NEW DATE: FEB 21st Love, Fame & Showbusiness with Susie Boyt

See Copland/Ujima proposals on Saturday 10-2 at SEIDs Hub. Wembley

From Your Shout agency

As a reminder we will be at the Social Innovation and Enterprise Hub (SEIDs) on Empire Way, Wembley HA9 0RJ on Saturday 16th February, 10.00 – 14.00. Drop in to see how the proposals for the former Copland School and Ujima House sites on Wembley High Road have progressed since our last event.

Once you arrive at SEIDs please follow the signs to find us (see picture attached).

We hope to see you on Saturday!

Brent Cabinet presses ahead with Bridge Park plans despite huge community opposition

Artist's impression of the replacement Bridge Park

You wouldn't know about the massive community opposition to Brent Council's seizure of the Bridge Park Complex site from the local community, the massive opposition to their plans witb a dodgy off-shore company, or the forthcoming High Court action if you take Brent Council's complacent Press release at face value.

All is well in Brent Council's fairy land!

Here is the press release as published on the Council website:

Plans to create a community hub on the Bridge Park site are now one a step closer after the council's cabinet last night (Monday 11 February) agreed to an enhanced proposal for the Stonebridge site. 

The new plan sets out to offer better leisure facilities, including a 6 lane pool, flexible business spaces, a café, accommodation and more.

The New Bridge Park Centre will have:

• A six lane swimming pool with a moveable floor
• Modern community facilities including 2 function halls and meeting rooms - more than twice the size of current provision
• Flexible business space to support local enterprise
• 72 space car park
• Up to 104 new homes to help vulnerable residents live independently
• 4 Court Sports Hall
• Sauna & steam rooms
• Bigger Fitness Gym with up to 100 stations
• Children's Soft Play Area & Party Room
• A new Clip & Climb
• Café Area
• Studios
• Spin Studio
• Changing Facilities
• Toning Suite
• Consultation Rooms

Cllr Krupesh Hirani, Cabinet Member for Public Health, Culture & Leisure, said: "I am pleased that these enhanced plans have been approved by cabinet and delighted that residents could soon get to enjoy a local swimming pool, better community facilities and modern flexible business spaces.

"We are a step closer to delivering a hub that caters for the needs of residents now and in the future. Brent has a growing and aging population and the new independent living homes in this proposal together with the additional housing that the neighbouring Unisys buildings will bring, once rebuilt, with help many residents."

For more information about the proposal visit: www.brent.gov.uk/bridgepark

-->

Northwick Park Community Garden a step nearer as they win CIL funding

The vision of a community garden in Northwick Park has taken a step forward and is good news, even though a drop in the ocean, in a week when we have read about the imminent demise of the insect population,

The group made this announcement on Facebook:

We are delighted to be able to announce that we have been successful in our application for Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) funding. We received the fantastic news today. A huge thank you to all those who have supported our application, and shared our vision of making a Community Garden in Northwick Park for everyone to enjoy. We are looking forward to making our little part of the world a better place to be!

Facebook site HERE

Video: Ex-soldiers speak out on the cost of war and how their experience made them peace activists

Brent Stop the War has held meetings and demonstrations about the cost of war in terms of victims' deaths, infrastructure destruction, environmental disaster and creation of refugees as well as the financial cost to the economy. Last night's meeting was rather different as we heard first-hand from ex-soldiers whose experience of war has made them into peace activists.

Both speakers are members of Veterans for Peace (UK) but made it clear that they were not speaking on behalf of the organisation but as individual members. VfP (UK) are not a pacifist organisation although some members may be. They believe the country has to be defended but object to counter-productive, dehumanising foreign wars.

The first speaker is Julio Torres, a New Yorker who was in the US army for eleven years including a year in Iraq.  Ben Griffin, the second speaker and founder of Veterans for Peace (UK) served in Northern Ireland, Macedonia, Afghanistan  and Iraq. He was released from the British army after refusing to serve under American command.

Both speakers were open and honest in a meeting which at times became very emotional creating a great bond between the speakers and the audience.

Brent Cabinet approves Knowles House, Harlesden, development

From a Brent Council Press Release

Brent Council's Cabinet has approved a £28 million project in Harlesden to create much-needed social housing together with a new community centre. 

The report to Cabinet laid out plans for Wates Residential to start work on redeveloping Knowles House in Longstone Avenue, with a completion date anticipated during the winter of 2021. 
The works will see the demolition of the existing buildings on the site and the construction of 149 new homes alongside a community centre. 

Cllr Eleanor Southwood, Lead Member for Housing and Welfare Reform, said: "Our Knowles House redevelopment will help homeless residents move away from bed and breakfast accommodation and into more settled and secure homes." 

The new development will also include homes designed for independent living. 

Cllr Harbi Farah, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, said: "This project will see more homes for people with care needs being housed under Brent's New Accommodation for Independent Living (NAIL) scheme. We aim to support people to live independently for longer and NAIL gives people that freedom and choice." 

This project will attract around £5.7 million in funding from the GLA affordable housing programme. The grant is part of a wider allocation of £65 million awarded to Brent in order to increase the supply of affordable housing in the borough.

Development plans for South Kilburn's Neville House and Carlton House

Ariel view of the present site

The Plans

Brent Council has published (Reference 18/4920) its planning application for Neville House, Carlton House and several neighbouring buildings on the South Kilburn Estate LINK:

Demolition of all existing buildings and erection of a part six, seven, eight, nine, ten and twelve storey building arranged around a courtyard (Western Building) providing 148 units (23 x studios, 53 x 1bed, 50 x 2 bed and 22 x 3bed) including a concierge and residential communal room at ground floor and a part seven, eight, nine and ten storey L shaped building (Eastern Building) providing 116 residential units (60 x 1bed, 38 x 2bed, 16 x 3bed and 2 x 4bed).  Construction of a basement under the Western Building with a car lift and access from Albert Road.  The provision of a shared surface with the extension of Neville Road from Denmark Road to Albert Road, with associated car parking, cycle provision, bin stores, landscaping and ancillary works. | 1-8 INC Neville House & Neville House Garages, Neville Road, 1-64 INC Winterleys and Seahorse Day Nursery, Albert Road, 113-128 Carlton House and Carlton House Hall, Canterbury Terrace London, NW6

As can be seen from  the images above the proposed new development is much denser and with the highest block 10 storeys, much taller. The amount of green space is reduced.

There are only two comments so far on the Planning Portal. One is classified as neutral and is concerned about the amount of car parking that will be available for 264 units. The over makes a number of points:

I strongly object to the current planning applications on the grounds that we will lose, privacy, light and outlook, especially those flats in Swift House that are south facing, looking over Albert Road.

I am the one of these Swift House flats and when I purchased the flat, the Brent council plans to replace Winterley, Neville and Carlton houses were to build 6 storey buildings max, which now have duplicated. This has a negative impact on the neighbourhood as well as on my property.

The main appeal when we purchased our flat was its light, privacy and outlook, which will be heavily diminished with the current planning.

Additionally, I would like to raise concerns about losing existing green spaces, amenity spaces and trees in the areas. The garden land around Neville House and Winterleys House will be replaced with 8 to 12 storey buildings that will make the area packed witch concrete. Also, the huge number of new dwellings will make the zone highly dense and increase the traffic narrow roads in the area.

With this in mind, I would like to object to these plans and ask to reduce the height of the buildings proposed in this plan, to reduce the impact on light and privacy on the surrounding buildings, and to avoid converting an area that now is airy and green into a packed, overbuilt and overcrowded area.

On social housing the Planning Statement claims:

The proposed development provides a 47 % quantum of affordable housing (measured by habitable room), with 100% social rent provision. 


The affordable housing units will be located in the Eastern Building. The provision of 116 socially rented properties represents an uplift of 36 socially rented properties on site compared with the existing provision of 80 social rented properties.
 

The Carlton House site is identified as having an indicative capacity for 66 dwellings, of which 29 for market and 37 affordable; and the Neville / Winterleys site as having capacity for 137 units, of which 61 would be market housing and 76 affordable units.

The Brent Council Forward Plan 15 indicates that the Cabinet on March 11th will discuss a ballot on South Kilburn Estate but gives no further information. The London Mayor has adopted a policy requiring ballots of estate residents affected by regeneration and one is to be held on the St Raphaels proposals.  This followed pressure from within and outside the Labour Party, including that of Geen Assembly Member Sian Berry. Release of Mayoral funding at £100k for each affordable unit and £28k for shared equity is dependent on ballots being held.

Residents will be concerned about the loss of community facilities involved in the proposals. The Planning Statement comments:

The proposed development will result in the loss of Carlton Hall, a 173 m2 community centre and a small community use (106 m2) on the ground floor of Winterley’s House that is currently used by a small nursery. Carlton Hall was previously used by the South Kilburn Trust, however this organisation has now moved to the new Carlton and Granville Centre within the wider South Kilburn estate. Carlton Hall will temporarily be used as a Doctor’s surgery until the 
 neighbouring Peel site is redeveloped where a new Health Centre Hub is being provided for the GP surgery in the longer term. The proposed Western Building will incorporate a small communal space on the ground floor that will be for the building’s residents use. 

It is considered that there is sufficient community use provision in the vicinity of the site which includes Carlton and Granville Nursey, and Carlton Vale Infant School. Within and close to the wider South Kilburn estate there is a range of community facilities. This includes the St Augustine’s Sports Hall (with community access), The Tabot Centre After School Club, The Xhamia e Shqiptareve Community and Cultural Centre and The Vale Community Centre. There are also a range of local sports facilities nearby including Moberly Sports Centre. 


How you can support the YOUTH STRIKE 4 CLIMATE FRIDAY FEBRUARY 15TH



Starting with Greta Thunberg, a 15 year old student, holding a vigil every Friday at the Swedish parliament, in the last six months tens of thousands of school students from Australia to Nairobi to Belgium, Holland and Germany have gone on strike calling for urgent action to avert climate change. This growing global movement deserves the full support of teaching unions. Here’s a video for the first UK strike this Friday - 15^th February.  Just scroll down to the pinned post below the event info and pass it on as widely as you can.  https://www.facebook.com/Strike4Youth/videos/353417158581705/

A representative of the NAHT (heads union) said:

 “Society takes leaps forward when people are prepared to take action. Schools encourage students to develop a wider understanding of the world about them. A day of action like this could be an important and valuable life experience.”

There will be a further global day of action and school students strike on March 15^th. So, while this will start with the most concerned and dedicated young people, it is not going away and all of us have an interest in helping it grow. 

They have also called for a day of action at the DfE between 11am and 3pm on Feb 22^nd - during half term  see below for details and letter to DfE calling on them to urgently overhaul our education system so that it can play its part in creating a sustainable society. Also see below draft resolution for National Education Union districts aiming to amplify student demands.

XR London Action: Climate Truth for Schools February 22^nd (Half-term)

When was the last time you heard school students discussing their lesson on climate change? Exactly, it doesn’t happen.

So, on the 22^nd February, we’re taking this issue right to the heart of the UK school system: the Department of Education. We will demand that those in a position of responsibility face the truth and allow educators to teach it. Please join us. Everyone is very welcome, especially families. 

We have sent them this letter outlining our demands: https://goo.gl/hJY2un. (Also below)

You can help by printing it and sending a copy yourself. If you have children in your family, please add their handprints to the letter (in paint) before you send it. The postal address is: Department for Education, 20 Great Smith St, Westminster, London, SW1P 3BT. Thank you. 



Why are we doing this? 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) just told the world what our future looks like. Yet the science and economics to explain this catastrophe are completely ignored by UK curricula.

While a few independent and specialist schools do address the reality of climate change, most state schools don’t. It might be covered briefly in Geography and touched upon in RE lessons, but most worryingly, the Science curriculum could mention the topic as little as four times across the entire course of secondary education. The message is that climate change and climate science are peripheral and undecided issues. What students are principally taught, by the time they have finished their GCSE courses, is that education is a process of acquiring qualifications for the purpose of some future utility - a future that now looks increasingly damned. 

We believe young people have the right to know how their planet has been poisoned; we believe they should be empowered to face reality. 

Whether you are a student, parent, grandparent, teacher or just someone who cares about education, come and join us on what promises to be a fun day in which we take our concerns to those in power. Families are very, very welcome.

- Schedule for the day to follow.
- If you can make banners/art work/music/sing/wish to speak etc then please make yourself known (post in the discussion). We’ll be organising some artwork sessions nearer to the date.

To the Ministers and Employees of the Department for Education

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) told us last October that we have 12 years to radically change every aspect of society if we are to avoid disaster. Highly regarded scientists, like Peter Wadhams, have highlighted the political restrictedness of the IPCC and the glaring omissions and over-simplifications of its report. We must accept the likelihood that 12 years is a vastly over-generous window of opportunity. We have killed 60% of mammals, birds, reptiles and fish since 1970. Insect populations are collapsing, coral reefs are bleached and dead, natural disasters are worsening, crops are failing, forests are being felled or burning and forced migration is beginning.

If we keep this information out of the public domain – out of schools, for example – perhaps we might avoid some awkward conversations in the years to come. We could say we never knew. After all, who wants to tell a child that, unless we make unprecedented changes to how we live, we are heading for societal collapse, famine, war and the increasing likelihood of human extinction? Telling the truth exposes us to the responsibility of facing it ourselves. Which is exactly why we must tell our children: not simply to inform them (many are far better informed than older generations) but also so that we can be held to account for our own actions. We must follow the example of the brave young people who will, on coming Fridays, be striking from school to demand truth and action.

When we have had the evidence for decades, why does it amount to little more than a footnote in our national curriculum – a vague and marginal concern? Geography lessons cover the basic theory but in the national curriculum for Science the evidence for anthropogenic climate change is described as ‘uncertain’. The issue could be mentioned in as few as four Science lessons in the entire course of secondary education. In academies there may be no mention at all. If not in schools, where should the public learn about where our way of life is taking us? Power knows the value of ignorance. Our Government is increasing subsidies for fossil fuels while presiding over an educational system that effectively denies the consequences of such a policy.

Imagine if we had the courage to make our schools places where students learned how to repair the damage we have caused. If we have the courage to act now they could be the ones to revive our dying soil, regenerate biodiversity and rebuild the ecosystems that sustain us.But we must act now. We must teach students more than just how to pass tests. We must give them the opportunity to discover what is wonderful and life-giving. And we must urgently equip them with the skills, insight and courage to face what is coming. To do otherwise is an act of criminal negligence.

The evidence tells us that any imagined future for which we are currently preparing our young people is a dream that will never be realised. The lives of every one of our children will be defined by the effects of climate and ecological breakdown. We therefore make the following demands:

1.  The ecological and climate crisis is immediately announced as an educational priority.

2.  Well-founded and evidence-based training is provided for teachers to convey this message, including the scientific and economic causes of the crisis, what governments and society need to do about it and also on how to support young people when taking on this information. This should be implemented by no later than September 2019.

3.  An immediate overhaul of the current curriculum, in the light of scientific evidence and without political interference, aimed at preparing children for the realities of their future on this planet.

Please – because we love our children so much – let’s teach them the truth. We await your response with due impatience and loving rage: schoolsforclimatetruth@gmail.com

NEU Resolutions

(Insert name of District here) NEU notes:

1.  The IPCC report of 2018 which identified the urgent need to limit global warming below 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels and the urgency of taking accelerated action within the next 12 years.

2.  The IPCC have identified that currently global emissions put us on track for potentially catastrophic increases of up to 4-5 degrees warming by the ended of the century.

3.  The action taken by Greta Thunberg, a Swedish school student who initiated school student strikes and protest outside the Swedish Parliament to demand urgent action on climate change - #FridaysforFuture. 

4.  Other students strikes including in Australian on Friday 30^th Nov which saw 10,000s of school students strike to demand urgent action on climate change; which are now spreading globally.

5.  That young people in schools and colleges will be in their old age by the end of this century so have a huge stake in what happens to our climate and the actions or otherwise that are taken to urgently reduce emissions to limit warming to 1.5 degrees

6.  The call for a UK school students climate strike on Friday Feb 15^th to coincide with the next #FridaysforFuture school strike called by Greta Thunberg. and the further call for a day of global action on March 15^th.

(insert name of District) NEU resolves to;

1.  Recognise the significance of the school student strikes and support the student demands for the UK government to take urgent action on climate change. 

2.  To ask Head Teachers to take a sympathetic attitude to school student strikes to allow those who want to participate in the protests to attend and to organise assemblies, tutor time, themed learning weeks and other extra-curricular initiatives to discuss the issue of climate change and solutions to it in the weeks leading up to such strikes. 

3.  To call for government to make changes to the school curriculum to ensure that climate change is taught to ensure a deeper understanding of the problem and the solutions to it; thereby meeting their obligations under Article 12 of the Paris Agreement and for the national union to take this matter up in our discussions with the Shadow Education team.

4) To send this resolution to our national executive members with the request that it is discussed at the JEC.