STRA call on residents to ask their ward councillors to reject the Local Plan at tomorrow's Full Council meeting

 

Sudbury Town Residents Association have launched a petition and are crowdfunding legal action over Brent Council's Local Plan, and are asking residents to lobby their ward councillors to vote against at tomorrow's Full Council meeting which will also adopt the budget for 2022-23.

This is their appeal:

Ask Your Ward Councillors to VOTE NO to the Draft Local Plan on Friday 24 February 2022

SAY NO TO MORE Development in Brent

Brent Council planning officers have created the Draft Local Plan.  Once this plan is adopted by Brent Council, planning officers can grant permission to build within and around our green spaces, force the sale of homes and turn our wonderful neighbourhood into rows of high rises.

We are all aware of the housing shortage in England, and like every borough, Brent was given a target to build new homes to help the Government minimise the shortage. 

To meet housing shortage in England, Brent’s target was 23,250 new homes from 2019 to 2029and it has already met this target via developments approved in Northwick Park Hospital, Wembley Park  Wembley Central, Beresford Avenue, Alperton House, MinavilHouse, Alperton Bus Garage and Bridgewater Road.  However, as per their own Draft Local Plan, Brent Council plans to continue  unnecessarily granting permission to build more new homes. An interesting observation is that there is insufficient planning to develop or add to vital infrastructure such as hospitals, schools, GP clinics and adult social services. 

Everyone living in Brent has a say on the Local Plan and it’s the Council’s duty to consult its residents, but most residents are not even aware of its existence!

We are challenging Brent Council’s plans on a number of issues that will affect all Brent residents:

• Tall Buildings
• Intensification Corridors
• HMOs
• Compulsory Purchase
• Demolition of rows of houses
• Residential dwellings in rear gardens
• Replacement of pavilions and other buildings within green spaces with residential dwellings
• Building on brownfield sites within green spaces

Our group of community minded volunteers are trying to spread the word and let people know. We are local residents volunteering our precious time and expertise to try and protect our area from unnecessary development.  We are non-political and independent.  We are just trying to take care of our area and borough.

If you are also unhappy about the excessive development in Brent and would like to help, please:

• Donate to support our legal challenge via our Go Fund Me page

GoFundMe, https://gofund.me/bbd06d51 

• sign the petition HERE
• ask your Ward Councillors to VOTE NO at the Full Council Meeting Friday 24 February 2022

Brent Council & partners move to enforce street drinking ban ahead of Sunday's Carabao Cup Final - will it work?

 

Euro2020 crowd violence

With arrangements facing their first major test since the Euro2020 Final disturbances and the subsequent Casey Report, Brent Council has issued a press release announcing new steps to enforce the street drinking ban in the area surrounding Wembley Stadium. :

 

A ban on street drinking in the streets around Wembley Stadium will be in force ahead of the Carabao Cup Final, as part of the existing Public Space Protection Order (PSPO).

The no street-drinking zone on Olympic Way and surrounding areas bars people from drinking alcohol in public spaces ahead of the match between Chelsea and Liverpool. 

Fans drinking on Olympic Way and the surrounding streets will be asked to hand over their alcohol and enforcement action may be considered.

The move by Brent Council and its partners aims to crack down on anti-social behaviour related to drinking ahead of the game on Sunday 27 February 2022

Cllr Muhammed Butt, Brent Council Leader, said: “The iconic Wembley Stadium has successfully played host to countless memorable and historic events over the years. The vast majority of visitors enjoy themselves responsibly but a minority do not and this new approach targets those people intent on causing disorder after drinking heavily on street.

“There are a number of pubs, fan zones and fantastic restaurants to enjoy in Wembley before the game so there really is no need for anyone to be drinking alcohol on our streets.”

If you are attending the Carabao Cup Final, there are a range of pubs, fan zones and restaurants available to enjoy in Wembley before the game. Please book early to avoid disappointment.

The ban on drinking in public will be enforced by a team of officers from Brent Council, Wembley National Stadium, Wembley Park, The Metropolitan Police Service, Transport for London and the British Transport Police.

A letter has been sent out to licensed businesses in the area that quotes the Casey review on drinking in  public spaces near the venue. (Click on image to enlarge) and reminds owners and staff that they should not sell alcohol to anyone who appears likely to drink it on the street.

 

A local resident remarked to Wembley Matters:

This should be fun to watch........ wonder if its just for Quintain land around the Stadium?  Guess the new White Horse Pub won’t be doing a massive trade if they can’t take their drinks outside?  

 

Perhaps the Stadium are desperate for cash and only want fans to drink the lousy beer they sell at grossly inflated prices.

 

And what happens to the High Road?  Liverpool fans are in the West End, so this should be interesting to see if it’s enforced on High Road outside all Off Licences and pubs.

 The details and map of the PSPO are below (Click bottom right to enlarge):

 

It is a big test - will the number of enforcment officers deployed be sufficient to control thousands of fans?

UPDATE: Cllr Mitchell-Murray resigns from Labour and joins Brent Conservatives

 

Councillor Wilhelmina Mitchell-Murray (Wembley Central ward) has joined the Conservative Party followed her resignation from Labour.

In a letter to Muhammed Butt, Leader of Brent Council, she said:

I am writing to you to tender my resignation from the Labour Party with immediate effect.

I have been concerned at times with the policies of the party nationally and I have been very unhappy with the direction the Brent CLPs have taken. I am particularly concerned with the way Momentum has been influencing and in some cases taking over the party.

Yours sincerely

Wilhelmina Mitchell-Murray

The Conservative Group on Brent Council confirmed that Cllr Mitchell-Murray had joined them and said:

Cllr Wilhelmina Mitchell Murray has resigned from the Labour Party citing her dissatisfaction with the direction that the party has taken.

It would appear that the Labour Momentum have an unhealthy influence in the selection of local candidates and many sitting Councillors and activists are unhappy with the situation.

Wilhelmina has joined the Conservative Group.  Cllr’s Suresh Kansagra and Michael Maurice have warmly welcomed her saying that she will make an excellent Conservative Councillor and look forward to working with her.

 

Cllr Mitchell-Murray, asked to comment on her resignation by Wembley Matters, appeared to suggest she would be standing for the Conservatives in the May 5th Council Election. Asked to confirm that she was joining the Tories, she said:

Yes.  I have joined the Conservative Party.  Others must come to their own conclusions but, I came into politics to serve not to be self serving.  I hope to continue to serve the residents of Wembley Central Ward.  I hope everyone understand that at age 8 I skipped, to the polling station holding my daddy's hands to vote for the Labour Party.  It's up to the residents of Wembley Central Ward to decide if my days in public service are numbered.

 I have many friends in the Labour Party and we will remain friends regardless.

I have no further comment to make.

 

Brent Council leader, Muhammed Butt, told the Kiburn Times on Tuesday:

Wilhelmina’s friends in Brent Labour will be deeply disappointed to hear of her decision. While we respect her choice to leave, we must amicably disagree with her chosen means.

If the answer for Brent is Boris Johnson, then you are asking the wrong question.

Brent Labour is a broad church of beliefs, mirroring the range of thought and experience in our borough.

Notwithstanding, in the aftermath of the elections, I will be requesting to our coordinating bodies that a full review of our diversity monitoring procedures is undertaken. 

The resignation appears to be fall out from the current selections for Labour candidates in the forthcoming local Council elections. With the number of seats reduced there has been more competition so in the game of political musical chairs several seats have been whipped away from sitting members.

I understand that Cllr Mitchell-Murray's son who is also a councillor is not standing in the May elections. As it is we now have a Conservative councillor and a Labur councillor from the same family:

The reference to Brent Momentum is particularly puzzling as they have been rather quiet recently and I have seen no evidence of organised slates. What may be the case is that rank and file members are exerting their democratic rights more forcefully and scrutinising candidates’ political credentials more thoroughly than hitherto. This may be upsetting to the more managerialist of the current leadership, including Muhammed Butt, and Momentum becomes an easy scapegoat for him to use. He may sense that in the current process some of his support is slipping away, although one of his greatest admirers, Cllr Krupa Sheth has now joined him in the two member Tokyngton ward.

Muhammed Butt is himself a member of Brent Momentum, or perhaps was, and he as well as some of his loyal supporters have attended their meetings.

Cllr Margaret McLennan, currently Deputy Leader, is not standing again so the post will have to be filled by a loyal female lieutenant. I wonder who that could be?

 

A tour of the new Cricklewood Library

 Cricklewood Library - 2011 Closed by Brent Council

Cricklewood Library - 2022 Opened by Volunteers

More than a decade after Brent Council closed half its libraries I popped into the volunteer run Cricklewood Library at the weekend. 

Back in 2011 I wrote on Wembley Matters:

Build on the commitment and perseverance of library campaigners 

 

The old adage that "you don't value what you've got until you lose it" clearly does not apply to Brent library campaigners but it will surely hit home to many others who were not involved, now that the Council has decided the six libraries will not re-open.

Of course it is mainly a matter of a place to read, enjoy and borrow books, educate yourself - but there's also so much more in terms of the social usefulness of a library as a provider of information, a place to meet, a safe public space in sometimes alienating areas, somewhere to relax and enjoy the company of your young children, a place where old people are welcome and not ghettoised.

As these community functions go they impact on the local area - everything else costs money: shops, betting shops, pubs, cafes - libraries were free and therefore open to everyone to use and enjoy.  Their demise marks another reduction in the social good of society, in cooperation and mutuality.

However although their loss represents a loss of mutuality and cooperation, the struggle against their loss shows how strong those values remain in our community, albeit not in our council representatives.  Whether an appeal goes ahead or not, whether it succeeds or not, we must continue to build on those values.

The upcoming Brent People's Assembly gives us precisely that opportunity.  I salute the Brent SOS Libraries campaigners for their commitment and perseverance in mounting one of Brent's largest and most energetic community campaigns and hope that they will join in with others in the numerous hard struggles ahead.

 

A campaign that has lasted more than 10 years is certainly an admirable sign of perserverance and commitment by the local community and the values I wrote about were clearly visible in the work of the friendly young volunteers I saw on Saturday. I would of course prefer a properly funded, professionally staffed public library service but that does not take away from the campaign's achievement.

Do go along and have a look for yourselves and enjoy a coffee and cake at the same time.

 You can find out more on the Cricklewood Library website

 

Opening hours are dependent on the availability of volunteers

 

 

In addition to the lending library and the cafe there are also two rooms available for hire as well as the library space itself and already a range of activities take place in a developing community hub which already boasts a Book Club.

These are the rooms available for hire. Details of furniture and equipment available are on the website.

As well as dependency on volunteers there is of course the issue of funding in the absence of a Brent Council run service. These are the current  funders as advertised on the library website.

 

 

Four of the six libraries closed by Brent Council have survived as volunteer led provision: Barham, Cricklewood, Kensal Rise and Preston. Neasden and Tokyngton have gone and are much missed.

South Kilburn's Pete Firmin on 'Not the Andrew Marr Show' tomorrow

 From Not the Andrew Marr Show (Pete has contributed to articles on this blog about South Kilburn issues and we wrote about his suspension HERE):

A Labour member and local party activist for over 40 years, a former postal worker and member of the CWU, Pete Firmin would seem to be the kind of person Labour would need to help the party back to power.

However, he has been told he is no longer welcome in Labour and has been sent an expulsion letter.

Show solidarity with Pete on tomorrow morning's Not the Andrew Marr Show (10:30-12:30am), when we hear his response to his expulsion and what he feels is going wrong with the party.

REGISTRATION HERE

Year 2 tell it how it is!

 

 

 

From More than a Score

Year 2 pupils have never spent a full year in school without Covid disruption. But these children will sit more government tests than any other class this year.

Last term, they took the phonics screening check. Next term, they’ll be facing their year 2 SATs. This is not the way to instil a love of learning.

Best wishes

Jill and Alison at More Than A Score

PS. If you haven’t done so, please Write To Your MP today. It will only take a minute.

 

Can you help solve the Wembley Girl mystery?

 Guest post, by local historian Philip Grant:-

Wembley History Society receives email enquiries from around the country, and the world, about a wide variety of aspects of our area’s past. Some we can answer easily, from information we already hold. Others take research, which can uncover some fascinating stories, like that of a 1960s music shop, or a remarkable Indian lawyer who lived here. Occasionally, we receive a query that we can’t answer. The origin of a “Wembley Girl” figure is one of those, which is why I am writing this, to ask if you can help, please!

 

Wembley Girl’s face.

 

Our enquirer and her late husband bought the Wembley Girl figure ‘many moons ago’ from an antique dealer who claimed, ‘she is rather rare’. The painted figure is around 15 inches (38cm) tall, and the email sending its photograph said the owner would love to know more about the story behind this model, where and when (and by whom) she was made, and what her connection with Wembley is.

 

The Wembley Girl figure.

 

There is no doubt that the figure is a “Wembley Girl”, because that name is clearly shown on the base of the model:-

 

There is no makers name or mark on the base, and no stamp to show where the figure was made (if it was made outside this country, it might have had “Made in ….” stamped underneath). The only other clue is the number “24”. This could be a number referring to the mould it was cast from, or if it was a limited-edition model, the number of that particular piece. Or it could represent the year 1924.

 

Wembley would certainly have been widely known in 1924, because that was the year the British Empire Exhibition (“BEE”) was staged here. 17 million people came to Wembley Park for the BEE in 1924, and most of them went away with a souvenir of some sort. Hundreds of different picture postcards and a wide variety of small china ornaments were available from stalls around the exhibition grounds.

 

 

Empire Stadium souvenir cup. (From Alan Sabey’s collection)

 

 

A BEE souvenir ornament, made by Cauldon Potteries Ltd. (From Alan Sabey’s collection)

 

But what connection could the Wembley Girl figure, which would have been a more expensive item than these mass-produced souvenirs, have had with the BEE? She certainly appears to be making an exhibition of herself, although that would go against the generally wholesome theme of the BEE! This is just speculation, but my guess would be that, if the figure did come from the BEE in 1924, it was connected in some way with the Pears’ Palace of Beauty.

 

An advertisement for the Pears’ Palace of Beauty. (Source: Brent Archives)

 

This ornate building, in the BEE’s Amusement Park, was created by the House of Pears to promote their soap, which they said had been ‘for 130 years the servant of beautiful women.’ Inside the building were 10 tableau rooms from different ages, and inside each (behind a glass screen, to protect them from admiring visitors) was an actress, styled and dressed as one of the most beautiful women in history.

 

The actresses, playing characters from Helen of Troy and Cleopatra, to Nell Gwynne, Sarah Siddons and Miss 1924, worked in pairs, sharing the 13-hour days that the Palace was open in shifts. They worked 10am to 1pm and 7pm to 11pm one week, and 1pm to 7pm the next, for £5 a week. They were one of the biggest attractions in the 40-acre Amusement Park, with 750,000 visitors paying one shilling and threepence each to see them in the 1924 season.

 

Postcard showing the entrance to the BEE Amusement Park. (Source: Brent Archives)

 

The Wembley Girl figure may have been inspired by the women in the Palace of Beauty (perhaps Miss 1924?), but she was not an official souvenir. Pears’ only offered souvenir bars of their soap, and a set of postcard pictures of the beautiful women (in their costumes), in their gift shop. If Wembley Girl was made for the BEE, it is more likely that she was sold in a kiosk close to the Palace of Beauty, for men who had been to the Pears’ exhibit, but wanted a souvenir which was a bit more “racy”.

 

Pears’ Palace of Beauty at the BEE Amusement Park in 1924. (Image from the internet)

 

If you know anything about the origin of the Wembley Girl figure, or even recognise its style and who might have made it, please provide the information in the comments below. If you are tempted to make any rude comments, about what her owner describes as her ‘rather deshabille’ appearance, please don’t! 

 

Thank you.

Philip Grant.

Important Independent Sage statement on free Covid-19 tests & payments to support self-isolation

Alongside NHS leaders, members of Independent SAGE condemn the reported decision by the Government to stop free COVID-19 tests and payments to support self-isolation in England. Although we were initially sceptical about the utility of lateral flow tests in the absence of more financial support for isolation, widespread availability of these tests alongside existing PCR tests might have contributed to reducing peak infections both in last summer and this winter.  

Our concerns about removing access to free tests include:  

a) increased risk of spread of Omicron and any subsequent variants, leading to more illness, death and burden on the NHS and more risk of new variants emerging; 

b) a disproportionate impact on many of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable in society, especially those in public facing jobs that bring them into frequent contact with large numbers of people and those who cannot choose to isolate; 

c) loss of the reassurance provided by lateral flow tests to those considering the safety of meeting with others, especially isolated elderly friends and relatives; 

d) loss of ability to determine if you have Covid and then voluntarily self-isolate;  

e) loss of ability to determine when you are no longer infectious if you do fall ill with Covid;

f) reduced ability to make the early diagnosis needed to enable those who might benefit from the new antivirals to receive them rapidly, when they are most effective; 

g) reduced access to care for long covid if no proof from a positive test; 

h) reduced volumes of samples sent for genetic sequencing, thereby limiting our ability to detect and track newly emerging variants; 

i) loss of intelligence on the continuing course of the pandemic; 

j) widening inequalities, as those able to afford tests will continue to get them while people on low incomes will not. 

k) A disproportionate and adverse effect upon the ability of clinically vulnerable people to safely engage with society.

Independent SAGE calls on the Government to publish, immediately, the scientific evidence and risk assessments on which it has based this decision. It further calls on the devolved administrations not to follow this path until they have seen convincing evidence that it is safe.