Scrutiny calls for Wembley Ambulance Station closure to be paused and a formal statutory consultation undertaken on the plans

 Standing Orders were suspended at the Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee this evening to allow for a discussion of the plans to close Wembley Ambulance Station on December 1st - next Tuesday. London Ambulance Service managers attended.

They told the Committee that Wembley was called an ambulance station but was basically a garage from which ambulance were prepared for the road. They claimed it was not fit for purpose and that the site was down for regeneration by NHS Property Services. It was not a health care setting or health care provision as such. 99% of ambulance respones were provided on the road on a 24 hour basis. The closure had made no impact on response times, which were in fact better and comfortably met targets for Grade 1 call-outs.

It had been closed since March under changes due to Covid and formal closure would take place on December 1st.

The LAS spokespeople were challenged on the lack of consultation which councillors claimed was a statutory requirement, the contradiction of saying it was already closed while also stating that it would close next week, the lack of a Equalities Impact Assessment, response times bound to be better because of lack of traffic in lockdown and the closure of Wembley Stadium, closure being nothing to do with improving the service but NHS Property cashing in on an asset, and its impact could not be considered alone as other ambulance stations in North West and West London were also earmarked for closure.

A clearly dissatisified committee recoemmnded that the formal closure should be paused and that London Ambulance Service should embark on proper statutory public engagement and consultation on the proposal.

After the meeting a member of the union told Wembley Matters that although the discussion was brief they thought it went well.

Brent Trades Council will be discussing the closure and possible action at its meeting on Wednesday November 25th.

Good to see Brent Scrutiny doing its job well.

Wembley Ambulance Station Dec 1st closure to be discussed at Scrutiny tonight

I understand that the suspension of standing orders will be moved at Brent Commmunity and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee tonight to take an emergency item on the proposed closure of Wembley Ambulance Station on December 1st.  The proposal only came to light on Friday without any of the necessary public consultation.

The Scrutiny Commitee can be viewed from 6pm on this link https://brent.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/523448

Achievement of Brent's Black Caribbean Boys rises but more to be done to reach the highest level

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The lag in achievement of British Black Caribbean Boys compared with their peers has been a nagging issue in education since at least the 1970s.  Historically there have been problems such as disproportionate numbers of Black Caribbean Boys labelled as ESN (Educationally Subnormal) highlighted by Bernard Coard (1971); disproportionate numbers allocated to Disruptive Units, often known as 'sin bins', both on and off school premises (National Association for Multi-racial Education 1979-81); the need and for, and position of black teachers, and the ongoing issue of disportionate  numbers permanently excluded from  school - often now seen as 'off-rolling': pupils removed from school rolls just before examinations to boost a school's position in the league tables. All addressed as examples of institutionalised racsim.

Throughout these decades there has been a response from the black community which included black parent movements in many areas of the country, supplementary Saturday schools and ongoing campaigns over allocation of black boys to non-examination streams, racist stereotyping, a euro-centric curriculum and much else. The passion that Brent's black community has for education, and concern over under-achievement was very evident at the recent huge public meeting over the future of Bridge Park. The link between that concern and the way the community felt they had been treated was clear.

Brent responded back in 1986 with the Development Programme for Racial Equality (DPRE) which faced a vociferous hostile media campaign about 'race spies' in schools. A further attempt to deal with the issue in 1991 based on  a Warwick University Report 'Creating Equity'  which recommended a race relations policy to the Council, resulted in a rowdy debate that led to a rebuke to councillors from the then Chief Executive Charles Wood:

Without exception it is fait to say we are stunned by the divisions encouraged and emphasised in the comments made and in particular the repeated attacks on individuals and groups of officers.

The night before I listened to the Brent Schools Music Festival - 450 children from all tehnic groups revelling in the sheer delight of sharing their distinct cultures.

It is difficult to relate the debate that followed to the reality of life in Brent today.

To its credit, given that history,  Brent Council decided to again grasp this nettle two years ago with the Back Caribbean Boys Achievement Project which saw 'champions' designated in most Brent schools to seek ways of addressing the under-achievement issues and meet  key targets in 'closing the gap' between the boys and their peers. The boys were the only group in Brent schools that had been significantly under-performing over the last three years. There are 1,810 boys of Black Caribbean heritage in Brent schools, 4% of the school population. The project, led by the Brent Schools Partnership, has set up a portal for parents as a resource to support their child and families in this endeavour. Parents who would like access should approach their children's school.

Thankfully in a period when Black Lives Matter has taken centre stage the project has not attracted press hostility.

A report to be discussed at tonight's Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee sets out the overall context of Brent schools and the progress made in closing the gap. You can see the web broadcast of the 6pm meeting  HERE.

The diverse nature of Brent’s population poses a range of challenges for schools, the most significant of which include the integration of pupils arriving late to the UK education system, high general mobility, language development needs and deprivation. This diversity is not a fixed picture but rather there are rapid changes to the population. A very high proportion of pupils have English as an Additional Language (65 per cent) and a large proportion of under 16s were born outside the United Kingdom, many starting formal education in England much later than their peers, often with little or no English, and sometimes with no experience of any formal education. The largest spoken first languages other than English are: Gujarati (nine per cent), Arabic (eight per cent), Somali (six per cent), Romanian (five per cent), Urdu (three per cent), Tamil (three per cent), Portuguese (three per cent) and Polish (two per cent).

In addition to new arrivals, socio-economic pressures placed on many of Brent’s families combined with a housing stock which relies heavily on privately rented accommodation, contribute to relatively high levels of pupil turnover in many of our schools. The proportion of Brent pupils who are disadvantaged is 24 per cent. There is a higher proportion of pupils identified as disadvantaged in the secondary phase (28 per cent).

The tables below show that the work of individual schools within the project has had a real impact with British Black Caribbean Boys achieving nearer and sometimes above the national average at the expected level, but the percentage at the higher level lagging.  Addressing this is now the focus of the project. Te help you make sense of the tables BBCH stands for Black Boys of Caribbean Heritage. LA is Local Authotiyy (Brent) Figures in green are a positive gap (above the national level) and red a negative gap (below). Key Stage 1 will now be a focus given these statistics. It is important to compare the outcomes  of each group both with the national figure for that group and the Brent (LA) and National figures for all pupils.

The full report is HERE

Cllr Kennelly joins Brent Planning Committe, Cllr Saqib Butt nominated on i4B & First Wave Housing Boards

 

Changes to be voted on at tonight's Full Council Meeting. Cllr Saqib Butt is the leader of the Council's brother.

Two important St Raphael's Estate zoom meetings this week - infill or redevelopment?

Unfortunately this video has only had 4 views since it was postws on October 27th

 

The final November meetings on the St Raphael Estate 'infill or redevelopment' issue take place  this week on  zoom:

PPCR & St Raphael's Voice:

• Tuesday 24 November 2020, 6-8pm

Click here to join the meeting.

Use the meeting ID 854 657 8943 and password Straphs22

 

 

Brent Council & St Raphael's Voice:

• Thursday 26 November 2020, 11am - 1pm

Click here to join the meeting.

Use the meeting ID 819 6597 5967 and password 1j8EVi

Useful documents:

• Masterplan Proposals & Design Code Summary (.pdf, 8.14MB)
• Timeline (.pdf, 734.0kB)

 

 

Wembley's 'Helter Skelter' surrounded by scaffolding as remedial works get underway

 

With lockdown impacting on student numbers cladding remedial work is going on at the Victoria Hall stduent accommodation in North End Road.  Victoria Hall was one of the first new buildings, not quite 10 years ago, in the area and its design made quite an impact and earned the name 'the helter skelter.'

It is 19 storeys at the highest point, with 3 modular wings.  The modules were installed at the rate of 7 a day providing 435 bedrooms.  It was designed by Peter Dann and constructed by John Doyle Construction. They boasted that it took only 16 months to build.

Victoria Hall under construction (from the Bridge Road ramp)

North End Road is currently cut off from the ramp and stairs that descend from Bridge Road as the road is being reconnected with Bridge Road.  There were complaints from students on a now defunct Facebook site 'The Truth About Victoria Hall, Wembley' about the  4am to 1am noise from the Metropolitan and Jubilee lines - now there will be a through road at the front of the building.

 There are currently several thousand student beds in the Wembley Park area.  They were seen as achieving a better rate of return on the investment than family accommodation:

 The remedial work must be costings thousands so perhaps not a great investment.

 

Light industry disappears in Wembley Park as regeneration expands the boundaries

A decade or so ago when plans for Wembley Park regeneration  were at the beginning stage, Brent Green Party suggested that a section of the land should be set aside for a 'green enterprise zone' with subsidised start up business rates.  Such a zone would concentrate on developing the products needed to cope with climate change and would work closely with the College of North West London and other further and higher education institutions to provide training and apprenticeships.  We warned that employment in retail, apart from being low paid, relied on rampant consumerism.  As the area developed hospitality, with similar drawbacks, has also been developed in the restaurants and pubs in the area.  Both of course are also threatend by Covid19 restrictions, although of course we couldn't forsee that. The building boom in the area was promised to provide jobs for 10-20 years although they may not all go to local people.

The area around the stadium had a lot of light industry which provided local employment but that is gradually disappearing as regeneration reaches out its tentacles along the roads around the stadium.  Two storey sites and warehouses are gobbled up to build high-rise rented flats and student accommodation - and who can blame the owners for selling up?

People used to complaint that the stadium was in the middle of an industrial estate - now they complain it is in the middle of a housing estate. Good town planning could surely have provided something better in the way of both housing and jobs for lcoal people.

In the photographs below you can see the survivors nestled at the foot of the blocks - you have to look very hard in some cases.

I thought it worth recording the transition for the record.

All Brent Healthy Neighbourhood schemes are expected to be operational by mid-December

There is an ongoing debate on local social media on the Healthy Neighbourhood proposals. Monday's Full Council Agenda inccludes this question and answer on the scheme:

Question from Councillor Janice Long to Councillor Shama Tatler, Lead Member for Regeneration, Property and Planning:

In May 2020 the Government published statutory guidance in response to the Covid-19 pandemic stressing the urgent need to reallocate road space to facilitate safe social distancing and embolden residents to walk and cycle during and after the pandemic.

Similar schemes across London have decreased levels of air pollution and increased the life expectancy of their residents; taking inspiration from these, Brent Council is delivering on its plans to create more Healthy Neighbourhood schemes, to reduce traffic on residential streets and encourage sustainable modes of transport to address our climate change commitments.

In light of a new national lockdown, will the Lead Member for Regeneration, Property and Planning provide an update on the roll-out of the Healthy Neighbourhood’s scheme and apprise full Council of the work undertaken to facilitate feedback from residents; bolster communications; and engage local people on the future benefit of these schemes in their areas?

Response:

As members will be aware, we have implemented (5) Healthy Neighbourhoods schemes using Experimental Traffic Orders with notification letters sent to residents explaining the aims of the schemes and encouraging the community to provide their comments during the trial period as well as informing that the schemes would be evaluated after six months of implementation. This was necessary to meet TfL and DfT requirements to deliver these schemes quickly and a similar approach has been taken by many other London boroughs.

This is a significant variation of the usual process used by the Council for highway improvement schemes, and unfortunately, while it has always been our intention to engage with the local community, this resulted in some misconceptions that schemes would be made permanent without taking fully into consideration their views. Due to the number of objections that we were receiving, and as we were awaiting guidance from TfL on access for the emergency services, schemes were paused in September.

Further to the Extraordinary meeting of the Full Council on 16th October to discuss Healthy Neighbourhood schemes, we have focussed on improving communications and engagement with our communities and a collaborative approach.

A community engagement plan has been drafted which sets out our approach to providing information and regular updates to residents and stakeholders, and listening to their feedback.

The plan includes;

Web pages – We have reviewed and will bolster information on the Brent Council website; www.brent.gov.uk/activetravel which will be used as a hub for providing up to date information to residents and stakeholder groups. This will be regularly refreshed with new meeting dates, monitoring data and materials.

Resident updates - In addition to the formal consultations, hosted on Brent’s consultation hub, residents in affected areas will also receive information letters / questionnaires 2, 4, and 6 months after the new measures go in, as well as on their introduction. A Cabinet Member covering letter will also be provided explaining the reasons for the introduction of these schemes, how they support the strategic objectives to respond to climate change, improve air quality and public health. This will allow us to track whether and how resident’s views change as the trial progresses, as these schemes often take time to become fully effective (as travel habits adapt).

We will also hold monthly meetings with ward councillors and residents for each area where a scheme has been implemented, throughout the six-month trial period. This shall include socially distanced walkabouts where needed to discuss the scheme operation and suggested improvements. We are also looking at the option of procuring community engagement specialists to support these sessions and to ensure they are useful for residents.

Information leaflets - We have produced an information leaflet to be included in the documents sent to residents, which provides further information on the aim of these schemes, how they are beneficial and information on traffic congestion and emergency service access to address concerns.

Improved signage - We will improve signage around the closures, including advanced warnings of the closures on approach to the road to reduce the amount of traffic driving up to the barriers and turning, as well as temporary explainer signs to explain the new measures and signposting people to the consultation using a QR code and green ‘active travel welcome here’ signs on planters.

Officers have recently received feedback from the London Ambulance Service and made amendments to remove lockable bollard closures to two of the schemes:

(i) PM 26 - Dollis Hill Area; Oxgate Gardens, concerns raised as route used by ambulances travelling to Health Centre – The closures to be implemented without lockable bollards only plastic barriers to be used, CCTV at a later date.

(ii) PM 32 - South of Princes Avenue Area; Berkley Road and Brampton Road Kingsbury, concerns raised about potential traffic on Kingsbury Road. The closures to be implemented without lockable bollards, when CCTV cameras can be installed.

Officers continue to liaise regularly with the London Ambulance Service, with fortnightly meetings arranged as well as the MPS and Fire Services during the experimental period.

The Healthy Neighbourhoods programme will now resume in two phases:

(i) For the 5 Healthy Neighbourhoods schemes that have already been implemented, but are not fully operational, we are aiming to send out residents update letters and information leaflets the week commencing the 16th November with additional bollards and signs installed the week commencing the 23rd November.

(ii) For the remaining Healthy Neighbourhoods schemes, notification letters and information leaflets are planned for the week commencing the 23rd November with implementation the week commencing 4th December.

It is therefore envisaged that all schemes will be fully operational by Mid- December.