Black History Month

Black History Month is now in full swing, and celebrated in Brent primarily through Brent Libraries.  Other authorities, such as Tory held Wandsworth, have rebranded this event as "Diversity Month" attracting a number of critical comments.  Personally, I would have thought the whole concept of Black History Month is really quite broad already since it encompasses the whole of sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean and black communities outside those core areas.  There is still probably a lingering idea as in Trevor -Roper's notorious quote that Africans have no history.  Indeed, such attitudes underlay the controversies over who built the ruins of Zimbabwe or shaped the famous Benin bronzes.  I think it would be quite complacent to imagine that such views have entirely disappeared. 

Ian Hislop at the British Museum

I didn't enjoy the British Museum exhibition Ian Hislop's I Object as much as I normally like British Musuem events. I suppose partly the celebrity marketing grates on me, and the sense that I was seeing something really modelling a TV or radio program rather than an exhibition in its own right.  It also seemed to have quite a thin sense of what dissent was, with most of it focusing on quite a binary sense of authority and dissent to authority rather than any wider context.

Childcare Costs

A short discussion on childcare costs shocks me by the disparity of the UK compared to other countries like Germany and Sweden.  I don't know if the author is right in their prescription, but it troubles me that Angela Rayner is only really talking in terms of pushing more money at the issue rather than trying to reform our system to bring the costs down. 

West London Orbital Connection

Some people in Brent have been arguing the value of a West London Orbital line for many years.  I recall Cllr Shafique Choudhary of Barnhill as a particular supporter and Brent Labour Group decided to approve the idea in principle back in 2011. 

Recent documents give an update on present status. 

Basically, still a very long way off.  For example the whole GRIP stages part generally takes years and has not yet begun.  "Details" like the nature of the rolling stock and the configuration of the platforms are still unformed, so don't expect anything soon.

A Frightening Warning on Climate Change

The IPCC have issued a frightening warning on climate change and its consequences.  The UK continues to ignore this and other problems whilst devoting endless time to Brexit, an illustration of the huge unaccounted for damage that the Brexit policy is doing quite apart from its more obvious negative impacts..

Council Tax Reduction Scheme in Brent

The review of Brent's Council Tax reduction scheme is part of the next Cabinet agenda, published on Friday.  Once again it is recommended to keep the scheme as originally designed.  This is a remarkable tribute to the scheme as adopted in 2013.

At the same time, the Budget proposals suggest that this is an area for further savings, which I take it would require a redesign.  The discussion in the Council papers does identify substantial savings but also a very big burden on the poorest residents.

Cutting Brent's Library Service

Following yesterday's post, I have gone through the documents to look at what the suggested options for library cuts are.  Four options are listed:

• Closure of all libraries on Sundays
• Substantial cuts to opening hours at weekends, evenings and at least one weekday.  This would probably be done by keeping Wembley and Willesden going, but having only four day opening at Ealing Road, Harlesden, Kilburn and Kingsbury.
• Closure of one branch entirely.
• Late opening of all libraries.

I suspect the third option is simply included because under Cllr Butt, Brent has adopted a practice of including "options" in an officer report that no one has any intention of following.  I am not sure why this is done.  It strikes me as a rather futile activity.  In particular closing a branch when all the branches bar one had substantial investment during the Libraries Transformation process seems an odd thing to do. 

The same meeting that considers this report will consider renewing the lease for Kingsbury library.  If the Council decides to do that and then decides to close it subsequently again that would look very odd.

Even to be thinking about these cuts sits rather oddly with the considerable largesse handing to those who want to operate privatised libraries as well as with the Borough of Culture plans. 

Cuts to Brent's libraries service also raise a political problem that it is a high profile service where Brent can genuinely claim to be one of the best in the UK.  There are few areas of the Council where Brent can make that claim.  I am not sure that the present leadership of the Council have the intellectual clarity to understand that argument.

 

Recommended Budget Savings

Among the recommended budget savings in the forthcoming Brent Council budget agenda are:

• Ending the remaining youth services at Roundwood Youth Centre and making it a purely educational resource.
• Reducing scrutiny committees again.
• Dimming street lights
• Closing the Abbey Road recycling centre
• Cutting adult social services
• closing all the childrens centres
• Drastic cutbacks to Council Tax support
• and part time opening at "some" Brent libraries.

I shall be particularly looking at the details of the proposed cuts to Brent libraries since they are likely to go against the ethos of Libraries Transformation Project, and undermine the impressive achievements of Brent Libraries.  I wonder how many of the library litigants will be concerned?

What Do Libraries Do?

I remarked that people don't seem always aware of the full uses of public libraries.  This often struck me during the consultations over the Libraries Transformation Project where one would meet people who began by saying "I don't use libraries but..."  This would be followed by a highly imaginative description of what that person imagined a standard library user to be like.

For a more accurate account it is worth reading Chris Paling's "Reading Allowed" which is a short account of working in a public library service somewhere outside London.  A copy of this book is also available from Willesden Green Library. 

Ground Shifts from under the Government Yet Again

Politics certainly has the ability to be unpredictable and the sheer scale of Theresa May u-turns yesterday was remarkable.  She hasn't admitted that austerity was a huge error but she appears to commit to more public spending from now on, which effectively means that she thinks Osborne's pursuit of a smaller state was a big error.

Even more startling is the commitment to more Council homes.  Selling off Council stock was a key part of the Tory election strategy from 1979 to the present day and she has just committed to more of them.  I wonder what Kit Malthouse, who thinks of Council tenants as second class people, thinks of that.

It is also notable for some of the things it did not say like addressing the collapse in social care, the growing financial crisis in local government, how the extremely restrictive immigration policies during her watch marry up with the Tory Conference theme of praising diversity, the onmgoing failure of Universal Credit and the holes in the UK's defence capabilities. 

It demonstrates how the underlying basis of politics is shifting and that a whole range of possibilities, including a second referendum, are possible.

The main limit of course is that national debt is much higher than it was in 2010 and all forms of Brexit will hit the economy, some of them very hard indeed.

Libraries and Private Computer Use

I pointed out some time ago that using public libraries for accessing confidential information was not without problems and I have recently had personal experience of this.  Sitting down at a PC in Willesden Library, I could see quite clearly that the previous person had failed to log out and his universal credit application was on open display. 

Libraries are reasonably enough designed to be public places, not least so that the staff can monitor peoples' safety.  They are just not set up to be used as benefits offices.  If the government wants them to be used in that way, they need to be adjusted to be more suited to privacy needs.

Planning Reflections from Martin Francis

Martin Francis has a piece on planning and views of Wembley Stadium on his blog.  It is critical of the Planning Committee for allowing the view of the arch to be eroded after various decisions.  However, the officers' reply that no rules have been broken is quite right, and has to be the approach taken.

Planning policy is a guide not a diktat, and it is perfectly reasonable to judge each case on its merits. 

Indeed to do otherwise would be "fettered discretion" and would effectively make all development in the stadium area impossible.

Therefore it is not so much that a rule has been broken, as that Martin disagrees with particular decisions.

I am no admirer of the way Brent's planning functions appear to have been bent in the last few years, but it is important to distinguish between legitimate, although perhaps questionable, decisions and unethical, illegal or illegitimate behaviour. 

New Dementia Garden

So much news has been depressing over the past couple of years that it is really nice to find a positive story once in a while, such as the new dementia garden opened in Brent.  Well done to Cllr Lia Evans-Colacicco for making it happen.

Modern Slavery

Incidentally it is good to see that Brent Council has chosen to take part in the Cooperative Party and Cooperative Wholesale Society campaign against modern slavery. 

Is Brent Managing Allotments Well?

Allotments have a chequered history in Brent, having been sold off whenever possible under the Tories in the 1990s and generally ignored, they subsequently once again became fashionable.  They now tie in very well with the public health agenda and a wider range of interests that people have in food growing.  I would argue that they can also have a role in creating an area of common interest for a community, binding people together across the usual dividing lines. 

When I was lead member for allotments, we became very concerned at the length of the waiting lists and the inefficiency of the administration.  We therefore passed a food growing strategy and had a dedicated officer assigned to making it happen.  We also updated the rents paid, which was more controversial.  In principle, it should be perfectly possible to set the rents at a level that allows the employment of some one to manage the allotments.  This would allow people to see themselves getting a service as a direct result of the charges made.  Without being followed up in this way, the rents will not be collected and some of the sites are much more likely to fall into disuse. 

This will leave everyone feeling unhappy, yet it appears to be the route that Brent Council is going down.  It is a pity that the Labour Group's away day yesterday was cut at such short notice as the Group really needs to put a long term strategy together. 

A Lack of Censorship at Labour Conference

I rather doubt that holding a debate on Palestine is quite the pressing issue that many delegates at the Labour Conference apparently feel it to be.  I would have thought, for example, that half a million people killed in Syria, eleven million displaced and the fate of those in Idlib was probably a more urgent subject if you really want to concentrate on the Middle East.

However, is there any evidence that anyone there was inhibited from expressing their views on Israel and Palestine by the recent adoption of the IHRA definition?  If not, perhaps we can acknowledge that the Summer of bitter resistance to the definition adoption has been something of a wasteful distraction from opposing the government's disastrous policies?

Government Wasting Time over Concealment

The Guardian carries a story here of the government gratuitously wasting time and money concealing our much its Minister for the North actually went to the North.  This seems all too common a fault in bureaucracies.  It is partly instinctive and partly to try to kill a story politically by destroying its timeliness.

Walking in Cities

Some interesting ideas on improving walking in cities in this long piece in the Guardian.  It is surprising how neglected this subject is despite pedestrians being recognised as at the top of the road user hierarchy, and being seen as crucial to neighbourhood success as far back Jane Jacobs' classic "The Life and Death of Great American Cities".  

Afterword on Kiln Theatre Renaming

With the success of the new season of plays at the Kiln Theatre looking fairly established, I thought I would reflect on the rebranding process.  There is an article with a short take on rebranding theatres here. 

To those who have never been part of a rebranding process the whole thing can seem a bit farcical, but it does often touch a nerve as the Kiln rebranding demonstrated.  I must admit that I am not quite sure what or whose nerves were being touched during that controversy.  The protesters seemed to be drawn just from one section of the community, and the reported comments seemed not always related to the theatre and sometimes unduly personal.  I did wonder whether there were wider anxieties than those being articulated at a work here.

By the way, for those interested in what makes up the Kilburn community Brent Council provides a short summary using 2011 census data. 

Kiln Theatre Facelift

One advantage that I hope will come from the Kiln Theatre rebranding is that hopefully even the laziest picture editors will drop using old photos of the Tricycle like this one:

And start using new photos, more like this:

Or even this: