Save Brent Schools

Barry Gardiner has a petition on his web site to save Brent Schools. I hope as many people sign as possible. This follows the Con Dem government's decision to axe funding across England and Wales on Building Schools for the Future projects. I beleive that in one way or another the current Con Dem coalition will be foirced to reverse their decision, for which they have no electoral mandate whatsoever. The more pressure they are put under the better.

How Long Can Sarah Teather Last?

Boriswatch has a sour, but I am sorry to say entirely justified analysis, of the damage that the Con Dem government's policies on housing benefit and education are inflicting on London. Given that Sarah Teather represents a basically Labour area, how long can she survive acting as a Tory patsy?

Elmwood House, Harlesden Road NW10

I forgot to welcome the go-ahead given to the new scheme at the bottom of Harlesden Road (opposite Cardinal Hinsley School). This site has been derelict for years, but has finally got permission for some new flats.

Recycling Tour

This morning I am going to have my West London Waste Authority (hard) hat on, as several of us go round some of the recycling facilties West London uses, finishing up at the Powerday site near to Willesden Junction.

Clegg and the Cuts

The Guardian carries a story alleging that Nick Clegg had decided to support an accelerated cuts programme even before the General Election. If so, it leaves his reputation in tatters. It also leaves MPs like Sarah Teather and Simon Hughes representing Labour areas but supporting a fairly naked Tory programme. No wonder they want to gerrymander the election boundaries before they can be voted out at the next election.

School Allegations

Today's Willesden & Brent Times carries allegations about misuse of funds at a Brent School (not Copland!). I don't know if there is any substance to these allegations, but doesn't it underline the folly of doing away with local education authorities via the "free school" initiative? The Copland example showed that current financial monitoring of schools is not adequate, and instead of trying to make it better, the Con dems are trying to do away with the role of local authorities altogether.

Mayoral Hustings

I went to a hustings for the Labour Mayoral candidates at the Stonebridge Hub last night. Both Oona King and Ken Livingstone were there. Struck as I have been before at how many of the questions related to issues the Mayor has no control over (one was on Post Office privatisation for example). Still it all seemed quite fun and was well attended.

Abbey Road Recycling

By the way, it is not generally appreciated that Brent Council's recycling facility in Abbey Road, Stonebridge, NW10 is London's most successful recycling centre. It recycles more than 80 per cent of the materials sent there. What makes that still more impressive is the range of materials sent there. It is relatively easy to up your recycling rate if lots of your waste is green waste, but as much of the Brent green waste gets picked up in doorstep recycling, the stuff at Abbey Road covers a much wider range of materials.

Sarah Teather and Brent Cross

I haven't done any posting on Sarah Teather's dishonesty for a while so I thought I should mention Brent Cross. Before election, Teather made out that she was an extremely strong campaigner against the development. She claimed to be against the development here and here and here and here. She was particularly scathing about Boris Johnson's neglect of the issue, saying:

"The Mayor is asleep at the wheel. Instead of giving this controversial and divisive scheme the extra scrutiny it needs he has waved it through with barely a second thought. .... People in Brent will feel they have been stabbed in the back by the man who is supposed to serve their interests."

John Denham, the Labour Local Government Secretary, duly called the plan in for further consideration. Following the election he was replaced (with of course Liberal Democrat support) by the Tory Eric Pickles. Pickles gave the go ahead to this monstrous development within weeks of taking office. Some people might say that he had "waved it through without giving it a second thought."

Oddly, I can find no reference to the Pickles decision on Sarah Teather's web site. She seems to have made no protest about the "controversial and divisive scheme" now that the election is over.

Highways Committee Tonight

The Highways Committee meets tonight, the first time since the new Executive was formed. I was amazed to see that the last meeting was back in January, when I presented my Councillor Call for Action on Tubbs Road. Six months of non-activity gives an idea of how the Council ground to a halt under the previous Con Dem administration.

Weeds in Kensal Green

The area south of King Edward VII park down to Wrottesley Road seems to have been seriously affected by weeds. I have complained about this and the Council are now seeing to it as you can see from this photograph taken in Bramston Road on Thursday.

I can only assume that it has been the hot weather that has allowed the weeds to grow so quickly.

Quintain Development in Wembley

I went to the launch of the latest round of the Quintain Development in Wembley last week. This is likely to be a huge driver of economic growth in the Borough despite the recession. The new Civic Centre is obviously a key part of making the whole thing work to restore Wembley to some of the status it had in the 1970s. Until the opening of the original Brent Cross in 1975, Wembley was among London's top ten shopping districts.

However, it is also interesting in terms of the contrast with the proposed Brent Cross development. One of the most damaging aspects of the new Brent Cross proposals is the generation of car trips that it will undoubtedly cause. The Quintain developemtn, in contrast, has always been designed as a public transport venue, largely because it would be impossible to service the needs of the Stadium entirely through the motor car. The original planning permission for the stadium was something of an epic, and the provision of public transport was central to the debate. The upgrade of Wembley Park Station was just one of the conditions. Hopefully, the success of the Quintain development will demonstrate that not every development needs to generate vast numbers of car trips.

Harlesden Market

I haven't heard the idea of a Harlesden Town Centre Market being touted for a while, and it seems much less likely given that we are losing our Town Centre Manager in Harlesden. But the way the idea has been discussed throws up some interesting dilemmas about where the area should go.

The most popular suggestion I have heard is a Farmers' Market type event, like the one held in Salusbury Road primary school in Queens Park. The most successful event of this kind that I know is the Borough Market in Southwark. It is characterised by premium priced food, often with rare breeds or organic credentials, and can be very successful.

However, it also strikes me as very Anglo-Saxon, and would be possibly even be offputting to some people if transplanted to Harlesden or Kensal Green. Personally, if such an event were to come about, I would prefer something more multi-ethnic, like an African market for instance.

Building Schools for the Future and Extended Schools

As well as devastating the educational prospects of Brent children, Sarah Teather's decision to abolish the Building Schools for the Future programme will also impact on our sports provision. For some years, it has been customary for planning permission in new schools to be granted with conditions dictating that the school facilities be made available for the wider community. The schools in the Building Schools for the Future programme would almost certainly have had conditions of this kind. Thus Sarah Teather's axing of the programme is not just bad for education but also for sports provision, and (by extension) public health in Brent.

Barnhill Blog

My Barnhill colleague, Cllr Shafique Choudhary, has started another blog on Barnhill matters at this address.

Passivhaus Development

Another curious feature of the Planning Committee on Tuesday was the appearence of former Camden councillor Alex Rowell, who my Camden colleague Theo Blackwell nicknames "Nut roast". Mr Rowell lost his seat at the last election but turned up as Agent to persuade the committee to approve two house conversions in Mapesbury and North Kilburn Conservation Areas.

The system used for these conversions, called passivhaus, claims to be able to remove ninety per cent of carbon emissions, a hugely impressive figure. Unfortunately, the Conservation Area status meant that the Committee could not approve the applications as they relied on external cladding to reduce emissions. A parallel application on the North Kilburn site, using internal rather than external cladding, was approved.

The direction of travel of building is undoubtedly towards more insulation, but I didn't think the cause was helped by Mr Rowell's advocacy as he answered each question by basically repeating that energy conservation is important rather than dealing with the issue.

Teather U-turn on Schools

The BBC reports more hypocrisy from Sarah Teather. She wants to extend the academy programme to special schools. She is reported to have said:

"If we believe it is a good thing for schools to have freedoms it does not seem obvious to me why we should deny these freedoms to others. We think special schools should have access to freedoms we are offering to others. We are treating special schools in a different way. It is a longer process. We are not expecting any to convert before 2011. The secretary of state has set up an advisory group to try to work through the details of some of the issues raised."

How does this square with what she said during the election campaign? Then, not giving local authorities the power to plan as well as money to pay for the plans was essential to the policy not being a "gimmick". Now, she is simply implementing Tory policy without criticism.

Michael Gove may be the Frankenstein who created this monster, but Teather is playing the role of Igor.

Dollis Hill House Decision

Just to update on the Planning Committee on Tuesday, it was decided to demolish Dollis Hill House. Basically sixteen years of efforts have convinced almost everyone that there is no viable way to restore the House on a long term basis. Because of its historical status, the decision will be passed on to the Secretary of State for approval.

Empty Homes

Brent Homeless Users Group (BHUG) have a campaign to bring empty homes back into use. There may sometimes be good reasons for a property to be empty, but it is in everyone's interest, landlords and potential tenants, for the number to be as low as possible.

Freecycle in Brent

Brent Freecycle is an online group exchange that tries to get people to exchange goods for free rather than throw them away. As such it is very much in line with our Reduce, Reuse Recycle message, so I thought I just priase them a bit. The Brent group is part of a world wide network.

Dollis Hill House

Today, Brent's Planning Committee will be considering a proposal to demolish Dollis Hill House. Dollis Hill House has been vacant for sixteen years, and this proposal is only coming forward after numerous alternatives turned out to be unworkable. I may publish the full history in a future entry. During that time, the House has been an eyesore at the northern end of Gladstone Park as well as a financial drain on the Council.

Big Lunch in Kensal Green

Well done to the Friends of Odessa and Palermo Roads for the excellent Big Lunch event they held in Furness Primary School. And also to Well London for their Big Lunch gathering off Harlesden High Street.

Sarah Teather's spin

Cllr Krupesh Hirani has more on Sarah Teather's twists and turns over Building Schools for the Future here. I understand that the Con Dem coalition's replacement, free schools, apart from being riddled with problems from the point of view of planning provision, only has fity million pounds allocated to it. That is equivalent to about two new secondary schools for the whole of England and Wales.

Town Charter for Harlesden

The Harlesden Town Charter is due to be launched at the Salvation Army Hall in Manor Park Road NW10 on 26 July.

Housing Associations in Brent

By the way, if you want to compare different Housing Associations in Brent and elsewhere on rents and other things you can do so on the Tenant Services Authority web site here. However, it does not include Brent Housing Partnership, as BHP is an Arms Length Managaement Associaition rather than a Housing Association proper.

Housing Benefit

About 2,000 people in Brent will be affected by George Osborne's cap on Housing Benefit. This will reduce money coming into the Brent by about nine million pounds, and lead to considerable disruption in terms of people being forced to move, the administration of local services and incomes. Inside Housing has now launched a campaign against the Housing Benefit cap.

Legal Hurdles in the Olympics: An Illustration

Following my post of yesterday, here is an example. This photo shows my chum Seema Malhotra with the then sports minister Richard Caborn and some kids showing off the five Olympic rings. As it is a photo taken in 2004, it is allowable. Posting exactly the same photo taken today would land me in a threat of legal action. I really worry that that sort of thing will prevent the Olympics being used to promote sport, which was one of the main justifications for the Olympic Bid in the first place.

Legal Hurdles on the Olympics

I gather Brent Council's efforts to use the Olympics to support sport in Brent have been hampered by the London Olympics Committee for the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), the private company organising the Games. They depend on the Olympic logos and sponsorship for much of their funding. As a result they are incredibly protective of the logos and threaten legal action against people who associate themselves with not just pictures but even phrases like "London 2012". Where you have a commercial operation you might say that is fair enough, but LOCOG extend these threats to schools that use the logos to promote sport among their kids, which seems not only extreme but quite contrary to the whole spirit of the bid, which was intended to inspire children to take up sport.

Who would have thought that a company with such a ridiculously clumsy name would be so keen on marketing?

Dispersal Zones in Brent

Thinking about the problems in Hazel Road over some years, I thought it might be a good idea to explain how dispersal zones get implemented.

There is a line of liberatarian rhetoric that regards dispersal zone as being arbitrary and draconian impositions. This is the line that the Liberal Democrats adopted when the legislation was first introduced, and that they have been rowing back from since. I have blogged before that when the Liberal Democrats were in administration in Brent Council, they ignored their party's more radical policies. This includes the introduction of ASBOs and Dispersal Zones, where they made no attempt to enforce their party line.

In fact they continued the Labour policy of agreeing the use of these policies when appropriate. In practice (as opposed to rhetorically), dispersal zones can only be implemented after a lot of work. The police need to have evidence of wrongdoing (although this can have a lower standard of evidence than a Court; for instance anonymous statements). Zones have to be part of an overall plan to address the causes of the problems (so in the case of Hazel Road there was a lot of investment in youth work). Any zone or ASBO has to be proportionate to the problem.

Critics of this approach need to come up with an alternative that effectively tackles the problems addressed.

Rats

One of the parts covered by my Environment brief is rat infestation. This appears to be getting worse partly as a result of people casually leaving food waste about (including "side waste" by bins) as well as hot weather. I recently visited a site off Edgeware Road that really was (almost literally) nauseating.

The side waste issue is likely to up as part of the new administration's review of waste management. I am sure that if people realised the consequences they would be far less likely to be so casual about food waste.

Local Development Framework Again

A less than scintillating meeting of Brent's full Council last night which impressed me principally by the strangeness of the Tory and Lib Dem parties behaviour.

HB Patel asked me a question berating Brent Council for its limited use of planning enforcement, and then asked a follow up question that was more or less the same. This struck me as odd given that Brent Council is one of the most aggressive planning enforcement authorities in the UK. Literally, we are generally among the top five, usually being beaten by only Westminster and Birmingham.

Then the Tories also abstained on voting approval for the core strategy of the Local Development Framework. This despite the fact that it has been developed over the past five years with the explicit backing of Brent Conservative councillors during that period.

Then we had the Liberal Democrats voting against the enforcement of traffic regulations, a policy originally passed by their own administration way back in March 2009. Just as odd.

Parking Restrictions and Why They are There

One of the most contentious areas of Council policy is parking, so I thought I would do a post reminding people why we have parking restrictions. Broadly, there are two reasons: emissions and congestion.

The emissions argument is one that most people think of in these days of Climate Change campaigns. Transport is one of the main emissions producers in London, although it is not just greenhouse gases, but also particulates that can seriously damage air quality. By encouraging people not to use cars so much and by enhancing fuel efficiency when they do, local and central government can reduce emissions.

The second argument is based on congestion. Even if someone solved the pollution issues tomorrow by inventing a zero emission vehicle that we all instantly adopted, we would still need parking restrictions to cope with congestion. Especially in an urban area like London, we simply don't have any more road space. More car journeys translates not into quick and convenient travel, but into sitting in traffic jams. Already, any mishap in Harlesden Town Centre quickly leads to gridlock. I am told that traffic takes at least a couple of hours to clear every time there is a football match at Wembley Stadium, and that is with the vast majority of people going to the Stadium by public transport. Without restrictions, it would be completely impossible to run a business in the Wembley area, and pretty intolerable to live there.

This is why the Planning Service requires limits to car parking spaces in new developments, sometimes imposing "car free" restrictions. Whatever the drawbacks of such restrictions the alternatives would be permanent gridlock.

Using Kensal Rise Library

I occasionally get asked about why Kensal Rise Library isn't better used, and part of the answer is the layoutt. The upper storey is currently used for storage, and probably underused at that. Unfortunately, making it public access is difficult as the existing format has access only through a narrow, steep staircase. Building alterations are very difficult because it is a listed building. And, unlike that other Brent building associatied with Mark Twain (Dollis Hill House), it is genuinely attractive. The question is, can a better use be found for the upper storey without violating health and safety regulations (and the DDA come to that)?

Sarah Teather on Child Benefit

Time for more Sarah Teather hypocrisy. We all know that Nick Clegg floated the idea of means testing child benefit before back tracking subsequently, but what of Brent Central MP Sarah Teather? Well, back in 2008, she was a determined campaigner on child poverty. She was so incensed by Labour's shortcomings that she promised that the Liberal Democrats would be "increasing child benefit by five pounds for the first child making all families 250 pounds a year better off."

Fast forward to today, and she is a minister in a Tory led government that has just frozen child benefit for those families that Sarah Teather previously promised were going to be 250 pounds a year better off.

It is one thing to trade your principles for power, but Sarah Teather seems to have handed them in for impotence in office.

Teather's Spin

I see that Sarah Teather is trying to spin that Building Schools for the Future was not a real programme. That takes some chutzpah. Even now that she and her party have handed the axe to Michael Gove, hundreds of schools are being built under the programme because the government cannot cancel the contracts without being sued by the private sector. Brent Council officers had already started preliminary work on how the rebuilds would take place. Indeed Brent Council has a specific section in its Children & Families Department called "Building Schools for the Future". This was set up under the previous Lib Dem / Tory controlled Council to implement the programme. What would have been the point of doing that if the Liberal Democrats expected the whole thing to be axed?

Even Nick Clegg, in his infamous "savage cuts" interview for the Guardian, promised to protect infrastructure, and there are few bits of infrastruture more important education.

The reality is that the Liberal Democrats have jumped into bed with a Tory party that still has an ideological committment to shrinking the state, as indeed do some of the Liberal Democrats themselves. Building Schools for the Future is being sacrificed to pay for the Tory "free schools" policy that Sarah Teather criticised before the election. Now, for the sake of occupying office, she and her party colleagues are implementing brutal and counterproductive Tory policies.

Lib Dems' Broken Promises on VAT

I promised a series on Liberal democrats broken promises, and no series on the Liberal Democrats broken promises can leave out their promise not to raise VAT. Indeed not only did they promise not to put VAT up, they suggested the Tories had a secret VAT bombshell. In Nick Clegg's words "Our plans do not require a rise in VAT. The Tory plans do."

Those who were listening to Vince Cable earlier this year might think that his belief that a rise in VAT would hurt economic growth would suggest that the Liberal Democrats would oppose such a rise. On the other hand, people listening to Vince Cable in late 2008, arguing that a 2.5 per cent cut in VAT would have no significant effect might come to the opposite view. During the election campaign itself, he told the BBC's Jon Sopel that he might raise VAT, despite Nick Clegg's words above. More recently, Vince Cable admitted his VAT claims during the election campaign were designed to "score points".

How could anyone fail to trust them with a record showing such consistency?

Teather's Sloppy Mistake

John McTernan takes Sarah Teather to task for a sloppy mistake. In the great scheme of things it doesn't matter that Ms Teather misuses a quotation like this, but it again demonstrates the intellectual shallowness that the Liberal Democrats have hitherto been allowed to get away with. I suspect, it will leave them sadly exposed once they face stronger scrutiny in government.

School Misinformation

It turns out that Michael Gove is being forced to apologise over his Building Schools for the Future announcement. It turns out that 25 schools were listed as still getting funding, but in fact they will not. This is not unlike the problems that local authorities like Brent have been having. Central government makes announcements and then fails to inform the Councils of exactly what the cuts are, resulting in unhelpful confusion. So far, the new government seems to be something of an administrative shambles.

Big Lunch in Kensal Green

There will be a Big Lunch event (almost) in Kensal Green on 18th July. It is organised by Well London and Wayout Dreams (which is apparently the new name of what used to be NW10 above Iceland). The Lunch will be behind Santander in Harlesden High Street.

The Building Schools for the Future Hitlist

Tipped off by Luke Akehurst's blog to the list of Building Schools for the Future projects that have now been stopped by the Lib Dem / Tory coalition. Depressing.

Roundwood Park

Still trying to calm down after Sarah Teather's callous betrayal of Brent children in scrapping the Building Schools for the Future programme yesterday. Thinking about something nicer, I went to the Respect Festival in Roundwood Park yesterday. I met a Longstone Avenue resident who is trying to set up a voluntary group to support Roundwood Park. You can read her blog here.

I explained the financial issues. The outgoing Lib Dem / Tory administration on brent Council cut the capital fuunding for parks to only 85,000 pounds for all the parks in Brent both next year and the year after. To give some idea of scale, I have been told bringing the Summer Theatre back into use would cost at least a quarter of a million pounds.

However, a voluntary group might be able to access funds in a way the Council cannot so I hope she is successful.

Building Schools for the Future Scrapped

Since posting this morning, I have picked up on the BBC that the entire Building Schools for the Future programme has been scrapped by Tory Michael Gove and his Liberal Democrat sidekick Sarah Teather. It is an unbelieveable stab in the back by Sarah Teather of all the pupils in Cardinal Hinsley, Copland, Alperton and Queens Park Community Schools who expected her to look after their interests. Over and over again she has claimed to be standing up for investment in Brent Schools. Now, with her feet under the ministerial desk, she casually abandons the children she is supposed to represent.

Liberal Democrats' Broken Schools Promises

Now that Sarah Teather is settling into ministerial office, perhaps it would be a good idea for her to clarify her position on academy schools.

The official Liberal Democrat position during the election campaign appeared to be in favour of greater local authority control. Ms Teather was herself quoted describing the Tories' "free schools" policy as a "shambles, unless you give local authorities the power to plan and unless you make sure that there is money available, it is just a gimmick."

This is important for us in Brent, because the Tories "free schools" policy has to be paid for, and one of the rumoured sources of funding would be through cutbacks in the Building Schools for the Future programme. After years of frustration, Brent was recently awarded more than eighty million pounds under BSF. That was going to pay for the rebuilding of Copland School (and anyone who looks at that building can see how much rebuilding is needed), Alperton Community School and Kensal Green's own Cardinal Hinsley School.

Whereas people are understandably mainly worried about the cutbacks to BSF because of the effect on childrens' education, it also has an important environmental implication. New school buildings would be an important part of preventing carbon emissions. Schools are one of the fastest growing sectors for growing carbon emissions in Brent thanks to our rising pupil numbers and the far greater use of IT in recent years.

Liberal Democrats Breaking Their Promises

Some time ago I did a series of posts on Brent Liberal Democrats breaking their promises (summarised here). Now that Sarah Teather and co are doing on a national level what they previously did in Brent Council, I thought I would start a series on how the national Liberal Democrats are breaking their promises, in conjunction with their Tory coalition allies. It should certainly provide plenty of materials for posting.

Brent Respect Festival

A reminder about the Brent Respect Festival in the beautiful Roundwood Park later on today.

Housing Benefit in Brent

Dave Hill reports on the fallout from George Osborne's cap on housing benefit in various London Boroughs. Here in Brent, it will be a north/south issue.

The north is cheaper than the south so people living there will not see their benefit affected directly. However people forced out of central London boroughs like Westminster or Camden may well want to move the relatively short distance up the Jubilee Line to northern Brent. If that happens we can expect increasing pressure on the housing stock, more overcrowding, a demographic change in the composition of northern parts, and (I would think) upward pressure on rents as the increased demand feeds through.

In the south, the benefits cap would affect many people, probably forcing some of them to move. This might accelerate the trend towards gentrification that you already see in Brondesbury, Mapesbury, Queens Park, Kilburn and the western part of Kensal Green.

By making people homeless, the policy is also likely to put extra pressure on Council services at the same time that Brent Council is seeing its central government funding cut.

However, I have not been able to find any figures as to the number of people affected yet.

Anniversey Blog

Today is the first anniversey of this blog, which has now had more than 550 posts since 3 July last year.

FoE Newsletter

I have been sent a Brent Friends of the Earth Newsletter which feature defeated Green Party candidate Lia Colacicco prominently. She is quoted praising our policy of abolishing the 25 pound charge for collecting bulky items. Strange that she didn't mention it when she was campaigning to defeat us.

Buchanan Gardens, NW10

During the election, I was asked whether anything could be done about the state of things on that stretch of pavement bordering Elmwood Tennis Club. The problem is that the big plane trees and the thick hedge give cover for flytipping and the use of the area as a public toilet. My interlocuter wanted to cut the trees down, as has happened down most of Buchanan Gardens and a stretch of Holland Road. Before trying something that drastic, I am trying to get the Tennis Club to cut back and thin the hedge which currently overhangs the pavement.

Hazel Road Progress

I went to Willesden Police Station on Monday for a meeting on anti-social behaviour problems around Hazel Road. The problems here have a long history going back well before I started this blog, although I have reported on them from time to time. Money is available for further work following on from the Neighbourhood Working money we put in last year. I thnk 6the key thing here is to get the local residents and the teenagers who use the centre to interact more as they are currently quite alientated from each other.

Boris On the Buses

Boriswatch has a far more detailed appraisal of Boris Johnson's bus policies than I have the skill or patience to write. I think we can expect the replacement of bendies on the Route 18 to be a disaster.