A Plan for Station Approach

There has been some slight progress on Station Approach.  There is now a working group, with Network Rail, led by TfL.  This has taken on board the points made by Brent Council.  As a result, there is some prospect of improvements to the road.  I gather we have suggested taking away the useless pedestrian guardrails that force people to step into road.  We have also suggested widening the pavement on the northern (Harlesden) side, and widening the road.  Space for this would be created by taking away the pavement on the southern side, which no one uses.

My main fears in achieving this would be getting the budget for paying for the works, and possible delays if Network Rail feel they need to do work on the embankment.

Lessons from Antwerp

Ages ago, the Economist publishes an analysis of the complexity of dealing with religion in diverse urban schools.  The example they chose was in Antwerp.  It is worth reading for some perspective on the issues in this country.

Ealing Road Library

Tomorrow Ealing Road Library celebrates its re-opening after being refurbished during most of March.  Ealing Road is the first of our libraries to be refurbished as a result of the Libraries Transformation project.  The library will now have more books, computers and study space as well as a homework club, Chatterbooks, a Teen Fun Club, a CV writing workshop, beginner sessions for IT, and classes to learn English.

Harlesden Road Development

It is good to see that the new block at the bottom of Harlesden Road is almost finished (see above).  It seema ages since work started.

Top Rates of Tax

The economist reports that Francois Hollande is proposing a 75% top rate of tax while on this side of the Channel George Osborned is claiming a 50% top rate is crippling.  I suppose it all depends on your values.

Public and Private

Flipchart Fairy Tales has an interesting post on the differences between public and private organisations.  It is a useful corrective to some of the more naive attempts to treat both sectors the same.  It could add that public sector organisations usually have obligations that go beyond private sector ones.  In particular, a private company can choose to deliver services to a select group, and not have to worry about anything else.  A public sector organisation often has to actively reach out to various, often difficult to reach, groups.

Calvert Landfill

Last Tuesday, I went to the landfill facility that West London Waste uses in Calvert in Buckinghamshire.  The science of these places is more sophisticated than you might think, with careful monitoring of possible effluents, the use of reverse osmosis to sterlise the leachate from the buried rubbish, and the harvesting of methane for electricity generation. 

However, I was also told that some of the people who live on a new housing estate just by the landfill facility bought their houses without realising that they were near a landfill.  Apparently, some people allow the property developer to handle all the administratio, including land searches, when buying a house.  Extraordinary.

Local Government and Public Health

There is an interesting piece on local government on public health here.  The author is right that it is a big change, and that the traditional mentalities of local government and health provision are very different.  However, I think he underestimates the extent to which local government does have experience of health issues through adult social services.  In some ways the social services can be virtually indistinguishable from ancillary medical services.  The other big issue he doesn't mention is that a vast chunk of the current public health budget will not be transferred, another move by central government to make the delivery of public services as difficult as possible.

Legal Complexities

Elisabeth Laing QC has an interesting discussion about the legal aspects of recent decisions on libraries.  Elisabeth was our QC in the challenge to the Libraries Transformation Project.  It gives some flavour of the complexity of decision making in local government.  there is also an interesting piece on the Public Sector Equality Duty in general by Jo Clements, who was the junior in our case.

Willesden Green Library Interim Arrangements

You can find a thorough defence of retaining the remnant of the old library building at Willesden Green here.  I am not sure that the legal reasoning towards the end actually holds up, but on the whole it is as carefully argued a case as anyone could present. 

The author has previously contacted me about the interim arrangements.  I recently went up to see these for myself.  They are in two parts.  There is quite a sizable space that the Council leases on Grange Road.  This contains the current archive in a basement area, and would house an appointment archive service during the construction period.  It would also have room for a number of computer terminals and study spaces.  The second part of the interim arrangements would be a similarly sized building in the Willesden  area.  I can't reveal the location until any deal is finalised, but I liked the look of it.  Together they won't provide an exact equivalent to the current library, but they are much more extensive than some people seem to assume.

Local Government and the Budget

The Conservative Chair of the Local Government Associaition has published a short appreciation of the implications of George Osborne's budget.  Unlike Eric Pickles, he points out that the continual cuts to local government are running up against growing pressures to spend in a way that cannot be sustained.

Dollis Hill By Election

The Liberal Democrats have scraped home in the Dollis Hill By election by 37 votes.  The result is similar to previous by elections in that both the Labour and Liberal Democrat votes went up and the smaller parties collapsed.  In particular, the Tories seem to have hardly any supporters left.

Dollis Hill By Election Today

Today is polling day in the Dollis Hill By election.  It will be interesting how far the Liberal Democrats attempt to distance themselves from their own programme of cuts _ even"savage cuts" will pay off politically.

Highways Committee Last Night

Highways Committee last night had a much fuller agenda than for a long time.  Kensal Green residents will be most interested in the proposal to do up the Town Centre.  This was passed, with the Committee choosing Option B.

Option B is the one where the area in front of the Methodist Church gets semi-pedestrianised.  I gether that the Methodist Church have raised a late concern about access for hearses and wedding cars, but we were assured that these could be sorted out.  This Option would also lead to part of Crownhill Road and Tavistock Road becoming one way, and the one way system in general becoming much more restricted.  There were a number of concerns raised on behalf of visually impaired people.  These can be dealt with in the detailed design.  On the whole, I am optimistic that the new scheme will provide a number of improvements to the Town Centre, especially for pedestrians.

Harlesden Town Centre Development

Tonight the Highways Committee, which is a sub committee of the Brent Executive, will consider whether to go ahead with the redevelopment of Harlesden Town Centre.  This is an in principle decision, with the detailed design work to be done late.  If it goes ahead, work will start shortly after the Olympics have finished.

Boris Johnson's Promises

Adam Bienkov has gone through Boris Johnson's supposed delivery of promises, so that the rest of us don't have to.

London's Awful Air Quality

The Guardian reports that London has appalling air quality.  As far as I can see, Boris Johnson and the government are simply ignoring the whole issue, and hoping that no one will notice.

Moberly Sports Centre Refurbishment

Moberly Sports Centre is due to be extensively rebuilt by Westminster Council.  Among other things it will acquire a new swimming pool.  The development will be paid for by the sale of private housing, in a way that parallels our own redevelopment at Willesden Green Library Centre.  As part of the planning process, we will have to make sure that Brent residents are able to access the new facility at reasonable rates.

UPDATE:

Yes they do use the sports centre at reasonable rates, but the planning process gives us an opportunity to embed that.

Furness Park

For those wondering what the workmen at Furness Park are doing, they are removing railings facing on to Furness Road.  The idea is to get people to keep their dogs under control within the park.  Apparently there have been cases of people driving, letting their dog out and just staying in the car.

Communications and Brent Council

There is a persistent tendency to attack Brent Council's communications staff as an "add on" or an "extra", or even as politically biased.  Cllr Paul Lorber is especially prone to this.

I think this fundamentally misunderstands how the Council works and how it will work in the future.  Far from being extra, communications is actually key to many of the Council's core functions.  An obvious example is recycling.  We could never have achieved the success rates that we have without a thorough communications campaign designed to inform and persuade people to participate in the new scheme.  Effective communication through advertising, the press, leaflet and face to face was essential to delivering one of our key priorities.  As the Council develops its public health role, communications is likely to become even more important.  It may also be that, as a reduced Brent Council works more in partnership with others, effective communications will be one of the key skills it will offer to the relationship.

Looking at the Liberal Democrats' repeated suggestions that we simply cut the communications budget, persuades me that they have very little vision of where the Council is going.