Cllr Sarah Marquis joins Michael Pavey in resigning from Brent Council

Cllr Marquis

From the Brent Council website

Councillor Sarah Marquis, a local Councillor for the Barnhill Ward in the London Borough of Brent, has resigned today.

Councillor Marquis notified Carolyn Downs, Returning Officer and Chief Executive of Brent Council, of her decision to stand down with immediate effect due to family and personal reasons.
Her resignation creates another vacancy for the office of Councillor for the Barnhill ward, alongside the vacancy opened up in the same ward earlier this week due to the resignation of Councillor Michael Pavey.

In order to trigger a by-election, two local government electors in Brent must write to the Chief Executive’s Office requesting that an election take place.

Two letters are required to fill each vacancy. On receipt of the requests to fill this vacancy, the Returning Officer will set a date for an election to be held within 35 days.

All requests / letters regarding these vacancies must be sent to: Chief Executive’s Office, Brent Civic Centre, Engineers Way, Wembley, HA9 0FJ or by email to: Carolyn.Downs@brent.gov.uk or Chief.Executive@brent.gov.uk.

Cllr Marquis is a former Chair of Brent Planning Committee where she often displayed a principled independent streak. LINK

South Kilburn General Election Hustings December 4th

South Kilburn Hustings

Come to meet the  5 candidates for  Hampstead and Kilburn Constituency:

Johnny LUK (Conservatives)

James POINTON (Brexit)

Matt SANDERS (Liberal Democrats)

Tulip SIDDIQ (Labour)

David STANSELL (Green Party)

Bring your questions!

4 December 7-9pm

at Carlton Centre Rumi's Cave

Carlton Vale, NW6 5RA

Note: Brondesbury Park, Kilburn and Queens Park are Brent wards that are in the Hampstead and Kilburn constituency 

Hosted by

Brent's independent voice for the disabled silenced

No longer able to afford the market rent demanded by the NHS  for its premises in Willesden Hospital Brent Advocacy Concerns has closed its doors today and will vacate tomorrow.

Last week I received this message from John Healy, one of the volunteers (there are no paid workers):

I know you are very busy with the election and climate change, not forgetting Brent's pavement's as well but I am just letting you know that we will be leaving our office this Friday, the 29th November 2019 (on the same site for over 31 years) where we have been continuously providing advocacy to the disabled community in Brent during all that time.

We are not closing down (yet) as we will still be available online but without seeing people in person, I think it will only be a matter of time before we close the charity down completely.

Through Wembley Matters, could you ask both the council and Brent CCG who will take over from us by  seeing disabled people face to face in an office, when we are no longer there.

With a nice bit of irony--A Clinical Psychologist from Northwick Park Hospital has asked us (21/11/19) to provide him with an advocate for one of his stroke patients, who can no longer access his kitchen & bathroom.  I have sent him two emails offering to advocate for him but as yet, he has not replied.

John got in touch again this evening to say:

Hi Martin, I had three disabled people contact me on my last day.

Including:-

A lady with Autism who had been turned down by PowHer, Voiceability and Brent CAB who all said she did not meet their eligibility criteria.  Even the council turned her away, saying she was not entitled to a needs assessment.  Under The Care Act, 2014, the council have a statutory duty to carry out an assessment for anyone who asks for one.

So with us gone after today, who will help disabled people in Brent?

 

Best wishes

I hope the the Council and Brent CCG will respond but I don't think it right not to finish without thanking John and his colleagues, past and present, for what they have done for Brent people with a disability over the past three decades.

Thank you.

Brent Central Hustings on Austerity Saturday December 7th

Please sign the petition to improve the Quainton Street Open Space and Brent River/Feeder Walk - Deadline December 1st

Quainton Street Open Space (top right) -the trees trace the route of the River Brent towards St Davids Open Space

Quainton Street Open Space is one of the hidden delights of Brent - when it is not covered in litter... A section of it is on the Brent Green Walk I devised LINK

Now there is a great proposal to request Neighbourhood Community Infrastructure funds to improve the Quainton Street Open Space and the rive/feeder course from the Welsh Harp. The deadline is December 1st. Please sign HERE

From Brent Rivers and Community Project

On 21 November 2019, we went to Quainton Street Open Space again for the second event of the series. The objectives this time were to pick litter from the park area and surroundings, and to open access to the river. But, we did much more than that… In addition to the proposed activities, the group of eager volunteers cleared the towpath making it safe for passersby to walk on.

In this cloudy and breezy autumn day, we started to work at 10.30 am, and stopped at 2.30pm, despite the call from volunteers to continue.

Many peculiar items were collected, this time we found a collection of vintage bottle tops, a funny hat and other unusual pieces. It seems that there are small abandoned camp sites in the park, each of them containing huge amounts of litter. We are looking to have them all cleared after the third event on 30 November 2019.

The aftermath: 58 bags of litter, 2 mattresses, as well as many clothes and shoes - and this cleared space!

During the event, there were also wildlife occurrences, and two were noteworthy: the presence of toads near the pond area, and a kingfisher. “It is great to see these organisms at Quainton Street Open Space, I couldn’t imagine that they would live here”, said a volunteer. We will continue to spot and report wildlife in and around the River Brent, highlighting the importance of biodiversity.

In the next events that will happen on the 30^th November and then in January and February, participants will have the opportunity to help the river and park area further, to expand their knowledge on the River Brent, meet other people, share experiences and expand their network. As well as building dead hedges and bird nesting boxes.

CLICK HERE MORE INFORMATION

Building on the great start of the Brent Rivers and Communities project at Quainton Recreation Ground, we’re pulling together an application for Brent Neighbourhood Community Infrastructure Levy (NCIL) funding to extend riparian improvements and create a riverside walk in the park just downstream of the Welsh Harp reservoir..

Community support with make a BIG difference to this application!

The deadline is Sunday 1^st December.

Walk the riverside & discover nature safely: Wembley to the Welsh Harp SSSI

Please Sign! Forward and Share this petition LINK

You can also tweet LINK

Everyone’s signature will help to make a real difference! 

Furious residents confront Brent Council officials over tree removal and win some concessions

Chris Whtye, representing Brent Council, confessed that tonight's meeting outside Furness Primary School in Furness Road about the removal of 11 trees, was much bigger than he had anticipated. He was given the unenviable task of both giving the Council's case and responding to questions. Brent Council leader Cllr Muhammed Butt and Lead member for the Environment, stayed silent for the first part of the meeting, leaving Officers to take the brunt of the crowd's passionate criticism of Council policy on removing trees and asphalting of walkways.

Eleven trees were to be removed from Furness Road and Chris told the crowd that five would now stay after review, three would be removed because they were diseased, dead or dying and three would be removed because contractors could find no way of laying the new footway around them.

This did not satisfy the protesters and nor did a further concession that the trees would be replaced by semi-mature plantings rather than saplings. They pointed out the widely different contribution to reducing air pollution made by different sizes of trees and the carbon cost of fossil fuel based asphalt compared with replacing cracked paving. Officers pointed out their duty to protect pedestrians from tripping hazards and falling branches.

The Council were reminded of the battle over asphalting in Chandos Road and the removing of very old specimen trees in Old Paddington Cemetery.

 Cllr Butt, Leader of Brent Council, responds

The meeting did not so much conclude as tail off in a series of arguments with Muhammed Butt furious in certain exchanges. However a cool intervention by Cllr Jumbo Chan won a promise of a properly chaired meeting of residents and the Council in early-January.

It was hard to be absolutely certain in the chaos but I believe the Council undertook to carry out no work in Furness Road until the meeting has taken place.

Brent Council accused of mendacity over trees/paving policy

Salmon Street, NW9 - August 2019

 From an email sent to Brent Council:

RE: Brent Council Announces Climate Emergency And Then Chops Down All The Trees

Are you still insisting we hold a meeting outside in the dark today, at rush hour, before most residents have got home ?

I am unsure exactly what you propose to convey to us with your "brief discussion" in these conditions; we obviously will not be able to see the trees you mention.

Is it your intension to try to confine this discussion only to these remaining eleven trees on Furness Road ?

As you know the systematic destruction of Brent’s wonderful & varied stock of mature trees has been ongoing for a decade. 

Many of us have correspondence with the council going back several years regarding the tragic culling of mature and healthy trees outside our homes.

Amid repeated broken promises of them being replaced, line upon line have been erased from our streets. Furness Road has suffered terribly. And it continues.

We would like them back.

Who is sending these chainsaw gangs around the borough and why?

Similar action by another council in a recent case was described by Michael Gove (then Minister for the Environment) as “Ecological Vandalism’.

At an impromptu gathering outside Furness Rd School last Monday, a council representative claimed that it is Brent Council’s intention to replace ALL paving stones throughout the whole borough with asphalt.

Can you confirm if this is true ?

If so, what volume of asphalt in tonnage is likely to be purchased by the council ? 

I’m sure rough estimates by quantity-surveyors were calculated before such a decision was made.

What calculations regarding carbon offsetting, to cancel-out the use of such a large quantity of petroleum-based bitumen/asphalt have been completed ?

And, how does the felling of thousands, of mature trees help in this offsetting?

Clearly, in spite of recent claims by Brent Council, that they are in some way concerned with the environment, their actions (historic & ongoing), and recent decisions regarding pavements and canopy cover (without consultation) demonstrate the opposite. Indeed, it shows utter contempt.

This amounts to a public relations disaster for Brent Council & current MP, and yet further anger & frustration for the borough’s long-suffering residents.

Finally, I understand Krupa Seth will be attending today.

I do look forward to Counciller Sheth's answers to our previously unanswered questions and outstanding FOI requests sent to her under separate cover.

And a response to the above email from a resident with whom it was shared:

Thank you for an intelligent and insightful email which rightly centres on Brent Councils casual disregard for its tree stock and the profligate waste of money caused by this approach to pavement works, that is compounded by the damaging use of the extensive amounts of a fossil fuel derivative.

Brent Council has a corporate responsibility to reduce the amount of fossil fuel use in the borough – not increase it steadily.

This is for obvious reasons – obvious to everyone else, except the officers of Brent Council.

Brent is fortunate in that it appears to have many intelligent, engaged people who really do care about their borough and the way it is managed – it is deeply shameful that Brent Council continues with its ruinous pursuit of degrading the public realm facilitated by a Council that views its environmental responsibilities as a minor inconvenience.

I see again, the mendacious line trotted out again that a replacement sapling is in anywhere near a reasonable replacement of a mature tree as regards the large environmental benefits provided by a mature tree.

It will take decades for the replacement sapling to reach the same amounts of carbon sequestration, the production of oxygen, reduction in solar gain and the ecological benefits for wildlife.

Anyone with common sense can see the lunacy and ignorance of that statement – any honest arborist would tell you exactly the same thing. 

You would think it should be incumbent for the officers of Brent Council to be aware of this basic fact – this is not a difficult of overly complicated concept.

If not, they are either ignorant or incompetent or just plain dishonest.

This is a borough wide issue regardless of Brent Council's opinion and residents will continue to fight this environmental degradation everywhere in the borough.

How is Mallard Way's asphalt faring 3 years on as policy comes under scrutiny?

Brent Council's justification for asphalt replacing paving - 2016

With the current controversy raging in Mapesbury Conservation Area over the replacement of paving with asphalt I thought it worth checking on the current state of Mallard Way, in Kingsbury NW(, which was asphalted 3 years ago.

For the most part the walkway is smooth although there are some shallow indentations in places which accumulate rainwater. The photos below suggest that there is some cracking beginning and mould/moss. which becomes a slipping hazard in wet or icy weather, is beginning to form in places.

Next to a tree pit

Cracking beginning

Moss/mould