Brent Council hails its top spot in planning enforcement

 In a press release issued today Brent Council claim leadership in planning enforcement with the second highest number of enforcement notices issued by local authorities in the country.

The press release in full (unedited):

Brent has nearly topped every other local authority in tackling planning breaches by issuing the second-highest number of enforcement notices in the country in 2021/22.

According to data from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Brent Council key workers issued 111 enforcement notices in 2021/22.

These notices are given to landlords, residents and businesses who break planning regulations, often providing inadequate housing or building on land that isn't suitable.

The notice may order the developer to stop building or demand that a building be demolished.

Councillor Harbi Farah, Cabinet Member for Safer Communities and Public Protection, said: 

"This announcement shows how dedicated our planning enforcement staff are and how important it is to us that residents have safe, comfortable and adequate environments that they can live and work in.

"We will always work closely with people to help them with their planning applications process, but when landlords and businesses unfairly break the rules and create an unfair environment for everyone else - our enforcement team will step in."

 

This announcement follows a whopping £165,600 fine issued last month to a landlord who was caught breaking housing rules and offering a poor quality and overcrowded house to residents.

The breach was the change of the use of the home to accommodate multiple people and a single-storey rear conversion. It was overcrowded and housed 18 people at one stage, including seven children.

This was after the council also fined a landlord £152,500 for turning a two-floor property into three substandard flats.

Councillor Harbi Farah continued: 

"Cases like these prove the importance of action against people who do not play by the rules that are there to protect us."

Creativity and solidarity come together in today's Great Strike March in London

 

 Despite the tube strike striking workers from across the country including teachers, junior doctors, civil servants, university lecturers and tube workers came together today for a high spirited and creative march and rally in London.

The video above gives just a taste of  magnificent day.

Here is a parade of the placards that were on display.

 

 

Morale positive as Brent teachers strike for the third day

 Teacher members of the National Education Union were on strike for the third day today and are due to strike again tomorrow.

The strike for a fully funded pay increase had led to an increase in applications to join the NEU and the mood remains determined.

Brent teachers will be travelling from the picket lines around Brent on the overground and buses to what is expected to be one of the buggest weekday demonstration of striking workers for a very long time.

BRENT NEU groups will meet a short stroll from Marble Arch at the "Animals in War" memorial in Hyde Park by 11.45am. (From Marble Arch, walk through the park parallel to Park Lane until you see the memorial- about 3 mins). They  will then join the main march in Park Lane around 12, ready to start marching at 12.30pm

 

How to get to the National Budget Day Demonstration tomorrow

 With tube on strike you will need to find alternative routes to get into central London. National Rail, the Overground and buses will be running. This information has been provided by Brent National Education Union(NEU) - teachers are on strike on Wednesday and Thursday.

 

Chiltern Line trains from Wembley Stadium to Marylebone

 

Wembley Housing Zone: Never mind the gloss - what are the details?

 Impression of the Cecil Avenue blocks, High Road, Wembley

 

Brent Council’s press releases are notable for what they leave out as much as what they include. The latest heralding new homes on the Cecil Road, Wembley site (formerly Copland School) and Ujima House on the other side of the road (See PR below) leaves out vital information pursued by Philip Grant in several guest posts on Wembley Matters.   LINK  LINK

 

 Brent Council received planning permission for this development more than two years ago (February 2021). On the latest information only 37 of the 250 homes at Cecil Avenue will be for London Affordable Rent (LAR), and the 54 LAR homes promised for the Ujima House site (which still only has outline planning permission) are not expected to be delivered until 2026.

 

The Wembley Housing Zone scheme is Shama Tatler's responsibility - she talks it up in the press release. Cllr Tatler and Muhammed Butt must bear the blame for the details and delay over the provision of these home.

 

Reacting to the Council press release on Twitter this morning Cllr Anton Georgiou (Lib Dem Alperton) asked:

 

Will these be Council homes for Council tenants? Genuinely affordable family homes? Or more of the same? We need answers and clarity, not just headline figures.

 

The Brent Council Press Release

 

Deal signed to deliver more than 300 new homes in Wembley

More much-needed housing will soon be a reality following an agreement to build 304 new homes in Wembley. 

 

A deal was signed this week between Brent Council and Wates to deliver 250 homes on land east of Cecil Avenue, which had previously been the site of Copland School. The plan is for a high-quality, mixed-tenure courtyard development of five to nine storeys with one-bed, two-bed, three-bed and four-bed apartments and maisonettes. The new development will also house commercial units and community floorspace at street level.

 

Opposite this site at Ujima House, another 54 homes will be built, along with workspace units, including a café at street level.

 

A total of 152 homes will be made available for private sale on the Cecil Avenue site. The other 152 properties on both Cecil Avenue and Ujima House will be a mixture of affordable homes for council tenants and people on middle incomes.

 

Councillor Shama Tatler, Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Planning, and Growth, said: 

 

“This is fantastic news for residents of this up-and-coming area. The vision is to revitalise the eastern end of the High Road of the town centre, linking the established Wembley Central to the new Wembley Park neighbourhood emerging around the stadium.”

 

Designated and partly funded by the Mayor of London, the Wembley Housing Zone aims to create new homes and jobs, new leisure, retail and workspaces, public realm improvements and increased accessibility for pedestrians, cyclists and road users. 

 

Nick Williams, Regional Managing Director at Wates, said: “Our guiding principle is that everyone deserves a great place to live, and these modern new homes will be warm, comfortable and safe to live in. Not only that but we will be working with the local community to deliver these mixed-tenure homes. This means employing the services of local businesses and people along the way to help regenerate the area and inspire a new community.”

 

The new development agreement represents another opportunity for Brent Council and Wates to collaborate. The two organisations are currently working together to create 99 new council homes at Church End and have recently successfully delivered 149 homes at Knowles House and Anansi House. 

 

 

Cllr Eleanor Southwood to step down from Brent Council Cabinet

 

Rumours that had been circulating for some time were confirmed today when at the end of a 30 minute Cabinet meeting, Council Leader Muhammed Butt, announced that Cllr Eleanor Southwood was stepping down as a Cabinet member and returning to the backbenches.

A potential successor had been named to Wembley Matters but no confirmation was forthcoming after enquiries were made. There is always the possibility of sharing the portfolio amongst the remainder of the Cabinet or a reshuffle at the Labour Group AGM. 

Cllr Southwood was considered one of the most able of the current Cabinet with a command of the detail of her brief and a strategic approach to its development.

Green Party Conference supports Gary Lineker on his 'entirely valid' point about Tories' cruel approach to asylum policy

 The Green Party has just passed this resolution at its Conference. Unanimous in the conference room and just one against online.

Green Party conference expresses solidarity with Gary Lineker and instructs the External Communicator to call on the BBC to reverse the decision to remove him from Match of the Day. The party believes in the principle of BBC impartiality and is clear the organisation is making a mockery of its own policy in this instance. Instead, they are bowing to party political pressure and undermining free speech in the process.

We believe that the point Gary Lineker was making around the deliberately cruel approach to Conservative asylum policy was entirely valid. The Conservatives’ deliberate stoking of this issue as part of their incessant culture war also serves as a distraction from the urgent humanitarian crisis on our doorstep. The issue of desperate refugees should not be used as a political football.

Paul Lorber: Why I stand with Gary Lineker. Words and Actions Do Matter

 Guest post by Paul Lorber

In the 1930s under Adolf Hitler Nazi Germany introduced oppressive policies against their Jewish Nationals. Jews could not own businesses, work for public bodies, could not go to restaurants, theatres and parks, their children could not attend public schools or universities, their property was stolen. Normal life was impossible.

Many countries around Germany, including Slovakia introduced similar policies. 

In the meantime countries around the world started closing their borders as politicians claimed that their countries were being swamped by aliens with foreign culture and should not allow any more to enter. 

In 1938 my aunt who was Slovak and her husband who was German managed to escape to Argentina. When my parents tried to get permission to leave for Argentina that country also closed its border to escaping Jews.

The ‘words and actions’ of the pre 2nd World War years had a devastating impact as millions of innocent people ended up in Nazi concentration camps.

Both my parents suffered this fate - they were lucky to survive.

The world has not learned from our recent history of the 1930s and the war that followed. There are still oppressive regimes and people are still trying to escape devastating wars where the aggressor targets civilians.

“Words and Actions do matter”. The language (and actions) of politicians need to be challenged and this is why I Stand with Gary Lineker.

I would not want the horrors experienced by my parents to have to be experienced by others. You can read my mother’s story HERE.