Brent Council to 'vigorously' pursue free schools

The middle of August is often the time when controversial proposals are published and this August is no exception. The Brent Executive on August 20th will be discussing a major report arising from a comprehensive review of educational provision in the borough.

The issue of free schools has divided Brent Labour Party and the report attempts to satisfy both sides of the debate.

Officers recommend that the Council should 'vigorously pursue' partnerships with free school providers as well as academy providers and notes that any new schools arising from Section 106 agreements with Quintain in Wembley (Fulton Road) and in Oriental City, would, under the current national framework, have to be academies or free schools. Such schools will be necessary because expansion of existing schools is not sufficient to meet anticipated demand and in order to utilise this funding stream to remove the need for prudential borrowing. They say  that the Council would have to be 'extremely careful' about identifying preferred providers and propose the following partnership commitment from potential free school and academies providers:

Academies and free school providers working with the Council will be expected to demonstrate:

1. An absolute commitment to the ethos and values of inclusive education for all Brent’s children and recognition of the positive role schools should play in the wider community.

2. A commitment to a close working relationship with the local authority in order to maintain an appropriate focus on borough-wide priorities, including local authority nomination of a member of the governing body and a commitment to sharing performance information.

3. The ability to deliver school improvement in an urban context.

4. That the establishment of the proposed education provision would be supported by demonstrable parental demand and with a genuine commitment to providing school places for local children.

5. Appropriate staffing arrangements to ensure high quality teaching and learning from qualified staff and good employment practices, including in relation to support and contracted staff.

6. A commitment to meeting the needs of Brent’s diverse community.

7. A commitment to ensuring the future employability of young people (in particular in secondary and 16 to 19) through links with business, industry and higher education.

8. A commitment to community access and use of facilities through agreed extended opening and lettings policy.

9. A commitment to good pupil nutrition and healthy eating.

10. A commitment to inclusive practice and fair access to the school for all pupils as governed by the Admission Code of Practice and the Authority’s Fair Access Protocols.

The partnership commitment clearly addresses concerns over issues such as the employment of unqualified teachers,  working conditions, poor quality school meals and selection. However, Conservative academy and free school advocates are likely to see this as an attempt to get academy and free school funding for 'local authority schools in disguise' - lacking the 'freedoms' that such schools are supposed to enjoy.

Will children lose play and sports space through school expansions and academy conversions?

With the Brent Council Executive due to approve more primary school expansions on August 20th the impact on the amount of play space available to children will be a factor. Some expansions could mean increases in the numbers of children and less overall play space available than at present, while others will add more storeys to existing buildings and maintain existing play space but for increased numbers of children. There has been talk of designing rebuilds with roof top playgrounds that still exist today in some of the Victorian inner city school buildings. It is possible that there will be schemes involving the selling off of existing play space for housing to finance expansion, although that looks less likely following the securing of government funds.

Some secondary schools becoming academies may be tempted to  seek additional capital through selling off some of their land.

School play space and playing fields have become an issue during the Olympics and the Green Party's Children and Families spokesperson has intervened in the debate:

Childhood obesity is linked to a host of illnesses including Type II Diabetes,  Congestive Heart Failure and Cancer. A poor diet and lack of exercise are the main causes of childhood obesity.  Tragically little is being done by the Government to benefit schools in tackling these contributory factors with little spent on nutritious school food and Michael Gove committed to selling off yet more playing fields.

The Green Party believes that it is imperative to preserve children’s playing fields. The Conservative and Liberal Democrats coalition agreed with us in the beginning where they too “pledged to protect these playing fields” .  However, Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove going back on his word and selling these recreational facilities to high paying developers, it is very difficult for children to find an area for them to keep fit.  Ironically only this week  Prime Minister David Cameron expressed concern that too many top British athletes in the Olympics attended private schools, and as a result, we are not as concerned with “sports excellence”   We cannot expect to have children of the future succeed in sports by taking away their venues to practice.

Green Party Green Party Families and Children Spokesperson, Emma Pruen comments:

Sport is essential to the emotional and physical health of the nation, and the well being of children.  Children who participate in sport are proven to be happier and healthier.  Insuring the fitness of our children will save the NHS billions for years to come, yet for all the posturing of our public-school educated government they are still selling off school playing fields and reducing the time available for sporting activities. This is so short sighted it beggars belief.

The rising obesity levels and instances of childhood depression will only get worse if Michael Gove continues with his selfish and short-sighted plans.  Cameron’s pronouncements about public school supremacy are supremely hypocritical when the actions of his education minister will ensure only privately educated children have the teaching and facilities to become our next generation of medal winners.  If we want the playing fields of England to be filled with the next generation of Mo’s and Jessica’s the government must stop selling those fields off to the highest bidder.

 T sign a petition opposing the sell-off of Elliott School playing fields  (where GB women's football star Fara Williams trained) click on this LINK

Stink over Wembley Olympics

We were warned  that clearing the problem at Seneca's Hannah Close Materials Recycling Facility may result in the smell worsening for a short time and that was certainly true this evening.

Olympic passengers on the Jubilee line train I was travelling on sniffed the air as we left Neasden and started giving each other surreptitious  funny looks.  Noses were screwed up, eye brows raised and faces pulled as it dawned on them that perhaps it wasn't a single anti-social individual causing the stink.

Perhaps the driver should have made a public announcement to pre-empt any misunderstandings!

Seneca and parent company were given until tomorrow (Friday) by the Environment Agency to deal with the source of the putrid smell.

Lively consultation on Willesden Green leaves unanswered questions

I started out feeling sorry for Beth Kay from the Brent Council Regeneration Team today as she was once again the council's 'messenger' under fire from many quarters at the latest Willesden Green redevelopment  'consultation'. .This sympathy was reduced somewhat when I heard the presentation and some of her answers to questions.. The Q&A would have gone much better if there had been a neutral chair to keep order and make sure that full answers were provided.

The main feature was the exhibition showing a possible scheme incorporating the 1894 Library. More pictures (above) - more on the Keep Willesden Green blog HERE However Beth gave mixed messages about this. At one stage she had been talkling about dialogue with the community being frustrated by the issue of the the Victorian library and said, "Now the Old Library has been saved we can have conversations about what we want in the new library". However later she said that the retention of the Old Library compromised the scheme, presented challenges and made her nervous in planning terms.

In presenting the results of the top  consultation concerns (Loss of Old Library 45%, Loss of Wiilesden Bookshop 22%, Inadequate parking 18%, Renovation rather than redevelopment 17%, Dislike of design 16%, Insufficient consultation 16%, New building too small 14%, Loss of public space at front of building 14%) she referred to three petitions.  However for the 'Retaining Bookshop' petition and the 'Pause, Listen and Reflect' here presentation only gave the figures for the e-petition, rather than the much larger (sometimes 10 times larger) paper petitions. For the 'Oppose Demolition of the Old Library' petition  the presentation gave both the e-petition and paper petition figures.

I protested that this seriously misrepresented the number of people supporting the first two petitions and she undertook to amend the presentation.

Another conflict arose over the Willesden Bookshop. Beth claimed once again that the bookshop's rent had been subsidised (despite the owner Steve's denial on this blog) and that all bookshops were in crisis. She further claimed that the Bookshop itself had admitted it was not viable. However she said that (yet another) consultant had been appointed to look into the viability of a combined cafe/bookshop.

When it was pointed out that the Willesden Bookshop had now closed despite her presentation stating that the Council was trying to continue non-core services in the interim, she said that the Council was trying to find them premises on the High Road.

Challenged by another member of the audience on the total amount of  money that had been spent on consultants she was unable to provide an answer but implied that Galliford Try was footing the bill.

Questioned about why the planning application had been pulled Beth said this was due to the widespread opposition to the demolition of the Old Library. She did not mention that GLA planners had raised concerns that the proposals did not meet London Heritage policies in meetings with Brent Council officers. With a straight face she stated, "By withdrawing the planning application we have shown it is not a 'done deal' ".

During discussion about why refurbishment of the 1989 hadn't been considered, and when the audience laughed when someone asked 'Who built it if it's no good?" and was answered, to laughter "Brent Council!", Beth claimed that the Chalkhill Estate had been rebuilt and that was the same age as the current library. In fact the old Chalkhill Estate was built in several phases between 1966-70, 20 years earlier than the library.

I did not receive a satisfactory answer to a question about possible conflict over Brent Council's role as instigator of the project, joint partner with the developer, conductor of post partnership public consultation, and decision maker on the planning application. I pointed out that our objections were not just limited to the retention of the Old Library but also concerned the loss of open space, the fact that the housing was unaffordable, loss of bookshop and the provision of council offices, none of which were to be consulted on. Keep Willesden Green had wanted the Council to start again from scratch and involve local people from the start. Beth angrily stated that the provision of council offices was a matter for the council and nothing to do the public, only the Council  knew what they needed.

In the light of the above I asked that Keep Willesden Green be given the space to make their case to the public in the interests of openness and democracy.  To rumbles of disagreement she said that she did not think KWG was representative but added that it had been added to the list of special interest  groups to be consulted in September.   She responded more positively to a suggestion that there should be an ongoing  group to work on the proposals, possibly as part of the Willesden Town Team, or as a separate group.

Shan Oakes endorses Romayne Phoenix for Green Party leader

Shan Oakes, Equality and Diversity Coordinator on the Green Party Executive endorses Romayne Phoenix for leader:

Warning: Navin Shah's email account hacked in scam

Navin Shah's office has sent an urgent message after his contacts received an e-mail purporting to be from him asking for money after he had been held up by armed robbers  in Spain. This is a version of a fairly common scam that is sent out to all the people in the victim's address book after the account has been hacked.

IGNORE NAVIN SHAH'S E-MAIL

Dear all,

Navin Shah's personal account has been hacked so please delete it and take no action if you received it. Navin is currently in India, in case you have tried to contact him to tell him about the fraudulent.

Apologies for this.

Kind regards,

Sophie

Sophie Kimber
PA to Navin Shah AM
London Assembly Member for Brent and Harrow
London Assembly Labour Group
City Hall
The Queen's Walk
London SE1 2AA

New Kensal Rise campaign video released

See the website HERE

Old Library may be retained, rest of 'consultation' just tweaking

Details of the new round of consultation on the Willesden Green Library redevelopment published today LINK show how limited any rethink is likely to be.

The Keep Willesden Green group demanded that the Council and developers Galliford Try 'stopped.listened and reflected' on the proposals with the suggestion that they go back to first principles and involve local residents and users from scratch.

Instead it appears that the housing development,  loss of the Town Square and the bookshop are still taken for granted. There is a concession over the Old Library building which goes only as far as that new early sketches will be on display and 'will show how the old library may be retained as part of the building'. These sketches will be on display throughout August for feedback and 'developed proposals will be ready in September'.

The second phase of the consultation to take place between September and October is limited to 'details like how the library space will be divided or what could go inside the old library'. Brent says stoutly, 'We know where we think each activity shold go (e.g. the library, museum etc).  So no consultation on housing, council offices, cafe, Town Square, car park, bookshop space, or the size of the library.

They have organised workshops for specific target groups, which run the risk of setting different groups against each other, rather than working out priorities through face to face discussion:

Tuesday, September 4 - Seniors
Thursday, September 6 - Small and medium enterprises
Tuesday, September 11- Community groups
Thursday, September 13 - Ethnic minority groups
Tuesday, September 18 - Teens
Thursday, September 20 - Families with young children

 Although of course many people will cover several categories so may end up attending 3 or 4 times!

The Council says it will carry out outreach in local schools and will develop details with schools in the Autumn.

The third phase is the 'Interim Strategy: October-November' and the Council say that core services will continue to be delivered at the Willesden Library Centre as well as non-core such as the markets. Unfortunately one vital 'non-core' service, the Willesden Bookshop, has already closed when the Council could have extended its lease during this period.

Reviewing this timetable it seems clear that the Council's intention is to get planning approval in December and  hand over the site to the developers by January 2013.

Meanwhile I am sure Keep Willesden Green campaigners will be considering their next moves in the light of the above.