Tuesday, 7 December 2021

Review of Brent Council's Flood Risk Management Strategy to commence in January 2022

 I received this response from Cllr Krupa Sheth  (Lead Member for Environment) today to my supplementary question asked at Full Council on November 22nd 2021 about  Brent Council overdue review of its Flood Management Strategy.


Response from Councillor Krupa Sheth to supplementary public question from Martin Francis asked at the Full Council meeting on 22 November 2021.

 

1.         My question on a review has not been directly answered, fortunately a council officer told Scrutiny on November 10th that a review of the 2015 Flood Risk Management Strategy is required and context should include real focus around climate change (for example the forecast 59% increase in winter rainfall) as well as the necessary local mitigation.

 

Response:  A review of the Flood Risk Management Strategy is now due and we informed the Scrutiny Committee it will be completed over the next 12 months. The review will include a focus on climate change.

 

2.         Can you give us the timetable for the review and the partnership members who will be involved?

 

Response: We are currently in discussion with consultants to scope the review and the timetable with an intention to commence the review early in the New Year.  We’d envisage a 9 month exercise from January. The Environment Agency will be consulted along with Thames Water to access modelling already undertaken on some of our open spaces such as Woodcock Park. Other main stakeholders are listed below:

·            Transport for London

·            Residents and Businesses

·            The Greater London Authority

·            Canal & River Trust

·            Network Rail

·            Neighbouring London Boroughs

 

3.         Will, as the West London Flood Risk Management Strategic Partnership has recommended, the accumulative impact of developments on flooding and drainage infrastructure systems, be assessed?

 

Response: Yes

Bridge Park campaign going back to High Court with Appeal on behalf of the African and Caribbean Community over land sale to developer

 

Statement from BPCC Steering Group
who lead the The Save Bridgepark Campaign.



BPCC Steering Group was established in 2017, and was given a mandate by HPCC and a Community vote to lead the Save Bridge Park Campaign.

 BPCC setup Stonebridge Community Trust (HPCC) Ltd (SCT), a company capable of fighting the legal case on behalf of the Community stating that the African and Caribbean hold a direct and equitable interest in the Bridge Park land and Assets.  As a result we are currently restricting the sale of Bridge Park land and assets by Brent Council to a private developer.

Appellant 1 Leonard Johnson (As himself) and Apellant2, Stonebridge Community Trust (HPCC) Ltd (A Company Limited by Guarantee with Charitable objects) have arguments that differ:

I) Appellant 1 (LJ) wishes to put forward new arguments not placed before

and 

Ii) Appellant 2 (SCT) wish to maintain the Arguments based on the original arguments that were made when the courts granted the Appeal.

Both Appellants wish to maintain arguments that the events around the purchase in 1982 established a Charitable Trust and as such should be protected from Brent Council's attempted disposal of Bridge Park Land to the private buyer behind the sale, a group called General Meditterranean Holdings.  Appellant 1 is currently refusing the offers from Appellant 2 to work together.

All sides in the Appeal have a QC representing them at the hearing on 14th December 2021 at the High Court.

Jay Mastin of Stonebridge Community Trust (Appellant2) said:
We have led this campaign on behalf of the community from the start and we feel confident that we have a deserving case which will now be heard by a group of the Top High Court Appeal Judges in the UK. The Bridge Park Complex is the largest and only centre of its type in Europe and the arguments are largely unique in Law. We hope that the outcome will likely set Legal Precedent.

We would like to thank the Community, councillors, MPs, press and legal community for the continued understanding and support.
 
EDITOR'S NOTE:
 
If you use the Seach Facility on the right and type in Bridge Park you can find a number of Wembley Matters article on this issue. This LINK takes you to the verdict in previous appeal.

Seasonal fun and some serious stuff at St Raph's Winter Fair on Saturday December 11th


 

Monday, 6 December 2021

Mili Patel, David Lammy's Head of Office steps down as Brent Cabinet Member.

 

Cllr Mili Patel

David Lammy MP, Shadow Foreign Secretary

It would have been Cllr Mili Patel's last Brent Cabinet meeting this morning as it was announced to the Labour Group tonight that she is stepping down as Cabinet Member for Children's Safeguarding, Early Help and Social Care.  In fact she sent her apologies for absence.

With the local council election only 6 months away I understand her responsibilities have been mainly taken over by  Cllr Thomas Stephens already responsible as Cabinet member for Schools, Employment  and Skills. Some of  responsibilities have been transferred to Cllr Harbi Farah,  Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care.

There is speculation that the stepping down may be due to the promotion of David Lammy MP to Shadow Foreign Secretary - she is Lammy's Head of Office. Patel previously served as Senior Party Researcher (2015-2016) to Keir Starmer  MP after nearly 7 years in the same role for Frank Dobson MP.

The changes considerably strengthens the position of Cllr Stephens who is regarded by Labour colleagues as in no way lacking in ambition.

Mili Patel's partner, Cllr Matt Kelcher, continues as Chair of Brent Planning Committee.

IMPORTANT NOTE

Since publication the Kilburn Times has followed up with a statement from the Council that contradicts the allocation of roles outlined above which came from a trusted Council source:

Cllr Mili Patel, who represents Harlesden, has departed the authority's top table and her 'safeguarding' portfolio will be filled by deputy leader Margaret McLennan.

A bounce back email from Cllr Patel states that she is taking maternity leave.

A Brent Council spokesman said: "Councillor Mili Patel has stepped down from her cabinet role to take time out. Deputy leader, Councillor Margaret McLennan, will take over the portfolio.”

Police officers who shared picture of the bodies of Nicole and Bibaa at Fryent Country Park crime scene jailed

 From the Metropolitan Police

Two former Metropolitan Police officers have both been jailed for two years and nine months after taking inappropriate photographs at the scene of a double murder in Wembley.

Deniz Jaffer, 47, and Jamie Lewis, 33 – previously both PCs at the North East Basic Command Unit – were sentenced at the Old Bailey on Monday, 6 December having previously pleaded guilty to misconduct in public office.

Assistant Commissioner Helen Ball, Professionalism, said: "Our thoughts are once more with the family and friends of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman. I am so sorry that during the most difficult time in their lives the actions of these two officers caused them so much additional pain and distress.

“Today former PCs Jaffer and Lewis have been punished for their actions which were utterly unprofessional, disrespectful and deeply insensitive.

“All of us in the Met and wider policing are horrified by their shameful behaviour."

An accelerated misconduct hearing was held for the officers on Wednesday, 24 November.

The hearing was to determine allegations their actions breached the Standards of Professional Behaviour in relation to discreditable conduct, honesty and integrity, equality and diversity, authority, respect and courtesy, duties and responsibilities, confidentiality and challenging and reporting improper conduct.

The allegations were all found proven. PC Lewis was dismissed without notice and it was determined that former PC Jaffer, who had resigned, would have been dismissed without notice had he still been a serving officer.

Both former officers have been added to the Barred List held by the College of Policing. Those appearing on the list cannot be employed by police, local policing bodies (PCCs), the Independent Office for Police Conduct or Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services.

On 17 June 2020 the Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards was informed of allegations anonymously reported that non-official and inappropriate photographs had been taken by police at the crime scene in Fryent Country Park, Wembley, in relation to the murders of Bibaa and Nicole. The sisters were killed in the early hours of Saturday, 6 June 2020 with their bodies found the following day.

During the early hours of 8 June 2020, PC Jaffer and PC Lewis were placed on the cordon to protect the crime scene. They left their posts to take pictures on their mobile phones of the victims and the crime scene.

PCs Jaffer and Lewis shared images with other officers via WhatsApp. PC Jaffer also shared images with members of the public, including pictures of the victims.

PC Lewis created an image on his phone in which he superimposed his own face in a ‘selfie’ pose in front of the bodies. He shared this image with PC Jaffer.

Both officers belonged to one WhatsApp group called the ‘A Team’ which had 41 officers as members. Images were shared to that group of the crime scene, but not of the victims.

PCs Jaffer and Lewis both used the disrespectful and derogatory term “dead birds” to describe the victims while sharing the images.

Followed the reported allegations, the MPS made a referral to the IOPC, which launched an independent investigation. PC Jaffer and PC Lewis were arrested on Monday, 22 June 2020 by the IOPC on suspicion of misconduct in public office and subsequently released under investigation.

A file was referred by the IOPC to the CPS and both officers were charged on Wednesday, 28 April 2021. They pleaded guilty to the offence on Tuesday, 2 November 2021.

Following their arrest, the officers were suspended from duty. Former PC Jaffer resigned and left the Met on Wednesday, 18 August 2020. Under the Police (Conduct) Regulations 2020, serving officers are allowed to resign or retire without requiring permission but still face misconduct matters as appropriate.

As soon as this matter came to light, the MPS took action on the North East Command to remind officers of their responsibilities in using WhatsApp and other social media channels. Local senior management spoke to officers on the command to outline what is expected of them in terms of their behaviour as well as encouraging anyone who has a concern about a colleague’s behaviour to come forward. This has subsequently been repeated across the whole Met.

The IOPC investigation made two fast-time learning recommendations to the MPS. The first was to ensure all officers within a single police station in the North East Command conform to the expectations of their behaviour under the Code of Ethics, whilst on and off duty, and are aware that failure to do so could severely damage the public’s confidence in policing.

The second was for the MPS to review whether supervisors and senior management at that police station are taking personal responsibility to identify and eliminate patterns of inappropriate behaviour, whilst simultaneously promoting a safe and open culture which makes clear to officers and staff that they are duty bound to challenge and report behaviour that does not align with the Code of Ethics.

These recommendations, which were received on Monday, 16 November 2020, have been implemented, not just within the single police station but across the entire North East Command.

In addition, across the MPS, all officers have been reminded that the standards they are expected to uphold apply at all times, including when they are off duty and when they are communicating on social media and using messaging apps.

Senior officers will continue work to ensure these recommendations are fully implemented throughout the organisation. This is being overseen by the DPS’s prevention and learning team.

+ We're working hard to raise standards in the Met and have commissioned an independent review by Baroness Louise Casey to examine our culture and standards of behaviour. 

The behaviour of Lewis and Jaffer initially came to light because someone had concerns and anonymously reported them. We encourage all our officers and staff, and members of the public, to report wrong-doing and we will act on those reports.

Do your bit to save London's public transport

 The current TfL funding settlement from Government expires in 6 days’ time on 11 December 2021.

 

To help to decarbonise the transport network, TfL would need an investment of £70m for the first three years, to support zero emission buses and £125m per year for healthy streets and active travel.

 

The London Assembly on December 2nd  called on the Government to provide a new long-term sustainable funding model and to include the £1-1.5bn of additional investment funding each year that TfL requires, as part of the next funding settlement.

 

Elly Baker AM, who proposed the motion, said:

 

London was largely glossed over in the Chancellor’s recent Budget. Transport for London was left out in the cold, despite the fact that it is hanging over a financial cliff-edge due to the pandemic.

 

Our transport system urgently needs proper investment from the Government to drive forward the whole country’s economic recovery and boost our efforts to meet legally binding commitments to reach net zero and clean up our air.

 

Cities should be empowered by Governments so they can be at the forefront of tackling the climate emergency.

 

The full text of the motion is:

 

This Assembly notes that the Government’s October 2021 Budget and Comprehensive Spending Review confirmed £7bn to level-up urban transport in cities around England, but there was no new funding announced for Transport for London (TfL). Furthermore, the current TfL funding settlement from Government expires in 11 days’ time on
11 December 2021.

 

The Assembly notes that the TfL submission to the Government’s spending review outlined plans to invest £2.5 - £3bn per year over the long term, to meet the Government’s climate change, levelling up and economic recovery ambitions. To help to decarbonise the transport network, this investment would include £70m for the first three years to support zero emission buses and £125m per year for healthy streets and active travel.

 

The Assembly believes that if the Government is serious about the UK’s legally binding decarbonisation and air quality commitments then funding must be provided to TfL.

 

This Assembly therefore calls on the Government to provide a new long-term sustainable funding model and to include the £1-1.5bn of additional investment funding each year that TfL requires, as part of the next funding settlement.

 The TfL Finance Committee listed these impacts if emergency funding was not forthcoming from the Government:

  • 18 percent reduction in London bus services, with 100 routes to be axed (a seventh of the network) and reduced frequency across 200 more (about one third of all additional routes).
  • 9 percent service reduction across the London Underground with possible scenarios including permanent closure of the 115-year-old Bakerloo line or the Jubilee, Metropolitan or Hammersmith & City lines.
  • Non-replacement of ageing train fleet (for example 50-year-old Bakerloo trains) with rolling stock renewal contracts cancelled.
  • Scrapping of bus electrification with existing bus vehicles to be kept in service longer to reduce costs.
  • No progress towards Vision Zero (safety), decarbonisation, improving air quality or active travel to support a shift towards more sustainable modes of transport.
  • End of capital expenditure on disability access for transport passengers, with non-renewal of “step free” assets resulting in “more frequent failures of lifts and escalators”.
  • London’s road assets to “remain in current degraded condition” with a “high risk of unplanned bridge and tunnel closures”.
  • ·Cancellation of TfL supply chain contracts impacting on 43,000 jobs in Derby, Falkirk, Bolton, Liverpool, Yorkshire, and Ballymena, Northern Ireland.
  • The cuts are so deep that by TfL’s own admission they will push London’s transport system into a state of “Managed Decline”.


KEEP LONDON MOVING CAMPAIGN

 

London Travel Watch in a campaign called Keep London Moving to fight the the budget cut and is urging people to write to their MP, London Assembly members and councillors as part of the campaign. On their website you just have to fill in your postcode to automatically send a letter to all of them. LINK

 

London faces a transport funding crisis. 

Transport for London have been getting financial support from the Government because of the pandemic, but this funding deal is due to expire on the 11th of December. If London's transport doesn't get the money it needs after that date, we could see an 18% reduction in bus services and a 9% cut to Tube services as well as a complete end to all active travel funding. This could result in a million fewer public transport journeys a day and drive a significant number of Londoners back into their cars. 

Public transport and active travel enables the poorest and most excluded individuals to get to work and access education and services. Affordable, reliable and frequent public transport services are also essential if London is to reduce its carbon emissions and clean up the toxic air which shortens the lives of thousands. 

Time is running out but you can still make your voice heard. 

If we act now, we can remind politicians that public transport and active travel is vital to all Londoners and people travelling in to the city. Let your MP, London Assembly member and councillor know why we need to #keeplondonmoving.

Sunday, 5 December 2021

Congratulations to Rumi's Cave for winning the Beacon Mosque Award for Best Services to Women

 

Congratulations to the the amazing Rumi’s Cave who have just won the  Best Women's Services Award in the British Beacon Mosque Awards Dec 2021

Rumi's Cave  describes itself as an alternative community hub, arts and events venue in Brent (based in Carlton Vale, South Kilburn and Willesden Lane), presenting a diverse range of cultural and social programmes to connect hearts, minds and communities. It is a non-defined social space open to all to reflect and share, inspired by the legacy of poet Jalauddin Rumi.

 Introducing the video of the Award presentation on YouTube, Rumi's Cave said:

Thank you to everyone who voted and the panel from Beacon Mosque for this amazing award, alhamdulilah. All praise is due to God. Rumi's Cave is open to all, from all walks of life and religions. But we feel strongly about women at the forefront and being in positions of leadership following our blessed spiritual traditions of Islamic women of the past. Notably Khadijah (ra) & Aisha (ra) wife's of the Prophet Muhammad who were key business women, entrepreneurs and scholars. We would secondly like to thank Sheikh Babikir our chairman who has pushed the women to be at the forefront to stand alongside the men from Rumi's inception. Women being in the back has never had a basis in our Islamic tradition but following the Medinan example of women also supporting the wider community is a strong message Sheikh Babikir has promoted since the beginning. To all the amazing women who run / have run the cave Glaiza, Nazra, Rakaya, Sukina, Tayyibah, Nuria and Aminah to all the amazing volunteers who give selflessly without recognition we love you and we hope Rumi's always feels like your home and supports your voice inshallah.

Accepting the Award, Aminah Babikir, Director of Rumi's Projects said:


By educating and empowering women we are actually empowering and educating a whole generation.


She recalled her father Sheikk Babikir  telling her, 'Be brave, stand firm with the men, don't feel you can't be at the forefront,' - it had taken a decade to lead from the front and realise how important that is in developing and supporting the spiritual, intellectual and emotional needs of women.

Saturday, 4 December 2021

Ram Singh Nehra, - a Wembley Indian in the 1930s - Part 1

This Guest Post by Philip Grant reveals an interesting moment in Brent history and perhaps our national history.

 

This article results from a local history enquiry received in October 2021. What did we know about a British Indian Union Garden Party, held at 43 Chalkhill Road Wembley in July 1934, or Mr & Mrs R.S. Nehra who hosted it? The initial answer was “nothing”, but further research online by several Wembley History Society members began to uncover a story which deserved to be shared with a wider audience. That’s what I hope to do here.

 

The British Indian Union Garden Party invitation card. (Image from the internet)

 

Ram Singh Nehra was not the first Indian to live in Wembley. A former farmhouse at the eastern end of what is now Wembley High Road was renamed “Rhampore” in 1882, when it became the residence of His Highness Rajah Rampal Singh. He was one of the founder members of the Indian National Congress Party, and started “The Hindusthan” monthly newspaper while living here, before returning to India as ruler of Kalakankar in 1885. After his first (Indian) wife died in 1871, he had married an English woman, Princess Alice.

 

Mr Nehra, we discovered, was a solicitor. He was also Joint Honorary Secretary, along with an Englishman, of the British Indian Union, an organisation aimed at fostering good relations between people in this country and the Indian “Dominion” that it ruled. It’s interesting to note that the VIPs who guests were invited to meet included an Afghan, a Nepalese and a Saudi Arabian. As well as the invitation, we also have photographs of the garden party, and the Nepalese Ambassador who attended it.

 

A magazine photograph and caption about the garden party in July 1934.

 

 

General Bahadur Rana, the Nepalese Ambassador, in full uniform. (Images from the internet)

 

As well as his involvement with the British Indian Union, Ram Singh Nehra was also the President of the Central Hindu Society of Great Britain. In that capacity, he had welcomed General Bahadur Rana at Victoria Station, when he arrived to be his country’s first Ambassador to the United Kingdom in May 1934, greeting him with a garland of pink and blue sweet peas.

 

In a short speech, Nehra welcomed the General to London, as the only representative of an independent Hindu State. He went on to say: ‘The independent kingdom of Nepal is the ancient Raj that has preserved its integrity and independence, and has withstood all foreign attacks and attempts at conquest.’ The “Daily Mirror” reported this, with a photograph.

 

Ram Singh Nehra welcoming General Bahadur Rana in May 1934. (“Daily Mirror” image)

 

Another organisation that Nehra was a member, and early Treasurer, of was the League of Coloured Peoples. This had been founded in London in 1931 by the Jamaican-born doctor, Harold Moody, with the aim of fighting discrimination against coloured people, especially in employment and housing, and to improve relations between the races. 

 

It’s magazine “The Keys”, in July 1933, reported a speech given by Nehra to a conference the League had organised. His subject was “The East African”, and he spoke from personal experience. He described East Africa as ‘the land of the future’, but said that racial relations there were very bad, and that ‘the African did not have a very happy time’. ‘The lot of the Indian’, he said, ‘was a bit better than that of the African, but they were beginning to realise that co-operation between them was essential if any progress was to be made.’

 

To explain how Ram Singh Nehra came to be in East Africa, it is probably best to start at the beginning. He was born in the Punjab city of Ludhiana, to a well-off family, in 1896. After matriculating from the local Arya High School, he went to the Government College in Lahore, gaining a B.A. Honours degree in 1917. Because of the First World War, he had to wait until 1919 before he could come to England, to study law at London University. 

 

Nehra qualified as a barrister of the Middle Temple in 1921. There was little chance for an Indian to exercise his profession successfully in this country, so he started his practice at the High Court in the British controlled Uganda Protectorate. After finding that Uganda was ‘too small’, he moved Britain’s Kenya Colony and the seaport of Mombasa. Here he soon became Secretary of the Mombasa Indian Association, and involved in local social and political life. 

 

A 1920s postcard view of the Old Harbour, Mombasa. (Image from the internet)

 

It was in Mombasa that Ram Singh met the future Mrs Nehra. Eileen Myfanwy Brazel was born in Swansea in 1897, and shipping lists record that Miss E.M. Brazel, a short-hand typist, boarded a ship bound for Mombasa in June 1923. I would assume that she had been recruited in the UK for a job in Kenya, either by the colonial government or a large trading company. How ever she came to be in Mombasa, she met Nehra, and married him.

 

Eileen must have returned to Britain when expecting their first child, as their son, Grenville Brazel Nehra, was born at her parents’ home in Swansea in December 1925. Nehra himself remained in Mombasa, carrying on his profession in the courts there, and becoming a pillar of the Indian community. 

 

There had been trading links between India and East Africa for centuries, before indentured labourers were brought from India in the 1890s to build the Uganda Railway. Some of these men settled in what became the Kenya Colony, and their families and other Indians came to join them, particularly from the Punjab and Gujerat. 

 

By the 1920s, the Indian and Arab communities were allowed a small number of seats on the Colony’s Legislative Council. At first, they refused to nominate candidates for these elections, demanding as many seats as the British (although there were none for the native Africans!). Their demands were ignored, but the Colonial Government appointed local Indians to fill those seats, and Ram Singh Nehra became a member of Kenya’s Legislative Council.

 

I don’t know exactly when Nehra left Kenya, and finally moved to Wembley. The birth of Mr & Mrs Nehra’s second child, Sheila, in July 1930 was registered in the Hendon District, which included Wembley, so they may have been living at 43 Chalkhill Road by then. Their home, “The Shalimar”, was part of the Metropolitan Railway’s Chalkhill Estate, laid out on land the company had bought in the 1880s to build their tracks across, and developed as part of “Metroland” after the First World War.

 

The Chalkhill Estate on the 1935 O.S. map, with “The Shalimar”, 43 Chalkhill Road, arrowed.

 

Nehra was certainly practicing as a solicitor, from an office in High Holborn, by 1930. As well as directory entries for him, a case in Willesden County Court, where he was acting for the claimant, was reported in the “Daily Herald” in March 1931, under the headline “House for Veiled Woman and Retinue”!

 

Not content with his legal work, and the organisations he was active in, Ram Singh Nehra also founded and edited a magazine, “The Indian”. He said: ‘This journal is a link between Indians all over the world. The more they know of each other, the better for all concerned.’ Its aim was: ‘To protect, strengthen and further the political, social, economic and general welfare of Indians everywhere.’ The annual subscription in 1935 was 9 shillings, or 6 Rupees (post free). 

 

As well as articles by contributors on subjects such as Swaraj (self-rule) for India, and the caste system, challenging prejudice was one of the main subjects for Nehra’s own pieces. In a 1935 article, headed “Colour Hatred” he began with an incident at a London council meeting:

 

‘It is most regrettable that an increasing amount of evidence is available on the question of colour hatred in England, Germany, Italy, etc. Recently, Alderman Richards, a Conservative member of Finsbury Council, London, passed an unbecoming remark against Dr C.L. Katial, an Indian member of the Council, simply on the ground of colour.’

 

He reported that a motion had been tabled, expressing ‘profound abhorrence’ of the Alderman’s personal attack on a distinguished fellow member, and his ‘refusal to withdraw his unseemly remarks.’  When the motion, under which the Council ‘unhesitatingly dissociated itself’ from what Alderman Richards had said, because it ‘militated against the maintenance of harmonious relationships between persons of different races’, was put to a vote by the Mayor: ‘the local Council passed it by 13 votes to 11.’ 

 

Nehra’s article went on to give further examples of colour hatred, from elsewhere in London, in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. It concluded with these thought-provoking paragraphs:

 

‘We wonder where these hatreds by the white men would lead them to if the coloured people begin to retaliate, on the ground of the colourless skin of the semi-civilized Europeans who simply pride themselves on the absence of the sun-resisting pigment in their skin. 

 

[George] Bernard Shaw at the conclusion of his South African tour gave as his considered opinion that the best way to avoid world war and ensure peace was to encourage marriages between coloured and colourless races in large numbers.’

 

In reporting the Finsbury Council vote (above), Nehra had noted: ‘The eleven represented the Tory Party.’ His own views were more to the left, and there is clear evidence of that. The previously separate Urban Districts of Kingsbury and Wembley agreed to merge from April 1934. Elections were arranged for all of the seats on the new Wembley Council, to take place in March. When the candidates were announced, this was the entry in the “Wembley News” on 2 March 1934 for Kingsbury’s Fryent Ward:-

 

 

Ram Singh Nehra, ‘an Indian’, was standing as a Labour Party candidate for a seat on the new Wembley Council. You can see him pictured among the photos of those candidates, from the 16 March 1934 edition of the “Wembley News”:-

 

Some of the Labour candidates, pictured in the “Wembley News”. (Images courtesy of Brent Archives)

 

If elected, Nehra would not be the first foreign-born local councillor (see José Diaz – the Spanish Chairman), but would the people of Wembley in the 1930s vote for a man who wasn’t white?

 

 I hope you can join me next weekend, for Part 2, to find out.


Philip Grant,
December 2021.