Gove's action on Mary Seacole goes further than Thatcher

Mary Seacole's gravestone

When I first started teaching at an inner London primary school in Paddington in 1971 one of the first things I noticed was that there were very few books with any black children in them even though the school population was largely black. There were no black staff and so children had the strange experience of attending a school where curriculum and staffing did not reflect the pupils who actually attended. 

Meeting with other teachers I discovered that some schools still had copies of 'Little Black Sambo'  on their shelves amongst the Peter and Jane and Janet and John readers. Teachers, supported by parents, became proactive in trying to correct the situation, aware that if children were 'invisible' in the curriculum and materials, their motivation would be affected.  Black Bookshops began to import multi-ethnic books, mainly from the US,  Sunshine  Readers produced by Ladybird for the West Indies, became common in inner London schools. In the UK the Nippers series reflecting both black and working class life began to be published. Beryl Gilroy, the first black woman headteacher in London (and possibly  the UK) and mother of Paul Gilroy, wrote some of the Nipper series.

At the same time there was an active racist and fascist movement with the National Front targeting schools and recruiting white children at the school gates. Teachers became active in the community campaigning against the NF, particularly when they provocatively hired school halls in multi-racial areas for their meetings or marched through areas of black settlement. All Leader Teachers Against Fascism (ALTARF) and Teachers Against the Nazis (TAN) were formed and autonomous black teachers' organisations became active

However, anti-racist teachers were not in the majority at the time. When I was organising support for an anti-racist meeting.my headteacher, who was a member of the Communist Party, told me, 'This school is neither for nor against racism'    His predecessor had angrily insisted, 'I do not want these black books thrust down our white children's throats'.

A moment which reinforced my determination was when an eight year old  black girl turned to me when reading about Harriet Tubman, with amazed eyes and said, 'I didn't know black people could be famous!' 

In the black community the slogan 'We are here because you were there' was used to combat the racists. Clearly colonial history and the freedom struggle were vital to an understanding of racism and teacher activists and librarians began to write materials for the classroom. Basil Davidson worked with the London Branch of the National Association for Multi-racial Education (NAME) on an exhibition about African History challenging some of the myths of the time that included attributing the Zimbabwe ruins to some ancient non-African civilisation.

When I moved  to a primary school in Fulham, an area where the NF were recruiting, I had a 10 year NF member in the class in  which black children were a minority. It became clear to me that anti-racist education was required - not just multicultural.

In Challenging Racism - ALTARF (1984) I wrote about a black child who was in what we now call Year 5. This is what she said:

Well I think there isn't enough black books in school . They've got Pete and Jane and they're white and they haven't got any books for black kids and if they have they're just silly books - they're not sensible. So what we [she and her friends] tried to do  (which we never finished) we made our own book about jobs and racism. We did a book about jobs and drew pictures and we talked about what black people hadn't been getting jobs. Was it because of their colour or is it just because they're not qualified and we got to the decision that it was because of their colour. So what we did was we got together, we had a discussion before we started making the book, and we just started writing it down and drawing pictures about it.

Schools and the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) began to tackle the political issues involved and incurred the wrath of the right-wing of the Conservative Party including Margaret Thatcher, Norman Tebbit and the recently deceased Sir Rhodes Boyson, Conservative MP for Brent North. 

There was little need for the National Front once Thatcher was in power and her government turned on 'left-wing' teachers and on local authorities such as  the ILEA and Brent who had pioneered multi-cultural and anti-racist education. Tebbit eventually abolished the ILEA along with the GLC.  Margaret Thatcher said:

You know about political indoctrination in some of the inner cities, well, I could show you examination papers, I could show you books.....I sometimes look at the Continent, where they have not only a core curriculum but a core syllabus. That would be an enormous leap for us to take, because my generation still recoils from having a system that any government could manipulate...what we are considering is whether we should take that step.

And of course they did take that step and introduced the National Curriculum and subsequent Labour governments tightened central control even more.

The phrase about a system that 'any government could manipulate' is telling because Michael Gove is currently seeking to manipulate the NC history curriculum in the direction that some of the extreme rightwingers wanted to do back in the 80s and goes beyond any manipulation that Margaret Thatcher  or Kenneth Baker attempted. . He is removing certain black historical figures from  the NC but also changing the nature of the historical narrative. It is a political and cultural intervention

Does this statement by the Monday Club (Education and the Multiracial Society) 1985 not remind you of Muchael Gove's stance?

To say that British History, English literature, the civilisation of Western Europe should have pride of place in our schools is not to argue from a sense of superiority. It is to argue for relevance. Black and white children need to learn,and they can, of the nation in which they live and the forces that have shaped it. Britain has a great and inspiring heritage. Our chidlren need to be fed on it, to be encouraged to make it their own. Such an approach in education will unify, not divide, nurture shared pride and common loyalties, not cynicism and racial hatred.

So the removal of Mary Seacole and Oloudah Equiano from the National Curriculum is a political and ideological act with its roots in the Thatcher era. It seeks to push back the gains that have been made in education for a multi-ethnic society and perhaps aims to take us back to that period when that child could look at me with disbelief when she found there were black historical.

That is why Mary Seacole's grave stone, in our backyaed in the Kensal Green Cemetery, Harrow Road is currently my Facebook profile.  It is why I remind schools and teachers that the National Curriculum is not all that can be taught. Schools are free to teach beyond the National Currlcum and if Mary Seacole and Oloudah Equiano  are removed teachers should still carry on teaching about them. That will also be a political  act.

I strongly support the campaign that you can read about below:

Best selling authors such as Zadie Smith, Malorie Blackman and Andrea Levy, playwright Kwame Kwei Armah, Civil Rights icon Rev Jesse Jackson,  Trade Union leaders Christine Blower, Mark Serwotka and politicians including Diane Abbott, David Lammy and Stephen Twigg have all signed an open letter to the Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove, calling upon him to rethink his plans to scrap Mary Seacole and Olaudah Equiano from the National Curriculum.

Gove has stated that he wants children to learn ‘traditional’ figures such as Winston Churchill and Oliver Cromwell, and that Equiano and Seacole can be options.

Simon Woolley stated:

‘Dumping Mary Seacole and Olaudah Equiano, denies children of our rich diversity of key historical figures. It is also seen by some as the whitewashing of British history.’

Civil Rights Campaigner Rev Jesse Jackson stated:

'A nation’s history must be told by all its people for the benefit of everyone. Failure to do so invariably ends up talking about the exploits of white men.’

Zita Holbourne, National Co-Chair BARAC UK stated:

'The achievements of figures such as Mary Seacole and Olaudah Equiano in the face of prejudice are to be celebrated so that they inspire generations to come.  The broad range of people opposing Gove's proposal demonstrate the strength of our multicultural society at its best.

Patrick Vernon stated:

‘After launching the successful campaign in 2003 where Mary Seacole was voted the Greatest Black Briton by the public, Michael Grove, Secretary State for Education now wants to remove her from the National Curriculum along with Olaudah Equiano. This gives a clear message to all children and parents in Britain that we do no have a pluralist or multicultural society and thus equality of opportunity is only the preserved for the rich and privileged. Is this history we want to teach and shape future leaders in 21st century Britain?’

Juliet Alexander, broadcaster, lecturer and trustee of the Mary Seacole Memorial Statue Appeal, stated:

‘To exclude Mary Seacole from the national curriculum would be to remove a vital and important part of  the UK's rich heritage of Black, female activism and to condemn future generations to a poor and distorted history of the UK. The unprecedented response to the OBV petition and public eagerness to fund a statue for Mary, shows the UK's continuing fascination with the fighting spirit of historical heroines like Mary Seacole.’

Follow this link to sign the Operation Back Vote Petition to Michael Gove LINK

http://www.100greatblackbritions.com/

http://www.maryseacoleappeal.org.uk/

Cllr Powney promises to investigate 'Low Carbon Zone' proposal

Could it be Brent or Wembley next?

 Making a presentation on Monday the the Brent Executive,  Ken  Montague, Secretary of Brent Campaign Against Climate Change, agreed with the Green Charter Annual Monitoring Report's comment that  while “there is progress in all seven areas of work” there was “room for improvement over the next year”. In particular he sought to bring to the Executive’s attention proposals jointly being developed by BCaCC and Brent Friends of the Earth as an outcome of their Community Briefing public meeting on 21 November, which council leader Muhammed Butt attended. A report  of the meeting has  been circulated to Councillors.

The purpose of the Community Briefing meeting, which was to make local community leaders aware of the rapid depletion of the Arctic ice cap and its affect on weather patterns around the world. This had an indirect impact on people in Brent as many members of the local community have friends and families in parts of the world being devastated by floods, droughts and fires. It was also having a direct impact through its effect on the price and quality of food.

Ken addressed  two of the three proposals that came out of the briefing meeting, which aimed to develop a community response. The first of these was about reaching out to the local community to increase awareness of the seriousness and urgency of the need to mitigate climate change. The aim was to enhance and strengthen the work of the Sustainability Forum and the Brent Climate Change Steering Group, especially its Residents’ Steering Group. This meant sending speakers to meetings of tenants’ and residents’ associations, faith groups, trade unions, etc, and on occasion booking rooms for meetings. The first request to the Executive was therefore that those organisations like Brent CaCC and Brent FoE who were identified as Green Champions under the Brent Climate Change Strategy should have use of Council premises, including public libraries, free of charge.

Monatgue went on to draw the Executive’s attention to a proposal in the early stages of development by BCaCC and Brent FoE which would require support from the Council, advice from council officers, and the involvement of specific councillors. This was for a pilot scheme to establish a Low Carbon Zone in an area of the borough still to be identified in consultation with the Council. A Low Carbon Zone involved concentrating existing agencies on the area identified in order to generate awareness of the advantages to tenants and residents of implementing measures for energy conservation and the sourcing of power from renewables, to provide advice and guidance and facilitate discount buying, and to access funding to install insulation, double glazing and combined heat and power boilers. The “existing agencies” could include the Council, private companies, campaign groups including ourselves and Transition Town, the College of North West London, and the Brent TUC.

Central to the proposal was the possibility of accessing significant funds for these purposes from the Department of Energy and Climate Change under the Green New Deal. By way of an example he mentioned that a Community Interest Company in Barnet, “Energise Barnet”,LINK  was working with the Council in making a £200 million bid. A meeting of the Brent Residents’ Steering Group and council officers was being held on 22nd January to prepare a bid to DEC but this could only go ahead once the Council had decided whether to apply as a “Large Scale Green Deal Provider”, as a Marketing Partner” or a “Small Scale Green Deal Provider”. The second request to the executive was therefore that it make a decision on the form of its application in order to facilitate an appropriate bid to DEC being decided at the meeting on 22 January.

Responding, lead member for the environment  Cllr James Powney promised to designate an officer to investigate the proposal. 

Declaration of interest:  I am Chair of Brent Campaign Against Climate Change

Vulnerable to get help to find cheaper fuel tariffs

From London Councils
 

Vulnerable residents in up to 1.75million homes across London will be offered assistance by their local council to get a better energy deal and save money.  

The pioneering scheme involving 17 boroughs, including Brent,  and London Councils, the organisation which represents the capital’s local authorities, was given £686,655 by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) from its Cheaper Energy Together fund.

The initiative will help the capital’s most vulnerable residents by getting them a cheaper tariff for their gas and electricity bills.

Each borough plan to use their equal share of the funding to work with residents who could benefit most from switching their energy tariff and advise them what their options are. It is estimated that 325,000 homes in the 17 boroughs are in fuel poverty which means more than 10 per cent of income is spent on electricity and gas.

The aim of the project is to sign up as many Londoners as possible, especially those who struggle the most to keep warm, and collectively negotiate a better deal with the gas and electricity companies on their behalf.

Chair of London Councils’ Transport and Environment Committee, Councillor Catherine West said: “People who most need to keep warm to stay healthy are the least likely to make sure they are on the best energy deal. Some of the most vulnerable Londoners will not turn the heating on because they do not want to risk running up a large bill.

“This cross borough scheme will make a real difference this winter by advising residents about their options and helping them to switch to cheaper gas and electricity tariffs or suppliers.”

Kingston Council is the lead borough for the scheme. Council leader, Councillor Derek Osbourne said: “With energy bills soaring, we must help Londoners get cheaper energy deals and improve their home energy efficiency. Councils across the capital will do all that they can to help people, particularly the vulnerable and those on low incomes, keep warm at home.

“Switching collectively to one domestic energy provider to get better energy deals can benefit us all as residents.”

Progress on Green Charter but much more needs to be done

Heat loss = money wasted=global warming

 The Green Charter Monitoring Report  LINK that goes before the Brent Executive on Monday reports good progress but admits 'There is, however room for improvement over the next year'. Cllr James Powney, lead member for the Environment on a recent posting on his blog says that 'it is important that as a major employer in Brent we (Brent Council)  show the way if we are to have any credibility in getting others to follow'. LINK.

Although a lot of work has gone into energy savings in Brent buildings and Report emphasises the Civic Centre's green credential, I think the council could have done far more in terms of the existing  housing stock.  They seem to have  gained little from the funds available through the Community Energy Saving Programme aimed at areas of deprivation which ended in December 2012 or the Green Deal.  A successful bid was made to the 'Warm Homes for Healthy People Fund' which gained £150,000 to reduce fuel poverty which can be used to provide advice and pay for new boilers, insulated and other energy saving equipment.

In Brent during 2011-12 the report states:

• 54 homes with single glazed windows received new double glaxed windows
• 45 homes benefitted from additional loft or flat roof insulation
• 116 homes had cavity wall insulation installed
• 232 homes were fitted with a new, efficient condensing buildings

Although welcome these figures seem small beer compared with the number of houses and flats in the borough. By contrast this has just been issued by Energise Barnet as social enterprise in the London Borough of Barnet:

LONDON UK. 27 November 2012. Energise Barnet CIC, a social enterprise, has submitted a plan to Barnet Council to create £200 million of social, economic and environmental benefit through the installation of energy saving measures and renewables in 40,000 homes and buildings.

Under the plan, the CIC proposes that it provides the operational hub, generating leads for Green Deal Providers and other delivery partners through it's referral network of community organisations, businesses and tradespeople.

Nigel Farren, local resident and the CIC's founder, said "most of the 140,000 homes and buildings in Barnet are uninsulated and hardly anyone generates their own energy. As a result, owners and tenants spend more on gas and electricity than they need do. Barnet also has the highest carbon emissions of any London borough, some of the UK's highest energy consumption areas and there could be 50,000 residents in fuel poverty with associated health problems that adversely impact NHS costs."

He continued: "Through the Big Society Innovation Bank, the Council asked us to develop an effective approach to solve these issues and draw up a plan for delivery of the Green Deal which will enable people to improve their homes with no upfront cost and save money in the process.

Our plan will help the Council and delivery partners minimise cost and risk. It is the first of it's kind drawn up by a social enterprise and by asking us to draw up the plan, the Council has demonstrated that it wants to encourage local leadership in delivering community services in accordance with it's (sic) motto of "Putting the Community First".

 Brent Council needs to work with the Brent Housing Partnership and local housing associations to maximise their take up of the available grant schemes as well as pressurise private landlords to take action to insulate their properties. Muhammed Butt's intention to find ways of reducing fuel bills by a community procurement is obviously worthwhile but it needs to be accompanied by a large scale and systematic programme of retrofitting housing stock with double glazing and insulation.  Otherwise money will still be disappearing through roofs, thin walls and draughty windows.

Solar panels on the Brentfield Estate

Solar panels as a way of reducing fuel bills alongside such measures should also be considered and BHP has a model available in their work on the Brentfield Estate LINK

The Report covers the work on ensuring that new developments are sustainable and work that is being done in schools to reduce energy costs but I would like to see more on using the vast expanses of school roofs for solar panels for micro-generation. The extension of recycling to cover plastics and collection from flats is welcome but more needs to be done on persuading  commercial premises and industry to play their part. I have seen for myself the positive impact on children of cycling projects in schools.

Some of the entries on the RAG report raise a wry smile. The Coucil has handed out 100 free bags to encourage owners to scoop their dogs' poop and has given award packs to 4 owners who were seen cleaning up their dog's mess! 'Presence detectors' for the Civic Centre urinals sound like they could be fun...

Getting the message about Climate Change across to residents is clearly a challenge and there is mich scepticism to overcome. The Climate Change Pledge ( I confess I couldn't remember if I had signed, so I did again whilst writing this) has been signed by only 400 residents and 50 businesses. Minuscule compared with the population of the borough. The Pledge can be signed online HERE

Brent Council, Brent Campaign Against Climate Change and the College of North West London are jointly holding a Brent Students Conference on Climate Change on March 20th and there is an accompaying Competition for young people aged 11-12. Details HERE

One of the areas the Conference will look at is career opportunities in the green economy.  Given the massive regeneration project around Wembley Stadium I do feel that the Council could look forward both in terms of its climate  employment strategies, and consider setting up a Green Enterprise Zone in the area, backed up by training opportunities at the CNWL.
 





 

Preview of decisions to be made at Brent Council Executive on Monday

Monday's Meeting of the Brent Council Executive will be making some important decisions. Here is a preview of some of the post important ones:

Delegation of awarding of 'Supporting People Contracts' to achieve 'savings'
Re-procurement of existing services which provides housing support workers, sheltered housing managers, women’s refuge workers, etc. support vulnerable adults to prevent hospital admissions, evictions, mental ill health, homelessness and anti-social behaviour. The budget is additionally utilised to provide a range of non-statutory welfare services including handyperson, accident prevention, and hospital discharge support.

The council aims to make a reduction in costs (cut) of £900,000 through the new contracts. As they are due to run from February 1st there is no time for the Executive to make a decision so it is delegated to Head of Regeneration, Andy Donald and Director of Adult  Social Services, Alison Elliott in consultation with the lead members. LINK

Blue Badge Scheme for people with disabilities
Introduction of a £10 charge for Blue Badges usually payable every three years when badges are renewed plus tougher enforcement. LINK

Green Charter Monitoring
I will cover this in a separate posting. LINK 

Secondary School Expansion 2012-16
I have already blogged on these proposals which involve increasing the capacity of some secondary schools to cater for rising numbers. Kingsbury High will have 15 classes in each age group which will make it a very large school. My blog  HERE Executive Report LINK 

Capital funding for expansion of Vicar's Green Primary, Ealing
Vicar's Green is just over the border in Ealing and provides places for many Brent children. Brent will make a contribution to its expansion to provide more places subject to consultation LINK  

 London Living Wage 
Brent is aiming to becoming an accredited London Living Wage organisation itself and enouraging out-sourced suppliers to also pay it. It is not included as a requirement in the current Public Realm procurement.  My blog on it HERE Council Report: LINK 
 
 Working with Families
An integrated strategy to work with Brent's 810 'Troubled Families' aiming to save money by making it unnecessary for children to go into care and maximising Brent's income from the Government's 'Payment by Results' funding.(!)  It is worth reading the report in full LINK

Annual Audit Letter 2011-12
The letter from the Audiitor states:   
 Following the Audit Committee, on 28 September 2012 Ithe Auditor:
• issued unqualified opinions on the 2011/12 financial statements of the Council and the Pension Fund; and
• concluded that Brent Council made proper arrangements to secure economy, efficiency and effectiveness in your use of resources in 2011/12.

London Housing Consortium
Proposes that the Brent Executive's responsibilities for the Consortium be discharged to the Lead Member for Housing and another non Executive member (TBC) who will be on the the newly formed Joint Committee of the London Housing Consortium LINK

 The meeting begins at 7pm at Committee Rooms 1-3 Brent Town Hall and is likely to be over by 7pm.

Natalie Bennett rounds on the 'real shirkers'

From the New  Statesman LINK

Natalie Bennett

Shirkers versus strivers – those have been the terms of this week’s biggest debate, over the Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill.

Many important points have been made about the ridiculousness of the government’s various claims about the closed blinds or curtains of those who they identify as the “shirkers”, the unemployed – which will presumably include many of the employees of Jessops, who on the government’s account this week are strivers but will soon be “shirkers”. (Not to mention the fact that closed blinds in the morning might well indicate a night-shift worker…)

Many of the progressive side have, rightly, been rushing to say that people trapped in unemployment are not shirkers. It’s a term that, in the usual terms of the debate, rightly has a bad name.

But shirkers there are.

Group one of the shirkers are the employers who’ve shirked their responsibility to provide decently paid, secure, reliable jobs on which their staff can build a life, and that can be the foundation of the a secure, stable economy – which the future of their businesses must ultimately depend on. The CEOs and CFOs and their henchpeople have certainly shirked their responsibility to look beyond the next quarter’s profit-and-loss accounts, and their own annual bonuses.

We can offer excuses for some employers – the small retail businesses struggling to compete against the multinational giants who’ve been enjoying tax-dodging and monopolist benefits on a huge scale, the small wholesalers, farmers and manufacturers who’ve seen their profit margins squeezed by the same giant customers.

But there are no excuses for the profitable multinational giants, which have privileged the position of their shareholders and top managers at the expense of their staff – and their own long-term future, for ultimately they need customers who can afford their products, and staff on a minimum wage well below the level of a living wage, on part-time contracts and short shifts to maximise company convenience, and on the obscenity of zero-hours contract can’t do that. It’s the old Henry Ford story – he knew he needed to pay his production workers enough to buy their own Model Ts.

And there’s a second group of shirkers: the leaders of successive governments. The former Labour government has to bear a large share of the blame – how could it be after 13 years of their regime that the minimum wage was significantly, in the South East hugely, below a living wage, that people working in a full time job needed significant benefits – housing benefit and family tax credits – simply to survive?

Of course, the blame lies with more than just the single figure of an inadequate minimum wage. Labour did nothing against job insecurity, short-hours shifts and zero-hours contracts – indeed cut further the already Thatcher-slashed ability of the unions to fight for better conditions.

And it swallowed hook-line-and-sinker the neoliberal line about Britain being able to abandon food growing and manufacturing – importing essentials from developing nations, plundering their water and soils, exploiting their grossly underpaid workers – while relying on the “genius” of bankers and the luxury industries servicing them and their friends as a foundation for the British economy, a foundation that it turns out was built on shifting sands of fraud, incompetence and incomprehension of risk.

Further, it ignored the fact that in the low-carbon world we need to be moving towards fast supply chains must be shortened – the distance from field to plate for food cut to a minimum (for reasons of cost as well as carbon emissions), that most goods need to be made much closer to where they are needed.

What a shirking of responsibility that was.

But beyond the blame, we can look to the positive green economic shoots, the small signs of the future, the small businesses, cooperatives, social enterprises and community groups - the true strivers, who against all of the odds, against the efforts of the Tory-Lib Dem coalition to intensify the neo-Thatcherite policies in Blair-Brownism, are trying to start to rebuild a sustainable British economy.

Whether it is the Transition groups up and down the country, promoting food growing, jam-making, baking and encouraging crafts, innovative small co-operatives like Who Made My Pants? or The People’s Supermarket who are building a new model of business, or groups setting up new community-owned generation schemes, there are strivers who are now trying, from the grassroots, working to build the new British economy.

And then there’s the countless other individual strivers – the parents struggling to give their children a decent life with inadequate funds, going without meals themselves so their children eat properly; the carers who for the measly sum of £58.45 labour huge hours, with inadequate chances for relief, for their loved ones; the unemployed who battle on for employment, completing courses, putting in applications, even in the face of multiple knockbacks and government insults.

So maybe we can rescue the terms shirkers and strivers. Let’s highlight the real shirkers – most of whom fit in the Occupy classification of the 1% - and celebrate the many strivers, the 99%. With those ratios, the future of Britain can only be bright.

Muhammed Butt promises to consult on Brent budget

Following my posting on the lack of consultation on the Brent Budget LINK, Brent Council leader Muhammed Butt has sent me this comment:

I can assure you that we will be consulting on the budget. I am formalising dates and times with the consultation team and will get back to you and we will let everyone know as soon as things have been set.

We have not been able to put the budget on the agenda due to the government giving us our funding settlement figures so late and they are still giving us the data in chunks which is making setting the budget process very difficult.

Everyone has the opportunity to use the soap box to highlight any issues and concerns to us at every forum and would encourage you to use that and you can always suggest topics of conversation for the forums.

We are always looking to find different formats and topics that will allow us to engage better with our residents.

Better data needed to monitor successful recycling

'Green' bin in Salmon Street, Kingsbury this week

Green groups in Brent expressed fears that the new co-mingled recycling (everything put into one bin and emptied into one truck) would produce more contamination than the green box system where different materials were sorted at the pavement stage and put into different compartments of a lorry. This would result in more material being rejected at the recycling plant and ending up in landfill.

Now that the scheme has been running for some time I put in an Freedom of Information request to see if the amount of recyclates collected, which have increased now that some plastics are collected, was affected by increased contamination.

Unfortunately some data is not recorded so it is hard to get a full picture but the recent rejection rate seems to vary between  4% and 12%. It is argued that the recycling rate has still increased taking this into account.

Here are the full answers. Thanks to Chris Whyte for another quick response (Answers in bold)

1. What proportion of material collected in the co-mingled 'blue top' bins has been rejected at the Material Recycling  Facility (MRF)  since the new system was introduced as:

  a. Contaminated. The most recent sampling shows the prohibited fraction can range from 4% to 12%

b. Not recycled under the present scheme: As above. This is the same waste. The overall recycling rate has increased from 31% to 45% and this accounts for the prohibited fraction.

 2. How does this proportion differ from the previous separated green box system? Not recorded. This was a different system that saw prohibited items removed at source. Thus there is no real comparison.

 3. Please provide a table to show whether the proportion rejectedhas declined over time as residents have become familiar with the system. Regular sampling is not undertaken and the prohibited can
fluctuate from period to period. Our records show an overall increase in the amount, and percentage of, waste recycled since the new service began.

 4. If data is available please provide the above information for recyclables collected from communal recycling bins from flats. Not separately recorded.

5. What has been the cost of sending these rejected materials to landfill? There is no additional cost to the council for landfilling prohibited waste that is rejected. The  cost is contained within the £22
per tonnage charge for accessing the Material Recycling Facility (MRF). This represents a £70 per tonne reduction on waste collected for landfill through the refuse service.

 

Was Brent Council's leafleting licensing a success?

Brent Council's revised regulations regarding the licensing of leaflet distribution designated areas  the borough caused considerable controversy last Spring. Initially said to be aimed at limiting litter during the Olympics it was later justified as merely tightening up existing regulations. LINK

There were concerns that voluntary organisations and campaigning groups may have had to request a licence months in  advance of any events and the impact this would make on free speech. The complex regulations seemed to be using a sledgehammer to break a nut and suspicions that it was a disguised money making venture that would impact on small business.

No one has come to me to say that 'political' leafleting has been affected but I made a Freedom of Information request top find out how much licensing had actually take place.

I got a very quick response (thanks, Yogini Patel ) and here are answers to my questions (Answer in bold):

1. How many licences were issued after the introduction of the new regulations up to December 31st 2012?  20
   

2. How many were refused? 4

3. List the number of licences issued for each designated area? Wembley 18, Neasden 2

4. List the number of licences issued during the period of the Olympic Games 2012 compared with the normal period. 9 during Olympics, 11 outside Olympics 


5. How many unlicensed distributors were given warnings by council officers? 28

6. How many leaflets were confiscated from unlicensed operators and on how many occasions was this? Leaflets were confiscated on 15 occasions ranging from 150-300 on each occasion

6. How much increase was there in the amount of littering in designated areas during the Olympic Games 2012 compared with normal times? This information is not gathered but observations suggest that during the Olympics streets appeared to have less litter.

Bigging up Brent Connects, but what about the budget?

Some of Brent Council's sternest critics are featured in this new video from Brent Council extolling the virtues of the council-resident 'dialogue' that take place at the Brent Connects Forums (formerly Area Consultation Forums). I didn't attend Brent Connects Kilburn and Kensal featured in this video but that panel debate format here certainly seems to have produced a livelier meeting. The format hasn't been adopted for all the Brent Connects events. This notice  for Brent Connects Wembley to be held at the Patidar Centre, London Road on Tuesday Jan 15th, with due respect to the councillors concerned, failed to excite me:

 One half of the forum will be devoted to portfolio updates from two members of the council’s Executive

* Cllr Krupesh Hirani – Lead Member for Adults and Health

* Cllr George Crane – Lead Member for Regeneration and Major Projects.

 This is an excellent opportunity for residents, service users and stakeholder groups to put questions on specific council portfolio to key-decision makers to help foster greater understanding of council initiatives. A full agenda will be available at the forum. 

The most important decision the council will be making this year, the 2013-14 budget proposals, does not feature on any of the current  Brent Connect agenda and by the time the next round comes round the cuts and increased charges wil have been implemented.

I criticised the lack of substance in the consultation last year, with no detailed proposals available, but this year there is no consultation at all.

Brent housing crisis hits the headlines

Wembley and Willesden Observer 10.3.13

Brent School Wars Intensify

The locally well regarded Gladstone Park Primary School faces being forced to become an academy after an Ofsted inspection at the end of last year categorised it a Grade 4: 'Inadequate'. At the beginning of 2011 an interim inspection had given it a continuing Grade 2: 'Good' LINK with Christine Gilbert,  the head of Ofsted writing:

 I am pleased to inform you that our interim assessment shows that the school’s performance has been sustained and that we can defer its next full inspection.

As a result, the next full inspection will not take place any earlier than the summer term 2012 unless we receive information in the course of the coming year that causes us to inspect earlier. I wish everyone involved in the school continued success in the future.

 A  'desk top' grade of 4 in November 2012 has clearly left all concerned puzzled about what happened in the interim apart from the changes that took place in the Ofsted Inspection framework.

There was a meeting at the school for parents yesterday to report on the inspection. One parent told me:

For many, it was the first they'd heard of the push from the Department of Education for Academy status, and there were spontaneous exclamations of 'No!' 'and 'Why?!' on finding out this was the implication of the OFSTED inspection. I think it's fair to say most of those present are against forced academisation, and there was an almost unanimous sense that the term 'inadequate' bears no relation whatsoever to children's everyday experience at school.

In what someone has dubbed the 'Return of the Dragon' former Brent Director of Education Jacky Griffin has been given the task of managing the transition to academy status. It appears that some governors and parents are determined to challenge the Ofsted findings and the forced academy and I will keep you updated with events. At present there has been no statement from Brent Council or Brent councillors about the situation.

It is fair to say that Jacky Griffin was not universally popular in Brent. She moved on to Kensington and Chelsea where she got an early retirement deal after her job was restructured out of existence.She now has a role with the DfE in promoting academies and free schools.

So it was rather interesting to hear new Brent Interim Chief Executive Christine Gilbert fronting a report that was critical of some academies' covert selection of pupils to boost results. LINK  Gilbert, who is the former chief of Ofsted, inherits a situation in which most non-voluntary aided secondary schools in Brent  have become academies with  possible conflict at Preston Manor over academy conversion and a Gladstone Park resistance campaign possible.

To cap all this there are several free school applications in the offing in the borough with rumours circulating that the building identified by Katherine Birbalsingh's 'Michael Academy' may be Arena House, opposite Wembley Park Station, which is being sold off by the College of North West London to raise money. Teacher unions in Brent are campaigning against the Free School and seeking support from the Labour Council. Michaela Academy has been resisted by two other London boroughs. If true this means that there would be three schools in the same vicinity with Preston Manor down the road and Ark Academy opposite. There is also the possibility of a 1,500 pupil Lycee at Brent Town Hall.

See my earlier reports on the background to Birbalsingh.LINK1    LINK2

General Election campaign starts early in Brent Central

 With Sarah Teather pedalling furiously leftwards to distance herself from the Coalition the Labour Party has named Brent Central as one of its target seats with a claim that they would need only a 1.5% swing to Labour to win the seat. LINK

Dawn and friend

 Brent Central Labour Party will be starting the selection of their General Election candidate soon. As, unless the Coaliton falls apart, the next General Election is not until May 7th 2015,   we can look forward to a long-campaign of press releases and photo-calls over the next two years or so.

Former  Brent South MP Dawn Butler has made sure she is seen at high profile events in the constituency and told the Evening Standard in October that she would stand to 'exonerate herself' over the expenses row she was invoved in when  an MP. LINK

Zaffar Kalwala

There have been rumours that thrusting young councillor Zaffar Kalwala is interested. He has certainly concentrated his fire on  Sarah Teather consistently over the last two years from his Stonebridge base as well as the council chamber LINK

It is generally thought that Teather's campaign last time was to the left of Butler's and some Labour Party members are opposed to her reselection, not least because of issues over her expenses when she was an MP and even the controversy over an endorsement of her by Barack Obama on House of Commons notepaper LINK although at the time she was stoutly defended by James Powney LINK  Her current website leaves a lot to be desired.LINK  However others dismiss Kalwala as a light-weight and rumours that James Powney is interested, having proved his mettle in making cuts, have been discounted.


It  looks as if the net will be cast wider and there is always a possibility that Labour nationally will sponsor a 'big name' candidate from outside of Brent.

Meanwhile locally it is unclear whether the twin strategies of Teather's rebellion and the local Lib Dems posing as anti-cuts activists and avoiding being tainted by the Coalition cuts will keep Labour at bay. There was some recent press coverage that suggested the Lib Dem vote in local by-elections was holding up despite the Coalition and that voters were separating local from national issues in their voting intentions.

Perhaps it is time for Brent Lib Dems to put that to the test in the two council seats where their councillors no longer live in Brent.

Butt confirms no 2% council tax rise this year

Mike Bowden, Assistant Director of Brent Finance gave a presentation to the Budget and Finance Overview and Scrutiny Committee in November 2012  that assumed a council tax rise of 3.5% for the 2013-14 council budget LINK. Shortly afterwards Eric Pickles established a requirement for a local referendum if increases were above a 2% threshold. Last year a number of councils of various political hues increased council tax below the 3.5% threshold that existed then.

I understand that there has been discussion in the Brent Executive as to whether to raise Council Tax with the benefit marginal after grant losses and  a reduced collection rate are taken into account. A rise above 2% would have incurred the cost of a local referendum.  It would of course have been another additional cost for people already suffering from benefit cuts and low or frozen wages. An alternative view is that calling the Coalition's bluff and triggering a referendum could result in a proper political debate about the need to adequately fund  local services and the iniquities of the Coalition's grant reduction to local authorities. Only a very small percentage of local government revenue comes from council taxes and charges.

Brent Council leader Muhammed Butt has confirmed via a Facebook interchange with me that there will not be a 2% rise this year. Asked about a possible lower rise he said that the Council was looking at the settlement figures as part of the budgetary process and considering the offer of the freeze grant.

Council consults on new travel policy for children with SEN

Readers will remember that Brent Council was forced to apologise when the West London Alliance transport system for children with Special Educational Needs left some abandoned in September last year LINK.  The Council is now consulting on a new travel policy. The notice is published below:

Parents, carers and schools are being asked for their views on a new travel policy being proposed for children with Special Educational Needs (SEN).

We have a legal duty to make sure suitable travel arrangements are in place for eligible children and young people to attend schools and colleges. The West London Alliance (WLA), which includes Brent, Hounslow, Ealing and Harrow councils, agreed jointly to ensure the most consistent, efficient and effective service is achieved with the resources available.

Consultation is taking place in the boroughs simultaneously until 10 February 2013.

• View the school travel consultation here

The proposals are also being presented at two meetings taking place at Brent Town Hall on:

• 22 January 3pm - 5pm in Committee Rooms 1, 2 and 3
• 24 January 7pm - 9pm in the Council Chamber.

Light refreshments will be available.

Comments and views from the meetings will be included in the WLA's final SEN travel policy report, which will be presented to the council's Executive for a decision in April.

If adopted, the new policy will continue to provide transport support for those pupils who need it and have no other reasonable alternative, but will also offer assistance to those pupils who want to travel independently and are potentially capable of doing so.  

This support will be through an accredited travel training scheme to enable pupils to safely develop the necessary skills needed for them to travel independently.

A full-time travel trainer, based at Woodfield Special School, currently trains over 20 pupils from the school to travel on their own every year.

In Brent, over 700 parents and carers as well as special schools and voluntary organisations have been contacted and invited to have their say on the new travel policy.

Butt under pressure but sticks to strategy of acquiescence to cuts

There was a lively discussion yesterday evening when Brent Council leader Muhammed Butt met with members of the Brent LRC (Labour Representation Committee) which is a group of left-wing Labour supporters. Cllr Butt was accompanied by his political adviser.

Butt reiterated his commitment to setting a 'legal' budget although observers pointed out that it was not illegal to set a needs based budget and no surcharge is involved under current legislation. All that would happen is that council officers would implement the Coalition imposed cuts.

He said that there would be an additional 2% of cuts on top of those in the three year budget plan but that in 2013-14 the overall cuts are  likely to be less than in the last 2 years. Although figures must have been drawn up by now he gave no details to the audience. More cuts are in the Coalition pipeline for 2014-15 and onwards.

It was unclear what, if any, public discussion or consultation would take place about the budget despite requests (including mine at the Budget and Finance Scrutiny Committee in December)  that the period be used to build support for a needs led budget. This would be used as campaigning tool backed by  the Brent  public so that pressure, alongside that of other councils could be put on the Coalition to reduce or reverse cuts in local government funding.

LRC members were disappointed by  what they see as the council's acquiescence in Coalition cuts. One commented, 'They lack any concept of, or confidence in, a class fightback. At best they can see the need for modestly ameliorative policy measures. Even that takes a struggle with the right wing. That's how bad things are.'

Further disappointment came when Cllr Claudia Hector, who has previously been critical of cuts, said according to one source that the public were not in the mood for a fightback so that the Butt programme was all that could be done. Another source, who attended the meeting,  felt this wasn't an entirely fair summary of her comment stating,.  'When someone compared the situation to that of fighting the Poll Tax at the end of the 1980s, Claudia  said that there wasn't the same level of public awareness on the issues'.

Asked if paying employees the London Living Wage, which is Council policy LINK,  had been written into the multi-million Public Realm contract covering waste, recycling and parks maintenance that is currently being procured, Cllr Butt said it had not - leaving his audience somewhat puzzled.

On a slightly more optimistic note Muhammed Butt  made it clear that he opposes academies and free schools and would issue a statement on the issue if there was any local action.