Extinction Rebellion, Willesden Green Library, Saturday March 2nd - Climate Change: Heading for Extinction (and what to do about it)

The planet is in ecological crisis: we are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction event this planet has experienced. Scientists believe we may have entered a period of abrupt climate breakdown. This is an emergency.

In this public talk, climate speakers from Extinction Rebellion will share the latest climate science on where our planet is heading, discuss some of the current psychology around climate change, and offer solutions through the study of social movements.

Everyone is welcome and there will be time to ask questions and discuss afterwards. Entry is free.

NEU's 'deep disappointment' at role of Brent Labour leader and Chief Whip in The Village School academisation following news it will become part of a Multi-Academy Trust tomorrow

 The Brent branch of the National Education yesterday passed the reolution below on the 'very sad news' the The Village School in Kingsbury will become part of the Woodfield Multi-Academy Trust tomorrow. The NEU has fought hard and long against the proposals with widespread support from trade unions, political parties, parents,  community groups and Brent NorthMP Barry Gardiner.

The move means that apart from Phoenix School Arch on St Rapahel's Estate that special education in Brent has been privatised. A sad day indeed.

Brent NEU congratulates the members at The Village for their brilliant and hard fought campaign against becoming part of a Multi-Academy Trust with Woodfield academy. We also thank Barry Gardiner, Brent North MP, the local Constituency Labour Parties, and the community for their support.

We are however deeply disappointed that Cllr Sandra Kabir, Chair of Governors of The Village and Chief Whip of the Labour Group supported the academisation and Cllr Muhammed Butt, Leader of Brent Council did not use his position and offices to strongly oppose this privatisation of our outstanding Local Authority school.

4 of the 10 worst London sites for breaches of Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) Air Quality Objectives are in Brent

From Friends of the Earth

In answer to Jaine's question (comments below) about air quality on Wembley High Road there is no monitoring station there. This is the map from Brent Council website. Monitoring stations marked in blue:

UPDATE: Bridge Park campaigners: 'We're not giving up!' crowd into the High Court for Brent Council vs The Community hearing

UPDATE WEDNESDAY FEBURARY 27th

Crowds waiting to go into the High Court hearing this morning - they quickly filled up the Court

YESTERDAY'S POST

VIDEOS ABOVE-THE CAMPAIGN GIVES THE BACKGROUND TO THE CASE AND RESPOND TO BRENT COUNCIL'S RECENT ACTIVITIES

The Bridge Park Campaign will be attending the High Court tomorrow to contest Brent Council's attempt to strike out the case. The Council are trying to defeat the community's claim on the land allegedly using £500,000 of the funds meant to be spent for the community's benefit. 

 The Campaign said:

Brent Council do not want the evidence we have uncovered to be made public. So they are trying to Strike Out our case before it can be heard by full Trial.

It is a small Courtroom so numbers inside are limited. Attendees may have to safely wait outside the Court for updates:

Morning Session1 - 10.30hrs (2hrs)

https://bpcc-courthearing-session1.eventbrite.co.uk/

Session 2 - 13.00hrs(2hrs)

https://bpcc-courthearing-noon-session2.eventbrite.co.uk/

Brent Council passes cuts budget with no opposition

Brent Council tonight passed the cuts listed in the post below with all Labour councillors in the Conference Hall when the vote was taken voting for the budget and the three opposition councillors abstaining. Cllrs Abdirazak Abdi and Jumbo Chan attended the Council meeting but were out of the room when the vote was taken.

It was noteworthy that for the first time the Tory Group (Trio) did not put forward an alternative  budget, surely the least that can be expected from a principled opposition. This enabled deputy leader Cllr Margaret McLennan, voice dripping with honeyed sarcasm, to thank them for supporting a Labour budget by not putting forward an alternative. The hapless trio made things even worse for themselves when Cllr Kansagra appeared to fall asleep during his own speech that for about the 5th year running blamed Gordon Brown for the world financial crisis.  Clearly nothing to do with the Tory government. Cllr Colwill followed by saying that there was 'loadamoney' hidden in many years' worth of unpaid debts to the council and accused Labout of not scrutinising council finances properly - he is vice chair of the scrutiny committee! Cllr Maurice lulled Labour into silence with a long soliloquy on diesel cars. A Labour councillor suggested that the leader of the opposition should lose his special allowance as he was not doing the job.

Oh for a proper opposition! Come back John Warren..! (Or John Duffy).

There was a refreshing willingness among most Labour councillors to call a spade a spade and not shrink from calling cuts, cuts, rather than 'savings', 'transformation', 'efficiencies' or even the dread new variant 'Hub' - although there were several hubs in the budget proposals.

Cllr Butt had not quite mastered this new language insisting in his final speech that the budget would do harm to Brent people but also that the vulnerable would be protected. The council is of course consulting on making those entitled to Council Tax Support pay more from 2020.

There were some good speeches from some of the newer councillors  as well as some obsequious one from some who should know better. Cllr Nerva sent a spasm through his colleagues when he made a veiled attack on the present national leadership of the Labour Party towards the end of his budget speech. He said that the events of the last week (presumably the  formation of the Independent Group) made it clear that in order to deserve to be elected Labour had to tackle anti-semitism and misogyny in its ranks. There was a scattering of applause.

Austerity hasn't ended! These are the services Brent Council will vote to cut tonight

The Council Meeting is at 6pm tonight at Brent Civic Centre, close to Wembley Stadium. You can watch live a transmission from the Council Chamber HERE Tweet comments using hashtag #BrentLive  There is a public meeting calling for a General Election to end Tory austerity on March 14th (DETAILS)

THE MAIN CUTS & JOB LOSSES IN BRENT

OVERALL REDUCTION IN BUDGET £20,900,000

OVERALL INCREASE IN COUNCIL TAX 5.77% (CHARGE WILL BE £1,582.85 ON BAND D PROPERTY)

CONSULTATION ON OPTIONS TO REDUCE COUNCIL TAX SUPPORT FOR 2020-21 MAKING NEEDY FAMILIES PAY MORE

CUT £180,000 TO END ZONE 5 (RESIDENTIAL STREETS) LITTER PICKING

CUT £70,000 BY REMOVING LITTER BINS IN THESE STREETS

CUT £200,000 BY MAKING PARKS MAINTENANCE REACTIVE ONLY

CUT £60,000 BY REDUCING OPENING HOURS OF ABBEY ROAD RE-USE & RECYCLING CENTRE

CUT £1,524,000 IN 2019-20 & £450,000 IN 2020-21 BY REMOVING 40 POSTS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES

CUT £400,000 IN 2020-21 BY REMOVING 12  BRENT MET PATROL PLUS OFFICERS FROM APRIL 2020

CUT £250,000 BY HANDING OVER ROUNDWOOD YOUTH CENTRE AND CUTTING TWO POSTS THERE

CUT £250,000 IN EARLY HELP SERVICES INCLUDING LOSS OF TWO JOBS

CUT £250,00 BY REDUCING CHILDREN & YOUNG PEOPLE’S ‘NON-CASING HOLDING STAFF’ BY 5 POSTS

CUT £1,491,000  IN 2020-21 BY REDUCING TOTAL NUMBER OF CHILDREN’S CENTRES FROM 17 TO 8 - REPLACE WITH ‘HUB’ MODEL (NB TOTAL JOB LOSSES NOT SPECIFIED)

CUT £102,000 IN 2019-20 & £158,000 IN 2020-21 BY CUTTING GRANTS TO VOLUNTARY ORGANISATIONS

CUT £100,000 IN 2020-21 BY REDUCING COMMUNICATIONS STAFF BY 2-3 POSTS

CUT £450,000 BY REMOVING 5 POSTS IN POLICY, PERFORMANCE & PARTNERSHIP TEAM

CUT £60,000 BY REDUCING SCRUTINY COMMITTEE FROM 3 TO 2 & THUS CUTTING ONE OFFICER

CUT £275,000 IN 2019-20 & £225,000 IN 2020-21 BY CUTTING RESPECTIVELY 6 & 5 CUSTOMER SERVICE POSTS

CUT £200,000 IN 2020-21 THROUGH IN-HOUSE TRANSFER OF CAPITA COUNCIL TAX CONTRACT LOSS OF 5 POSTS

FULL DETAILS HERE

Support London National Park City Crowdfunder to make London greener, healthier and wilder

From Daniel Raven-Ellison London National Park City Campaigner & Founder

After years of campaigning I’m excited for the launch of the London National Park City in July. It’s only happening thanks to the actions of thousands of people like you.

I am now writing to ask for your support again. 

Back our crowdfunding campaign

The London National Park City is a positive, proactive and inclusive way to help tackle many great challenges. The climate crisis, the extinction of species, air and water pollution, children not playing or learning outdoors as much as they should do, threats to essential public space and the state of our mental health are just a few of the problems that, by taking collective actions, we can make tangible progress on.

For me, one of the most exciting things about the National Park City is a set of two simple and powerful questions - “what if?” and “why not?”  It’s these questions that have underpinned our campaign from the beginning.

Set to London being a National Park City, the “what if?” can spark imaginations. What if there was more paddle boarding on our canals? What if my street was amazingly more green? What if there was more outdoor play, learning and exploration in schools? The “why not?”, when enough people start asking it, can create a significant tipping point where the imaginary converts into an expectation that delivers change. If London is a National Park City, “why isn’t there more paddle boarding? Why isn’t my street greener? Why isn’t my school doing more outdoor learning? Why aren't we protecting public space? Why don’t we have more hedgehogs? Why don’t we have cleaner air? Why not?”.

The National Park City Foundation, the charity that we’ve set up to help make the London National Park City a success, is currently running a crowdfunding campaign. I am hoping that you will be willing and able to support it before it ends in 11 days time. Time is running out and we need to get things moving. 

While we’ve led an effective campaign to make London a National Park City, we do not have the resources to scale-up our efforts in time for the July launch without your support.

For it to be as successful as possible, we need as many people as possible to understand what the National Park City is and how they can get involved. We also need to inspire thousands of conversations across the capital that lead to millions of actions that would otherwise not have taken place. Simple things like planting, playing, walking, swimming, cycling and sharing.

That’s why we are crowdfunding to create National Park City Maker, a newspaper-sized guide to getting involved with the London National Park City. We want to get these guides into the hands of influencers. They will also be tools that anyone can use to kick-start conversations with people in their building, on their street or at work. We hope the guide will lead to National Park City inspired groups forming in schools, organisations and communities across London and beyond.

Back our crowdfunding campaign

While the National Park City Foundation has been highly effective in our campaigning, we’ve always relied on campaigns like this one to fund our efforts. Even a small contribution will help us move closer to our target.

If we hit our crowdfunding target we predict we will be able to reach 1 in 25 Londoners. This could have an incredible impact. 

We have some great rewards, including murals by street artist ATM and bespoke gold leaf maps by Urban Good.

Individuals can get their name engraved on the London National Park City Founders’ Stone which will be located in a publicly accessible place in London. You can also get t-shirts, a wooden National Park City aster* for your window and we’ll thank you in the paper too. Why not get copies for everyone on your street or at your work?

Organisations are in a great position to support this campaign. Contribute to the crowdfunder and then distribute copies of National Park City Maker to your staff, service users or customers. If you do so at the right level, we will add your logo to our "thank you" page. Organisations can claim a professional workshop on how to engage audiences from theWholeStory too. 

Small community groups do not have the financial resources that larger organisations have, but they are just as important. London can only become a National Park City because of the work small community groups have done across the capital over hundreds of years. If you represent one of these groups, help us hit our target with £10 or more and we’ll send you you some copies and include your logo in the guide too.

Let’s make something extraordinary happen - please do contribute to the crowdfunding campaign today.

Back our crowdfunding campaign

Cries of 'Teach the truth on climate change' ring out at the Department for Education, London

Teacher's used their half-term break yesterday to support the action of school students in the #youthstrike4climate movement and made their own demands on the Department for Education to make the ecological and climate crisis an educational priority in a protest organised hy Extinction Rebellion and others. (See previous posting).

There were speeches from NEU and UCU members, school students who have been taken part in the Friday strikes and individual teachers.

Damian Hinds, Seceretary of State, was not available to take delivery of their letter or respond to their demands, so instead teachers and students delivered a series of powerful speeches which can be heard in the video.

In a disquieting way the warm and sunny February day was itself a testimony to changes in the climate.