The Long March to Kingsbury Library Plus

Library campaigners from a few months old to people in their 80s took part in a long march from South Kenton to Kingsbury Road today to demonstrate how far they had to go to a library now that Preston Library has been closed. Liberal  Democrat and Conservatives councillors were on the march along with Green Party candidates and dissident members of Brent Labour Parry but the majority of people were simply residents furious at losing their valued local library and incensed at how they have been treated by Brent Council.

The march took about an hour, excluding a short refreshment stop.  As one of the slower ones said, "By the time we get there our books will be overdue!"

International solidarity at South Kenton

Pause at the boarded up Preston Library 'Wall of Shame'

A message for councillors on the 'Wall of Shame'

Children are one of the groups most affected by the closures

We stopped for refreshments....

...and caught up on the latest campaign news

Even the famous suburban privet came out in sympathy!

Kingsbury Library at the end of the long march

When we got to the Kingsbury Library some campaigners popped in to look at the facilities. Many were surprised by how small it was and it certainly looked crowded with just the addition of a few of us. One campaigner fondly remembered the 'long table' at Preston Road library which fostered conversations and community solidarity.

A mother with two young sons said it just didn't feel like her 'local library'. At Preston she had known all the staff and felt comfortable to let her children explore the library without close supervision. She had known most of the users by sight.  Localism and feelings of safety and ease would be missing if she had to use this library.

The Transport for London Journey Planner gives two routes from South Kenton to Kingsbury Library Plus. The first is a train to Kenton and then a 183 bus and the other a 223 bus to Wembley Park and then the Jubilee line to Kingsbury. Not exactly user friendly.

Should we de-designate industrial area around Wembley Stadium?

The industrial area around Wembley Stadium

 The consultation on the future of the industrial area around Wembley Stadium ends on Monday. The document is HERE and the consultation website is HERE . The consultation includes the possibility of restricting the number of waste management facilities in the area.

Key points from document re waste management (NB there are also sections on transport etc) SIL=Strategic Industrial Location):

Whilst it is acknowledged that there will be a continuing need to retain the vast majority of SIL in the borough, it should also be recognised that the de-designation of some employment land could be beneficial in promoting jobs growth locally if land is redeveloped for mixed use development, as with key parts of the regeneration area to the west. In addition, there are concerns that the proximity of industrial sites, and associated bad neighbour uses, to key regeneration sites is harming their development prospects because of the potential environmental impacts upon them. There is a particular concern that the juxtaposition of the industrial estate with proposed sensitive uses, such as a proposed new primary school on Fulton Road, will have an impact on the attractiveness of the school.

Options BIW 1

1. Leave the extent of the SIL as currently defined.

2. Introduce policy whereby development proposals adjacent to SIL should have regard to the potential effectiveness of these locations

3. De-designate SIL immediately adjacent to key sites identified for regeneration which will include residential or other sensitive uses.

4. De-designate substantial part of the SIL to facilitate wider regeneration and environmental improvement

There is a general view that if a significant proportion of land is occupied by uses such as open storage, aggregate depots and waste management, this will have a negative impact upon the regeneration potential of the wider area and will provide only a limited number of jobs. One way of dealing with the problem, especially to prevent it getting any worse,is to put a limit on the amount of land devoted to such uses.

Options BIW 2

1. No limit on the proportion of the SIL devoted to waste uses or open storage.

2. Allow no further waste management or open storage uses in the SIL.

3. Consider individual proposals on their merits and only restrict such uses if  evidence of detrimental impact.

4. Actively promote the re-location of existing, badly located waste management sites.

De-designation could mean that the West London Waste Authority's ear-marking of a site in the area for waste processing (technology unstated but incineration feared) will not succeed.

More on Cliff's Statue, because......"he deserves it"

I am going to resist having a giggle about this proposal for a statue of Sir Cliff Richard at Wembley Arena but enjoy one of your own by looking at the document yourself HERE

Conversations on Making and Saving Energy

Transition Town Kensal to Kilburn and 

Brent Friends of the Earth

present

        Energy conversations:

how to make it and how to save it

 

3 Great Speakers: 3 Great Conversations

Armstrong Yakubu, Foster and Partners: Sustainable Cities

Tom Pakenham, Green Tomato Energy: Passivhaus and Solar PV

Sarah Nicholl, Transition Belsize: Draught Busting

Monday November 14^th 2011, 7.30 – 9.30pm at the Rotunda,

St Anne’s and St Andrew’s Church,

125 Salusbury Road , NW6 6RG

Please bring food and drink to share

Transition Kensal to Kilburn – Growing a Greener Community.

Find out more at: http://ttkensaltokilburn.ning.com/

Lies, Damn Lies, and Library Transformation

The quote in the November Brent Magazine

Brent Council's dismal record of misinformation and disinformation over public libraries, which started of course with the misleadingly named 'Transformation Project', has been highlighted again today.

The Brent Magazine, which is still flopping through letter boxes, claimed that all Brent residents were 1.5 miles from a library. Toni McConville, Director of Customer and Community Engagement for Brent Council said:

The information about the 1.5 mile distance that residents would need to travel to a library was provided by the Library Service. An assumption was wrongly made that this meant one of the council's remaining libraries rather than a library in the vicinity.

I'm sorry for the error and have pointed it out to the communications team so that the mistake is not repeated.

Graham Durham,Secretary of Save Cricklewood Library Campaign,  said:

This is the latest in a series of misleading information on library cuts.Throughout the consultation and in endless meetings Annjohnette has stated it will be 1.5 miles to a Brent library - it is now clear that this claim was utterly untrue.Any resident of Wembley or Willesden could have told the council this.

Preston Library campaigners are marching from South Kenton to Kingsbury Library on Saturday afternoon to demonstrate the distance to their nearest library following the closure of Preston Library.

Willesden Green Library to close for 2 years - 0nly 5/12 Brent libraries will be left

Library campaigners have reacted angrily to the admission by a senior Council officer that Willesden Green library, including the archive collection will be closed for two years from April 2012.

Writing to Brent SOS Libraries on 3 November 3rd, Jenny Isaac, Assistant Director (Neighbourhood Services) confirmed that only a side hut in Grange Road will be left open.  It will have study space for only eight people, six computers, and only a very limited supply of books will be available. This news comes on top of the closure of half the borough's libraries last month.

Graham Durham ,Secretary of Save Cricklewood Library Campaign, said:

The boarding -up of nearby Neasden and Cricklewood Libraries - and the stripping of all books from Cricklewood - before the legal case was completed has already shown the contempt Brent Council has for local people in the area. Although  Councillor James Powney and library chiefs Sue Harper and Sue MacKenzie have refused to meet Cricklewood residents for over eight months now, they did promise that a wonderful facility would be available at Willesden Green.

This promise has now been shown to be a complete lie. In fact study opportunities and access to the internet, as well as local research and book lending, will be virtually non-existent. In their  discussion of 'pop-up' libraries  the range of overpaid Council officers and Labour Cabinet members are having a really bad taste joke at the expense of young and old who cannot afford to travel even further afield to Harlesden and Kilburn.

It was already a very difficult and expensive journey for parents with small children from Cricklewood and Neasden to Willesden Green - now that option has been destroyed for a generation of children.

The Brent Executive is due to consider a report on the redevelopment of Willesden Green Library at their meeting on November 14th at Brent Town Hall.

Further details HERE

March on Saturday to the Democracy Wall and Kingsbury Library

Preston Library Campaigners will be calling in at the Democracy Wall (also known as the Wall of Shame) when they march on Saturday from South Kenton Station to Kingsbury Library. They will leave South Kenton at 1.30pm and will call in at the Democracy Wall about 1.50pm.

You are invited to join in and dress up as your favourite story character.

Lucas to speak at Occupy LSX tomorrow - "this is real politics in action"

The UK's only Green MP Caroline Lucas will speak out in support of the "real politics" of protest at the 'We are the 99%' rally taking place outside St Paul's Cathedral on Saturday 5 November.

The MP for Brighton Pavilion, who pressed David Cameron to support a 'Robin Hood Tax' on financial trading during Prime Minister's Questions earlier this week, will join with protesters to show support for the Occupy movement against economic injustice.

Saturday's rally, taking place from 2pm, will be followed by a march on Parliament from St Paul's.

Caroline Lucas, one of the few MPs to have visited the Occupy LSX encampment, said:

"As the public becomes more aware of the injustice and unsustainability of our economic system, more and more people are taking to the streets for a different kind of society - one which puts the interests of the many before those of a powerful minority.

"That the leaders of the mainstream political parties have completely failed to engage with what is happening down at St Paul's and at protests across the country shows just how painfully out of touch they are with the public mood for change.

"This is real politics in action - and the voices of those ordinary and extraordinary people who want a fairer, greener system to replace the stocks-and-shares house of sand that sustains corporate capitalism must now be heard.

"The global financial crisis and billion-pound bailouts have exposed the plain truth that the entire economic system is rigged against the hard working majority. As a first step towards mending the damage wreaked on our society by reckless financial gambling, the Government must back a Robin Hood Tax at the G20 Summit in Cannes - with the revenue ear-marked to address sustainable development and the growing climate crisis."