Further concern that Brent Planning Department is not fit for purpose

Further to the concerns expressed by the Queen's Park Area Residents Association about the efficient running of Brent Council's Planning Department LINK in the wake of the departure of Andy Bates and Stephen Weeks, residents in Roe Green are also feeling frustrated as they challenge Powerleague Lucuzade's bid to build a facility on Kingsbury High School playing fields. LINK

Residents last Wednesday sent a 40 page document over apparent 'errors and omissions' in the Powerleague planning application to the Planning Department asking for urgent clarification. No response so far and the statutory consultation period is due to end on April 28th.

The planning office for the application is on leave until early May which makes it unlikely that the 501 consultees will get a considered response.

A further issue is that residents complain that their comments are not being registered on the Department's Planning Portal, even when they get over the initial hurdle of the website stating, 'Comments may not be submitted at this time.'   Email request for this to be removed have been ignored.

Those who did manage have received messages that their comments have been cut sort or timed out. A resident following up the problem was told that officers may not read comments thought to be too long.

It is alleged that residents telephoning Brent Council about the application have been discouraged from making a comment on the basis that the schools needs the money and therefore the application will probably go through.

Residents are also concerned that the Statutory Notice of 19th April  may be invalid as it was signed off by Stephen Weeks who left the Council some time ago.

Meanwhile Cllr Sam Stopp has met with residents over the 'Twin Towers' proposal for Wembley central that was approved by the Planning Committee.

Stopp told the Kilburn Times:

The Council not for the first time, didn't proactively engage the local community and a lot of residents living near the site came through with concerns that they weren't aware of this application.

There was a general sense that things were being decided behind closed doors rather than in an open way.

There are questions to be made about who is making decisions about which planning application goes ahead. What causes the the decision made at planning to be made? Is it just on the merits of the scheme or are there political angles there as well?

That's something I'm investigating more.

He took to Twitter after his surgery discussion with residents to say he had formally requested a  town hall-style meeting on the 'Twin Towers' issue.

How the reduced Overall Benefit Cap will impact on Brent residents

A report going to Brent Council Scrutiny Committee tomorrow demonstrates how the lowering of the Overall Benefit Cap (OBC) to £23,000 will impact on residents, with a particularly severe impact on single parents and single people.

According to the report the impact  of the cap so far

...in Brent has been lower than initially anticipated, although it has still had significant impacts. Among these, the relocation of families outside of Brent has been high profile, but affects only a minority of OBC cases (22 in 2015/16); there are generally broader factors including the wider welfare reforms (especially Local Housing Allowance caps) and the lack of affordable accommodation in Brent which have impacted on homelessness and the need to rehouse families outside the borough; OBC itself has played a relatively small part in this and the majority of resolved cases have been through employment.

  Lone parents represented over half (53%) of the cases capped and households with dependants accounted for over 77% of all cases. Single claimants were less likely to be capped as they were likely to be living in smaller properties and so entitled to less benefit. In terms of ethnicity, claimants from the black ethnic group were disproportionately impacted by the OBC, relative to their proportion of the overall Housing Benefit  caseload.

  The council currently has just under 3,000 households living in temporary accommodation, the fourth highest in the country, and including over 5,000 children. This includes the use of expensive and unsuitable Bed & Breakfast accommodation, hostel accommodation with shared facilities, and other nightly paid accommodation which is not fully covered by Housing Benefit and is subsidised by the Council at an unsustainable cost.

  Efforts to reduce the number of households in temporary accommodation are made more difficult by the lack of social housing lets and the difficulty and expense of securing affordable private rented sector accommodation at LHA level rents.

  The effect of austerity and public sector cuts generally means that the Council is now less able to take an interventionist approach with affected claimants and the new Welfare Reform Strategy reflects a greater need to work together with partners, with the Council fulfilling more of a strategic and co-ordinating role, though there will still be intervention on a targeted basis towards the most vulnerable claimants; however, there will be a greater expectation on non- vulnerable claimants to take responsibility for their own outcomes (with appropriate signposting). [my emphasis] Finally the Council’s limited discretionary funding will have to stretch further and therefore provide less of a safety net for residents in future

The reduced cap will exacerbate an already difficult situation:

However, the planned lowering of the Cap from Autumn 2016 will present greater challenges to a larger number of claimants; in particular single people will be impacted who will generally not be statutorily homeless if they present to the Council, so there is potential for increased sofa-surfing, street sleeping, mental health and related social issues. The lowering of the cap elsewhere in the country will even make relocating out of London a less viable option. 


A comparison of the two charts below demonstrates the impact:

Click on charts to enlarge

 The table below shows the new limits per week.  Greater London rates apply in Brent.

The table below shows the Council's Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) in 2015-16

 

The Council's DHP budget has been reduced from £4.8m in 2013-14 in 2013-14 to £2.6m in 2015-16 .

The full report can be found HERE

Should Brent Labour have a council funded premises as its election campaign HQ?

A message has gone out to members from the Labour Party asking, 'If you're free to volunteer on polling day, let us know which campaign centre you will join.'

One of the centres listed is:

Campaign Centre - Brent (Peel Precinct)
21-23 Peel Precinct,
NW6 5BS

This address, on the South Kilburn estate, is in fact that of the South Kilburn Community Alliance which is part funded by Brent Council.

Surely it is wrong for a premises associated with the Council to be used for party political purposes. The call to Labour Party members says the campaign centre will be open from 9am to 10pm.

Memorial Fund set up for Leon Brumant

I have received this message via Facebook. Readers may wish to donate to the Memorial Fund that has been set up for Leon Brumant.

Hi All,

Our friend, brother, son, colleague and comrade passed away on the 22/04/2016.

Those who knew Leon, would agree with me when I say that he was the true definition of strength and solidarity.  Leon was the go to guy. He had the answers for everyone, and if he didnt he would find them for you.

I worked with Leon, even more so closeley as he enticed me into becoming more proactive with my beliefs and ideas on unity. We spoke on many occassions, over coffee, in meetings, in work of the importance of unity. He had an amazing aura that would be hard to ignore.He was a staunch fighter when it came to debating, many a time I was left on the sidelines whilst he would passionately defend his beliefs.

Leon leaves behind a family, and a beautiful daughter.

I urge all reading, to unite in the name of Leon's legacy..continue his fight for social justice...remember him as the strong, loving, funny and kind man he was.

I am raising money for Leon's mother to decide on its best use. This could be used towards funeral costs, for his daughter or a memorial for Leon - again, I felt the best would be to allow Leons mother to decide. I have spoken to Jon Abdullah who has kindly agreed to pass the money on.

No amount is too small, no amount is too big. Let's share the love we had for Leon, unite and continue his presence in our actions and beliefs.


One love all.

Sham

Donate HERE

'Almost overnight our school became a brutal exam factory' - Rescue Our Schools speaker

This passionate speech was made by a parent at the Parents Defending Education conference at the weekend. It sums up the limitations of the academy model which the government wants to impose on all schools.

Thanks to Rescue Our Schools for this video:  http://www.rescueourschools.co.uk/

Brent Labour Group should do the decent thing for an ex-colleague

I don't feel it is appropriate to go into detail at this juncture but I hear of a troubling situation in local politics.

Ex-colleagues and friends of a former Brent Labour councillor have been distressed that the Labour Group, despite funds being available, have not done the decent thing for a councillor who served loyally for 6 years.

Some members of the Labour Group are extremely upset about this matter are and are calling for a compassionate response from the leadership.

'Parent Power' campaign to withdraw children from school on May 3rd for a day of 'fun learning' gathers support

Let Kids be Kids is a social media campaign by parents who intend to withdraw their children from  school on May 3rd in protest against the SATs and the impact that the new tests are having on their children, as well as a more general protest against the government's White Paper on education.

At this point it is impossible to say how much support the strike call will have but it is certainly a concern shared by many parents as well as teachers.

22,000 have signed their petition to Nicky Morgan LINK

We want an end to SATs... we want our kids to be kids again.
We're encouraging parents to show Parent Power by keeping their children off school IN SUPPORT of a SATs boycott on TUESDAY 3RD MAY.

Why is this important?

We're a group of Year 2 parents who've had enough... enough of endless testing, enough of teachers not being trusted to teach, enough of an Ofsted driven, dull, dry curriculum aimed solely at passing National Curriculum Tests (SATs).

We want our kids to be kids again and enjoy learning for learning's sake not for Ofsted results or league table figures. Bring back the creativity and the fun - say goodbye to repetition and boredom!

In May, children in Year 2 sit a whole week's worth of exams.. these children are 6 or 7 years old!!! All year their curriculum has been centred around comprehension and arithmetic in order to pass these tests. Outdoor learning has decreased, childhood anxiety has increased, games have been replaced with grammar, playing with punctuation.

Parents all over the country are joining forces on 3rd May for a day of fun learning out of school to show support for a SATS boycott and a return to teacher led assessments which value individuality and creativity in the school setting.

The video above was recorded at yesterday's Parents Defending Education launch

https://letthekidsbekids.wordpress.com/let-kids-be-kids-events-happening-on-3rd-may/

https://www.facebook.com/parentssupportteachers/?fref=ts

Race and Mental Health Talk Stirs Emotions

Dr Burke with Brent Mind CEO and BPV Steering Group members.
L-R Byron Miller, Dr Aggrey Burke, Peter Latham, Phil Sealy, Irwin Van Colle, Ruth Bradshaw, Lola Osikoya, Robin Sharp CB.

 

 

Deep emotions were stirred when consultant psychiatrist, Dr Aggrey Burke, addressed a public meeting in Brent on Race and Mental Health last Tuesday 19^th April 2016.

Dr Burke, former senior lecturer and consultant psychiatrist at St George’s Hospital, London, was speaking at the Learie Constantine Centre, Willesden, at an event sponsored by Brent Mind and Brent Patient Voice.

Recalling his origins in Jamaica and his coming to England in the late fifties, Aggrey Burke reflected on race, ethnicity, class and trauma as a deep background to the well known statistics which show that young black men may be five times more likely to be diagnosed with severe schizophrenia than similar men from other groups. In spite of a lifetime studying these issues he felt there were no easy explanations - or quick remedies - in sight.

He suggested that slavery and the estate culture which it promoted, along with weak family structures, were possibly relevant. At the same time he revealed figures which showed marked differences according to where and when migrants from the Caribbean were educated. He was unsure whether it was useful to bracket arrivals from far-separated islands as if one ethnicity - “Afro-Caribbean” - explained everything.

His talk provoked a lively and highly serious discussion, noting how some young people had progressed through education to very successful careers, while others still faced enormous challenges which the mental health system was struggling to address.

The 60-strong audience also heard about Brent Mind’s ARISE project on this same topic and the film Behind the Locked Door which is about to have its premiere.

During the evening Brent Patient Voice, the new independent group that speaks for patients to the health service powers that be, held its first AGM and elections.

See www.bpv.org.uk