Saturday's film and other events at Preston Community Library

 

Latest events and news from  Preston Community Library

Please see below full details of this week's film, plus a note about other activities at the library.

 

 The Hired Hand - [Certificate 12] Saturday 25th June 2022
For all films, doors open at 7.15pm for 7.30pm start.

The Hired Hand - 1971, USA:
In this film Harry Collings returns home to his farm after drifting with his friend, Arch. His wife, who had given up on him, reluctantly allows him to stay, and soon believes that all will be well again. But then Harry has to make a difficult decision regarding his loyalties and priorities. Directed by Peter Fonda, the film stars Peter Fonda, Verna Bloom and Warren Oates.

Trailer and casting:  
The Hired Hand (1971) - IMDb

Films are free to members [join at the door], but a £4 donation is requested to finance future films and maintain the library.

Also at the library:
Yoga: There are classes at 7pm on Wednesdays and 9.30am on Sundays.  Our tutor is away, but will be back soon.  Please email samantha.warrington.yoga@gmail.com for information. 

Pub Quizzes
Our pub quizzes are back at the Preston pub on the first Monday of every month. In the meantime, for quiz enthusiasts, The Preston is holding its own quiz every Monday, with ours taking over for our monthly fund raising event. Our next quiz is on Monday 4th July.  All Welcome

Italian Conversation classes
These are now online on Saturday mornings.  For information email prestoncommunitylibrary@gmail.com .

How to Find Us
We have moved to Ashley Gardens, which is off Preston Road.  Scroll down for a map.  We are at the end of the cul-de-sac through the gate on the left. There is no car park, so if you are driving please park on Preston Road. For Wembley Stadium event days, parking restrictions apply.  We sometimes have  parking permits for the day, so email us before an event at the library [to prestoncommunitylibrary@gmail.com ] if you will need one.

with regards,
Preston Community Library

LETTER: Beckton Polio alert exposes Brent Council's lack of action on Wealdstone Brook sewage pollution

 Wealdstone Brook at the height of the pollution incident

Dear Editor,

 

Yesterday – Wednesday 22^nd June 2022 – the area around Beckton Sewage Works in NE London has been declared a ‘Major Incident’ because the Polio virus has been detected in the local river water. LINK

 

Raw sewage in the Woodcock Park section of the Wealdstone Brook persisted through to May.

 

If it turns out that water samples were also taken from the Wealdstone Brook (and they should have been given the information now released from the Environment Agency as of yesterday) then Brent Council were negligent to say the least in not declaring the human sewage pollution of the Wealdstone Brook a ‘Major Incident’ as requested by me. 

 

If there were no medical tests of the water for such viruses, then I would regard that a major dereliction of duty from Brent and Harrow Council and the local medical authorities, particularly since we had a zoom meeting with a health official in the Brent and Harrow area regarding just this issue. The water of the Brook was not only chemically toxic and dangerous to human health – it would also certainly contain some potentially very serious viruses and was therefore biologically toxic.

 

How dare they play games with our health let alone the health of children who continued to play in and around this river as it runs through Woodcock Park and no action was taken by the authorities to fence off this river in spite of repeated requests on health and safety grounds from the Friends of Woodcock Park.

 

I am angry, very angry – ignorance is no excuse for the failure to protect the health of residents of Kenton, particularly those that live close to the Wealdstone Brook.

 

John Poole, co-founder of Brook Way Community Diversity Project CIC and member of North West London Rivers Alliance

Refugee Week Event at Kensal Rise Library Sunday June 26th 4pm

 

Poliovirus detected in sewage from North and East London

Brent and Harrow residents who campaigned over the recent raw sewage pollution in the Wealdstone Brook and who warned of the danger to young people will be very concerned to see this press release from the UK  Health Security Agency.

Investigation underway to protect public, who are urged to ensure polio vaccines are up to date, especially parents of young children who may have missed an immunisation opportunity.

The UK Heath Security Agency (UKHSA), working with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), has found poliovirus in sewage samples collected from the London Beckton Sewage Treatment Works.

As part of routine surveillance, it is normal for 1 to 3 ‘vaccine-like’ polioviruses to be detected each year in UK sewage samples but these have always been one-off findings that were not detected again. These previous detections occurred when an individual vaccinated overseas with the live oral polio vaccine (OPV) returned or travelled to the UK and briefly ‘shed’ traces of the vaccine-like poliovirus in their faeces.

Investigations are underway after several closely-related viruses were found in sewage samples taken between February and May. The virus has continued to evolve and is now classified as a ‘vaccine-derived’ poliovirus type 2 (VDPV2), which on rare occasions can cause serious illness, such as paralysis, in people who are not fully vaccinated.

The detection of a VDPV2 suggests it is likely there has been some spread between closely-linked individuals in North and East London and that they are now shedding the type 2 poliovirus strain in their faeces. The virus has only been detected in sewage samples and no associated cases of paralysis have been reported – but investigations will aim to establish if any community transmission is occurring.

The last case of wild polio contracted in the UK was confirmed in 1984. The UK was declared polio-free in 2003.

Dr Vanessa Saliba, Consultant Epidemiologist at UKHSA said:

Vaccine-derived poliovirus is rare and the risk to the public overall is extremely low.

Vaccine-derived poliovirus has the potential to spread, particularly in communities where vaccine uptake is lower. On rare occasions it can cause paralysis in people who are not fully vaccinated so if you or your child are not up to date with your polio vaccinations it’s important you contact your GP to catch up or if unsure check your Red Book. Most of the UK population will be protected from vaccination in childhood, but in some communities with low vaccine coverage, individuals may remain at risk.

We are urgently investigating to better understand the extent of this transmission and the NHS has been asked to swiftly report any suspected cases to the UKHSA, though no cases have been reported or confirmed so far.

Jane Clegg, Chief nurse for the NHS in London said:

The majority of Londoners are fully protected against Polio and won’t need to take any further action, but the NHS will begin reaching out to parents of children aged under 5 in London who are not up to date with their Polio vaccinations to invite them to get protected.

Meanwhile, parents can also check their child’s vaccination status in their Red Book and people should contact their GP surgery to book a vaccination, should they or their child not be fully up to date.

The UK is considered by the World Health Organization to be polio-free, with low-risk for polio transmission due to the high level of vaccine coverage across the population. However, vaccine coverage for childhood vaccines has decreased nationally and especially in parts of London over the past few years, so UKHSA is urging people to check they are up to date with their vaccines.

Wastewater surveillance is being expanded to assess the extent of transmission and identify local areas for targeted action. Healthcare professionals have been alerted to these findings so they can promptly investigate and report anyone presenting with symptoms that could be polio, such as paralysis.

Brent’s Mixed Race and Multi-Racial heritage – a new online exhibition

 Guest post by Philip Grant in a personal capacity

 

Back in January I wrote a guest post, asking whether you could help with “By The Cut of Their Cloth”, a local history project to uncover Brent’s neglected mixed-race histories. Co-curators, Harlesden artist Warren Reilly and Dr Chamion Caballero of The Mixed Museum, were working with Brent Museum & Archives, local volunteers and members of the public. 

 

Their “Being Brent” project was uncovering a fascinating collection of stories, which would be put together in an online exhibition. They hoped to have it ready by late March, but because of the wealth of material uncovered, it only launched online last week. Click on the “link”, and you will discover that it was well worth waiting for!

 

There is a short (and LOUD) introductory video, but I will also mention a few of the stories covered in the exhibition below, to give you a flavour of it.

 

I first heard about “By The Cut of Their Cloth” when I was researching and writing about Ram Singh Nehra and his Welsh wife, who lived in Wembley in the 1930s. Martin published my story about Nehra in three parts last December, and a full accessible version is available in the local history articles section on the Brent Archives “Google Drive”.

 

Ram Singh Nehra with wife Myfanwy and their son, early 1930s. (Courtesy of Tyrone Naylor)

 

The Nehra family’s story found its way into the online exhibition, but it contains many more stories that are new to me. One concerns Marjorie Mayling, the daughter of a Great Western Railway labourer living in Stonebridge, who had a job as a waitress in a Lyons Tearoom at the British Empire Exhibition in 1924. She was serving an Indian customer, Mafooz Ali Khan, and they fell in love. She married him, and within three months they were living in India.

 

 

Marjorie appears to have had a happy, and quite luxurious, life with her husband in Bhopal for the next twenty years (she was known in Hindustani as Haseena Begum), and when her sister Phyllis came to visit her in 1926, she too stayed in India and married a wealthy Indian!

 

Marjorie / Haseena Begum in India, c.1930. (Courtesy of the Mayling family and The Mixed Museum)

 

Not all of the mixed marriages in the exhibition lasted as long. The American-Chinese magician, “Prince” Fee Lung, met his English wife Jennie when they were both working in London music halls in 1900. After marrying, they set up home in Sandringham Road, Willesden, but six years later Jennie was suing Fee Lung for divorce, on the grounds that he had deserted her. She had been his stage assistant for his “vanishing lady” act, but had left her because she’d become too fat to be able to perform the trick! You can read more details online.

 

The “By The Cut of Their Cloth” online exhibition contains not only personal histories but a wide range of material, covering multiracial Brent, the Windrush generation, fashion, music and much more as well. You can find and enjoy it yourself on The Mixed Museum website. 

 

One subject area BTCOTC covers is weddings, and I will end this brief introduction with a beautiful wedding photograph, taken at St Andrew’s Church in Kingsbury in April 1991, which also features in the exhibition.

 

Steve and Juliet Edgar on their wedding day. (Courtesy of Juliet Edgar)

 

Bookmark the “link”! You’ll want to dip into the Exhibition time and again.

 Philip Grant

40 minute Cabinet nods through all item in a 'heavy agenda'

 Yesterday's Brent Cabinet completed all  10 decision items in 40 minutes, underlining the fact that this 'public meeting' merely serves as a rubber stamp with any real discussion and debate taking place elsewhere in private.

A member of the public had applied to speak on one of the items but Cllr Butt ruled that the request had not complied with the required amount of notice.

The extensive Climate Strategy item for was dealt with in just 3 minutes with Environment lead Cllr Krupa Sheth reading aloud a short prepared statement.  As well as the main report there were six Appendices. We were left unenlightened about what exactly is involved in the creation of 'Sustainable Neighbourhoods' and why there were no plans for safe and accessible cycling routes in the borough.

Cllr Promise Knight was unwell so was not present for two key items including the conversion of  24 in-fill units at Watling Gardens from London Affordable Rent to Shared Ownership.  The CEO had to remind Cllr Butt of an addition to the report stipulating that the change had to be approved by the Planning Committee.  This appears to have been the result of Philip Grant's intervention covered on Wembley Matters HERE.

It was also left to the CEO to make a passing mention of the risks involved in the arrangements for Brent Council's purchase of hoiusing units at the Euro House development in Wembley Park.

The meeting only livened up, if you can call a couple of questions livening up, at the end when a restructure of the counci's senior management, deleting one post, was discussed.

The items and decisions can be viewed HERE

Cabinet set to approve financial arrangement to purchase 298 social rent units on Euro House (Wembley Park) site

 

The blocks on the former Euro House site between the Wealdstone Brook and Fifth Way

 

Monday's Cabinet will be asked to approve plans for the Council to make an arrangement for the purchase of a lease at three of the blocks that will be built on the former Euro House warehouse site in Wembley Park. The Council claim success in having negotiated an improvement on the amount of affordable housing available and that at social rent. in blocks D and E above It is partly financed by the Council managing 46 lettings at market rent in Block A.

 The housing mix has also changed with more family sized accomodation:

The main provisions are below. I have highlighted some of the possible risks.

This report seeks permission to negotiate and thereafter purchase a mix of affordable units in Blocks D and E and market units in Block A forming part of a development of Euro House, Fulton Road Wembley HA9 0TF. The Council will enter into an underlease for up to 60 years of Blocks A, D and E, from an Asset Special Purpose Vehicle (ASPV) who will have entered into a 999 year
headlease with the freeholder. The freeholder is Crown Wembley LP. The Council will have an option with ASPV to acquire the headlease for a peppercorn upon the expiration of the 60 year underlease. The site will be developed by a developer called Regal London. The scheme is due to start in September 2022 with an estimated practical completion date of Q4 2025 for the affordable rented homes

 

To finance the purchase of this block, the Council will take a lease of up to 60 years from the ASPV, with rents set at current day social rents and indexed at CPI plus 1% subject to a cap of 5% and a floor of 1%. Upon completion of the underlease, a reversionary 939-year lease will be granted at nil rent or peppercorn

 

The total cost of the lease based on a term of up to 60 years is circa £128M. The social rented units will sit within the Housing Revenue Account  and the Council will utilise the most effective mechanism to manage the market rented units. There has not been an opportunity to purchase these units or vary the tenure and size mix through a traditional financing mechanism.

The proposed scheme provides a target of 252 affordable units and 46 market units to be delivered through the lease. To ensure the scheme is financially viable, the Director of Finance in consultation with the Lead Member for Finance and the Operational Director of Property and Assets will negotiate the optimal unit mix that supports the increased delivery of the affordable units from the original proposal. This may result in a variation in the affordable unit and market unit mix from the target mix described in section 3.4 above.

With the proposed target scheme converting 34 market units to social rented units, this will enable the Council to claim £100k per unit for the additionality provided by the scheme and £28k per unit for the remaining 218 affordable units. The total grant claim expected to fund this development is £9.5M.

It has been assumed that the Council will receive 100% Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) relief based on the assumption that:

a) The Council is deemed to be a relevant housing provider that is controlled by its tenants; and

b) The application of GLA grant receipts meets the requirements of a qualifying public subsidy.

These assumptions will need to be fully tested with the Council’s tax advisors and HMRC. Failure to secure the SDLT exemption noted above would increase the cost of the scheme.

 

Don’t miss “A Refugee’s Journey” – Thursday 23 June at 6.30pm - a free online event from Brent Libraries for Refugee Week 2022.

 Guest post by Philip Grant

 

 

With refugees, and the fight against Priti Patel’s “appalling” Rwanda policy in the news, the free online talk, “A Refugee’s Journey with Gulwali Passarlay” on Thursday 23 June, from 18.30 to 19.30hrs BST, is a timely way to mark Refugee Week.

 

Most of us would find it hard to imagine what it’s like to face the hardships that refugees and asylum seekers often have to go through to reach sanctuary in a country like ours. They do not always get a good welcome, but Brent has a good record, and this is what our Library Service says about this event they are hosting:

 

‘Join the author of best-selling book “The Lightless Sky”, Gulwali Passarlay, a dedicated advocate, humanitarian and spokesperson for refugees and asylum seekers across the U.K.

 

 

In his talk, Gulwali shares his captivating story of struggle, danger and resilience and how he miraculously survived the harrowing year long journey from Afghanistan to the UK, on his own, after being separated from his brother.’

 

 

 

 

To get more details, and your free tickets for this online talk, please use this “link” the Brent Culture Service Eventbrite page.

 

Philip Grant