the Brent Cabinet on behalf of Divest Brent. Mr Erskine said:

 

We were originally going to present the petition to the full Council meeting in July but the Cabinet will be discussing the Council’s draft Climate Emergency Strategy. Following campaigning by Divest Brent the draft Strategy now includes a section on the Pension Fund’s investments – and we decided that this was the best time to submit the petition, when the Cabinet was anyway looking at the issues involved.

 

Divest Brent has written a joint letter to Councillor Krupa Sheth, Council Environment lead, with Brent Friends of the Earth, calling on the Council to divest the Pension Fund as part of the Climate Emergency Strategy.

 

The presentation of the petition comes hot on the heels of a report entitled “Divesting to protect our pensions and the planet” which gave a comprehensive breakdown of the extent that UK Councils were invested in fossil fuels. 3% of Brent’s Pension Fund is thought to be invested in fossil fuels - £26 million. Compared to the £40 million invested in 2017 this looks like an improvement – until it is realised that much of the reduction is due to a fall in value of fossil fuel investments. 

 

The Council has admitted that, while much of the Stock Market has suffered from Covid 19, they have lost £8 million by failing to divest from fossil fuels before the pandemic. They are not alone in this – with UK Councils having lost £2 billion altogether over the last 4 years – but £8 million is still a serious loss compared to the Pension Fund total of £800 million.

 

With the outlook for fossil fuels never worse as the electric vehicle revolution starts to kick in and governments look to move away from gas as a means of heating our homes, Pension Fund committee members could find themselves in breach of their duties to protect the value of the Fund if they do not start to move seriously towards divestment.

 

Watch the Cabinet meeting and hear the Council's response live at 10am tomorrow LINK

Climate Emergency a focus at Tuesday's Cabinet meeting

There are three items at Tuesday's 10am Cabinet meeting relating to the Climate Emergency. (The meeting can be viewed live HERE).

In an unusual move the campaign group Divest Brent is presenting a petition calling on the Brent Council Pension Fund to divest from fossil fuels.

The Cabinet  will also be considering the approval of the Brent Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy 2021-2030 that has gone through some changes as the result of consultation and submissions.

Unfortunately the Strategy does not include specific targets and milestones. The Council explain:

Due to the long-term nature of the Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy the current financial situation facing all councils following the Covid-19 pandemic the detailed document does not contain a detailed action plan or route map for the next ten years.

The overall aim is to achieve carbon netrality by 2030. Readers unsure of the difference between carbon neutrality and zero carbon can read more HERE.

The Strategy is arranged around 5 themes:

1. Consumption, Resources and Waste

2. Transport

3. Homes, Buildings and the Built Environment

4. Nature and Green Spaces

5. Supporting Communities

I have embedded the document below (Click bottom right to enlarge)

 

The third item is a £3.234 grant to improve the energy efficiency of some Brent Council owned buildings. The grant is fro  the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme managed by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. I was struck by how many of the buildings chosen are comparatively new or recently refurbished.

 

The officers' report provides examples of decarbonisation measures for 10 of the buildings:

 

UPDATE: Disabled South Kilburn pensioner still has no Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan from Brent Council

After I published John Healy’s personal account of his fears as a disabled pensioner, living on the 5^th floor of a South Kilburn council block with no fire alarm system, of succumbing to a fire in the wake of Grenfell LINK as no Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan (PEEP) was in place LINK, Brent Council issued this statement:

 

Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (PEEP) are essential for anyone who may need assistance in the unlikely event of being advised to leave a building because of fire. We're concerned that something seems to have gone wrong here and have contacted Mr Healy to put it right.

Last year, we proactively reached out to all tenants, asking anyone who needed assistance to complete a PEEP. We don't seem to have received a PEEP from Mr Healy and will be investigating what has gone wrong here, along with Mr Healy's comments about not being able to reach us.

 

Three weeks later and 7 months since John first completed his PEEP application form the PEEP is not yet in place and the assurance he needs that his hearing and mobility disabilities would be catered for in the event of a fire has not been provided – Brent Council is failing in its duty of care to one of its vulnerable tenants.

 

John told Wembley Matters on March 31^st:

 

After 26 emails and numerous phone calls during the whole of March, they annoyed me yesterday by asking me "to clarify why I need a PEEP?".

 

In the previous 26 emails, I have given several council officers and councillors all the information they asked me for, as to why I need a PEEP but none of it seems to have been understood by any of them.

 

I now know how those Grenfell residents must have felt when they tried to inform Kensington and Chelsea council and their TMO.  To be honest I expected more from Brent Council but they have shown me that they are no better than any other council in London.

 

The council say they only became aware of my situation when I completed a new PEEP application online on the 19th March 2021 and entered it on their PEEP database on the 22nd March 2021.  All my previous emails and phone calls over the previous 6 months have no bearing on my new application,  says my Buildings officer.  In other words, he never even saw the article in Wembley Matters as it was published on the 12th March 2021, or anything else that I sent since early Sept. 2020, after returning my first PEEP application form.

 

 I made a first stage complaint, but I sent it before hearing from the council, that my application only began on the 19th March 2021. After sending in my complaint, I did receive an apology from the Lead Officer for Housing, Neighbourhoods and Community Wellbeing, which I assumed was in connection with the complaint but the officer never actually mentioned the word 'complaint' in her email.

 

Mr Healy is ready to give up and resign himself to sleepless nights over his fears for himself and other residents caught in this bureaucratic nightmare.

Surely Brent Council, which has been awarded ‘Disability Confident Leader Status’ as a provider, commissioner of services and an employer LINK, should be doing better?

 

 

 

 

UPDATE Brent Council's 'Vanity' road - it's enough to make you crack up

 UPDATE: A Brent Council source has said that the stripping below is for the installation of Hostile Vehicle Mitigation measures and not due to the state of the road. There is no word on whether the reinstated surface will be block paving or tarmac.

When Brent Council's £100m Civic Centre was built it was decided that a building of such distinction required an equally distinctive road surface so £852,000 was spent on block paving. Given that it was a route for heavy construction lorries it soon deteriorated although Brent Council also blamed severe weather.

Further money has been spent on ongoing repairs but observers have now seen that a section of Engineers Way outside the Civic Centre  has been stripped:

 

Engineers Way yesterday

 Former Brent Liberal Democrat leader Paul Lorber, has written to the Council to ask if the road is going to replaced  by asphalt as in other parts of the borough and why similar remedial action cannot be taken at Station Approach in Sudbury.

It looked yesterday from the stack of blocks visible on the site as if the block paving is going to be replaced. I think we need to know the additional costs involved.

Meanwhile with Engineers Way closed while work continues on the controversial , Fulton Road is the main access road to the stadium area. Residents of the new build have been complaining about the traffic jams caused by huge trucks accessing building sites with considerable difficulty and the damage caused when they have to mount the pavements.

 

At the other end of Olympic Way work is continuing on the linking of North End Road to Bridge Road with considerable incovenience to pedestrians. An initial justification given for the link was that  buses could use North End Road as a detour on event days and maintain a better bus service to residents. The 206 to the Paddocks was curtailed on event days. It now appears that there may have to be a weight limit on the new link which might affect these plans.

 

Holding feet to the fire: Peabody tenants confront unaccountable heating and housing management

Tenants of some local  'Build to Rent' schemes have found themselves trapped in the freeholder's contracts with utility and broadband suppliers, with no ability to switch accounts.  Fuel Poverty Action reveal similar problems in a new build development in Tower Hamlets.

Fuel Poverty Action is today publishing a remarkable exposé showing how families have been left in the cold because their unaffordable heat network and their social housing tenancies have created a legal limbo. For their heating, they are tied to one supplier, but they have no control of prices, no contract, no legal rights, and no one to complain to. This crisis has been created by a toxic - but increasingly common - mix of unaccountable housing and unaccountable heating. The tenants have led a long fight for affordable warmth and against the odds, have won major price reductions.  

Phoenix Works is a new build development in Tower Hamlets with 28 ”affordable rent” tenants housed by Peabody housing association(1). When they moved in, tenants “couldn’t believe” what their prepayment meters were consuming. Many simply could not pay the up to £250 a month required to keep warm. Some had to move out and stay with relatives, some got ill, some went deeply into debt. Meanwhile their landlord and heat provider passed the buck to each other, displaying a sense of impunity, and dazzling incompetence. 

The tenants’ heat is provided by a “Heat Network”. Heat networks are like central heating for a whole estate, and are being heavily promoted and subsidised by the government on the grounds that they offer a low-carbon alternative(2). Customers of a Heat Network cannot switch, nor is there any price cap or, as yet, any regulation. Assessed as eligible for “affordable housing”, the ex-council tenants had no warning of the extra costs, and no heat contract. They could not even find out who was responsible for their heating and tariffs: the estate management, KFH, or their social landlord, Peabody?  

Ms Lewis, who has led the fight for affordable heating at Phoenix Works says,

“Peabody can’t escape responsibility for allowing tenants to suffer. Some have had to choose between heating homes and feeding families during winter months, all because of the lack of information and accountability from the very beginning.  Do we have to just put up and shut up with whatever charges KFH decide to throw at us?  We would never have chosen to live this way had we been given the choice.”

Ruth London from FPA says, 

“Cold kills. 10,000 people die each winter in the UK because they can’t afford to heat their homes.  And that was the number before a respiratory pandemic! 

Heat Networks are supposed to provide low carbon, low cost, reliable heat. But FPA work with residents in many such estates who are fighting huge bills, constant heating breakdowns, or both.The sheer unaccountability of both heating and housing management has never been more blatant than at Phoenix Works.” 

With Fuel Poverty Action(3), tenants are calling for a public inquiry to uncover what has happened and what structural and legal changes are needed to prevent it happening anywhere again. 

Tenants from Phoenix Works are available for interview.  Also available are residents from other heat network estates in Tower Hamlets and all over London who are suffering from high prices or frequent outages, both of which can leave households without either heat or hot water.  

As well as Fuel Poverty Action, the Phoenix Works tenants have won support from SHAC, who contributed to the dossier, from the Heat Networks team at BEIS  (heatnetworks@beis.gov.uk), and from their MP, Apsana Begum. 

The Dossier is published HERE on our website or you can download a PDF here. 

For substantial coverage in The Times see HERE.

NOTES 

1. New developments are required to set aside a proportion of flats for “affordable housing”. Rents in these lower standard apartments are up to 80% of market rates, which in some places, like London, can be extremely high, and tenants may face lower standards and “poor doors”. Most of the other residents are leaseholders. 

2. Heat networks pipe heat into homes from a communal gas boiler. Also known as “District Heating”, this system are said to save carbon emissions by being more efficient than gas boilers, by producing electricity at the same time as heat if using a central “Combined Heat and Power” boiler, and because they have the potential to use renewable or waste heat sources instead of combustion. But where systems are badly designed, installed, or maintained, residents can go cold, and carbon savings in practice can be nil. 

3. Fuel Poverty Action is a grassroots organisation started in 2011, which since 2017 has been supporting residents all over London who are organising for reliable and affordable heat from their heat networks. In 2017 we published Not Fit For Purpose, a report on the heat network on Myatts Field North, which is now being pressed into service again by residents there. Our many consultation responses on the issue can be found here.

 

Employment Tribunal finds against Imam Abdul Sattar's claim of unfair dismissal by the Wembley Central Mosque

 

Happier days

Employment Judge Nebeau of the Employment Tribunals last month issued his Reserved Judgment in the case of Imam Abdul Sattar versus Wembley Central Mosque. Sattar was claiming unfair dismissal. The Judgment stated: 'The unfair dismissal claim is not well founded and is dismissed.'

The Judge said that although the case was about Sattar's dismissal the evidence showed tht there was in existence a fissure that became apparent three years prior to the claimant's dismissal. 

The Mosque was closed for three weeks early last year over the dispute between the Mosque Committee and worshipper allies of Imam Abdul Sattar. LINK

 

 Wembley Central Mosque, Ealing Road

More than 600 pages of documents were considerd by the telephone hearing last Autumn and the Judgment itself is 39 pages long.

Among the issues covered perhaps the most important was that of Speakers' engagement,  and risk assessments of speakers about which the Charity Commission had expressed concern.

Other issues considered including the issue and stamping of Nikah (Muslim marriage) certificates and Nikah fees,  selling of CDs at the Mosque, leafleting protests inside and outside the Mosque, unauthorised access to the Imam's office and the role of the religious sect Tablighi Jamaat. LINK

The Judgment gives an account of the attempt by the Imam of the Monks Park Mosque to mediate.

Judge Nebeau concludes his Judgment:

It must be borne in mind that the situation in 2018 and 2019 was getting beyond control. There were regular protests outside of the Masjid involving the police. The Masjid was split between those who followed the claimant and those who supported management committee. Based on the evidence before me there was also a serious breakdown in the employee employer relationship which seemed to be irretrievable. Under those circumstances, it is difficult to see a way forward as attempts at trying to resolve matters informally had been rejected. At the end of the day management committee had to manage the Masjid. Even if the three reasons found at the appeal stage in support of the claimant’s dismissal, did not apply, the apparent irretrievable breakdown in the relationship between the claimant and the management committee, would inevitably have necessitated the claimant’s dismissal.

Accordingly, I have come to the that the claimant’s unfair dismissal claim is not well-founded and is dismissed. Any hearing listed remedy is hereby vacated.

The full Judgment can be read HERE

 

Greens call for investment, strategic planning and transparency from Harrow Council - guest post by Emma Wallace (Green Party candidate for Brent and Harrow GLA)

 Guest post by Emma Wallace, Green Party candidate for the GLA Brent and Harrow Constituency

 

Harrow Council’s Cuts to Environmental Services and Lack of Action on the Climate Emergency Part 2

 

Greens call for investment, strategic planning and transparency from Harrow Council  

 

 

We have to get serious about the climate emergency

 

Our council tax in Harrow is going up by 5.8% from the 1^st April, moving our borough from the third highest council tax rate in London to second, just behind Kingston which takes the top spot  LINK .  Whilst you would hope this would mean, if not an increase to our public services, at least protection of the ones we already have, this is unfortunately not to be the case.  The Council has been put under huge constraints by the decimation of local authority funding from central government and having to ringfence a large percentage of the budget to meet statutory duties such as adult social care LINK .  This has resulted in ever dwindling amounts of money to cover the multitude of other essential services the Council should be providing.  One council department that is bearing the brunt of our shrinking local authority budgets is the Environmental Services department, seeing its staffing budget cut by £250 000 from April 2021 LINK .  At a time when we are facing an unprecedented climate emergency, coupled with an increase in population and demand on many of our services, including our local parks and reserves due to the pandemic, this cut seems to be incredibly short-sighted.  The resultant negative consequences for our borough’s environment, its residents and the Council’s ability to meet its own climate and ecological emergency targets cannot be underestimated.

 

A Climate Emergency

 

The council declared a climate emergency in July 2019, resolving to “make the London Borough of Harrow carbon neutral by 2030, taking into account both production and consumption of emissions”. LINK     The council created a related strategy to meet its carbon neutral goals, committing to working towards 100% renewable energy in the borough, making homes, schools and commercial buildings more energy efficient, to decarbonise vehicles and move to sustainable travel, to minimise waste and support recycling, to protect and restore the biodiversity we have and to engage communities to become eco literate  LINK.  More recently, the Council reiterated in its 2021/22 budget that one of its key priorities is “Improving the environment and addressing climate change”  LINK .  Indeed, the council has made a number of public announcements, formed a ‘Climate & Sustainability Partnership’ with other organisations including local environmental groups and produced a ‘London Borough of Harrow Climate Change Strategy’ 2019-2024  LINK.   This most recent climate change strategy has not made it to the Council’s ‘Climate Change - Environment and Parks’ out-of-date webpages though LINK . 

 

Harrow Council’s public commitment to fighting climate change is commendable and urgent if we are to stay within the projected 1.5 degrees of warming in the next ten years and avoid the worst predictions of environmental breakdown.  The reality is though, that these goals are completely untenable unless the Council fully invests in meeting these goals, allocates ongoing budgets, devises an actionable, joined-up strategy and recruits a strong in-house team to works towards achieving its targets.  Unfortunately, as we can see from the most recent Environmental Services staffing cuts this does not appear to be happening.   In May 2020, ‘The Student View’ charity made a Freedom of Information request asking if the council had discussed the costs of climate change adaption to enable it to meet its climate and ecological emergency targets.  It emerged it had not: “the issue of budget and additional resources for delivering the council’s pledge to be carbon neutral by 2030 hasn’t yet been discussed in detail through the Council’s Climate Change steering group meetings with the Cabinet members.” LINK     Last year, the council stated it was spending “£150,000 on tackling the climate emergency, covering staff costs as well as external support and advice on how to reduce carbon emissions”  LINK .  It is not clear exactly what this money was spent on or if a similar amount has been allocated to address the climate emergency this financial year.  

 

The Environmental Services Team and Transparency

 

Harrow Council’s Environmental Services department is responsible for a multitude of areas, including our parks, open spaces and nature reserves, street trees, allotments, verge maintenance, street cleaning, fly tipping and general waste management amongst other things, and it has already suffered from years of cut backs.  These areas all have a significant role to play in the Council meeting its 2019-2023 climate change strategy.  Trying to establish the roles that make up the Environmental Services team though and what ones have been cut is incredibly difficult.  Whilst there is an ‘Environmental and Parks’ area on Harrow Council’s website, it is hard to find who is exactly responsible for the many different areas.  At a Harrow VCS Forum ‘Environment & Sustainability Subgroup’ meeting in November 2017, a request was made to Graham Henson, now Leader of the Council, asking for a list of key environmental services council officers to liaise with and how best to contact them for a speedy response.  Mr Henson’s answer was that, basically, there isn’t a list available and it’s best to make contact with the Head of Service, Dave Corby LINK.  This raises the issue that as council tax paying residents, should we not expect to easily find out what roles people hold, what they do and how we can make contact with them in the council?  Should we not also expect timely replies from the council officers and councillors that represent us?  This frequently does not appear to be the case.  It is imperative that our Council is transparent and accountable to members of the public so they can effectively support the community it serves. 

 

Department Re-shuffle

 

Dave Corby who has been ‘Head of Community Engagement’ for many years has now retired, taking with him a breadth of knowledge on our parks and local environment that will be a real loss to Harrow.  It is unclear if he is being directly replaced, but the Environmental Services department has recently undergone a reshuffle, with Rebecca Johnson now the new Head of Environment and Waste Strategy and Desiree Mahoney acting as the Community Engagement Officer.  Mark Richardson is the Green Team Manager and Ray Fox the Parks Manager; Rebecca Farrar is the Tree Protection Officer and Steve Whitbread is Biodiversity Officer.  There has been a recent advert for ‘Head of Transport and Environmental Operations’ at the Council,  LINK , stating that the role is within the newly formed Environmental Services Directorate and that the “post holder will be responsible for fleet management of over 300 vehicles, Special Needs Transport Service, Waste and Recycling collections, Trade Waste Collections, Street Cleansing and Ancillary Services, Parks and Open spaces and other associated support services.  The post holder will be responsible the management of a revenue budget of £25 million and a capital budget of £8 million.”   LINK

 

 This is a huge range of responsibilities for one person, especially in light of the fact that the Environmental Services team has recently been reduced (which roles, is still unclear).  This advert does reveal the department’s budget figure though, something that is almost impossible to establish otherwise or the individual spending and allocations within the department.  The remaining roles (and other unestablished ones) within the Environmental Services team are integral to ensuring our local environment is healthy, sustainable, green and biodiverse.  With the latest round of staffing cuts, it can only be seen that this will be detrimental to our local environment and make it even harder for the council to meet its climate targets.

 

 

Greens call for Action, Investment and Transparency

 

Whilst we are dealing with an onslaught of problems brought on by ten years of austerity, coupled with the economic, social and health difficulties as a result of the pandemic, the climate emergency is not going away and must be addressed.  As the UN Environment Programme Head warned in August 2020 “There is no vaccine for climate change. We must embed sustainability into COVID-19 recovery” .  Unfortunately, at the moment, Harrow Council appears to lack the vision, financial investment and staffing to fully realise its aims of reducing the borough’s carbon emissions and become carbon neutral.  Harrow residents deserve a council who leads on action to mitigate the worse effects of climate change, being accountable and transparent every step of the way.  It is imperative that the council takes urgent action on the climate emergency to avoid the impending ecosystem collapse we potentially face.      

 

A council in London who are also tackling the climate and ecological emergency head on is the West London Borough of Hounslow, who are currently advertising a wide range two year fixed posts to deliver a Green recovery.  The team will include a Programme Director (Climate Change and Green Recovery), and Project Manager (Climate Emergency and Environmental Strategy) to deliver Hounslow's Climate Emergency Action Plan and Green Recovery Strategy.  There will also be three Project Manager's (Green Recovery) to develop and implement "strategies to improve the quality of the environment in Hounslow, with a focus on low carbon neighbourhoods, low carbon economy or green growth and 21st century mobility".   There will be two Sustainability Officer's to "deliver a variety of projects and initiatives aimed at reducing carbon emissions, and environmental and socio-environmental impacts across Hounslow" and two Green Recovery Officer's to improve the environent in Hounslow.  The total budget for this environmental team is up to £482 275, showing Hounslow Council is putting its money where its mouth is and really investing in dealing with the climate emergency

 

In my next blog…I’ll be taking a look at how Harrow’s parks and green spaces have been impacted by ten years of council cuts and how these rich, biodiverse spaces are an excellent way for the council to move towards meeting their climate change targets.  I will also be shining a light on the many amazing volunteer environmental organisations we have in Harrow and how they are leading the way in maintaining and improving our green spaces.  

Planning consigns Brent & Harrow Cyclists to the sweet bye and bye over Northwick Park development

 

 

Following my report on the Northwick Park Planning Application hearing I was curious to know more about the submission of Brent and Harrow Cyclists. Cllr Saqib Butt, admitting that he hadn't seen the submission, asked planning officers about it. Without his intervention it is unlikely that it would have been discussed at all. You can hear the response in the above clip. If you read the submission you can see how the officer's summary does not do it justice.

Having declared a climate emergency I thought Brent Council would be proactive in searching for ways of reducing motor traffic and finding ways of making streets more friendly for pedestrians and cyclists in this massive development.  Instead, apart from the offer from the Highways Officer towards the end of the discussion the proposals (apparently unseen by the Committee) were pretty well consigned to the sweet bye and bye*.

I have now seen the detailed proposals made by the cycling campaigners and it is clear that a lot of research and thought had gone into their submission. Here is one of the illustrations:

 

 

Brent and Harrow Cyclists introduced  their submission:

This is the joint response from Brent Cycling Campaign and Harrow Cyclists, two local groups of London Cycling Campaign, to the committee report for case number 20/0700, development of ‘Land adjacent to Northwick Park Avenue, London, HA1’ . We represent over 300 supporters and attempt to represent the interests of all who cycle or would like to cycle in NW London. We have some concerns about the planned development and have suggested some potential improvements, which we would be grateful if the council could consider.

I am not convinced that their proposals have been properly considered.

You can read the full submission on Brent Cyclists website HERE

 * I prefer the Joe Hill version of the Sweet Bye and Bye