Call In Tonight

Tonight we are having a call in on the rather minor changes that we put forward at the last Executive to the rules for governing leaflet distribution.  Extraordinary what people make a fuss about.

Housing Crisis

A new report further lays out the extent of the UK's housing crisis.  This applies not just to "affordable" housing (which the government is phasing out of existence), but across virtually the entire gamut. 

Recycling Televisions

The digital switchover is likely to lead to a bulge in the numbers of televisions collected, either by Brent's bulky item service or down at the Abbey Road site.  This is in fact a nationwide problem, as you can read here.

Boris Airport Again

Boriswatch points out that the newly elected London Mayor is still peddling his vanity project for an Estuary airport in preference to Heathrow.  I do wonder whether Mr Johnson even tries to make what he says relate to reality.  Heathrow employs about 75,000 people.  Does he really imagine he can transfer them to the other side of the Capital?

Green Man, Harlesden High Street

Following my request for a site visit, the planning application for redeveloping the Green Man in Harlesden High Street has been knocked back.  The sute visit is happening next Saturday morning, and the details of the application can be found here.

Next Brent Council Executive

Brent Council's next Executive meeting is on Monday 21 May, and I will be covering three reports _ on Air Quality Management, Animals in parks and an information item on the Libraries Transformation Project.  The air quality report covers not just our notorious hotspot at Neasden Goods Yard, but also air quality across the Borough.

Willesden Green Cultural Centre Plans

Galliford Try have put in their planning proposal for the Willesden Green Library redevelopment.  Full details are here.  The plans have changed somewhast from the original.

Fairtrade This Morning

Unfortunately, I won't be able to attend the Fairtrade event outside Harlesden Methodist Church this morning as the Labour Group is holding its AGM in Brent Town Hall.

Edward Harvist Trust

People may be interested in the Edward Harvist Trust Fund.  This is a somewhat obscure source of one off grants of up to 5,000 pounds for community purposes.  The deadline for application is 24 May. 

Free Bulky Waste Collection Online

Brent Council now allows you to order its free bulky waste collection service online.  Abolishing the charge for this service (introduced by the Tories and Liberal Democrats in 2007) was one of our key election pledges in 2010.  Allowing people to access the service via the Internet is an essential part of trying to modernise the Council.  The Council we have inherited from the Tories and Liberal Democrats had only 1% of its interactions with residents.  Increasing the number of online interactions cuts costs, shortens queues for those who really need face to face or telephone contact and is the preferred method of contact for many people in any case.

Standards

A quick reminder of the need for a local government standards code here.  I am something of an outlier on this subject, as I think the Standards System was finally working effectively when the new Tory government decided to abolish it.  The main issues in the early years were vexatious and trivial complaints, which have been reduced by no longer having a duty of complaint, and a failure to presume that complaints should be dealt with first at a local level (as with the Ombudsman).  The abolition of the Standards Board merely means that there is hardly any remedy for a councillor abusing his or her powers.

Euro Break Up?

Paul Krugman argues that either German has have a higher rate of inflation or the Euro will break up with severe short term economic consequences.  Given that he has a pretty good record of economic prediction, it is a sobering thought for Francois Hollande as he takes office.

Planning Web Site

I often encounter people who find the planning process confusing or intimidating.  Such people might want to try out this new site designed to explain it in a simpler way.  Although it is branded as for councillors, it may be useful for members of the public interested in a particular application.

Reviewing the Past Half Year

At around this time,  like to review the achievements of the past six months.  I guess the biggest thing has been the successful launch of our new recycling system.  Looking over at Ealing, it is impressive that Brent had so few problems in comparison _ a tribute to the careful planning involved.  As a result, our recycling rate has seen a step change.  We now need to drive this further, and sort out the continuing disengagement by some households.

The second big achievement was our acquisition of Fairtrade Status.  This was originally an all party commitment, but the previous Tory / Lib Dem administration had rather given up on it.  It represents the culmination of years of effort to become a Fairtrade Borough.

Most time consuming has been going through the various legal processes around the Library service.  I think our success in Court demonstrates that Brent is thorough and careful in its decision making.  Most Boroughs have ducked the issue and will see their services decline, either through gradually fading "volunteer" services, or through hollowing out their traditional services with cuts in the books budget and opening hours.   I understand our approach has been controversial but I believe that by 2014/15 we will have more visitors and book loans than we had under the old system.  We can now move into the positive agenda that anyone who believes in libraries should welcome, including: seven day opening, the refurbishment of Kilburn Library, the refurbishment of Ealing Road Library, a new Wembley Library, a rebuilt Willesden Library (amazingly some of the "save the Library" campaigners actually wanted Willesden Library to be closed permanently), a stronger relationship with schools and many other outside bodies, more events and an improved online service.

We have also had successes in less noticed fields, such as our Arts Strategy, a new planting regime in parks and in pursuing the climate change agenda.

In the ward, I believe that the applications at the Green Man and Willesden Social Club offer a chance to sort out the long standing problems at that end of Rucklidge Avenue.  We will shortly see the opening of the new Roundwood Youth Centre (which was only just saved from government cuts).  I have also been pushing on the street cleaning issues in parts of the ward around Harlesden High Street.  This is a long haul problem without any quick solutions, but I think it is getting more attention than at any time in the past.

Suspicions

I have had a few comments on my post on Fryent Country Park.  My point was that people seem to take the most outlandish suggestions and believe them without giving any thought to their plausibility. Martin Francis suggests that this is because of the Labour Party, which tends to be his default position on anything he thinks bad.  The example I gave of Hazel Road Open Space predates Labour taking over the Council.  I think it is rather a generalised paranoia about any manifestation of authority, and Councils tend to be in the firing line precisely because they are much more local and accessible than many other authorities _ private companies, the NHS, even government ministers.

I would also suggest that every time I see a newspaper report on a local government issue, the local Council is always blamed even if it appears not to have anything to do with it, or even if it is the only agency actually engaged in sorting the problem out.  The policy of government ministers like Eric Pickles to attack local government can't help. 

All this helps to create an atmosphere where anything that a Council officer or councillor says is disbelieved.  I have had this many times over the libraries issue, when I have pointed out that an assertion is not true, only to be told that it must be, and to have my interlocuter refuse to believe me even when I refer to documentary proof.  For instance, I frequently get told that Brent Council rejected proposals in April 2011 to allow various libraries to be volunteer run when they were at no cost to the Council.  This claim continues to be repeated when it is simply wrong, and proof is easily available to that effect.  There seems to be a point when people have repeated a point to each other so many times that they can no longer accept that it might not be true.

This is damaging to democracy, but also to any kind of rational decision making.

Caught Yellow Handed

Fans of Liberal Democrat hypocrisy may be interested in Caught Yellow Handed, a complilation of Liberal Democrat hypocrisy from around the country.  Of course, Brent's very own Sarah Teather plays a starring role.

Standards Report

The Harrow Times correctly reports that Ann John has been cleared of an allegation of misconduct in relation to planning.  I don't believe that the actual report is available on the Brent Council web site yet, but it is an extraordinary document and well worth reading by anyone interested in such matters.

Social Media and Local Government

I am not sure how far the suggestions in this post are a brilliant and far reaching look into the future of local democracy and social media, and how far it is just nuts, but it is worth a read.

More Borrowing

A remarkable sidelight on how negative the supposed library campaign has become can be found here.  The writer complains that Brent Council is offering to sign school children up to libraries as this is "an attempt to boost the visits and borrowing figures".  Well, you could say that the entire library service is an attempt to boost visits and borrowing.  That is rather the point of a public library service.

Kilburn Library Refurbishment

Kilburn Library will be refurbished as part of our Libraries Transformation Project.  I think it is fairly to say that Kilburn has been unfairly neglected, so it it is good that it is finally getting some attention.  During the refurbishment period, the officers will be organising various kinds of outreach in the local area.  Of course, Kilburn has already benefited from having its opening hours extended from five days a week to seven.

Flood Alert

I understand that the Environment Agency has declared a flood Alert for the River Brent as a result of the recent rains.

Storm Damage

The storms at the weekend did a lot of damage.  This fairly sybstantial tree was in Nightingale Road.  I also saw a tree down in Longstone Avenue.  The Council contractor has cleared both, but may take some time to clear all the damaged trees in the Borough, so I hope people are patient.

Composting Workshop

Gardeners may be interested in the composting workshop on 7 May.  It is being held in the Welsh Harp education centre off Birchen Grove.

School Improvements

The LGiU have recently published a study into how local authorities can help with school improvements.  Apparently, it has occurred to Whitehall that the proliferation of academies will mean that there are so many schools that Whitehall simply can't superintend them effectively.  Hence, Whitehall is thinking about creating a middle tier of authorities.  This sounds awfully like a set of local education authorities.  Let us hope that they have some form of democratic accountability (They might even think of electing people in public elections and calling them councillors).

Electric Cars

The Economist has an interesting, albeit American based, discussion on whether electric cars are really good for climate change.  At present, Brent assumes that they are and takes modest steps to promote them by requiring charging points in new planning applications or through our emission based permits.  The Economist argues (a) that it will be a long time before they become economically viable (b) that their environmental benefits are dependent on the energy mix of the grid and the time at which the vehicles are charged.

Failures of Boris

Dave Hill comes out strongly against Boris Johnson here.  What strikes me about Johnson is that his libertarian views seem to be restricted to people like himself.  When it comes to poor people, the Tory Party are quite happy to order them about.  This can take lots of different forms, perhaps the worst is in social housing where people can be forced to completely different parts of the country.  I can't imagine any Tory saying to a rich person that being housed in Westminster is a privilege not a right.

Re ward

West London Waste Authority has started a Re ward scheme to encourage re use through a kind of loyalty card for environmental businesses.  The scheme is being pioneered in Brent and Richmond, but (if it works) could be rolled out across West London.  More details can be found here.

Addison Lee and Boris Johnson

Coming rather late to Addison Lee's scrap with London cyclists, I can't help but notice that it undermines Mayor Johnson's public image as a more liberal sort of Tory.  When it comes to making life convenient for a Tory donor he seems to lose all his pro-cyclist credentials.  Undoubtedly,  our roads would be improved by rejecting Addison Lee's car only approach.  Before Johnson came to power, traffic planning worked with a road user hierarchy that put pedestrians at the top and motor vehicles at the bottom (as Brent's own Placemaking guide still does).  This would improve road safety, but could also make our Town Centres more attractive, as is the hope in Harlesden.

For those not familiar with Addison Lee's demands, the background is here.

Exporting Rent Inflation

More analysis on the forthcoming housing disaster, this time from a non-London perspective, here.  The predicted strains on social infrastructure may well lead to increased tension and help extremist parties.  However, Boroughs like Newham really don't have much choice under the rules the government has devised.  If Grant Shapps wants to prevent this, he needs to heed the calls of those like Ken Livingstone who call for rent control. 

Worse then the 1930s

The sheer scale of the government's incompetence is well conveyed by Paul Krugman here.  The choking off of the economic recovery was of course wdely predicted as a consequence of the government's strategy of austerity without growth.

Housing and the London Mayor

Inside Housing has a survey of the housing ideas of the Mayoral candidates.  There are quite a number of good ideas there, but what strikes me is that the incumbent, Mayor Johnson, seems to offer pretty much nothing except a bit of misleading spin.  As with other Johnson promises, we can assume nothing will happen as a result.

Meanwhile, Grant Shapps simply denies the existence of a problem in London.  London Councils are exporting people outside London, because the government's housing benefit cap gives them no choice.  The entirely predictable result of this will be more unemployment as people are moving to areas with existing job shortages, more political unrest as local communities in poor areas blame newcomers for joblessness  and "social cleansing" in richer parts of the country.

More detail can be found on how the Conservative Government has engineered this crisis can be found here.

Street Cleaning in Wendover Road

We have been devoting a lot of effort to trying to improve the cleanliness of the streets around Tubbs Road and Wendover Road.  Many residents find the state of these streets frustrating, but I think improving them will be a matter iof gradual progress, because they are what some people call a wicked problem.

The central problem is the high footfall of people going to Willesden Junction, coupled with the ease with which litter can blow off Harlesden High Street.  Currently, the streets get cleaned once a week with a second round of litter picking.  The Junction Association are organising a community clean up day, which is partly paid for by ward working money. 

In the longer term, the Council is looking at how to improve the cleanliness of Station Road and HJarklesden High Street, which should have knock on benefits for the streets immediately off them.  The new bin collection system should have improved the litter problem, since the blue bins have lids whereas the old green boxes did not.  Hence, litter could blow out of the green boxes more easily. 

How Long Can Hunt Last?

For the moment, David Cameron appears to be sticking to Jeremy Hunt, but I suspect the Culture Secretary will go before the local elections on 3 May.  He is appearing before the Commons, and (if the reports in the Guardian are true) I don't see how his continuation in office can fail to be a liability for the Conservative Party.

Conservative Government Leads to Disaster

It appears that the present Tory Government and their Liberal Democrat underlings have led the UK into the first double dip recession this country has had since the 1970s.  This means we are significantly worse off than the USA, and even than the Eurozone.  Surely proff that George Osborne's austerity programme has fundamentally failed.

Leadership

One of the more bizarre musings on leadership skills I have read can be found here.  Recently, as part of the entirely artifical concern over regulating leaflet distribution, Brent Council has been accused of being Stalinist.  I thought this was a term of abuse, but given that the accusation came from someone on the extreme left perhaps it was intended as a compliment.

It came up again at the Executive last night, when a number of attended about Willesden Library and the leaflet regulations.  These people then left before hearing the reports on such minor issues as school places or the increasing numbers of homeless in the Borough.  The BBC reported this morning that Newham has been trying to send people to Stoke on Trent.  This is going to become increasingly common as local authorities (including Brent) struggle to cope with the housing benefit changes.

Fryent Country Park

I gather that the last Willesden ACF was told of a mysterious plot to build on Fryent Country Park.  I always wonder how these rumours get started, and why people believe them so readily.  Every so often some one invents a story about a park being built on, as they did a while ago about Hazel Road Open Space.  In fact, it is so difficult to build on a park in terms of political controversy and planning law that it would be virtually impossible.  Certainly, no one is going to build on Fryent Country Park, but why do people believe these stories so readily?

The Irresistible Lure of Libraries

Tonight Brent Council's Executive is meeting which is unfortunate since it probably means I wion't be able to attend the celebration of World Book Night at Willesden Library Centre.  I gather we are likely to have speakers on Willesden Library, despite the fact that we aren't having a report on the subject.  It really is amazing how the topic of libraries seems to engross so much attention.

How to Invent a Campaign

The last few days have seen a flurry of concern around Monday's proposals to tighten up regulation of leafleting.  It is a striking example of how misinformation can be used to invent a campaign out of nothing.

The actual report merely adjusts the existing rules.  The Council has a system to license people leafletting in certain busy locations.  Previously the fee was 66 pounds, the proposal is for the fee to go to 75 pounds. The legislation regulating this has an exemption for charities, religious organisations and leafletting for political purposes.

The mischief started with the Willesden & Brent Times leading with a story that gave the impression that this was an entirely new set of rules, and glossing over the exemptions.  What is striking is that I personally spoke to the reporter and told her that "political purposes" meant a variety of political campaigns, not just political parties.  Martin Francis is therefore misinformed when he suggests otherwise.  Of course, as the exemption is written into the Act of Parliament concerned, Brent Council can't change it even if it wanted to.

YouGov Poll Gives Labour a 13 Point Lead

Good news for Labour supporters in the latest poll.  This is the biggest lead Labour has had in any poll for five years. 

Public Lending Right and Libraries

The bookseller reports on a problem with volunteer run libraries that I had not thought of in my previous post; they don't pay public lending right.  Who would have thought that a Conservative government would want to promote copyright infringement?

Rucklidge Avenue Anti-Social Behaviour

The corner of Rucklidge Avenue and Park Parade has been the focus of anti-social behaviour for some time, but I think the two planning applications coming up for the Green Man and the old Willesden Social Club might have the potential to help. 

Reducing the number of flats at the Green Man (as the plans propose) should reduce its potential to have overflowing bins, and hence.  Having a building on the site of the old Social Club will rob squatters and ne'er-do-wells of a place to congragate.  It should also help create nature overlooking for the area by DesignWorks, where there have been complaints of people hanging around.  Progress on both these sites has been slow.  I first started a petition to sort out the Willesden Social Club back in 2005.  If the current applications are rejected it is likely to be a long time before any new solution comes forward, so it is important to look at both of them carefully and in a spirit of compromise.

Community Libraries Failing in Lewisham

Figures from Lewisham continue to show much reduced activity at their "community libraries".  They contrast with a broadly static picture for the Lewisham Library service as a whole.  My suspicion is that the library services in these buildings will gradually decline, and they will be taken over for other purposes.  If so, it seems like a very slow and expensive way to transfer buildings to the private sector.

Suffolk Libraries Comprehensive and Efficient?

A blogger complains that Suffolk is setting up an Industrial and Provident Society to run its libraries in conjunction with volunteers.  There are many aspects one can criticise in this, but one he doesn't mention is the effect on the "Comprehensive and Efficient" duty of every local authority to provide a library service.  Suffolk County Council may well be able to provide the service through this mechanism, although I suspect the volunteer run libraries will gradually or perhaps speedily go downhill, but what happens if either Society or the various groups go bust?  Suffolk will still have a legal obligation to provide a library service, so it may well find itself forced to pick up the pieces, and bail out its creation.  In other words, Suffolk look as if they are continuing to carry the risk, but they no longer control the service _ the worst of both worlds.

Libraries in Timbuktu

A reminder that other parts of the world have bigger problems than we do comes from Timbuktu.  The manuscript collections in Timbuktu are a hugely important part of Muslim culture.  Before Vasco de Gama, it was the centre of an enormously wealthy African kingdom, so the collection there is one of the most important collections of medieval manuscripts in the world.  It is rather like the British Musuem being under threat of looting.

Moberly Sports Centre Consultation

Westminster have started a consultation on their proposals to rebuild the Moberly Sports Centre.  Some pictures can now be found here.

Taxing the Super Rich

As so often with this government, there is plenty to be appalled at in its proposals on cutting Tax Avoidence.  There is the cynicism that the proposals are simply designed to put George Osborne back on the front foot after his failed budget, there is the hypocrisy of a group of tax avoiding ministers inveighing against tax avoidance, and there is the incoherence of clamping down on charitable giving from a government that has championed the "Big Society". 

Nonetheless, does it not occur to the charities etc. protesting, that if the very rich are simply donating as a means of tax avoidence there might not be much sincerity in their philanthropy?  Perhaps things like universities might be paid for out of old fashioned taxes instead?

Ken Livingstone and the Congestion Charge

A little noticed change in Ken Livingstone's position is that he has pledged not to bring back the congestion charge extension.  When the extension was mooted, we got a lot of work paid for by TfL to mitigate the extra traffic.  Most spectacularly the junction with Scrubs Lane in front of Brunel Court got a much needed safety scheme.  Now we appear to have benefited from the extra investment, and ended up having none of the extra traffic.

Willesden Social Club

I have been seeking to clear up the derelict land on the corner of Rucklidge Avenue and Park Parade for a long time.  Although the derelict buildings have been cleared, the site continues to attract anti social behaviour.  I understand that the ownership of the land has changed and there is a prospect of some kind of retail/residential development.

Green Man Harlesden High Street

I had been expecting to go to the Planning Committee site visit this morning, but it turned out that no site visit was planned for the Green Man application.  I was surprised by this, as it seems to be an important application, where it would be useful for the Planning Committee to see things for itself.  Therefore I and the other Kensal Green councillorsa have requested that the Committee defer the application for a site visit.

For those who don't know it, the Green Man was a traditional pub in the Harlesden Conservation Area.  Some years ago, many of its historic features were ripped out and the upper floors given over to substandard housing.  Since then, it has been associated with a number of refuse and anti-social behaviour problems. The application before the committee is to restore many of its historic features, and convert the housing element to a smaller number of better quality flats.  This may represent a good way of solving the building's long standing issues, but I have not yet seen the detailed plans.

UPDATE:

Actually, the Committee deferred deciding the application in order to conduct a site visit.

Animal Welfare in Brent

I was surprised to learn during my walkabout with the Animal Welfare officer in Welsh Harp the other day that many local authorities have no animal welfare officers at all.  They have a contractor to pick up strays, and that is it.  The reason is that the service is non-statutory, and in an effort to meet their other needs, some Boroughs like Barnet and Westminster have cut it altogether.  This is a pity as it provides several useful services in protecting the welfare of animals, enforcing our new limits on the number of dogs you can walk in a park, and supporting the BARK programme. 

Wendover Road Again

There was a good turnout at the Wendover Road meeting this morning, although the walkabout did not go much beyond the car park.  Many of the issues have been raised before.  We agreed to look at doing some more publicity around environmental issues and link it to the already agreed clean up day, but as I often emphasise, there is no panacea for these issues.

Wendover Road, NW10

Today, I will be in Wendover Road with officers and Veolia to see what we might be able to about the high rating of dumping and littering in this group of streets.  s a result of resident protests, we upped the street cleaning with an extra litter pick, but I fear areas like this are an intractable problem.

BARK and Brent Council

Later on, I will be joining a dog warden team in order to get a better idea of how our animal welfare services work, including our BARK scheme.

Former Kensal Rise Library Reverts to All Souls College

All Souls College has been arguing since the collapse of the Court challenge in February that the former Kensal Rise and Cricklewood Libraries have reverted to them.  Brent Council has been going through the somewhat esoteric law covering the issue, and has now decided not to contest All Souls' demands.  This means that the relevant decision maker for deciding the future of the buildings is not Brent Council, but rather All Souls College , Oxford.

Charles Dickens in Brent Libraries

It is worth catching some of the Charles Dickens bicentennial activity in Brent Libraries.  I think it is one of the highest quality promotions that Brent Libraries have had for some time, and a good advert for our Libraries Transformation Project, although I share not be re-reading Bleak House, as it is too reminiscent of the recent litigation.

Equalities and Judicial Review

In my post on Surrey yesterday, I forgot to point out what I think the most interesting missed opportunity of the case.

The reason that we have such a wave of decisions relating to the Equality Act is that no one has given clear guidance on what "due regard" is.  When questioned in the Brent case, Helen Mountfield QC accepted that there had to be some form of proportionality, although in the Higher Court Dinah Rose QC denied it.  Dinah Roses's position (rejected by the Court of course) was hat an authority had to consider every imaginable permutation of the eight equality strands _ an impossible task.  She also put forward a modified version of this argument that this should only apply to "important" decisions, which begs the question of what is an important decision. 

Elisabeth Laing QC, who represented Brent in that case and Surrey CC more recently, has argued for a stricter view of the Wednesbury criteria.  This would suggest that a court only make a decision on whether due regard had been paid if the decision maker had been manifestly irrational.  This would be a significant raising of the bar on the current situation, where Courts seem to be picking over each assessment retrospectively at the invitation of a claimant. 

The Surrey case sidestepped this question as the judge ruled on the issue using both the argument that the "due regard" had not been paid and that the Wednesbury principle applied _ that Surrey had been irrational.  Until this gets sorted out, there are likely to be many more judicial reviews.

Surrey Judicial Review

I have been interested to see some of the reaction to the Judicial Review of Surrey County Council's library plans.  People seem to be picking on two aspects mistakenly.

Firstly, although the judge has ruled Surrey's decision as "unlawful" he has not yet decided what to do about it.  In fact, the unlawful element is that the Surrey Executive did not have any assessment of equality needs regarding the use of volunteers at one particular meeting.  That is a very narrow ground for quashing.  It would not surprise me if Surrey simply go back to the next hearing showing how they would train volunteers, and ask the judge to allow them to go ahead.

The second is that some people seem to have assumed that the judge is objecting to volunteer run libraries.  In fact, the fact that Surrey's proposal is for volunteer libraries does not relate to its unlawful nature.  It is merely incidental.  Still it is interesting that so many people are taking it to make an objection to volunteers, since there is clearly a lot of hostility to the idea of replacing paid staff with volunteers.

Barnhill By Election Candidates

The list of candidates in the Barnhill by election has been published, without a Liberal Democrat.  I have already heard suggestions that this is a deliberate tactic to try to help the Tories win.  Personally, I don't think one should underestimate the Liberal Democrats' sheer ineptitude.  However, if it is all a cunning plot, it further emphasises the hollowness of the Liberal Democrats' supposed distancing from the Tory government, and the extent to which Sarah Teather is simply a Tory government minister.

Shahrar Ali's Chutzpah

I pointed out last month that Brent Greens have not been consistent in their approach to candidates living in the constituency.

Now I find that Shahrar Ali himself has the chutzpah to criticise other candidates for living outside the GLA constituency.  What is the difference between other candidates living outside the constituency, and himself living outside Camden when he stood in Bloomsbury in 2006?

Election Fraud

The Electoral Commission has confirmed that the UK does not have widespread election fraud.  Frankly, given how easy it can be to break election law and how election campaigns re inevitably partisan, I am surprised more offences are not reported.  What is more worrying is that the move to individual registratiion will embed an unfairness in the system, where large parts of the population will be unrepresented.  In places like Brent, I can imagine that meaning the majority of voters coming off the register.

Legal Challenges in Local Government

The Equality Act, combined with the local government financial crisis engineered by Eric Pickles, has led to a slew of court cases across the countries.  The latest is a challenge to Surrey County Council, which has interesting implications for the "Big Society" as you can read here.  Essentially when a public authority makes a political decision that a particular group doesn't like, a choice is made to use the Courts to try to obstruct the decision.  The Equality Act is particularly useful in this regard because it is fairly new legislation (coming into force in April 2011), and it makes Equality assessments far more complicated by in troducing multiple new trends.   Since authorities have to pay "due regard" not only to each individual strand but also to possible combinations, one can construct at least a theoritical case against more or less any decision.  Whether this actually helps promote Equality is another matter.

UPDATE:

Yes, the Equality Act came into force on 5 April 2011.  This was only six days before Brent Council decided on its Libraries Transformation Project.

Ealing Road Library Reopening

The reopening of Ealing Road Library on Saturday went really well, I thought.  I arrived just as the Bookstart Bear was leaving, but it was incredibly busy both with smaller children and older people.  Our head librarian once wrote that she wanted libraries to be "joyous" places.  Ealing Road certainly was on Saturday.

The IT suite has many more computers, and the library has been reconfigured to make it easier to combine a quiet study area with noisier events in the front part.  I also hadn't realises how extensive the garden at the back is.  If funding could be identified, that could be further developed.

Ward Working at the Harlesden ACF

Ward Working priorities will be on the agenda at the next Harlesden Area Consultative Forum, which is on 10 April at All Souls Church in Harlesden High Street.  Remember the budget for each ward has been doubled this year.

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.

Sarah Teather's Hypocrisy (Again)

My colleague Cllr Krupesh Hirani points that Sarah Teather is being criticised in Parliament for her hypocritical leaflets in the Dollis Hill By election.  Of course dishonesty from Sarah Teather and the Liberal Democrats is nothing new. 

What puzzles me is what the strategy can possibly be?  She is a minister in the Tory government voting through whatever she is told to.  Does she really think people will fail to notice that?  Can she just not think of any way to defend her government's policies?

Boris Johnson and the Council Tax

Even by the standards of political propaganda, this claim by Boris Johnson is outrageous.  Yet no one appears to pick up on this kind of stuff in the mainstream media.

A Valuable Amenity at Willesden Green?

Some of the opposition to the proposed redevelopment of Willesden Green Library Centre suggests that the existing arrangements are much better than any possible alternative.  I have already written about my views on the Centre at the front, but I wonder how many people have examined the backlot of the site.  Above is a photo of the site taken from Chambers Lane.  I first moved to Brent in 1996, and it looked just the same then.  Incidentally, is it not puzzling that, despite the pressures on land, London still has derelict pockets like this?

Cllr Lorber Confesses Failure

Last night's Executive saw the unusual spectacle of Cllr Paul Lorber confessing failure.  He used the report on the future of Barham Park to argue that Brent Council had been failing to do anything with Barham Park "for years" _ presumably including his four years as Leader of Brent Council.

It led me on to thinking of the more general failures of that administration, which I view as a nadir of political leadership in Brent.  I would view the sources of Paul's failure as being to lack of real political beliefs, cowardice and small mindedness. 

As far as I can see neither he nor any of his colleagues had any real idea what they want to achieve.  That is quite different to administrations in some authorities.  For instance, the Tories in the "Tri-Borough" whatever you might think of their political agenda, definitely have one.  The result was an administration drifting along without any agenda of its own, but simply reacting to events.

Cowardice came in dithering over issues, such as the ARK Academy, was joining to cowardice in facing up to issues at all.  Thus, the Liberal Democrats rejecting making changes to recycling despite the rising costs of landfill, retreated from introducing an emission based permit scheme and ducked making any change to planning enforcement to match resources to demand. 

This drift seems to have led Cllr Lorber into an obsession over small details.  For instance, he spent a lot of time worrying about whether the Mayor's car was eco-friendly but none trying to promote car clubs or electric vehicles or anything that might have a more strategic effect on pollution.

Of course, his administration also failed to deal with the Council's long standing problems of organisation, such as widely differing rates of pay and conditions for the same jobs, a tendency to use temporary labour without proper thought, or ptackle persistent overruns in building projects.

Altogether, I imagine he looks upon his time as Council Leader has a huge wasted opportunity.

Food Growing in Brent

Following on from the adoption of our Green Charter, Brent Council is consulting on a new food growing and allotments strategy.  Prior to the election, I think our thinking was more focused on meeting the demand for old fashioned allotments, but the new strategy has morphed to include less traditional forms of food growing.  As such, there are now kinds of ways in which the strategy could influence regeneration, community cohesion and the promotion of public health.

Boris and the Routemaster

You can learn more about the new routemaster bus than you probably want to here. The argument is that the whole thing is a hugely expensive politically driven vanity project.  Had Ken Livingstone been responsible for such a profligate waste of money, the Evening Standard would have been gunning for him.  Yet, I haven't seen a similar reaction to Boris' extravagance, despite Boris making his supposed fiscal responsibility a core part of his pitch. Why?

Brent Civic Centre Progressing

The new Civic Centre is progressing well.  It is key not just to financial savings for the Council, but also a massive improvement in our environmental performance, a boost to regeneration in Wembley, and a more efficient Council organisation.  It will also mean us opening a new library vastly superior to the existing one in Brent Town Hall.

Former Preston Library

Hidden away in the papers for the next Executive is the information that the former Preston Library is being considered for temporary school places.  This is a hugely pressing need across Brent and London, chronically underfunded by central government.  The former Preston Library seems to me to be one of the most likely candidates of all our various buildings.

Brent Attains Fairtrade Borough Status

The event to recognise our Fairtrade status on Saturday at the Convent of Jesus and Mary School went very well.  Attaining Fairtrade status is something that the previous Tory administration really gave up on after being refused in 2008.  It was a committment in the Labour manifesto in 2010, and thus became a corporate objective.

Change of Heart over Ward Working

My colleague Cllr Lesley Jones points out that the Liberal Democrats opposition to ward working is rather different to what they said during the 2010 elections.  Both the Tories and the Liberal Democrats are claiming to oppose ward working, while trying to claim credit for the various local schemes funded through the budget.  When they do so, we shall have to remind people that they have repeatedly tried to have the whole scheme scrapped.

Atiq Malik Condemned

Former councillor Atiq Malik has been condemned.  The Tory government are abolishing the Standards Board for England, so this kind of action is unlikely to be repeated even for misdemeanours as serious as this.

Another Library Proposal from Paul Lorber

I wanted to come back to Paul Lorber's library proposal at the last budget meeting.  This is the fourth proposal that Cllr Paul Lorber has put forward on libraries. 

The first was put not to the Council, but as a press release to the Wembley Observer in February 2011.  Cllr Paul Lorber said: "These proposals are fully costed and if the Labour Executive is serious in their promise to listen to local people they will accept these proposals and give local people a chance to save their much loved local Library.”  He never presented the proposals, so we had no opportunity to consider them seriously or otherwise. 

At the Budget meeting that year, he produced a totally different plan: to delay the Libraries Transformation Project by half year whilst we all waited for something to turn up.  We chose not to adopt that approach.

At the Executive in April 2011, he had yet another proposal.  this one applied solely to Barham Park Library.  It suggested to me that he has little grasp of the legal status of Barham Park, surprising for someone who has represented that area for so many years.  It suggested erecting advertising hoardings around the Park and using the income (if there was any) to subsidise a trust under his chairmanship inside the Barham Park building complex.  That proposal was unworkable on any number of levels.

This year's budget saw yet another proposal.  This time he went back to all six former Library buildings in Brent.  He actually seems to have proposed two different versions of this proposal on the same night.  The written proposal suggests re-opening the libraries at a cost of 600k.  Since, the full saving of the Libraries Transformation project (LTP) was about one million pounds, this leaves a shortfall.  He could get a further 200k by not following the re-investment parts of the LTP, i.e. not making investment in IT, the online offer or seven day opening hours.  If so, I look forward to his next leaflet to users of (say) Kilburn Library telling them, he wants to cut their opening hours.  That still leaves him with a shortfall, however.

He seemed to be forced into a spontaneous variation on the Budget setting night as a result of where he wanted to get the 600k from.  His written proposal aimed to get much of it from cutting the ward working budget.  When Labour proposed increasing the ward working budget, I suspect he wasn't sure whether to support it or not (eventually all the Liberal Democrats voted against).  He therefore invented the argument, on the spur of the moment, that we should cut the bookstock fund to pay for keeping the buildings open.  Essentially, he is opting for a version of the genteel decline option that I have criticised previously.

Still, this constant swapping around between various incompatible proposals doesn't exactly inspire confidence, does it?

Station Approach Yet Again

I haven't updated on Station Approach for a while.  This is because there is still nothing definite about it.  We have finally managed to have meetings with a senior person at Network Rail, and once again been promised action.  Brent officers are optimistic, although given past experience I am still cautious.

Willesden Green Library Centre Exhibition

The plans for the redevelopment of Willesden Green Library Centre will be on display at a special exhibition.  The two-day public exhibition of proposals will be open from 2pm to 7.30pm on Friday 9 March and then from 10am to 2pm on Saturday 10 March. 

Martin Francis and other Greens have set up a campaign to attempt to try to block the scheme.  They decided to do this before they could have known what the detailed proposals were.  The exhibition will be an opportunity for everyone to actually see the proposals before making their minds up.  Incidentally, the campaign has suggested that the proposals have not been public knowledge.  In fact, one of its leading lights reported that meeting that voted through the feasibility study last year, was extremely well attended.

UPDATE:

On the comments, my expectation back in January was that the economy would continue to decline, and property prices fall alongside it.  Since the whole scheme is paid for by house sales, that suggested that it would become much more difficult for the numbers to add up.  Although the economy is doing badly, property prices in London continue to hold up.  Therefore it has been possible to put together a scheme that doesn't require capital from the Council.

On the current Library, it has been run down and has a number of design faults, perhaps put in as an effort to preserve a remant of the old building in front.  More forgivably, it has poor environmental standards because
people just didn't think about the environment much in the 1980s.

Station Road NW10 Gets its Trees

Trees have finally been planted on Station Road NW10.  The delay was caused by the optimum time to plant the tree.  I have also asked officers to look at how to improve the waste collection arrangements on this road, as residents have been complaining about stains on the pavements from rubbish bags.  We obviously don't want to spend lots of money on new pavements wihout ensuring that they are kept clean.

Fairtrade Borough

Tomorrow I will be going to an event to celebrate Brent becoming a Fairtrade Borough at the Convent of Jesus and Mary Girls school in Crownhill Road.  The campaign to become a Fairtrade Borough started ten years ago when the then Mayor Peter Lemmon (incidentally my predecessor as a Kensal Green councillor) started the campaign.  Unfortunately, that  means I will not be able to do my usual Saturday surgery.

Green Party Hypocrisy

Martin Francis points out that the Tories appear to have selected a non-Brent resident to fight the Dollis Hill by election.  Given that Cllr Reg Colwill, the Tory Deputy Leader, has been vocal in criticising Cllr David Clues for not living in Brent, Martin is right to say that the Conservatives are opening themselves to charges of hypocrisy.

He does not mention, however, that his own Green Party had a very similar policy in the 2006 elections.  Greens stood in different authorities all over London, including Martin's close collaborator Shahrar Ali.  Whereas Shahrar Ali's candidature in  Queens Park (Brent) probably made no difference, his simultaneous candidature in the Camden ward of Bloomsbury may have.  One of the Blooomsbury Labour candidates lost by only a couple of votes, whereas Dr Ali hoovered up 329.  I wonder how many of those 329 would have voted for him if he had admitted that he did not live in Camden, and was also standing in another Borough?