Barry Gardiner fronts new documentary on leasehold giving leaseholders a voice at last

 

Barry Gardiner. MP for Brent North, has long fought for leasehold reform and has been frustrated by lack of government action.

He has taken the unusual step of presenting and taking part in a 42 minute documentary on 'Leasehold -millions unable to move or sell'. 

The documentary can be viewed HERE

 

LEASEHOLD is the new 42-minute documentary which tells the story of the millions of leaseholders now trapped in their own homes, unable to sell or move apartment. The programme examines the need for better rules to govern apartment management and construction.

 

Since the Grenfell disaster, the government has introduced legal changes which have meant many homeowners are now unable to secure a mortgage on their property and face mounting new costs.

 

The show is presented by Labour MP Barry Gardiner and visits residents across the UK from London to Manchester meeting those affected by years of uncertainty, building misery and increased bills.

Have your say on Neasden Town Centre Action Plan

 

From Brent Council

Be a part of shaping the future! Join us in developing the Neasden Town Centre Sustainability & Placemaking Action Plan.

Your input will help us create a thriving, vibrant and greener town centre.

Take our quick survey and let your voice be heard. Together, let's make Neasden the best it can be!

Have your say https://haveyoursay.brent.gov.uk/.../neasden-town-centre....

 

The Neasden Town Centre Sustainability and Placemaking Action Plan is an initiative supported by the Mayor’s Civic Partnership Programme (CPP), London’s new regeneration funding programme. It targets areas of need where local authority regeneration objectives align with Mayoral priorities, to address inequalities and support positive change.

Neasden Town Centre is a priority town centre in Brent. Acknowledging its potential to enhance support for residents and contribute to the local economy, Brent Council is collaborating with Sanchez Benton Architects, Rumi Bose, and Concept Culture consultants to develop the Neasden Town Centre Placemaking and Sustainability Action Plan.

The Action Plan will set the foundation for potential improvements in Neasden Town Centre. Answer our survey and help us shape the future of Neasden Town Centre! 

**If you need translated materials, please send us a request via bruna.varante@brent.gov.uk.

There will be workshops on February 13^th and February 17^th DETAILS

 

Will this finally get rid of the Private Eye image of Neasden?

New building on the Preston Road Library site – and a famous name!

 Guest post by Philip Grant in a personal capacity

The new building on 2 February 2024.

 

It was September 2016 when Brent’s Cabinet decided to redevelop the former Preston Road Library site in Carlton Avenue East for a block of flats, with space for a community library on the ground floor. In November 2022, a Council press release celebrated the topping-out ceremony, “New community library and 12 council homes rise up out of the ground”, attended by Cllr. Muhammed Butt, who ‘accepted an engraved trowel on behalf of Brent Council gifted to him by John Bolton, director of Kier Construction’, and some of his Cabinet colleagues.

 

Now it finally looks as if the building, which has a controversial history, is nearing completion! However, it is not that history, or the architectural merits (or otherwise?) of the new block in its 1930s suburban setting, which is the main point of this article. It is the name of the building that I want to share with you - Henry Cooper House.

 

Why name the building after a famous British boxer? I’m sure it must be because he lived in the Preston Road area for fifteen years from 1960 to 1975, a time which included the height of his boxing career. He is mentioned in Part 4 of The Preston Road Story (published on Wembley Matters in 2020), along with information about the library and Preston Community Library, which began with the support of the hundreds of local residents who had objected to Brent Council’s plans to close six of its twelve public libraries in 2011.

 

Henry Cooper in 1966. (Photo from “Henry Cooper – the authorised biography”)

 

Back in November 2018, Wembley Matters shared the news that a blue plaque to Sir Henry Cooper hand been unveiled above the shop at 4 Ealing Road, where he’d owned and run a greengrocer’s shop between 1965 and 1968.

 

Henry Cooper at his shop, and the blue plaque now above it.

 

As a result of Wembley History Society being asked to support the efforts of a local resident, who was successful in commemorating Sir Henry with this blue plaque, I researched and wrote about his life and local links, and also gave an illustrated talk about them last year, to commemorate the 60^th anniversary of his legendary boxing match against Cassius Clay (now better known as Muhammed Ali).

 

A ticket for the Clay v Cooper fight at Wembley Stadium in June 1963. (Image from the internet)

 

But Henry did not only live in Wembley, at 5 Ledway Drive, for fifteen years. With his wife, Albina, they raised a family here. I wonder whether they took their sons, Henry Marco and John Pietro to their local Preston Road Library, after it opened in 1964? 

 

Albina and Henry at home with their sons in, late 1960s. (Image from the internet)

 

The naming of the new building as Henry Cooper House was news to me. I only found out last week, when a local resident tipped me off about it, but it came as a pleasant surprise. I hope that all twelve of the new Council homes there will be let to local people in housing need at genuinely affordable rents!

 

And I wonder if Brent Council will invite Henry and John Cooper to the official opening of the building named after their father?

Philip Grant

Arabs and Asians Comedy Show for Aid in Palestine, Stonebridge, Saturday 10th February

 

Actually in Harlesden/Stonebridge rather than Wembley. BOOKING  

Tickets from £15.87 

The show is in English

Brent Council to go ahead with formal consultation on halving the size of Leopold Primary School despite overwhelming parent opposition - Gwenneth Rickus site to close

 

Site proposed for closure

Brent Council Cabinet on Monday is set to launch a formal consultation on the closure of the Leopold Primary School Gwenneth Prckus site, Brentfield Road, despite overwhelming opposition at the informal consultation stage. LINK

The Governing Body of the school opposed the proposal as did 86.7% of the consultation respondents.

Brent Council's rationale is based on the need for forward planning as pupil numbers drop and the additional expense involved in running a school on two sites.  They admit that parents' perception is that despite a shared senior management team and governing body, it runs as a separate school from the Hawkshead Road site. 

Certainly it seemed a school in its own right when I visited several times a few years ago and I was bowled over by its ethos and the vitality and talent of the diverse staff and pupils. It was (is) very special. Leopold School (both sites) had a period of difficulty which saw the appointment of an Executive Headteacher to stabilise things and came through with flying colours and improved pupil achievement. It made a postive contribution to the Black Achievement project.

Considerable capital investment was made into the building when it was decided to refurbish what had been  the Brent Teachers Centre into an annex to Leopold Primary to accommodate the 'bulge' of pupils that was moving through the system at the time. 

The Cabinet paper states:

The Local Authority remains of the view that the proposal is required to address the level of spare places in the local area. While concerns raised by parents would need to be taken into consideration if the proposal was implemented, officers are of the view that the Council should move to consult formally on the proposal to cease provision on the Gwenneth Rickus site of Leopold Primary School.

The building would be used for other educational purposes according to the Cabinet paper but there is no mention of it as a possible site for the Islamia Primary School which is under notice to quit its Queens Park site. SEND and alternative provision are mentioned as possibilities so building expenses would remain.

The closure would lead to job losses and proposals are put forward to manage this process involving talks with trade unions and possible re-location of some staff to the Hawkshead site or re-employment elsewhere.

I embed below officers' responses to the consultation.

Is Muhammed Butt's attempt at increasing the number of councillors required to call decisions in for scrutiny an abuse of democracy?

  

Brent Council Leader Muhammed Butt: Limitting 'the voices of those who do not blindly agree with him'

 

Cllr Anton Georgiou has sent the following message to Debra Norman, Corporate Director of Governace at Brent Council, after changes proposed by Brent Council's Labour leader in the number of councillor's required to sign a call-in request. The number proposed by Cllr Butt would require some Labour councillors to join the Liberal Democract and Conservative opposition to achieve the revised required number.

 

As Labour councillors are tightly whipped this would be extremely unlikely and if they did their card is likely to be marked so that they are barred from committee places and standing again.

 

To Debra Norman,

 

At the meeting the Leader of the Council asked for you to look at increasing the number of required signatures (by Councillors) for a call-in to take place from 5 to somewhere around 10. 

 

 Cllr Butt is perfectly aware that if this change were to occur, call-in’s would no longer take place in Brent as the combined Opposition (the Liberal Democrat and Conservative Group) totals 8 elected members. Labour members under the current regime, wouldn’t dare to sign a call-in scrutinising decisions by the Cabinet, for fear of retribution by their Whip. You only have to look at what happened to the Labour members who signed a call-in last term (2018-2022), related to poorly implemented LTN’s. Not one is currently an elected Councillor in Brent.

 

  If the changes suggested by Cllr Butt are agreed to, it would be a total affront to democracy in our borough. Democratic scrutiny is the pillar of healthy and functioning governance. Seeking to stifle it in this way (which is how I view Cllr Butt’s request) sets a very dangerous precedent. It would also once again expose Brent as a place where scrutiny and inclusion of Opposition voice is not welcomed, rather it is frowned upon and limited. As you are aware, following the May 2022 local elections, Cllr Butt took it upon himself to banish Opposition Councillors from Vice-Chairing the two Scrutiny Committees in the borough. The move was seen by others in local government circles as a power grab. Frankly, it looked rather petty and insecure. It also took Officers by surprise, as the move had not been cleared with anyone (not even you?) beforehand.     

                         

 Cllr Butt’s latest attempt to stifle democratic scrutiny by limiting the ability for call-ins to take place is wrong and not in the interest of our residents, who want to see Council decisions challenged forcefully when required. After all, scrutiny leads to better outcomes. Residents are clearly very engaged in local democracy, take just the recent example of a petition on the Council website regarding the blue bag recycling system, which generated close to 3,500 signatures, a record for an e-Petition of this kind in Brent  - https://democracy.brent.gov.uk/mgEPetitionDisplay.aspx?ID=267&RPID=0&HPID=0/. If Cllr Butt gets his way, decisions like this, which are clearly very unpopular with Council taxpayers, will likely be left unchallenged.

 

I want to make clear that if Officers agree to take Cllr Butt’s suggestion forward, the Liberal Democrat Group will robustly oppose the changes and will ensure residents are fully aware of the petty dictatorship that he leads.

 

I urge you to reject Cllr Butt’s suggestion and ensure that call-ins, an important form of scrutiny, in a borough with limited scrutiny already, can continue to take place, when they are required and legitimate.

 

I will be making this email public so a debate can begin about the Leader’s latest insecure attempt to limit the voices of those who do not blindly agree with him.

 

EDITOR: Brent Council Call-in Protocol LINK  (Irritatingly Council documents are often undated but I think this is the latest).

Octavia Housing update on Wembley fire at Petworth Court, Elm Road

 On Monday 29 January 2024, a fire broke out at Petworth Court on Elm Road, Wembley. The London Fire Brigade attended quickly and the fire was extinguished in the early hours of Tuesday 30 January 2024. All residents at Petworth Court were evacuated safely and we are glad that no injuries have been reported. The surrounding blocks were also evacuated.

The Fire Brigade is currently investigating the cause of the fire and we will continue to work with them during their investigation.

Fire safety at Petworth Court

The safety of our residents is our number one priority. Since 2020, Petworth Court, and the surrounding blocks, have had robust safety measures in place in the event of a fire. These measures include a fire marshall who patrols the blocks regularly, upgraded fire alarms and CCTV. We are pleased that these measures worked effectively, ensuring that alarms were raised quickly and all residents were evacuated safely.

Supporting our residents

Octavia staff have been on site with Brent Council’s Emergency Response team since the fire broke out, to support residents that have been affected. All evacuated residents were provided with emergency accommodation where needed and financial support has been offered to those who need to buy essential items and food. We have continued to contact all residents to check on their wellbeing.

Following safety checks by the Fire Brigade and Octavia, residents of Goodwood Court, Sandringham Court and Kensington Court should be able to return home within the next few days. We will continue to support these residents should they have any questions or concerns.

Residents at Petworth Court, Woburn Court and Hatfield Court, will continue to be updated, and supported with alternative accommodation and access to services, wellbeing support and essential items until they are able to return to their home safely.

We understand this is a difficult time for residents. Any resident who would like to speak to us should contact us on 020 8354 5500 or contact their Housing Lead:

Gareth Armstrong's award winning Shylock! Preston Community Library February 6th 7pm

 

Review from 'Frankly, My Dear' Waterside Arts performance

Who is Shylock? A caricature? A grotesque? A construction of two thousand years of persecution? All these questions are posed and answered in Gareth Armstrong’s one man tour de force, Shylock, where using the device of Tubal, an eight line and one scene associate of Shylock, he takes us on a tour of not only the play but the systematic antisemitism that informed the play, fuelled the play and ultimately continues to contribute towards the stereotype of the Jew money lender.

Even the word “shylock” has been taken to create an insult on somebody’s character; a mean spirited individual who regards the pursuit of wealth above all. But is this a misappropriation? As the play tells us usury was one of the very few professions open to Jews as they were expelled from country after country and regarded as evil. However a reading of the play with the added background context shows that Shylock is more a creature of his own circumstances than any negative stories Shakespeare had heard; there is doubt that Shakespeare had ever met a Jew so the character is drawn in stereotype but for all this there is pathos and despair under the veneer of the hard nosed businessman.

Gareth Armstrong is a total delight in his powerful and mesmerising one man retelling of the tale. Part history lecture, part dramatic performance there is not one moment that he does not hold the audience rapt, a pin could have dropped and sounded like a tolling bell. There are some laughs, not many and mainly at Tubal’s expense, but hard historical truths are delivered both recent and over hundreds of years in the making and even the bible gets used to illustrate the first instance of antisemitism. There is no pity, no “woe is me” but a simple “this is how it is” in the telling of such facts. Along with intertwining the key Shylock moments with the reflected views of the time is an effective and compelling device which takes the audience fully inside both the character and how he would have been perceived by the audience throughout various periods in history; from Shakespeare’s original up to Nazi Germany’s love of the play, no doubt to reinforce the views of their respective time.

The Merchant of Venice is seldom seen now in its original staging, no doubt due to the problematic nature of the character of Shylock but this should not be a reason for avoidance. In this work Gareth Armstrong unboxes the creation of the character as a reflection of the continued suspicion Jews found themselves under. The writing flows seamlessly and the performance is electric, moulding and guiding the audience throughout the tale. This should be a must see for anyone who thinks critically and has ever wondered why Shylock is cast as one of the great villains of Shakespeare, when in fact he is just a man trying to do his best in a world that is stacked against him.