Hampstead and Kilburn CLP back Abdirazak over sacking from Planning Committee

The proposed Ark Primary School to be built on the York Hopuse car park

Last night Hampstead and Kilburn Constituency Labour Party overwhelmingly backed a motion submitted by Kilburn (Brent) branch on the sacking of Cllr Abdirazak Abdi from Brent Planning Committee.

The resolution sets out the background and concurs with an opinion voiced on this blog that the Report submitted to the Full Council Meeting stating that Cllr Abdi had resigned was untrue. The amounts to misleading councillors and the public.

This branch/CLP/LCF notes:

Abdirazak Abdi, a recently elected first-time Kilburn Brent Councillor, has voted on eleven planning applications since being on the planning committee of Brent Council since May. He voted against four of the eleven applications because of material planning considerations. As a conscientious Councillor he is doing his best to promote truly sustainable development in Brent. The four developments he voted against include:

* An application to build a 630 pupil primary school on the busy Wembley Hill Road connecting Wembley Central and Wembley Park with a rooftop playground and concerns around air pollution;

* An application for a part 21 and a part 15 storey housing block in Wembley, criticised  by local residents, and also queried by Sadiq Khan's office for containing too little `affordable' housing especially as the scheme received public funding;

On the afternoon of Monday 9th July Cllr Abdi was informed by the leader of Brent Council that he was being removed from the Planning Committee. This was transparently because he was not endorsing decisions approved by the leader.

His removal from planning committee went ahead at full Council that evening despite objections from Abdi (including at the full Council meeting) and his Labour Party branch secretary.

The Council record states that Abdi "resigned" from the planning committee, which is blatantly untrue.

We call for:

Brent Labour Group to reinstate Cllr Abdi to the planning committee as a matter of urgency;

Brent Labour Group to instigate democratic procedures for decisions on committee places and to put an end to the current patronage, which could be interpreted as political interference in planning decisions.

[Resolution to be sent to Brent Central and Brent North CLPs, Brent LCF and all members of Brent Council Labour Group]

[LCF is Local Campaign Forum, a Party body with delegates from all 3 CLPs in the borough (and from the Labour Group]

For additional information, Abdi was told he was being taken off planning to make way for one of the Councillors elected in the late Willesden Green election. Abdi was only on one committee (planning), this is the breakdown for others: 

Excluding leader, deputy leader and members on the cabinet.

5 councillors not appointed to serve on any committtee

16 councillors only serve on 1 committee
14 councillors serve on 2 committees;
11 councillors serve on 3 committees; and
5 serve on  4 or more committees;

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Mandela's 100th birthday - time for Wembley to remember his 70th birthday concert

As the world celebrates Nelson Mandela's 100th birthday and contrasts his qualities with those of our present leaders, perhaps it is time for us to recognise the importance of the 1988 concert held at Wembley Stadium to mark his 70th birthday.

The concert watched by over 600 million people world-wide  did an enormous amount to communicate the struggle against apartheid. Quintain have mounted an exhibition of key events in the history of Wembley Stadium and Wembley Park along Olympic Way and elsewhere in their development, but the concert is not included.

The video above gives just a glimpse of the energy and enthusiasm of the occasion. It is time to correct this oversight which is part of our local history remembered by many.

Willesden Green Library closed until July 23rd at the earliest - time to ask questions?

Willesden Green Library

From Brent Council

The problem with the water at the Library at Willesden Green is going to take some time to fix. We will not be able to reopen until Monday 23 July at the earliest. We will keep you updated and let you know when we have a definite reopening day.

I hope ward councillors will follow this up. Brent Council made great play that the new 'Cultural Centre' (title seems to have been dropped) had been provided at no cost to council tax payers in exchange for council land handed over to developers to build luxury flats. These were later sold in Singapore with the unique selling point that there was no affordable housing or key worker housing on site.

This is the second closure due to a water problem and the length of closure indicates a degree of seriousness or complexity that one would think unlkely in a fair straightforward new build.

Were corners cut in the building of the library to save the developer money?

Cuts of £30m in Brent budget likely 2019-21

The Finance Report going before Cabinet this afternoon LINK looks towards the 2020 cliff edge when local government no longer gets a direct central government grant.

 The report looks at the cost pressures above and quotes the Audit Commission: 

“The current trajectory for local government is towards a narrow core offer increasingly centred on social care. This is the default outcome of sustained increases in demand for social care and of tightening resources”

The report notes that currently one third of the Council budget goes towards social care but that the government is publishing a green paper on social care funding and integration with the NHS in the autumn. The implications of this for the council budget are unclear and thus not included in the report.

Brent Council has made £164,000,000 'savings' since 2010 and the forecast is that another £30m will need to be cut from the budget between 2019-20 and 2020-21, £29m from general services and £1.3m from the Housing Revenue Account (HRA).

The report notes that because of uncertainties over government policy this figure only has +/-20% accuracy. More accurate figures will not be known for a year.

The officers' assume a council tax rise of 4% annually, 2% general cash funding and 2% for adult social care but note that last year a rise of 5% was allowed. CIPFA suggest that the 2018-19 council tax rise may be the biggest for 14 years.

In addition the council may also make further increases in the cost of non-statutory services provided to the public and continue to seek other  revenue raising opportunities such as selling advertising space on its buildings.

However the main source of funding in the future will be council tax and business rates.  Brent is estimated to receive £7m from the pilot 100% Business Rate Retention Pool in 2018-19 but the rate will be 75% through the Fair Funding Review and 25% in specific grants in 2020-21.

One option that Brent Council has been following is to seek to increase its council tax and business rate base - more people paying into the pot and this is particularly evident through the new housing approved in specific areas of the borough. If the new occupants are young and without children this results in increased income without much additional strain on services.

The council estimates the council tax base to increase by 2.5% a year which will be reviewed and refined as part of the financial planning process. They claim that it is harder to forecast the business rate base because of the impact of appeals (which can take a considerable time to be resolved by the VOA) and because it is more directly impacted by broader changes in the economy. They are currently working to a figure of 2% in 2019-20 but have not anything beyond that due to the forecasting difficulties.

In terms of the private student accommodation springing up around the borough, that yields little, because property is exempt if everyone living there fulls into one of several categories including full-time college or university students and 18 or 19 year-olds in full time education.

Lorber challenges council on potential grassland fires in Brent as Fire Brigade issues urgent warning

Former councillor Paul Lorber has called on Brent Council to make a risk assessment of potential grassland fires in Brent as a result of the Council's 'no mowing' policy in areas of the borough's parks.

His call follows fires near Heathrow Airport and on Wanstead flats LINK and a warning from the London Fire Brigade:

 Lorber said:

I really hope that the Council is ready to prevent this kind of situation arising in Brent. If not the grass cutting and removal of tall grass from Parks and Open Spaces Policy needs to be urgently reviewed and changed.

Councillors and the public needs to be advised on the risks being created and how the Council will respond and take action to protect local people.

The London Fire Brigade's statement issued this morning said:

The London Fire Brigade has today issued an urgent safety warning following the largest grass fire in its history and a series of other grass fires across the capital. Firefighters are concerned that there will be further incidents if the public doesn’t take greater care during the heatwave.

London Fire Commissioner, Dany Cotton, said:

This weekend we dealt with the largest grass fire in our history, as well as a range of other serious fires on grassland. The ground is extremely dry at the moment and grassland and parks will act like a tinderbox when exposed to even the smallest of sparks.

I never thought I’d say this but we are praying for rain.

We are calling on the public to take steps to prevent grass fires: don’t drop cigarettes or matches on dry ground or out of car windows; don’t have barbecues on dry grass or parks and don’t leave glass bottles out as they can concentrate the sun’s rays and start a blaze.

Grass fires spread like lightening so if you see dry grass smouldering, please call 999 and report it immediately so that firefighters can deal with it and stop it from spreading.

The Wanstead blaze, which was so extensive it can be defined as a wildfire, broke out on grassland at 16:05 on Sunday (15 July) at Wanstead Flats, close to Epping Forest in east London. At the height of the fire, over 100 hectares of grass was alight, which is roughly the same size as 100 football pitches.

Over 220 firefighters from fire stations across London attended, with over 40 fire engines at the scene at the height of the incident. Fifteen fire engines and around 100 firefighters remain at the scene today (Monday 16 July) to saturate the area and ensure the fire is under control. Fires on peatland can present a challenge as the fire can travel below ground. Crews are expected to be on scene for a number of hours.

Grass fires this weekend

• Fifteen fire engines and 100 firefighters attended a large grass fire in Feltham on Saturday afternoon
• Fifteen fire engines attended a grass fire in Ockendon in Essex on Sunday, London Fire Brigade sent three engines to assist Essex crews
• Four fire engines attended a grass fire in Woodford Green on Sunday afternoon
• Five engines attended a grass fire in Richmond last night

Quintain award £161.5m contract to Wates Construction

From Construction Enquirer LINK

Quintain has awarded a £161.5m contract to Wates Construction to build the latest phase of 633 new homes at Wembley Park.

Wates is one of four framework contractors on the 85 acre site alongside Sisk, McAleer & Rushe, and McLaren.

The contract for twin plots E01 and E02, is the largest ever awarded to Wates on a single site.

It marks a total of £1.7bn worth of construction contracts awarded by Quintain at Wembley Park.

The E01/E02 development, located off Olympic Way, will provide 633 residential homes across private rented, affordable rented, intermediate for sale, intermediate rented tenures.
 

Of these, 347 will be build to rent and managed by Quintain’s rental management business Tipi.

Matt Voyce, Executive Director of Construction Quintain said: 

We are delighted to have awarded the contract for E01 and E02 to Wates.

We continue to deliver Wembley Park at pace, with 3,100 homes currently under construction and an astonishing 22 tower cranes now on site.

This latest contract marks an exciting phase in the development, helping to bring forward 633 much needed new homes at Wembley Park. We look forward to working with Wates on this project.

Mark Tant, Managing Director, Wates Construction London Residential added:

 We’re pleased to announce our appointment to this latest stage of construction work and our continued partnership with developer, Quintain, taking the total number of apartments to be delivered by Wates at Wembley Park to over 1,300.

This contract further demonstrates our expertise in delivering large-scale residential projects that add to the changing landscape of the capital.

This also gives us further opportunity to continue our local community investment plan, supporting local schools and colleges with their career development, site tours and work experience as well as undertaking projects for the local community as part of our Reshaping Tomorrow commitments.

Construction on E01/E02 is due to complete in 2020.

 

 Original planning application HERE

More cladding removals in Wembley Park

Following the Grenfell disaster Unite Students is currently removing cladding from its huge student accommodation building on Olympic Way. Yesterday First Port wrote to residents in Quadrant Court about removal of cladding around the entrance to the building:

Dear Resident,

IMPORTANT – Quadrant Court – Cladding.

Following on from our correspondence regarding the cladded areas at the entrance of Quadrant Court, we are happy to inform that the cladded areas will be made safer and more secure.

We have been informed that from Monday (16th of July), Sisk will be doing some works on behalf of Quintain to make it safer, this will include the change of the insulation behind the walls and a new fire breaker to be installed. This repairs will make the cladding safer and bring it in line with the government recommendation.

During this works that will take a maximum of 2 weeks there will be minimal disruption to the residents but if at any time you need assistance please do not hesitate to contact the concierge desk and they will be more than happy to help.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you need more information. Kind regards

Andreas Deligiannis (Development Manager)

Cllr Abdi's removal from Planning Committee raises possibility of political interference in the planning process

Planning Committees have a quasi-judicial role and are supposed to be free from interference from the political leadership of the Council once appointed and going about their job.

Questions have been raised a number of times about possible attempts to pressure members of the Committee to make decisions favoured by the political leadership but none so far has 'stuck'.

Events yesterday, when it became know during the afternoon that the leadership was seeking to remove Cllr Abdirazak Abdi from the Committee through an item on the Full Council Agenda, dismayed many in the Labour Party, not least members of the Kilburn Labour Party (Brent) and resulted in the letter from their officers published on this blog.

The Labour Group's pre-meeting before Full Council was very short so it is unlikely that the issue was properly debated there.

The item was brought forward on the agenda and discussed before some councillors had arrived at the meeting, including I understand Cllr Abdi's two ward councillor colleagues.  At the same time the live streaming of the meeting was unavailable and it is only now that I have been able to watch a recording of the item. (HERE watch from 15.00)
 
The changes were approved without a vote but then Cllr Abdi asked if he could read an email he had sent to Labour colleagues about the matter. After some discussion between the Mayor and senior officers (off-microphone but those with sharp hearing may be able to make it out) he was told he couldn't read out  the email but he was offered the chance to speak.

Cllr Abdi said:

I would just like to raise my concern because I am being removed from the Planning Committee and I believe I am being removed for the simple reason of voting against planning applications and I feel this is a detrimental decision to the residents of the great borough. I've only been on the Committee for two sessions and I feel that I've voted against sufficient applications that the leadership... (tape becomes inaudible at this point to me but you may be able to understand what is said - if you can please add as a comment below).

If Cllr Abdi has been removed because of the way he voted I would suggest that this does amount to political interference in the process - not just in Abdi's case but additionally in the form of a warning to other members of the committee that if they don't 'toe the line' they will also be removed.

Planning Committee members cannot be whipped but if the Leader informally makes his  views known and councillors know of the possible consequences of not voting the right way, then the public's confidence that Brent planning decisions are fair and transparent is undermined.