Saturday 5 May 2012

Jenny Jones thanks Londoners for Green's third place

Mayoral Election Results for Brent and Harrow


Candidate
Party
1st pref votes

2nd pref votes
Siobhan Benita
Independent
5,152

13,691
Carlos Cortiglia
BNP
1,405

3,367
Boris Johnson
Conservative
58,777

20,466
Jenny Jones
Green
4,370

19,835
Ken Livingstone
Labour
67,083

26,961
Brian Paddick
Liberal Democrats
5,810

23,554
Lawrence Webb
UKIP
2,231

8,915

Brent and Harrow GLA Election Result

Lab Maj: 29796 (20.54%)

Navin ShahLabour70,400 (48.53%)
Sachin RajputConservative40,604 (27.99%)
Charlotte HenryLiberal Democrat15,690 (10.82%)
Shahrar AliGreen10,546 (7.27%)
Mick McGoughUK Independence Party7,830 (5.40%)    
Turnout: 37.06% (change: -5.09%)
2008
Navin ShahLab57,716 (37.27%)
Bob BlackmanC56,067 (36.21%)
James AllieLD19,299 (12.46%)
Shahrar AliGreen10,129 (6.54%)
Zena ShermanCPA4,180 (2.70%)
Sunita WebbUKIP3,021 (1.95%)
Pat McManusLeft List2,287 (1.48%)
Arvind TailorEng Dem2,150 (1.39%)

Friday 4 May 2012

Barnhill By-election Result

Michael John Charles Pavey - Labour - 2326 votes - 56% (elected)
Kanta Ratna Pindoria - Conservative Party - 1180 votes - 29% (not elected)
Martin Francis - Green Party - 457 votes - 11% (not elected)
Venilal Vaghela - Independent - 156 votes - 4% (not elected)

Number of ballot papers rejected 77
Turnout 38%

Many thanks to all those who voted for me and supported my campaign. Pushing above 10% is a move in the right direction but Brent Greens are still waiting for the breakthrough.  Thanks to the other candidates for their straightforward campaigning.

Ultimately the national mood swing against the Coalition and towards Labour was the default position for many people I spoke to when campaigning. National issues rather than local issues such as the closure of libraries were cited as their reason for voting Labour.  Nonetheless I congratulate Michael Pavey on his election and will be in touch over Barnhill and Chalkhill issues regularly in the future.

I think it would be misguided for Brent Labour to take this result as a vote of confidence in their policies and continue to ride roughshod over local residents.

Thursday 3 May 2012

Call In on Leaflet Licensing Thursday 17th May

I understand that the meeting of the Call In, Scrutiny and Overview Committee that will hear the Liberal Democrat motion on leaflet licensing will now be held on Thursday 17th May at 7.30pm, Committee Room 3 at Brent Town Hall.

Vote for the real alternative this evening!

Thanks to Coalition of Resistance

Brent library visits and issues plummet

The results of a Freedom of Information request by library campaigners on the number of visits and issues at Brent libraries since the closure of six of them have now been released. 

The March figures fit very squarely into the pattern which library campaigners described at last month's meeting with civil servants - usage rose (compared with March 2011) at the two libraries (Kilburn & Town Hall) with increased opening hours, but actually fell at all the other libraries. Total visits and issues at all Brent libraries both fell by some 30% compared with March 2011.

Campaigners now have figures for six months since the closures in October 2011. In those six months, Brent libraries had 20% fewer visits and 21% fewer issues than in the preceding six months. From October 2011 to March 2012 there were 18% fewer visits and 26% fewer issues than in the same months of 2010/11.

Click on righthand bottom corner to see full table Kilburn Library will soon close for 16 weeks for refurbishment at a cost of £650,000.

Ann John cleared of misconduct

The following statement was issued by Brent Council today:

Councillor Ann John OBE, Leader of Brent Council (Lab) was yesterday (2 May 2012) given the all clear by the council's Standards Committee. This follows her exoneration by an independent investigation looking into an allegation that she breached the council's code of conduct on a planning issue.

A formal complaint and request for the Committee to investigate Councillor John was made last January by Leader of the Opposition, Councillor Paul Lorber (Lib Dem). This followed his receipt of a leaked email from Labour Councillor Dhiraj Kataria sent to Councillor John and others.

In the leaked email, Councillor Kataria alleged that Councillor John had attempted to interfere with the council's planning process by seeking to influence a planning decision.

A detailed investigation into the allegation was conducted over a 12 week period by independent solicitor, and former Director of Casework for the Standards Board for England, Hazel Salisbury.

A report detailing Ms Salisbury's findings was presented to the council's Standards Committee yesterday (2 May 2012) for consideration. Ms Salisbury's report states that she found no evidence to corroborate any of the allegations made against Councillor John.

The council's Standards Committee was satisfied that Councillor John had not breached the council's code of conduct and unanimously agreed to release the report.