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Brent Council Budget Proposals from the Liberal Democrats

Apparently the Liberal Democrats are going to produce their own budget at the Budget setting meeting of Brent Council. That will be the first time in more than a decade. I looked briefly at their proposals and found it to be just as insubstantial as I expected with a lot of raiding the reserves and confusion between revenue and spending, just as they used to be.

Defending Brent Civic Centre Once Again

I see Martin Francis has been blogging on Brent Civic Centre once again. This time he is exercising his gift for making everything sound negative to proosed changes to Brent Civic Centre. I don't know if the changes are good, and public descriptions so far are fairly vague, but Matin seems to have decided to make any change sound bad. Firstly he seems to think spending £2 million on the changes is exorbitant. It rather depends on what you get in return for the money. Certainly £2 million is only about 2% of the original £100 cost, and it is not particularly odd to make changes to a building ten years after it opened. However Martin has always hated Brent Civic Centre. As usual he builds well known details and tries to make sound bad. It really isn't amazing that Brent Civic Centre is in Wembley as the old Town Hall was. Given that it is roughly in the middle of Brent, that site is as good as anywhere else. Certainly it is no worse than using the old Wembley Town Hall. It also a lot cheaper than the 15 buildings it replaced. At the time of opening, it was projected to generate £3-4 million a year in saved costs and revenues from rent. Those are likely to be greater now the reduced headcount of the Council has allowed more office space to be rented to third parties. I am surprised that he thinks that the heating does not work as the heating and ventilation should work through passive priniples to minimise energy use. They should only malfunction if the building controls aren't working, or if people keep opening and closing the windows. Otherwise the offices should maintain an even temperature. Power is supplied through renewable energy, which is another thing the Brent Green Party colleagues objected to. He is accurate that the atrium is unheated. This is because it is an open air court yard covered with a glass roof. Heating such a space would financially expensive and extremely wasteful in climate change terms. As to it being "overwhelming". Well that is the designed effect for a major piece of public architecture and a commonly used device is prestigious buildings. Compare for example the two Cambridge Colleges I have connections with, First the Great Court of Trinity and then the famous view from the Backs of Kings Colllege, beloved of television producers.

It seems sad that Martin only see these spaces as room for a Tower Block wasted.