A chance to hear from your GLA candidates at Mencap Hustings tonight 6pm

 

Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87086823773

Free online events from Brent Libraries – including an Amy Johnson talk

 Guest post from Philip Grant

 

Although lockdown restrictions because of the Covid-19 pandemic are beginning to ease, normal services at facilities like our local libraries are still something for the future. In the meantime, a small team from Brent Libraries is still working hard to provide free online events for residents of all ages. You can find the details and sign up for free tickets, by “clicking” here.

 

Events in the programme include “Storytime & Rhyme” sessions every Tuesday morning for under 5s and their parents, “coffee morning" sessions for adults at home and a number of evening talks. Within the next fortnight there are three 6.30pm evening sessions on books and authors (including an “adults only” story presentation, “Death and the Warrior Maiden”, for World Book Night on 23 April!).

 

  

The next “coffee morning” event, on Tuesday 20 April at 11am, is a session hosted by Brent Museum and Archives, “Talking Brent’s Heritage”, where residents are welcome to share pictures and stories from our borough’s past. And while I am still not able to give local history talks, planned for 2020, at Kingsbury, Wembley and Willesden Green Libraries, I have been able to offer an online one. 

 

Originally given at a Kingsbury Library “coffee morning” in 2016, I hope that this updated version of “Amy Johnson – From Kingsbury to Australia” will appeal to a wider audience. It concentrates on a year in her life, aged just 26, which saw an unknown secretary from Hull transformed into a world-famous aviator. And most of that year was spent living and working in Kingsbury!

 

It’s the story of a young woman who decided that she wanted to fly, and how she overcame prejudice to fulfil her dream, through hard work and determination. The rules said that women were not allowed in the London Aeroplane Club’s maintenance hangers at Stag Lane Aerodrome, in case they distracted the aircraft mechanics. How did you get round that, if you were a woman who wanted to become one?

 

Amy Johnson, working at Stag Lane Aerodrome.

 

Going solo to Australia was not what she originally had in mind, when she began her flying lessons. But that is what she set off to do on 5 May 1930, and what a journey it was! 

 

My online “coffee morning” talk, on Wednesday 5 May 2021, from 11am to 12noon, is (by pure chance) on the 91^st anniversary of the day she took off for Australia from Croydon Aerodrome. The details, and free tickets for the talk, can be found here.

 

On her way to Australia, Croydon Aerodrome, 5 May 1930.

 

Like all of my library talks, and articles, this one has plenty of illustrations. If you think it may be of interest to you, please check out the details, and sign up for this free Brent Libraries online event. I look forward to sharing my talk with you on Wednesday 5 May!

 

Philip Grant.

Quintain launch controversial Olympic Way steps as '48 Steps for the Community'

 

'Wembley Park', the Quintain off-shoot today which has commandeered the name of our area, today launched the steps replacement for the Pedway as if it was a gift to local people -  '48 Steps for the Community' - of course the community (via Brent Council) made Quintain a gift of some £17.8m  of Strategic CIL money to part-fund the steps and other changes on Olympic Way.

I am sure  that people from the  far reaches of Brent  will rush up to Wembley avoiding broken pavements, pot holes and fly-tips to marvel at this gift and enjoy sitting on the steps.

 

 

The Press Release from Coverdale Barclay (click bottom right for full page) 

 

Brent Mayor pays tribute to former Brent councillor Pam Jordan

 From Brent Council

Former Councillor Pam Jordan has sadly passed away peacefully at her home in Neasden.

Pam served as a committed Councillor, representing Cricklewood ward from 1978 to 1982 and Willesden Green ward from 1986 to 1990.

She was also Chair of Governors at the College of North West London for many years and Director of the Tricycle Theatre Company.

Mayor of Brent Cllr Ernest Ezeajughi, said:

Pam’s death is very sad news. She was an excellent public servant and will be greatly missed by everyone at the council.

My thoughts are with her friends and family at this incredibly difficult time.

Brent Trades Council urges support for bus drivers over remote sign on - please sign open letter to Sadiq Khan here

 

Brent Trades  Council is urging local residents and trade unionists to sign an open letter to Sadiq Khan urging him to stop  attempts to change the working conditions of London bus drivers.

The change, called 'remote sign on', would mean drivers instead of going to a garage to begin their working day going to a bus stop or other venue and joining a bus. Their working time would begin at that point and pay would be reduced if the bus was late. Drivers would only be paid for the time they are behind the wheel. The bus stop would of course lack the facilities of toilets and canteens available at a garage and limit interaction with other bus workers.  It is believed that the change would equate to a 7% fall in earnings.

SIGN THE OPEN LETTER  HERE

We urge you as Mayor of London to stop remote sign on which bus operators are proposing to introduce on some bus routes. You have already instructed the Board of Transport of London (TfL) to order a moratorium on remote sign on in London which is conditional on “research” being done on its impact.

Why is this important?

Research shows that remote sign on is bad news for drivers, detrimental to passengers and risks the safety of all road users. If a bus is delayed the driver is left, unpaid and in the open, for considerable lengths of time in all weathers, increasing issues of tiredness and fatigue. Driver fatigue is a health concern and a tired driver places passenger safety at risk. Also Unite the Union, of which you are a member, calculated that remote sign on would equate to an immediate seven per cent cut in wages on average for affected workers.

Terms and conditions of London bus drivers are under attack by bus operators. The outsourcing of routes to 16 different operators means bus drivers have different rates of pay, different contracts and different sets of terms and conditions depending on the company they work for.

Drivers working for RATP London United are already taking industrial action across 7 bus depots for improved pay and in defence of their terms and conditions. Metroline and Metroline West bus depots have now won their ballot for industrial action opposing the introduction of remote sign on and in defence of their terms and conditions.

Only bus operators benefit from this scheme as they cut costs by reducing wages. This is why despite your moratorium Unite’s 4,000 members have vowed to fight remote sign on with everything they have as they are concerned your moratorium will not achieve a suitable outcome. 

They have given overwhelming support to taking industrial action in defence of their terms and conditions.

Please ensure that as Mayor of London, you give bus drivers a cast iron guarantee that bus companies are not allowed to compete on pay and conditions for staff, please set a minimum and equal standard of employment for all bus drivers and re-assure bus drivers, who are essential workers, that both their pay and their terms and conditions are in safe hands whilst you are Mayor of London? And please keep to your pledge if re-elected Mayor on 6th May.

The Battle of the Ridgeway, West Harrow - Plymouth Brethren acting as developers destroy rich natural habitat ahead of ecological survey

 

Bobby Moore Bridge “footballers” mural – Why won’t Brent concede?

In this guest post, written in a personal capacity, Philip Grant returns to the the contentious planning issues surrounding the placement of advertising over the Bobby Moore murals at the Olympic Way underpass. It may be long but makes for rewarding reading as it reveals meticulous research and the polite but unapologetic logic of Philip Grant's position.

 

On 1 March, Martin posted a “guest blog” from me which included an update on the dispute over whether Quintain has the right to cover the “footballers” mural, in the Council-owned subway near Wembley Park station, with adverts on “event days”, including the Euros football matches this summer. It included the text of a message I’d sent to Carolyn Downs, Brent’s Chief Executive, on 25 February, showing how the dispute could be resolved immediately. Six weeks later, it has still not been resolved. Why?

 

The footballers tile mural, with the lights of “light boxes” just visible at either side of it.

 

Quintain had agreed in 2019 that this mural would be put back on permanent public display, even though the other mural scenes on the walls of the subway would be covered over with “light boxes” on which advertising material could be displayed. But the secret deal by Brent Council officers, extending Quintain’s Bobby Moore Bridge advertising lease until August 2024, included a clause which said that they were entitled to cover this tile mural with adverts on a number of stadium “event days”.

 

 

An officer had replied on 25 February, on Ms Downs behalf, to say she would ‘ensure you are provided with a response as soon as possible.’ When I’d heard nothing more two weeks later, I decided that a letter to our local newspaper might encourage the Council to “do the right thing”, and the “Brent & Kilburn Times” kindly published it (the headline was not mine).

 

 

The following day (Friday 12 March), the Council officer emailed to say that I would receive a response ‘early next week’. More than a week later, this is what I received:

 

 

'I apologise again for the delay.  We are in the process of obtaining external advice in respect of the issues you have raised.  We will be able to send you a substantive response once we have received that.'

 

Why were Brent Council paying an outside lawyer for more advice, when I had already given them a clear explanation of the answer to this point, with full supporting evidence, for free?

 

 

When I received the “substantive response”, as part of an email from Carolyn Downs on 30 March, the Council did at last agree that the 2019 advertising consent ‘does not extend over the Footballers’ Mural.’ Hooray! They’d finally accepted the facts I set out to them more than a year earlier.

 

 

But there was a sting in the tail. There had been an original advertisement consent application, made in 2013, but not dealt with by Brent’s Planning Department until August 2017. Ms Downs said: ‘I am therefore advised that advertisement consent 13/2987 remains in place for the display of vinyl adverts attached to the tiles surface of the Footballers’ Mural provided they are attached to the tiles.’

 

It did not take me long to dispose of that point, and I replied later the same day: ‘I have to tell you that whoever is giving you advice on this planning matter has got it wrong, again.’ I explained in detail why that was the case, and summarised the position as follows:

 

 

Application 19/1474 was made, dealt with and approved on the basis that the advertisement consent 13/2987 was replaced, as far as the Bobby Moore Bridge parapets and subway walls were concerned. The consent until 24 August 2022 under 13/2987 only applies to covering the tile murals on the flanking walls outside the subway.

 

There was ample supporting evidence for my statement, including this section from the agent’s letter of 18 April 2019, submitting the advertisement consent application (19/1474):

 

 

I thought that should be enough to settle the matter, but no. On 9 April, I received an email from Brent’s Legal Director, Debra Norman. It claimed that the consent under application 13/2987 still allowed Quintain to cover the “footballers” mural with vinyl advertising sheets:

 

 

‘Officers have considered the elevation drawings referred to in the Consent and are satisfied that they show the east and west walls of the underpass and adjoining Olympic Way which are tiled. In consequence, the Council does not agree with your contention that the consent only applies to the tile murals outside the subway.’ … and further:

 

‘… there is nothing in the later consent (19/1474) which prevents continued reliance on the Consent to the extent that the two consents are compatible.’

 

 

Well, actually, there IS something in consent 19/1474 which means that consent 13/2987 no longer applies to the “footballers” mural. I agree that both consents applied to that tile mural, but the later consent specifically replaced the original consent, for the whole of the Bobby Moore Bridge and its subway! Again, I replied on the same day to explain the correct position.

 

I will ask Martin to attach the documents showing the two exchanges of views (30 March and 9 April), so that anyone who is interested can read them, and draw their own conclusions on their respective merits.

 

 

But why are Brent Council, and its top officials, so desperate to claim that Quintain can put adverts over the “footballers” tile mural?

 

 

Are they afraid to tell Quintain the truth? Well, they shouldn’t be, because under the conditions of the advertising lease (as extended) it is Quintain’s responsibility to obtain any consents they need in order to display advertisements on the Bobby Moore Bridge, and Quintain have failed to do that for the “footballers” mural.

 

 

Are they embarrassed because Brent’s own property lawyers failed in their “due diligence” over clause 10.3 of the extended lease, which claimed to entitle Quintain to cover that tile mural with adverts on “event days”? That was an error on Brent’s part, particularly as they had allowed Quintain’s property lawyers, Squire Patton Boggs (UK) LLP, to draw up the “Deed of Variation”.

 

 

Is Brent’s top lawyer determined not to concede a legal argument to an ordinary member of the public? Anyone can get things wrong (I do myself, occasionally), but when you are left “clutching at straws”, perhaps it is best not to embarrass yourself further! [If it is any comfort, although I do not have any formal legal qualifications, I have the experience of a working life dealing with complex legal points, and preparing cases for tribunal and court hearings.]

 

 

Or is it that Brent does not want to give up the chance of potentially earning “a few dollars more”, from the share of profits it might receive from Quintain, if it can sell the “footballers” tile mural advertising space for big events at the stadium?

 

 

Who knows why (and I don’t suppose they will ever tell me)? I hope that Brent Council will now concede this point, agree that Quintain does not have advertisement consent for covering the “footballers” mural, and that it will not waste further time, effort and money (your and my Council Tax money!) in pursuing an argument it knows it has lost.

 

Philip Grant

 

 THE EMAILS - FIRST EXCHANGE  (Click Bottom right for full page view)

 

 

 THE EMAILS - SECOND  EXCHANGE (Click Bottom right for full page view)

 

 

 

 

 

The ecological damage caused by TfL's obliteration of green corridors - a presentation by Emma Wallace

 

 

This presentation was made at a recent meeting of concerned residents who have witnessed the removal of much of the vegetation on railway embankments. TfL's contractors have removed shrubs and scrub as well as mature trees, even when they appeared not to impinge on railway tracks and were healthy. In the process, they have removed habitats of birds, mammals including badger setts and bat roosts. No proper ecological damage assessments appear to have been made. The presentation was compiled by Emma Wallace, Green Party GLA candidate for Brent and Harrow who set up the Facebook Group publicising the issue. 

The Facebook Group has more than 100 members who share information about the damage being done in their area and are planning future action. LINK

A petition on the issue was recently presented to Mayor Sadiq Khan by Green Assembly Member Caroline Russell:

We call on TFL and the Mayor of London to commit to the following:

1. Immediately stop the excessive removal of vegetation from trackside TFL embankments.

2. Ensure that TFL carries out biodiversity surveys before trackside work begins and that these are made easily accessible to the public.

3. Ensure that local residents are informed in good time before trackside work begins and given time to feedback questions and concerns to TFL.

4. Ensure that TFL contractors are trained in effective vegetation management and biodiversity preservation.

Please sign if you haven't already: https://actionnetwork.org/.../stop-the-removal-of-green...