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.

Sarah Teather's School Hypocrisy

Martin Francis shows understandable disgust at Sarah Teather's hypocrisy over free schools. Although how could anyone familiar with Brent Liberal Democrats expect anything else? What worries me however is the possibility that the Liberal democrats and Tories will raid Building Schools for the Future to boost Michael Gove's pet project.

Another Tory Recession

Larry Elliot has an excellent, and extremely gloomy, analysis of the likely consequences of the Cameron/Clegg Budget on Britain's economic prospects. Essentially, the government is destroying jobs in the name of a Thatcherite ideology that Cleegg claims to oppose.

Wrottesley Road Mains Again!

Wrottesley Road appears to be cursed. Here is a photo I took this morning as yet again the water mains burst. Thames Water are currently on the case.

Local Government Budget Cuts

Brent Council is still trying to work out the full implications of the budget cuts from the new Tory / Liberal Democrat coalition. There are reports that London and poorer districts have been particularly targeted whereas wealthier areas have had much more limited cuts. In any case, it is certainly the worst budget settlement that anyone on Brent Council can remember.

An Unprogressive Budget

Left Foot Forward have published an analysis of the Conservative / Liberal Democrat budget. Essentially, it argues that far from being progressive, the richest ten per cent of the UK population will be hit least, and the impact gets steadily worse through each decile until you get to the poorest being struck most. It also reports that some Liberal Democrats are preparing to rebel against their own budget tonight. We shall see if Sarah Teather is among them.

Liberal Democrat Positioning

I expected the Liberal Democrat ministers in the coalition to position themselves as being in semi-opposition to the more unpopular elements of Coalition policy. To some extent that is the way it has been, with Lib Dem politicians briefing that they are fighting the Tories to be more "progressive." We are also seeing a similar positioning within the Liberal Democrat parliamentary party. Simon Hughes call for amendments strikes me as an attempt to place himself in any future Liberal Democrat Leadership contest as being the pure Lib Dem, as compared to sell out Clegg. Possibly, Charles Kennedy's abstention from supporting the coalition deal was done with a similar intention. If so, it will make Nick Clegg's position exceptionally difficult. I would be surprised to see this coalition reach the end of a full Parliament.

Hazel Road and Crime

There have been long standing issues around crime and anti-social behaviour in the Hazel Road area. The Council, along with the Police and LEAP, engaged with a coimbination of "hard" measures like the recent arrests over drugs, and "soft measures" such as a specific programme of youth work at the LEAP Centre. I am going to a meeting tonight to follow up on the subject, and see what further actions need to be taken.

Kensal Green Neighbourhood Working

I will be meeting with my fellow Kensal Green councillors Bobby Thomas and Claudia Hector soon to think about how to distribute Neighbourhood Working funds this year.

Neighbourhood Working is a process designed to help councillors engage with the voters. The main purpose is the engagement and reactivity rather than the actual money. The funds are very limited (20,000 pounds per ward), and sometimes we come across problems that require no additional funding but are simply addressing the shortcomings of either the Council or other bodies.

However, some funding is available for small, one-off community projects in the Kensal Green area, so any ideas please.

Delayed Reports

Looking through the reports to the Brent Council Executive, as well as the possible issues coming up, I am struck by how the previous Liberal Democrat / Conservative administration ducked so many difficult issues. The proposed Kingsbury Intergenerational Centre is one such, which will struggle to make the timetable before Central Government cuts its grant. Another, perhaps especially cynical example, is the Main Programme Grant. This is the process for making grant to various voluntary sector bodies around the Borough, including Brent Arts Council who turned up to the Executive to protest.

The Tory/Lib Dem administration ducked the issue by giving existing grantees a three month extension, and deferring the longer term decision to after the election. This was inconvenient for some of the organisations, which faced uncertainity over their funding. It was also bad for the organisations that will have their funding stopped, as the amount of money available to cushion them is much reduced. However, the Liberal Democrats evidently judged that it would be good for their election prospects to avoid any rows in the months up to the election.

Oriental City

Last week's Willesden and Brent Times carried a story about the Oriental City development that I thought illuminated a common misconception about Section 106 obligations.

Oriental City was a big retail centre in Queensbury. It got planning permission for a major development in 2006. The permission caused controversy as a number of the small traders in the development were moved out at no doubt considerable cost and inconvenience (although compensation was paid). In 2007, the permission was regranted for a still bigger development. Unfortunately, the developers were unable to go ahead for financial reasons. Since the permission was due to expire, they decided to ask for an extension under new powers granted to the Council last year in order to keep struggling developments alive.

This application turned up at the last Brent Planning Committee, prior to the service station site that I was there to speak on. There was a lobby from the Chinese community, including some of the former Oriental City traders, protesting that the development should be refused permission to go ahead. The reason given was that a Chinese Community Centre had been promised under the Section 106 agreement in 2007, but not constructed.

This criticism is wrongheaded in two ways. Firstly, Section 106 monies have to be linked to the development going ahead as a whole. This is because the whole justification for demanding Section 106 from a developer is that they are compensating the wider community for the extra strain being put on the wider community by a development. If there is no development, how can there be extra strain on the local infrastructure? The second, more specific reason, that the objectors were wrongheaded was that the only possibility of the old Section 106 agreement promising a Chinese Community Centre being implemented was if the old planning permission were continued. Without a development, there is no possibility of planning gain of any kind. If permission had been refused, any new application for planning permission would start from a clean slate, and a Chinese Community Centre would not necessarily be asked for.

LFEPA Fiddling

Tory Troll picks up on the little noticed events at the London Fire Authority (LFEPA) here. Not only has Boris Johnson fiddled the rules to keep Brian Coleman in charge, but the lovely Brian has decided that one of his most pressing peiorities is to award himself more money.

2012 Olympics in Brent

I forgot to mention in my post on my Lead Member responsibilities that they include the 2012 Olympics. Despite being in West London, Brent will be hosting some events (football, gymnastics and badminton as you ask). Hopefully we can use that for both revenue generation and improving our very low sports participation rates.

West London Waste Authority

Today will be the AGM of the West London Waste Authority (WLMA) as well as the first meeting of the Brent Council Executive since I became a Lead Member. The West London Waste Authority is a grouping of six London Boroughs (Brent, Harrow, Hounslow, Ealing, Richmond and Hillingdon) who have agreed that to pool resources for waste disposal and processing.

Each of the constituent Boroughs send one representative, and I am the Brent member. It has a budget of 55 million pounds and last year dealt with 697,000 tonnes of waste so it is a big responsibility.

Budget Chaos

As everyone knows, the new Tory / Lib Dem coalition is ideologically and politically committed to making cuts in budgets this year, but I wish they weren't doing it in such a chaotic way. The Environment & Culture department reckons it will have to find getting on for one million pounds for the cuts so far announced (not counting whatever Boy George comes up with this afternoon), but instead of telling local authorities directly, officers have had to sort through government pronouncements to detect how much of the cost cutting will hit us.

It seems we are threatened by a variety of cuts to grants that are seldom heard outside local government, but which pay for things people care about. There are reductions in the performance reward grant, housing and planning grant and contaminated land grant. The cut that will hit hardest will be the elimination of subsidy for swimming for pensioners and children. As we have one of the lowest sports participation rates in London, that is particularly bad for us.

I wonder how many of the people voting for Sarah Teather at the General Election realised that they were voting for free swimming to be taken away from children and pensioners at Willesden Sports Centre?

Harlesden Conservation Area

I was asked recently is there was a Conservation Area in Harlesden Town Centre. Indeed there is. It stretches from the Green Man past the Royal Oak, down to the Jubilee Clock and curls round to end in front of Harlesden Methodist Church. It centres on preserving the frontages that you can see behind Dawn Butler in this photograph of her in Harlesden High Street during a Not Another Drop March in 2007.

More from Pinker

Another interesting snippet from Pinker's book that I was not aware of concerns New Guinea. In the 1920s, some Australians went prospecting for gold in the interior. Much to their amazement they found some New Guineans who had apparently no awareneness of the rest of humanity. In other words, they must have been separated from the rest of us about 40,000 years ago and had no further contact. The Australians encountered them in 1930. How extraordinary to think that such an event could happen as late as 1930.

Bibliometrics

I have been reading recently Steven Pinker's The Language Instinct. In it he suggests that Noam Chomsky is in the top ten most cited authors in all of the humanities (apparently the others are Marx, Lenin, Shakespeare, the Bible, Aristotle, Plato, Freud, Hegel and Cicero). Wow. Chomsky is the only one of that lot still alive. Does anyone know whether his citations relate mainly to his linguistics work or to his more polemical stuff?

Junctions and Flooding

Another feature of the public design guide coming before Brent's Executive shortly should be a greater emphasis on soft landscaping in traffic schemes. Above is an unusual example of some soft landscaping in a current scheme, the one being built outside Willesden Library Centre, but hitherto no one has really worried too much about soft landscaping on public highways in Brent.

This is a little odd, since planning policy pays a lot of attention to the issue. Whenever there is a major new development, we ask the builders to follow something called Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS). This is a set of techniques to slow down the rate at which rainfall hits the drains and thereby reduce flooding risk. As climate change gets worse, this will become more and more important as we will we get rain in shorter, more torrential bursts. Similarly, if you want a parking space in your front garden, Brent Council insist on having at least half the garden as soft landscaping to promote drainage.

It therefore seems odd that we don't make a suimilar insistence on the highways where we actually own the land. For instance if you look at the Church End roundabout or the traffic island in the middle of Church Road is there any reason why that land could not be kept as soft landscaping and help water drain away?

Roundwood Park Cafe

Roundwood Park Cafe should remain open. There is going to be a temporary arrangement to keep the Cafe operating. Meanwhile, a bidding process will be opened to keep the Roundwood Lodge Cafe operating on a longer term basis. This is obviously good news for Roundwood Park, as the Cafe attracts visitors, but also for all the people who enjoy using the Cafe.

Kensal Not So Green

I have been updated on the situation outside Kensal Green Tube Station. Apparently the immediate problem is that regrassing the area means using lots of water, and the only nearby water source are the Thames Water stand pipes which they charge a huge amount for. London Overground, who own the land, say they have paid a contractor and it is the contractor's reponsibility. the contractor seems to have just walked off, so Brent Council is in the process of pursuing the contractor.

What a palaver just to get some grass returned to normal (or possibly some flowers as well as suggested in an earlier comment).

Delayed Reaction

One little gift that Paul Lorber and his outgoing colleagues were very quiet about during the election campaign was the skewing of capital spend.

Brent Council's capital spend before the election on things like roads and broken pavement was kept artifically high, at just over four million pounds this year. This was made possible by raiding the financial budgets for next year and the year after, so that (on Liberal Democrat plans) the amount spent on repairing roads and pavements will fall by about 30%. However, the fall, although engineered by the Liberal Democrats, will happen only after they have been thrown out of office, so no doubt they hope to escape the blame.

Belgium

It is remarkable that one of our near neighbours appears to be about to split apart, and yet the Biritsh media are showing very little interest. I suppose it is a tribute to the strength of the EU, but also our own insularity.

Arrests

I am delighted to see that the Police have staged an operation in the area around Hazel Road, leading to the seizure of some class B drugs, a successful arrest and a pending arrest. This area has been suffering from some time from problems related to this case. Although the police have been working on it, much of their activity has had to be covert, leaving some residents with the impression that little is going on. Obviously that is not the case.

TEC (London Councils)

I attended my first meeting of London Councils Transport and Environmental Committee last Thursday. Each London Borough sends one representative to this body which then agrees common approaches on Transport and Environment policies across London. It also oversees the Parking Charge Notice Appeal system. The Tories seemed surpringly bullish given they have just lost control over so many London Boroughs.

Wrottesley Road Power Cut

By the way, anyone puzzled at why there were people using pneumatic drills in Wrottesley Road at 2am on Thursday; it was London Electricity Engineers repairing the cable after a power cut.

Harlesden Town Team

I do encourage everyone to get involved in the Town Team process, which I think is really begin to taken Harlesden Town Centre places.

The idea of the Town Team is too attempt a more participatory form than urban planning has generally achieved. Traditionally, especially on Transport projects which is how this one started out, a group of Council engineers would identify an area (say an accident blackspot), draw up a detailed plan to deal with it and send out some letters about it. The public would therefore only get involved quite late in the process.

The Town Team idea is more geared to generating ideas from the public. So far, I have already seen the scope of the project change quite dramatically. It started as a "public realm" project with a focus on traffic. As a result of peoples' diffetrent inputs, it has moved to a much bigger concern with planning issues like the mix of shops or cultural initiatives like the Lexi screening in Roundwood Park.

I understand there will be a Town Team stall at the next Respect festival where people can find out more.

Brent Council Inefficiency

One of the things that has come as a big shock to me is finding out how inefficient parts of Brent Council are. A little while ago, a report was commissioned from PWC into Brent Council's effectiveness. I had heard some rumours of major problems it turned up but the Liberal Democrats and Tories refused us access to it, so we never got to see the detail.

After getting into office, I find we seem to have a highly ineffective billing and procurement process, seriously outdated staff structures, a rickety property portfolio and altogether an organisation whose financial management appears to have been seriously neglected in recent years. Instead of attending seriously to these problems, Paul Lorber and his colleagues seem to have been happy to just drift along.

Now we are going to have to sort it out in the midst of one of the toughest budget settlements local government has ever seen.

Lead Member for What?

It occurs to me that I haven't explained which parts of Brent Council I am lead member for, so here goes.

Cllr Jim Moher is Highways and Transportation meaning he fronts stuff like parking, road surfacing, street lighting and furniture, street cleaning, street trees and grass verges. Cllr Lincoln Beswick covers Emergency Planning under his Community Safety Brief.

I front the rest of the Environment and Culture Department's activities. The biggest single chunk is waste management, from bin collections to the waste processing (recycling, landfill etc.) at the other end. I also cover parks and Brent's sports centres; libraries (including the Grange Musuem); arts, including our programme of festivals; cemetaries and the Mortuary service; the regulatory agencies (i.e. the Planning Service, Building Control, Trading Standards, Environmental Health (including Animal Welfare and pest control), Health, Safety and Licensing), cutting the Council's carbon emissions and other sustainability targets. There are also a few other things like fulfilling our pledge to give Brent Fairtrade status, that don't fit easily into any one category.

Reading it through like that makes it all seem a little daunting.

Blue Badge Scheme

The Blue Badge scheme, which gives parking concessions to disabled people, is under review. As with so many things, this review started ages ago but is only now crawling towards a decision. I was shocked to find that there are an estimated 700,000 abusers out of the total blue badge holder number of two and a half million. The review might recommend making the badges electronic so that they are easier to cancel, and tightening enforcement powers.

Better Keep Left Signs

Back in December, I was moaning about the carbon intensive and less than robust design of our keep left bollards. I am happy to say that we have started introducing a more robust design that uses natural reflection, thus:



This is kind of thing is being dealt with under a report coming to the next Executive on public design. Making our street furniture more sustainable is admittedly only a small part of the whole.


The most controversial aspect of this report is likely to be the "shared surface" agenda. This is the idea of reducing barriers between road surfaces and pedestrian areas to blur the distinction between the two. Road safety is supposed to be maintained by drivers and pedestrians maintaining eye contact. It is controversial with disabilitiy groups, notably the RNIB, for obvious reasons.

Blog Comments Policy

A couple of comments that I had to reject recently prompt me to remind people about the comments policy. I am not going to allow any comments that I think might be libellous or grossly offensive.

High Street Harlesden Planning Application

Very pleased with the result at Brent Council's planning committee last night. The proposed block of flats at 147 to 153 Harlesden High Street got turned down. This site has a long history, and I spoke against the application refused last night, just as I voted against the December proposal and the proposal of a couple of years ago.

Surprisingly, for a site with such a long history, a new issue has emerged in the past few days. 139 Harlesden High Street has two windows that abut the site and which would have had a severely restricted outlook. No one worried about these very much as there was an impression throughout the various applications that they were not the windows of habitable rooms. Planning policy makes a sharp distinction between "habitable rooms" like bedrooms, kitchens and living rooms, and non habitable rooms such as bathrooms, corridors and stairwells. It turns out that they are actually kitchen windows, and the only windows those rooms have. That dramatically changes the wieght they should be given in the decision, which in my view was the right one.

However, isn't it worrying that the error over whether they were habitable rooms persisted through the original application, the appeal, a subsequent outline application, and only got uncovered with the planning application refused last night?

Creating a Desolation by Kensal Green

I walked by Kensal Green Tube on Sunday to find this scene of desolation in what used to be quite a pleasant green space between Kensal Green Tube station and the Harrow Road.

Contractors have been working on the station, and this is how they have left the green space outside. Once I can establish who owns this ground (a more complex matter than you might imagine), I will try to get the contractors to pay for restoring it.

Housing Targets Scrapped

I see the Tories, via Eric Pickles, are proudly boasting of cutting regional housing targets. This is a policy pioneered by Boris Johnson in London, and the most likely effect is fewer houses being built despite the pressing needs of Londoners.

Local Events

As well as the Town Team meeting at the Salvation Army at 6.30pm tonight, the Junction Association will be organised another Parkfest in Tubbs Road pocket park on 7 August. It should be even better than last year.

Brent LDF

The next Executive is likely to have Brent's Local Development Framework proposals on the agenda. These are fairly uncontroversial, but it is an amazing reflection on the mismatch between the political cycle and the timings of government that the process for our LDF was started under the previous Labour administration in 2005, and is now one of the first matters to be decided by a completely new Labour administration five years later.

Service Station Site

The service station site between Harlesden High Street and Rucklidge Avenue has another application. It is due for a site visit at 10.25am this morning and goes to planning committee on 8 June.

ARK Academy

As you can see from this photo I took recently, the ARK Academy is nearing completion. It was actually on the cusp of approval in 2006 when Labour lost power. The Lib Dems and Tories decided to "review" it for more than a year. As a consequence, the opening has been delayed from September 2009 to September this year. Since it provides 1,700 school places, it is pretty essential to Brent Council fulfilling its legal duties on school places.

With the Lib Dems and Tories nationally freezing Building Schools for the Future money as well as a lot of primary school investment whilst they also conduct a review, it is a nervous time on the education front. Strangely, I don't recall Sarah Teather telling people that Building Schools for the Future money was under threat when she was looking for votes in May.

Chewing It Over

Several people have raised paan spitting with me. Paan is a mixture of things often including tobacco and flavourings as well as betel leaf that is popularly used for chewing in South India and Sri Lanka. Around Wembley and Alperton, however, it is mainly noticeable for the way it has been spat all over the streets.

Brent Council has attempted a "Don't spit paan" campaign, but I am not sure it is especially effective. As paan has been linked to mouth cancer, it may be possible to get NHS Brent to combine with the Council to do some publicity. However, I suspect that communicating with the Sri Lankan and South Indian community is most effectively reached through community networks rather than poster campaigns.

The second major issue is the problem of cleaning the stuff off. The Wembley councillors have been keen to improve the cleaning of shopfronts in Wembley, but doing so involves negotiating a minefield of different ownership with freeholders, leaseholders and tenants. Sorting out payments is therefore harder than it sounds.

It would also be interesting to find out more about better surfaces. For instance, you can get special anti-graffiti paint, and possibly it may be possible to improve the surfaces in Ealing Road and Wembley High Road to make the surfaces easier to clean.

Finally, better enforcement would obviously be a good idea. I am sure that many people in Alperton and Wembley are deeply irritated by paan spitting and would support the Police in taking tougher enforcement action against it.

Lord Paul Boateng

Congratulations to Paul Boateng, our former Brent South MP and Britain's first black government (and then Cabinet) minister, on being made a peer in the Resignation Honours list.

Next Town Team Meeting

The next Harlesden Town Team meeting is at 6.30pm on Monday 7 June at the Salvation Army Hall in Manor Park Road.

Queens Park Transition Town Project

Here is a picture of the completed food growing bed at Mapes House that I visited the Saturday before last. I think these kind of projects could be a really good way of bringing communities in blocks like this together.

David Laws

Charlemagne has a wider perspective on the resignation of David Laws. I suspect he is right that the Liberal Democrats simply have not had the kind of scrutiny that Labour, and to a lesser extent, the Tories have had. Will we find more difficulties for Lib Dem politicians as time goes on?

Black History Month

There are opportunities to organise a Black History Month event in Brent. You need to return the form by 14 June.

Willesden Junction Task Group

Here is an excellent map showing why Willesden junction is such a problem. before the election, I tried to get Brent and hammersmith Councils to agree to put a joint task group together to examine the issue. As I am now on the Executive, I won't be able to join it but hopefully it will go ahead.

Big Lunch?

Last year, there was a lot of interest in Big Lunch events. In practice, these turn out to be far harder to organise than you might think. In particular closing a street is a legal/financial nightmare. I will be asking advice from officers on whether we can include this in the review of Brent's Cultural strategyover the longer term, with a view to making it simpler for people to hold Big Lunch events.

But in the meantime I would be interested in hearing from anyone interested in having a Big Lunch in Kensal Green.

Incredible Edible

After a recent visit to a Transition Town food growing project at Mapes House in Queens Park, they directed me to Todmorden's ambitious local food growing programme. This certainly sounds like it is a project Brent could learn from, although it would take a long time to reach a similar level of developemnt. With my Environment Lead hat on, I would welcome similar ideas.

Weeds

Here is a picture of some weeds I took in Furness Road a little while ago. They are due to be sprayed but apparently have to reach a minimum height for the spray to be effective. Originally, the Liberal Democrats didn't want any weedkiller to be sprayed. Instead, they expected a team of five people to physically dig out the weeds. Since the Borough has about 1,000km of pavement, this would be beyond the most Stakenhovite team.

New Surgery Time

Following the election, we have decided a new time for our surgeries. We now do it on the first Saturday of the month at St Marks on All Souls Avenue from 10.30am to noon. This is to free up more time for doorknocking.

AGM Part I

By tradition, Brent Council splits its Council AGM into two parts. The first of which was on Monday during the England / Mexico game. I came to the Town Hall that evening by Tube, and would be glad not to share a train with quite so many sweaty football fans for a while. The AGM itself is quite nice though, with a series of Community Awards to people who have done voluntary work for an extraordinary range of organisations in the Borough. The diversity of people and organisations has to be seen to be graped.

You can get an idea of the range of backgrounds from the names of the awardees, which are: Alia Coleman, Ami Udeshi, Hajrudin Sistek, Bhavinbhai Patel, Nedim Mujcinovic, Jasvinder Sawhney, Jennie Doble, Meena Patel, Minakshi Patel, Ramesh Devani, Samia El-Ali, Sharon Bennett, Alfred "Teacher Freddie" Totesaut, Sylvia Wiseman, Zamira Ruspi, Urmila Parbhu, Rajnikant Somabhai Patel, Dr. Peter Moore, Josie Warshaw, Ezra Cohen, Fatima Khalil, Christina Connolly and Cassandra Cheng.

The organisations on represented by the Awardees on Monday were (in no oparticular order) St Michael’s Youth Project, Alperton Community School, Brent Victim Support, Brent Irish Advisory Service, Brent CAB, Brent Parent Partnership, Afghan Association Paiwand, St Johns Ambulance, St Lukes Hospice, Brent Youth Parliament, School Stationery Shop, Friends of River Brent, Brent Heart of Gold Support Group, Claremont High School, Brent Multi-Faith Forum, Preston Manor High School, Stonebridge Amateur Boxing Club, Brent Carers Centre, Lyon Park Infant School, Mother Teresa Albanian Union, Federation of Patidar Associations, Brent Indian Association, Harlesden Environmental Action Residents and Traders (HEART), Neasden Gateway Club, North West London Jewish Day School, Brent Fairtrade Network, Brent Indian Community Centre, Kingsbury High School, Bosnia and Herzegovina Community Advice Centre, Brent Eleven Street Residents Association and Cycletastic.

Quite a celebration of diversity in one of Europe's most varied muncipal authorities.

Flower Boxes

One of the ideas that was suggested from Neighbourhood Working last year was the provision of extra flower boxes. The ones in this picture are in Wembley High Road rather than High Street Harlesden. The flowers are real, and some people think they brighten the centre up. the cost is quite low. Is it an idea worth pursuing?

Trobridge Exhibition

Finally got to the Ernest Trobridge exhibition in the Grange Museum at Willesden Library Centre. Very good. I didn't realise that Trobridge moved with the times so much that had plans to construct a combined garage and air raid shelter in 1938.

Mayor Making

We will shortly install Cllr Hari Singh as Brent's first Sikh Mayor. Hari has managed to break the jinx of the previous election years in 2002 and 2006, when the Deputy Mayors lost their seats in the election. By convention, the Deputy Mayor serves for a year before being automatically selected as Mayor. It is nice to see that this time Hari got through.

Brent's Library Service

I went down to Willesden Library Centre a few days ago and found it a demoralising experience. I remember Willesden Library Centre as a significant hub for the area. Now the cinema is closed; the Cafe is closed; there is a childrens centre closed for "health and safety" reasons. The idea of having lots of things together was to attract footfall from one into the others. The non activity around the closed facilities presumably has a negative impact on the Library, the Brent Musuem and the Willesden bookshop. I will be raising it with officers to see what we can do about it.

Whatever Happened to Willesden Social Club?

Another Kensal Green issue which I am hoping to progress on over the next four years is the old Willesden Social Club on the corner of Rucklidge Avenue and Park Parade. This was something I campaigned on after I first got elected in 2006. There is a housing associaition interested in buying thre land for a housing development, but it appears to be stalled at present because they can't agree a price. While it is not as bad as it was, it is still being used by rough sleepers and is a possible focus for anti-social behaviour.

Willesden Junction Issues

I suppose my big objective in the ward over the next four years will be to sort out some of the problems around Willesden Junction station. I have blogged before about the various issues of Willesden Junction. With the election out of the way, I hope we can get together joint working with other Boroughs to speed up the rate of progress.

I would like to see more than just occasional clean ups. We also need to do something about the terrible state of Station Approach (a private road owned by Network Rail). There is also the missed opportunity of the Hythe Road public footpath, and the unappealing nature of the Harrow Road footpath. The Harlesden Town Team were also keen to improve the approach up Station Road, which is a fairly dreary introduction to a vibrant Town Centre. We could also make progress on less difficult problems like the signage of the station.

My hope is that the changed majority on Brent Council will finally give some real impetus to this process.

Rapid Reaction Force

Caught up with this BBC report on the election in Kensal Green. Alatortsev is quoted about the Lib Dem plans for a "rapid reaction force," which I have blogged on before. He wrongly states it would be made up of police officers, and does not mention any liasion with the police. It sounds like just the kind of specious promise that the Liberal Democrats put forward in 2006 and then broke on attaining office. Thank goodness they won't have the chance of a repeat performance.

New Lead Members

It seems premature, as Brent Council has yet to hold its AGM, but the Labour nominees to form the Executive have been announced by Brent Council as "New Lead Members". Note that I have been given the Environment portfolio.

Harlesden Road Planning Application

Now that I am off the Planning Committee,I have got more freedom to comment on applications in the ward. As it happens, Network Housing are putting forward an interesting application at the bottom of Harlesden Road.

Brent Council has a detailed set of information on each planning application in an easily searchable database. You can find out about the Network Housing application here, although this database is not as well known as it should be since the Planning Department's consultation letters don't flag the online facility. Now that we have a new administration, perhaps we can change that.

Anyway, I certainly welcome a development on this site, which has been vacant for ages. I did at one stage hope that they could do a land swap with Roundwood Youth Club, which lies just behind. That would give the Youth Club a much more prominent street frontage, whcih might make it better used. During the election, I found people even on the immediately surrounding streets like Drayton Road, Sellons Avenue, Radcliffe Avenue and so on who were not clear on where it was. However, I now doubt whether that will be possible.

The number of flats, 38, sounds fairly high, especially as some of them are three bedroom, but perhaps the details of the application will make it turn out okay.

Lexi Cinema in Roundwood Park

There will be an open air screening in Roundwood Park, thanks to the Lexi Cinema and Brent Council working together. Sounds a good idea. You can vote on which film gets screened here.

Poetry Workshops

I have had details of some Free Creative Poetry workshops. These are part of the Well London project, so I thought I would advertise them. they are:

At The Hub at All Souls: And at Harlesden Library Plus:

Women’s Poetry Group Poetry and Empowerment
Every 3rd Wednesday at 7 pm. Every 1st Friday at 4 pm.

21st April 2nd July
19th May 6th August
16th June 3rd September
21st July 1st October
18th August 5th November
15th September 3rd December
20th October
17th November
15th December

Some workshops have guest speakers and artists, look out for ads in the library. Plus summer festival participation at Pocket Park in Tubbs Road in August and winter bazaar and performance on the 15. December group

workshops facilitated by award-winning poet Ursula Troche
plus guest workshops tbc

for more information contact Ursula:
on 07896 366 485
or ursulatroche@yahoo.co.uk

New Links

Have added two new links. One is Harlesden Gallery. This is a link to promote artists in the NW10 area. The second is Harlesden Life, a link between everybody around Harlesden Town Centre.

Why Does Sarah Teather have Short Coatails?

Looking at the three MPs elected in brent, I see that there seems to be an important difference between the Labour ones and Sarah Teather. Both Barry Gardiner and Glenda Jackson managed to bring victory to Labour Council candidates standing on the same day. Sarah Teather did not.

Why is that? I can think of two possible explanations. One is that the Liberal Democrats do not have an image as a party in the same way as the Labour Party does. People who voted for Barry or Glenda saw them as being on the same team as the Council candidates, so the Council candidates got some of the reflected glory or the MPs. Sarah Teather image has always been more about promoting Sarah Teather as a person.

Alternatively, it might be a deliberate choice by Sarah Teather. Whereas Barry and Glenda appeared alongside their party colleagues, reference to the Liberal Democrat councillors in Teather's literature was extremely muted. Probably she didn't want to be tarnished by their record in control of the Council. The end result was probabl;y that they ended up working hard to get votes for her, whilst she avoided supporting them beyond the minimum.

No woman hath greater love than this: that she should lay down her friends for her life.

Kensal Green Election Result

Looking over the election results in Kensal Green, they still seem pretty random. Even the counting staff on the night remarked how strange some of the split voting seemed. Along with many other wards, the results in Kensal Green showed more voters splitting their votes than voted for a straight ticket for any single party. The full Kensal Green result is here.

I am struck at how scattered our result was as Labour candidates, with Claudia 448 votes ahead of Bobby. I can't think of any reason for this except our place in the alphabet. The Liberal Democrats had a different pattern with Deborah Sutherland, last in the alphabet but the only one to actually live in the ward, topping their ticket 154 votes ahead of their bottom candidate Robin Pagnamenta.

However, the Tories had the strangest results. Nana Green was top with 760 votes, 244 votes ahead of Peter Osuhon, their bottom candidate. Nana's gap with Peter is equivalent to a third of her total vote. It may be that, like Deborah, she lives in the ward. again, it may be that she comes first alphabetically. I even think that her surname may have confused some voters into voting for her because they thought she was the Green candidate.

It is even odder as I have seen a Tory leaflet that mentioned Peter Osuhon, but made no reference to anyone else. Strange for the Tory party to sanction a leaflet without mentioning the other two, especially as the Tory Agent was Nana's mother! Perhaps the more the voters hear about you, the less they are likely to vote for you.

Again, there may have been something odd going on with Bertha Joseph. She is reported to still be a member of the Conservative Party despite standing against three Conservative candidates. If a Labour Party member stands against a Labour candidate, they aren't quite put in a hollow square to have all their buttons snipped off, but they do get expelled for five years. Perhaps there is some deep rift within the Conservative Party in Brent. Or perhaps not. I don't know, and I don't much care.

Election Disappointments

I saw the front page of the Camden New Journal had a photo of the Hampstead and Kilburn candidates. I don't envy either Ed Fordham or Chris Philp their positions. To lose out so narrowly must be gut wrenching. Particularly for Ed I imagine.

He first moved to Camden shortly before the 2005 election, and since then has dedicated himself to getting a political position. As Glenda's election Agent, I had a hand in keeping him in third place in the 2005 result, and he had more disappointment when he lost the Council seat of Hampstead Town. Now after years of dedicated grind, he finds himself once again in third place.

Like some of the Brent Liberal Democrat Council candidates, he must be wondering if Sarah Teather had pulled in less resource from his campaign into hers, would he have been elected? We shall never know, but the CNJ photograph showed his feelings well enough.

Lib Dem Posters

Here is a Liberal Democrat board from the election, which I found in Herbert Gardens in Kensal Green. If you look, you will see they have simply attached it to an existing estate agent's stake. I have come across a number of cases where the people living at properities deny knowledge of who gave the Lib Dems permission to erect stakes there. Don't always assume that the people who a Liberal Democrat garden stake actually support the Liberal Democrats.

Remapping Brent Politics

My colleague Cllr Krupesh Hirani points out how dramatically the political map of Brent has now changed. You can see the new map here.

SNT Base on Station Road

Went to the official opening of the Station Road SNT Base in Station Road. Yes the one that actually opened back in January. It has got an extraordinary number of stairs inside, as well as both the Kensal Green and Harlesden Safer Neighbourhood Teams. It also has a front desk in place, even though it is not open. I asked the Borough Commander about whether this would be opened. he seemed quite non-commital. I suspect that the police want to minimise the use of the front desk, so that they can maximise the use of officers on the streets. However, there is no doubt that many members of the public would like to be able to walk in and speak to a police officer.

Oddly, the Harlesden Town Centre Team is still based over in Craven Park Road at the old Police Station.

Diversity in Parliament

Ztoical says we should disregard race, sex etc. entirely when looking at Parliamanet. I can't entirely agree. Surely it shows something wrong with our political system if women and ethnic minorities are so poorly represented in the House of Commons? As I am sure no one thinks it is down to lack of ability, there must be informal barriers which are denying talanted people a place in the Commons.

The Labour Party has long taken that view. More recently, the Tories have been catching up thanks to couragous advocacy by among others John Major. The Lib Dems do not have a single non-white MP out of 57, and here in Brent they have only four non white councillors out of seventeen. Surely a progressive party would be looking long and hard at itself as to what is wrong, rather than just denying a problem?

Lib Dem / Tory Coalition

The forming of a Lib Dem / Tory administration at Westminster will come as a tremendous shock despite its being predicted by myself and many others. On the doorstep, I have again and again come across people saying something like "I'll either vote Lib Dem or Labour. The one thing I don't want is the Tories." Now we find the Lib Dems putting the Tories into power, and even sitting alongside them in the Cabinet. How can our local Lib Dems face people after this?

Black MPs

Incidentally, isn't it sad that Dawn Butler's defeat means that Brent no longer has a black MP for the first time in more than twenty years?

Diversity in Brent Labour Group

I have been looking over the results of the election last Thursday, and one result is that Brent Labour Group is now 57% ethnic minority, which probably makes it the first political group in the country to have a non-white majority. It also has 40% women members, which isn't proportional but is certainly better than some places _ like the House of Commons for example.

There is quite a contrast with the other groups. The Tories, who have been reduced to six, have no female members at all. The Liberal Democrats have only four ethnic minority members, and only three women out of a group of seventeen.

Labour's London Triumph

Dave Hill reports on Labour's triumph across a range of London Boroughs last Thursday. I am still a bit discombobulated by it all, but it certainly seems as if there might be all to play for if there is an early General Election.

BNP Beaten

Tory Troll points out the depth of the BNP humilation on Thursday here. It couldn't happen to a nastier party.

Post Election Blog

I got back home from the election count at midnight last night. Hence the lack of posts. Obviously, the defeat of Dawn Butler was pretty gut wrenching, and we now have the uncertainities of a hung Parliament. However, here in Brent we have taken back control of the Council, so I am excited about Labour forming a new administration, drawing up a new Corporate Strategy and so on. Hopefully we can inject a new dynamism in a Council that has lacked political leadership for so long.

The full Brent Council election results are on the Brent Council website.

Polling Day Blogging

Blogging here is likely to be extremely light over the next couple of days for obvious reasons. Hopefully, I being able to resume activities over the weekend.

Dawn Butler in Keir Hardie House

One last photo on the campaign before polling day tomorrow. Dawn Butler blitzing in Keir Hardie House in Harlesden. Never seen Sarah Teather there.

Polling Station Change

Only a day to go. If you live at the top of College Road (odd number side) you might want to note that your polling station is now St Mark's Church, not the Scout Hut. Still only a few minites walk though.

Dawn Butler Launching the Labour Friends of the Caribbean

Dawn Butler launching the Labour Friends of the Caribbean at the House of Commons. Last Dawn Butler photo before the election.

Dawn Butler at Jesus and Mary Girls School

Dawn Butler talking to girls at the Jesus and Mary School on Crownhill Road. In terms of local government boundaries, Jesus and Mary is actually in Kensal Green, not in Harlesden (Crownhill Road is the boundary).

Dawn Butler's Safer Stations Campaign

Safer Stations was one of Dawn's earliest campaigns. This is her presenting the petition at Downing Street. As a result of the campaign, Ken Livingstone gave a guarantee that all stations would be staffed and some extra Transport police teams were put on the London rail network.

Gordon Brown Keeping the UK Out of the Euro

Paul Krugman has an interesting commentary on the UK Economy here. It essentially argues that keeping the UK out of the Euro has crucially prevented us from being far more severely effected than we are.

A useful corrective to the criticisms of Gordon Brown's economic record.

Dawn Butler Promoting Neighbourhood Watch

Here is an image of Dawn Butler promoting Neighbourhood Watch in Harlesden High Street (which is mostly in my Kensal Green ward).

Labour March

Just been through Wembley and Tokyngton on a pro-Labour march led by Dawn Butler, Barry Gardiner and the increasingly ubiquitious Paul Boateng. Good weather thank goodness and all very jolly.

Top Labour Pledges

A few days to go before the election, and here are some of Labour's topline pledges for Brent Council:

Repeal the £25 charge for bulky refuse collection.
Keep Council Tax levels at or below the London average and introduce a discount for those over 75 who are eligible
Introduce free parking for the first hour in council car parks to encourage local shopping for local people.
Rebuild our secondary schools and ensure that school facilities are fully available to the wider community, especially young people
Crack down on crime and anti social behavior
Introduce a Green Charter in consultation with local residents and other stakeholders

As well as:

Introducing 20 mph speed restrictions in areas where residents' want them.
Introducing fairer care charges for elderly and disabled people.
Making Brent a Fairtrade borough.
Provide a multi use games area in every suitable open space.
Provide a safer environment for our young people.
Work with other local authorities and central government to change legislation to allow the Council to restrict the growth of betting shops in town centres and fast food outlets near schools

With Gordon Brown

Here is a picture of me with Gordon Brown when he was still Chancellor. I remember this being taken at a standard photo op with a long line of MPs waiting for their turn with the Chancellor. With her inimitable style Dawn took myself and Bill Brown along to be photographed ignoring the dirty looks she got from the dozen of so Labour MPs in the queue behind.