Petition for 'clean toilets for all' in Roundwood Park launched after requests fall on Council 'deaf ears'

 

 

Roundwood Park protest outside the closed toilets earlier this summer

Following the lack of action by Brent Council after the August protest in Roundwood Park calling for accessible, safe and clean public toilets in the park a petition has been launched.

It is not a new issue, nearly 10 years ago I wrote on Wembley Matters:  It's time to re-launch a campaign for decent public toilet provision - it's an equality issue 

KOVE (Kilburn Older Voices Exchange) staged a procession down Kilburn High Road calling for better toilet facilities back in 2024 LINK. and more recently a 'pop up' toilet has been set up by volunteers in Kilburn's Grange Park.

The current petition, Re-open Roundwood Park toilets, was set up by local campaigner Amandine Alexandre on the Brent Council website and is open until October 31st 2025.

Perhaps we can get some pledges from candidates before the Council elections next year? 

 

The Petition 

We the undersigned petition the council to re-open Roundwood Park existing toilets and work on the design of modern toilets, less prone to attract anti-social behaviour

Roundwood Park users have been deprived of public toilets since July 2022.   The lack of public toilets in Roundwood Park is affecting absolutely everyone - parents with children, disabled people, older people, people with health issues etc. It prevents lots of residents from using the park as much as they would like and it stops too many people from coming to the park altogether.   It's particularly an issue for women of all ages. We, women, spend less time in parks than men - and that affects our health and sense of well-being in a very negative way. Reversely, having access to inclusive green spaces boosts our health. For example, girls are less likely to be anxious and depressed when they spend time in green spaces.   On August 2nd, I was part of a group of local residents who gathered in the park to ask for the re-opening of the public toilets. Again, our request fell on deaf ears and we were told by Cabinet member Krupa Sheth that we should use the cafe toilets.   This is an inappropriate answer that fails to understand that the cafe toilets cannot be a replacement for public toilets and that the closure of the public toilets is creating a health issue for residents.   As Brent Council is about to spend £3 millions on Green Corridors in Roundwood and Church End to encourage more people who live in Church End to use Roundwood Park and fight against health inequalities, now is the time to re-open the existing public toilets or build new toilets in a different, better location in the park where there will be a reduced risk of anti-social behaviour taking place.

SIGN THE PETITION HERE

What Should Be the Left's Position on Immigration? Tuesday, September 30th · 7 - 8:30pm, St Luke's W9

 

From  Kensal & Kilburn Better 2025

Please join our community debate on 2025’s most searing topic: Immigration.

Extremist framings of immigration, racist mobs rampaging through our towns, cruel anti-migrant policy moves from Labour: What is going on? Where is this heading?

Our excellent panel to discuss these issues includes immigration expert at Open Democracy Zoe Gardner, Orwell prizewinner Daniel Trilling, and researcher Farhan Samanani at King's College London, whose research shows how hostile immigration policies promote active hatred. We'll have half an hour of audience questions too.

We look forward to welcoming you on Tuesday 30th September at 7pm at St Luke’s, Fernhead Road, W9 3EH. Please register to attend, and consider making a donation to cover our costs for venue and mailing services.

See you soon!

 

OASIS Saturday 27th Sunday 28th road closures and parking restrictions

 From Brent Council

  

Wembley Stadium will be hosting OASIS LIVE '25 on Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 September. Please read below to see how this might affect you. Timings - OASIS LIVE '25 doors will open at 5.30pm and road closures will be in place from 1.30pm for all of above events. We expect the area around Wembley Stadium to be very busy before and after this event so please avoid the area if you can, unless you have a ticket for the event. Event day parking Event day parking restrictions will be in place from 8am to midnight on main roads and from 10am to midnight on residential roads on Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 September. If you have a paper permit, please make sure you clearly display it in your vehicle. If you have an electronic permit, you do not need to display this.

LETTER: We await Brent Council's strategy to inform tenants & leaseholders of their Improvement Plan following Social Housing Regulator C3 judgement

 Dear Editor,

Further to my letter of September 10^th LINK.

 

As of the 1st September 2025, the council claim that all outstanding fire risk action in all of their high rises has been addressed, after they were self-referred to the regulator by Brent Council.

 

The council claim they are making good progress towards meeting all the safety compliance standards identified by the regulator and are working on an Improvement Plan to rectify all the compliance issues.

 

They also claim they have been keeping tenants and leaseholders fully informed about the progress they are making with the plan, but I have not seen any evidence so far that supports their claim.

 

However, the council report that they have set up a multi-channel engagement strategy to communicate with residents over their response to the regulator’s judgement.  One of the key components of the strategy will give us an update on the new repairs contract, as all the costs of meeting the compliance standards are coming from the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) budget which includes repairs.

 

I assume this new strategy replaces the Tenants and Resident Engagement strategy that was implemented in 2024.

 

Cllr. Donnelly-Jackson is working on an E-newsletter in which she will provide an update of all the progress the council have made since their self-referral to the regulator at the end of April 2025.

 

As for how much this will cost, the council have not worked it out yet, but it will be at least a million but probably a lot more.   The council also report that they are facing ever increasing costs of Major Works, which is likely to affect leaseholders who have to pay a share of the costs.

 

John

 

(Name and address supplied)

Harlesden Neighbourhood Forum Saturday September 20th 11am-1pm

 

TONIGHT A MESSAGE FOR PALESTINE AT WEMBLEY ARENA 6.30pm Fundraiser

 

Together For Palestine 

 

 

ADNAN JOUBRAN, BASTILLE, BRIAN ENO, CAT BURNS, DAMON ALBARN, FARAJ SULEIMAN, GREENTEA PENG, HOT CHIP, JAMES BLAKE, JAMIE XX, KING KRULE, MABEL, NAI BARGHOUTI, OBONGJAYAR, PALOMA FAITH, PINKPANTHERESS, RACHEL CHINOURIRI, RINA SAWAYAMA, RIZ AHMED, SAMPHA & MORE

 

A message from Brian Eno:

 

I’ve had the good fortune to work with some of the world’s most remarkable artists for over 50 years. But I regret that during that time so many of us have remained silent about Palestine. Often that silence has come from fear - real fear - that speaking out could provoke a backlash, close doors or end a career.

 

But that’s now changing - partly because some artists and activists have lit the path, but mostly because the truth of what’s going on has become impossible to ignore.

 

What we are witnessing in Gaza isn’t a mystery, and neither is it a blur of competing narratives making it ‘hard to understand’.

 

When dozens of non-partisan organisations like Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders describe it as genocide, the moral line is clear.

 

We can’t remain silent.

 

Which is why I’m helping to organise Together for Palestine — a night of music, reflection and hope at OVO Arena Wembley on 17th September.

 

My sincere belief is that this evening can become a moment of courage where artists come together to speak the truth in their hearts - which is what we trust artists to do. Whether on stage or by video from around the world, this is a chance for us to stand together and say: this can’t continue.

 

Together we can raise millions in urgently needed aid for families in Gaza. Every penny donated will go to Palestinian partners through Choose Love, a UK charity supporting local humanitarians in conflict zones.

 

But this is about more than just money. It’s about sending a message of love and solidarity to the people of Palestine — that they haven’t been forgotten.

 

We see them, we hear them, and though we may be far away, we’re deeply connected — as we are to all humanity.

 

Please join us on 17th September.

 

Together, for Palestine.

 

100% of the ticket price (excluding all additional fees) will be paid to Choose Love (charity number 1177927) with every penny going to support Palestinian-led organisations providing humanitarian relief

 

https://www.axs.com/uk/events/1075988/together-for-palestine-tickets?skin=wembley

A tale of two Full Council motions affecting attitudes to Brent's diversity community and social cohesion

 

 

Wembley Matters recently covered a tale of two motions tabled for Monday's Full Council Meeting. LINK.

Brent Liberal Democrats  had called on the Conservative Group to withdraw a debate motion on migration with a focus on hotels housing asylum seekers.  Lorber argued for withdrawal because of the motion’s potential to undermine good community relations. He told Wembley Matters, ' The last thing Brent needs is incitement to protest outside any of the local hotels used and make the poor people inside fear for their lives.'

Before the Tory motion became public the Lib Dems had tabled  a motion Standing United against Racism and Xenophobia in Brent.

The Conservative Group refused to withdraw.

Labour tabled a 'friendly' amendment to the Lib Dem motion which the Lib Dems accepted. LINK What raised eyebrows was that the Conservatives supported the amended motion that was passed unanimously. A rare occurence of cross-party cooperation in defence of Brent's diversity and social cohesion.

The Conservative Motion Deterrence, Integration and Accommodation Impacts of IllegalImmigration on Brent was due to be discussed later and we wondered if it would be withdrawn in the light of the unanamity established and the recent far-right demonstration in London.

Not so, The Conservatives put their motion, and although some of the group seemed a little uneasy, the result was the debate you can see in the video extract above. 

 

 

 

Save the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre closure petition presented - a further Council response awaited

 

From Brent Coucil's promotional video about the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre

I made the presentation below to Brent Full Council this evening. Cllr Grahl, lead member for schools was not present but promised to respond later to my points. Cllr Krupa Sheth, lead member for the Environment did not respond at all and it was left to Cllr Benea in charge of the capital project, a new build for a 16+SEND building, to answer the petition. 

However, the petition was not about the building, except that it should accommodate the Welsh Harp Environmental Centre's activities, and  she could not answer on the climate change, education or partnership questions.  Cllr Mary Mitchell made an intervention that was positive about the work of the Centre and its essential nature at a time of a climate and Ecological emergency. Cllr Lorber drew attention to my main point about the need for primary provision as well as 16+SEND in the new building and suggested the use of Neighbourhood CIL.

THE PRESENTATION 

This is what I said:

I am Martin Francis, ex-teacher, headteacher and LEA school governor. Petition supported by Brent Parks Forum and Brent Friends of the Earth. Despite operating during the school holiday the petition has 487 signatures.

 

People on my allotment have noticed a silence. This is the lack of excited chatter as crocodiles of primary children visiting the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre pass nearby.

 

We miss them, and surely the children will miss their visits.

 

The Centre has closed since Thames21 withdrew funding at the end of the Summer Term.

 

David Attenborough famously asked how it would be possible to motivate our children to fight to save nature, if they had never experienced it at first hand. It is not just a matter of scientific knowledge but of the experiential awe and wonder involved.

 

This generation of children will face the daunting task of tackling the climate and ecological emergency. The Centre had an important role in enabling our children to do just that and worked with up to 300 pupils a week. The vast majority of our primary schools do not have the grounds to match the experience offered by the woodlands and ponds of the Centre.

 

The Brent Climate and Ecological Emergency Strategy 2021-2030 recognised the importance of the Centre and said:  

 

QUOTE  ‘The council has secured funding to improve the Educational Centre on the site, to bring residents, schools and communities closer to nature and to help improve biodiversity’

 

Brent Cabinet May 22^nd  2023 agreed post -16 SEND Provision in a new building on the site saying:

 

QUOTE:  The proposal would enable the Environmental Education programme to schools to continue to be delivered as part of the wider building use alongside the Post-16 horticultural use.

 

However, at the Joint Welsh Harp Consultative Committee, Leslie Williams for Brent Council said:

 

 QUOTE that the building would be ‘fully utilised during curriculum time by the post 16 provision’ and only available for other groups outside of that time. An excellent building has been designed but has it space for a primary classroom.

 

The Capital Projects team gave a resident a long list of organisations consulted about the new building but primary schools were missing.

 

The loss-making aspect of the Centre was cited as a reason for Thame21’s withdrawal. Part of that loss was down to the high heating and maintenance costs of the dilapidated cabin classrooms and will be addressed by a shared new building.

 

I alongside others took part in bringing together a consortium to use the building outside of school hours that could be a reliable income stream to help subsidise the Centre which was charging a fee of £5 per pupil per session to schools at the point of closure. The staff salary will be the main cost.

 

The petition calls on the council to undertake a full scoping exercise to find a new organisation to run the centre, perhaps local industry such as Careys to enhance their green credentials or a voluntary organisation such as the Canal and Rivers Trust.

 

So, we need three assurances from the lead member who responds to this petition:

 

1.     That the Environmental Education Centre will have space in the new building.

 

2.     That the council will make an all-out effort, fuelled by a passionate commitment to environmental education and the urgent need to address the climate and ecological emergency, to find a new partner to run the WHEEC.

 

 

3.     That the curriculum and activities offered by the Centre will continue to enrich the science curriculum on life processes and living things with first-hand experience.

 

 

I finished by remarking that the Mayor, Cllr Ryan Hack, had probably attended the Centre as a child 20 years ago!

 

A welcome innovation by the Mayor, following a request by Philip Grant, was to allow councillors to  comment on the petitions heard tonight. A little more democracy if councillors have the courage to say what they really think.