I mentioned Harlesden Job Centre Plus a few days ago. The area next to this (the old service station site) is going to be redeveloped soon with a much smaller building than proposed in the past. The Job Centre itself is huge in comparison. The reason for its enormous scale (compared to the rest of High Street Harlesden) is that it is on the old site of the Willesden Hippodrome. As the Willesden Hippodrome (destroyed by bombs in the War) was so big, the replacement building could be big.
By the way, hippodrome is one of those words that have completely changed their meaning. Willesden Hippodrome meant a music hall. In the classical world, a hippodrome was an arena for horse racing. Greek for horse being "hippo".
Sunday, 17 February 2013
Saturday, 16 February 2013
Progress at Barham Park
We made some good progress on Barham Park despite Cllr Lorber's peculiar misbehaviour. I have explained before the slightly convoluted constitutional status of this committee.
The good news is that we have some substantial progress after the years of neglect under Paul Lorber. We decided to let most of the building to a tenant called ACAVA. This is a charity that promotes the visual arts in West London, so it seems a good fit with the priorities of the Barham Trust, which is supposed to promote the recreation and amenity of Brent residents. We also agreed to spend the Trust's capital on a number of repairs to the buildings, and to upgrade the park. The capital comes from selling off two houses a couple of years ago, and the amount we have to spend is about £600k. We also approved a twenty year plan for the park. Although we don't have funding to more than make a start on the park improvements, this is much more progress than Barham Park has seen for many years. Finally, we agreed that the position of the Veterans Club should be regularised.
Whilst we were doing all this we had to put up with Cllr Lorber trying to interrupt and shout over people, as well as making various scurrilous accusations against Council officers. He seemed to want to get the whole meeting bogged down in various legalistic details. Of course, I have seen him this way before, but this particular night was his worst for quite a while.
The good news is that we have some substantial progress after the years of neglect under Paul Lorber. We decided to let most of the building to a tenant called ACAVA. This is a charity that promotes the visual arts in West London, so it seems a good fit with the priorities of the Barham Trust, which is supposed to promote the recreation and amenity of Brent residents. We also agreed to spend the Trust's capital on a number of repairs to the buildings, and to upgrade the park. The capital comes from selling off two houses a couple of years ago, and the amount we have to spend is about £600k. We also approved a twenty year plan for the park. Although we don't have funding to more than make a start on the park improvements, this is much more progress than Barham Park has seen for many years. Finally, we agreed that the position of the Veterans Club should be regularised.
Whilst we were doing all this we had to put up with Cllr Lorber trying to interrupt and shout over people, as well as making various scurrilous accusations against Council officers. He seemed to want to get the whole meeting bogged down in various legalistic details. Of course, I have seen him this way before, but this particular night was his worst for quite a while.
Friday, 15 February 2013
Vaizey Gets It Wrong
I see that Ed Vaizey has told the House of Commons that Brent's library strategy was developed several years ago, before the present government. In this he is simply wrong. The strategy was developed between mid 2010 and April 2011. Had Ed Vaizey's assertion been accurate, the High Court (and subsequently the Court of Appeal) would have been unlikely to have upheld the Council decision.
Ice Age Art at the British Museum
The British Musuem currently has an excellent exhibition on Ice Age Art. Billed as "40,000 years in the making", it is well worth a visit.
Books on Prescription
One of the new trends in libraries at the moment is "books on prescription". In fact this has been around quite a while, including in Brent. The concept was recently explained in the Guardian. It is just one of the many ways in which modern libraries are no longer warehouses full of books.
Thursday, 14 February 2013
One Stop Shop in Harlesden Job Centre Plus
As part of the Willesden Green Library redevelopment, Brent's one stop shop services are moving to Harlesden Job Centre. This should make it easier for Kensal Green residents to access them, although they will only be based there during the Willesden rebuild.
Boris Johnson's Dreadful Air Quality Record
Boris Johnson's awful record on air quality is confirmed once again. This is just the kind of issue, requiring technical detail, persistence and long periods without exciting photo opportunities that you would expect the Conservative Mayor to fail in. Indeed, I suspect more recent activity by Boris is not to do with the thousands of Londoners who avoidable die because of poor air quality each year, but more to do with political embarrassment from EU fines.
Wednesday, 13 February 2013
Willesden Library Centre Update
It is now confirmed that the planning application to redevelop Willesden Green Library will not be heard tonight, but rather on 21 February. There was apparently a technical detail around notice periods which has caused the glitch.
Avoiding Blame
Red Brick has a useful summary of the various tactics that Tory ministers use to avoid the blame for all the damage they are causing. However, they don't mention the Sarah Teather tactic of supporting all the nastiness when you have a ministerial job, and then condemning the same policies as immoral once you have been sacked.
Councillor Blogs
Someone has set up a site collating councillor blogs across the country. It points out that these tend to be a good source of local news stories, but I am struck that most of the blogs featured tend to be by Labour councillors. I wonder why that is?
Tuesday, 12 February 2013
Alternate Weekly Collections
Yesterday's post attracted a comment about alternate weekly collections (AWC) which I thought worth responding to. It is actually about political leadership in general, but AWC is the example cited.
Firstly, the Labour manifesto did have a commitment to massively increase recycling, and detailed working subsequently suggested that AWC was the best way to achieve this. Far from "steamrollering" this we went through an extensive discussion. The proposals were published in August 2010, and the policy finally passed in December 2010. As well as written comments, we ran a series of public meetings. I presented at each of these. I believe I am the first lead member to have done this in Brent. My opinion that AWC is popular is based on these meetings but also the numerous conversations and feedback I have had subsequently. It is also worth noting that AWC is increasingly used across the UK despite Eric Pickles trying to attack it.
Generally, people support more recycling, and are not hostile to the three bin system. The main concerns during the presentations was how to fit the bins in to sometimes small front gardens , and how to educate people in making the system work.
We are still working on getting people to know what to put in which bin, which may not be surprising in a Borough where 22% of households do not have an English speaker and the turnover is so high. However, the blue top bins, where you just stick lots of materials in together, are less demanding of householders than the old green box system, where you were supposed to sort each material separately.
Firstly, the Labour manifesto did have a commitment to massively increase recycling, and detailed working subsequently suggested that AWC was the best way to achieve this. Far from "steamrollering" this we went through an extensive discussion. The proposals were published in August 2010, and the policy finally passed in December 2010. As well as written comments, we ran a series of public meetings. I presented at each of these. I believe I am the first lead member to have done this in Brent. My opinion that AWC is popular is based on these meetings but also the numerous conversations and feedback I have had subsequently. It is also worth noting that AWC is increasingly used across the UK despite Eric Pickles trying to attack it.
Generally, people support more recycling, and are not hostile to the three bin system. The main concerns during the presentations was how to fit the bins in to sometimes small front gardens , and how to educate people in making the system work.
We are still working on getting people to know what to put in which bin, which may not be surprising in a Borough where 22% of households do not have an English speaker and the turnover is so high. However, the blue top bins, where you just stick lots of materials in together, are less demanding of householders than the old green box system, where you were supposed to sort each material separately.
Monday, 11 February 2013
Political Leadership in Brent
There is a lot of rhetoric around political leadership, so I thought I would post on what I think it means in my context. Many of the attacks on Brent Council seem misguided to me not only in the sense that the real source of the decisions is the attack on the whole concept of local government, but also in their view of political choice generally.
I think political choices are essentially value judgements between different priorities. In principle, officers and civil servants can use their expertise to answer technocratic questions like How much would this cost? Is this legal? How many extra people would service if we did X?. What they cannot do is say that, for instance spending money on domestic violence services is more or less important than spending money on (say) library services. At least they cannot know better than anyone else, and that is why in democratic institutions, elected people make those decisions.
These questions of priorities become much more acute at a time of shrinking budgets. The most famous exponent of this view was Nye Bevan who famously declared that "The language of priorities is the religion of Socialism." I get the sense that many people simply are not willing to face up to the priority choices that Councils like Brent have to make. They retreat into denialism of the Far Left type ("Just spend the money. Set an illegal budget") to the Eric Pickles type ("There is so much waste in local government that you can cut the budgets simply by cutting waste without hurting services"). Some people manage to combine both views at once.
I think that real political leadership consists of facing the problems squarely, and making changes to preserve or enhance the key priorities, even if that means that you offend various special interest groups or politically motivated individuals. Failure to face up to these problems simply leads to salami slicing where everything is treated the same and effectively no political choice is made because the politicians are not prepared to make it.
A few examples from Environment and Neighbourhood Services might illustrate the point:
1) When we were first elected, I told officers that one of our first priorities would be to improve recycling. At the time, I thought this would be much more controversial than it turned out to be. I still see disbelief from my Labour colleagues in London when tell them we have introduced alternative weekly collections and it is quite popular. Plenty of Councils are scared of doing the same, and they will have to divert ever increasing resources into paying for landfill as a result.
2) Much more controversially, we decided to concentrate our library service on a smaller number of buildings and invest in Library services rather than just "hollow out" the service. I have covered that area before in many posts. We are now starting to see the benefits. Opponents of this policy should recognise that without the difficult choices made, the bits that everyone should welcome, like improvements to the home delivery service, would never have happened.
3) A third area we have chosen to positively develop is our arts strategy. Famously other Councils, like Somerset and Newcastle, are cutting Arts altogether. I am a strong believer in the potential for our Arts strategy to contribute both economically and socially, but that means not promoting something else.
4) Another political choice that Brent is developing more is to seek to make all our services contribute to the economic well being of residents. Again this is not an automatic choice. I can easily envisage a Tory who believes in the Nightwatchman state saying that we should not attempt it.
5) Our very strong environmentalist commitment is another area where we have chosen to take a particular route. To try to cut carbon emissions and mitigate the effects of climate change is again a political choice. There are plenty of Councils not pursuing climate change with anything like the fervour of Brent.
6) The Civic Centre is another case of strong political leadership. When we were elected in 2010, there were siren voices to say the project should be cancelled. We looked at the facts, and decided to go ahead. The voices against have not largely gone silent.
What all these policies have in common is that they are based on a firm set of priorities, a careful assessment of the evidence, and some courage in answering groups and individuals who opposed them. Once the policies are shown to be successful, the opponents tend to go quiet. For instance I doubt whether either the Tories or the Liberal Democrats now to have opposed our recycling changes. What else is political leadership supposed to mean?
I really don't understand anyone who stands for office without being willing to make these kind of choices.
UPDATE
This is already a very long post, so I have responded to the comment below here.
I think political choices are essentially value judgements between different priorities. In principle, officers and civil servants can use their expertise to answer technocratic questions like How much would this cost? Is this legal? How many extra people would service if we did X?. What they cannot do is say that, for instance spending money on domestic violence services is more or less important than spending money on (say) library services. At least they cannot know better than anyone else, and that is why in democratic institutions, elected people make those decisions.
These questions of priorities become much more acute at a time of shrinking budgets. The most famous exponent of this view was Nye Bevan who famously declared that "The language of priorities is the religion of Socialism." I get the sense that many people simply are not willing to face up to the priority choices that Councils like Brent have to make. They retreat into denialism of the Far Left type ("Just spend the money. Set an illegal budget") to the Eric Pickles type ("There is so much waste in local government that you can cut the budgets simply by cutting waste without hurting services"). Some people manage to combine both views at once.
I think that real political leadership consists of facing the problems squarely, and making changes to preserve or enhance the key priorities, even if that means that you offend various special interest groups or politically motivated individuals. Failure to face up to these problems simply leads to salami slicing where everything is treated the same and effectively no political choice is made because the politicians are not prepared to make it.
A few examples from Environment and Neighbourhood Services might illustrate the point:
1) When we were first elected, I told officers that one of our first priorities would be to improve recycling. At the time, I thought this would be much more controversial than it turned out to be. I still see disbelief from my Labour colleagues in London when tell them we have introduced alternative weekly collections and it is quite popular. Plenty of Councils are scared of doing the same, and they will have to divert ever increasing resources into paying for landfill as a result.
2) Much more controversially, we decided to concentrate our library service on a smaller number of buildings and invest in Library services rather than just "hollow out" the service. I have covered that area before in many posts. We are now starting to see the benefits. Opponents of this policy should recognise that without the difficult choices made, the bits that everyone should welcome, like improvements to the home delivery service, would never have happened.
3) A third area we have chosen to positively develop is our arts strategy. Famously other Councils, like Somerset and Newcastle, are cutting Arts altogether. I am a strong believer in the potential for our Arts strategy to contribute both economically and socially, but that means not promoting something else.
4) Another political choice that Brent is developing more is to seek to make all our services contribute to the economic well being of residents. Again this is not an automatic choice. I can easily envisage a Tory who believes in the Nightwatchman state saying that we should not attempt it.
5) Our very strong environmentalist commitment is another area where we have chosen to take a particular route. To try to cut carbon emissions and mitigate the effects of climate change is again a political choice. There are plenty of Councils not pursuing climate change with anything like the fervour of Brent.
6) The Civic Centre is another case of strong political leadership. When we were elected in 2010, there were siren voices to say the project should be cancelled. We looked at the facts, and decided to go ahead. The voices against have not largely gone silent.
What all these policies have in common is that they are based on a firm set of priorities, a careful assessment of the evidence, and some courage in answering groups and individuals who opposed them. Once the policies are shown to be successful, the opponents tend to go quiet. For instance I doubt whether either the Tories or the Liberal Democrats now to have opposed our recycling changes. What else is political leadership supposed to mean?
I really don't understand anyone who stands for office without being willing to make these kind of choices.
UPDATE
This is already a very long post, so I have responded to the comment below here.
Sunday, 10 February 2013
Harlesden Town Centre Update
On Friday, I attended a lengthy meeting on Harlesden Town Centre. The start of construction has been pushed back to May to accomodate some changes in the detailed designs that have emerged from the consultations. It is not yet finalised, but there are likely to be more disability parking spaces than originally envisaged as changes to exact locations of certain items. Altogether, I think it is a good compromise between the various competing demands.
UPDATE
In response to comment: spelling error corrected. I was typing from a computer that had a sadly inadequate keyboard.
The meeting I went to on Friday was not a formally constituted council meeting. Councillors often attend informal meetings with officers or residents that are not publicly notified.
UPDATE
In response to comment: spelling error corrected. I was typing from a computer that had a sadly inadequate keyboard.
The meeting I went to on Friday was not a formally constituted council meeting. Councillors often attend informal meetings with officers or residents that are not publicly notified.
Saturday, 9 February 2013
Car Use in Brent
Another interesting observation from the census breakdown I mentioned yesterday is around car use. 43% of people in Brent live in households without a car, and this proportion is going up. It would be interesting to know what the reasons are for this. Is it linked to poverty, or is public policy finally succeeding in a "modal shift" away from car use as the default mode of transport?
Schemes like the Harlesden Town Centre scheme, and indeed Brent's entire transport and planning policies, are all geared to persuading people to choose any method of travel other than car use. Are these policies finally working?
Schemes like the Harlesden Town Centre scheme, and indeed Brent's entire transport and planning policies, are all geared to persuading people to choose any method of travel other than car use. Are these policies finally working?
Friday, 8 February 2013
Population Explosion in Brent
I was recently sent a ward breakdown of the census figures for Brent. I already knew that our population had gone up by 18% between 2001 and 2011, but it turns out that the biggest increases are in Harlesden and Kensal Green wards. Both have seen a rise of about 40%. That has huge implications for all kinds of Council services. The funding levels we had in 2010 were designed around the 2001 population. Now the dramatically reduced funding is supposed to pay for a much larger population and all its changing needs. A tall order.
Thursday, 7 February 2013
A Peculiar Evening
I went along to the Selma James evening at Kilburn Library this evening which turned out to be a huge rant against all sorts of things, some of which I oppose, and some of which I do not, but which all seem to have little connection to each other.
National Libraries Day in Brent and other things
I have updated about libraries recently, but there are some things ongoing. We are having a number of contributions to National Libraries Day on Saturday. We also have a library card design competition announced. Interest in the next Brent Dance Month is being drummed up. Tonight Selma James is giving a talk at Kilburn Library to promote a recent book. As well as being a writer and campaigner in her own right, she is the widow of CLR James, of Black Jacobins and Beyond a Boundary fame.
Other Brent Library events are here.
Other Brent Library events are here.
Wednesday, 6 February 2013
Sarah Teather Accused of Hypocrisy
Not for the first time, Sarah Teather has been accused of dishonesty, this time over gay marriage. Previously she has managed all kinds of dishonesty, and escaped at the ballot box, but it seems to me that her luck is finally running out.
Meanwhile Space in Wembley
The Guardian has a report on the innovative use of meanwhile space, and it is nowhere else but in Brent. More specifically in Wembley. This gives an idea of some of the inventiveness that Councils can still come up with. I wonder whether central government departments can be so flexible.
Tuesday, 5 February 2013
Six Book Challenge
A reminder of the adult six book challenge launching later today. Last year this was launched by Adele Parks; now it is launched by Charlie Oatway. Harlesden Library makes sense as a venue since Brent attracts more participants than any other authority.
Monday, 4 February 2013
Local Government and the Forthcoming Disaster
The forthcoming disaster of local government finance is predicted again. I wonder what will have to occur before Eric Pickles pays attention? Probably the whole scale collapse of a major Tory authority would be my guess. In which case we have two or three years to wait.
Sunday, 3 February 2013
Returning to The Island in Kensal Rise
The other night I dined at The Island on College Road. I haven't been there for a while. I still think every time I go in how infinitely better it is compared to the old Buccaneer.
Saturday, 2 February 2013
Judicial Reviews Again
I see that a number of Councils are being threatened with judicial review over changes to Council Tax support. The government has foisted this problem on to Councils in defiance of the supposed logic of its benefits cuts, to make things simpler and more equitable, simply in order to put blame on local government. The only silver lining I can see is that the cases will be heard quickly because of their budgetary nature. However, if any of the Councils lose, the results are likely to be chaos in the simple practicalities of organising their Council tax billing.
Friday, 1 February 2013
Brent Libraries Update
As the government and various bodies have announced a universal libraries offer, I thought it would be timely to give a short update on how Brent's libraries have been developing. Actually, many of the things in the offer, like financial advice or books on prescription, are already available in Brent. As I have explained before, we have been developing the service since the end of the court case, and there are now some impressive headline achievements:
The Summer Reading Challenge has had its greatest ever number of children in Brent this year.
Brent Libraries have seen more than one million visitors in the year to date, and more than 770,000 book issues.
Outreach issues have gone up by more than 400%, to more than 50,000.
We have had more than 15,000 new borrowers.
Since the end of the court case we have had a refurbishment at Ealing Road library and a bigger one at Kilburn Library. In June, we will open the new Wembley library at the Civic Centre.
We have added 56,000 items to the bookstock and introduced smarter stock management. If laid end to end those 56,000 items would stretch from Wembley Stadium to Piccadily Circus.
More than 1,500 children attended our revamped homework clubs in the Summer and Autumn terms.
Our home delivery service has treble the number of book issues.
We have greatly extended our online services.
Altogether, I think that is quite a lot of progress, although there is much more to do. Had we gone down the salami slicing route that so many other authorities have chosen, I don't believe we would have a list anywhere near as impressive. Indeed, it would have been a continuation of managed decline, whereas we are taking what was a declining service and gradually turning it round.
The Summer Reading Challenge has had its greatest ever number of children in Brent this year.
Brent Libraries have seen more than one million visitors in the year to date, and more than 770,000 book issues.
Outreach issues have gone up by more than 400%, to more than 50,000.
We have had more than 15,000 new borrowers.
Since the end of the court case we have had a refurbishment at Ealing Road library and a bigger one at Kilburn Library. In June, we will open the new Wembley library at the Civic Centre.
We have added 56,000 items to the bookstock and introduced smarter stock management. If laid end to end those 56,000 items would stretch from Wembley Stadium to Piccadily Circus.
More than 1,500 children attended our revamped homework clubs in the Summer and Autumn terms.
Our home delivery service has treble the number of book issues.
We have greatly extended our online services.
Altogether, I think that is quite a lot of progress, although there is much more to do. Had we gone down the salami slicing route that so many other authorities have chosen, I don't believe we would have a list anywhere near as impressive. Indeed, it would have been a continuation of managed decline, whereas we are taking what was a declining service and gradually turning it round.
Thursday, 31 January 2013
Misleading on Council Tax
Hearing Eric Pickles rant about Council Tax rises, I am once again struck at the shameless hypocrisy of the man. He claims that raising Council Tax without triggering a referendum under rules he himself designed is some form of cheating. Simultaneously, he has pushed through changes to Council Tax which effectively mean that very large numbers of people will get a Council Tax rise across the country.
What I find frustrating is his skill in misleading people in this way.
What I find frustrating is his skill in misleading people in this way.
Wednesday, 30 January 2013
Incestuous amplification
Paul Krugman comes up with a term I hadn't heard before, incestuous amplification. I can think of plenty of debates where this term applies on a much less grand scale than things the Iraq invasion.
Bees in Brent
I have recently been sent a link about bees. I have been trying to develop this line of policy for a while, but it is hard to get people interested when there are so many financial pressures. Nonetheless, I continue to push the issue.
Tuesday, 29 January 2013
Manuscripts Destroyed
It is reported that many manuscripts have been destroyed in Timbuktu. If so it would be an act of cultural vandalism akin to the burning of the Library at Alexandria.
Monday, 28 January 2013
Reflecting on Littering
I have been reflecting on how to reduce littering and dumping. I recall that I was told long ago that Keep Britain Tidy did a survey that found that only 4% of people admitted to littering. This calls to mind the broken bedstead men.
Supposedly very few people litter, but those who do are dedicated.
Supposedly very few people litter, but those who do are dedicated.
Sunday, 27 January 2013
Pub Names again
Yesterday I passed the site of the former White Hart pub in Church End. It is now thoroughly redeveloped, but I saw that the housing is named after the White Hart. I quite like it when new developments are named after an historical connection, although I doubt how historical this is.
Saturday, 26 January 2013
Multi-tasking in Libraries
It is reported that libraries in the Wirral are being made responsible for social security payments. The Wirral is an iconic name to library campaigners, as it is the only authority ever to be ordered to have an inquiry under the 1964 Act (the Charteris report).
I assume that councillors are understandably afraid of such national notoriety a second time. Instead they appear to be slowly converting their buildings into something other than libraries by adding new services.
Brent is certainly pursuing co-located services (in the jargon). However, I am clear that , whilst libraries gain from extra footfall from nearby activities, their role is distinct. Librarians need particular training. It is not just "stamping books" to quote Helen Mountfield QC.
Wirral seem to be terrified of reducing building numbers, and therefore they are going down the alternative route: turning buildings called libraries into something else.
I assume that councillors are understandably afraid of such national notoriety a second time. Instead they appear to be slowly converting their buildings into something other than libraries by adding new services.
Brent is certainly pursuing co-located services (in the jargon). However, I am clear that , whilst libraries gain from extra footfall from nearby activities, their role is distinct. Librarians need particular training. It is not just "stamping books" to quote Helen Mountfield QC.
Wirral seem to be terrified of reducing building numbers, and therefore they are going down the alternative route: turning buildings called libraries into something else.
Friday, 25 January 2013
Snow Again
Brent gritters were out again from 6pm tonight and will be ready again tomorrow morning to deal with snowfall. Spare a thought for the Council staff doing this job. It can't be nice going out in the cold and dark, but it is important so that everyone else can do their Regular tasks.
Thursday, 24 January 2013
The Impact of the Benefit Cap
Yesterday I attended a presentation which argued that the effect of the benefit cap would be worse for Brent than for any other area of the country. Among the stats in this discussion was an estimate that government reforms would see 1,100 families in Brent would see their income reduced by at least £100 per week.
Wednesday, 23 January 2013
Housing Needs
Larry Elliot has a piece in the Guardian on house building. Improving our housing stock strikes me as one of the most obvious ways to get growth back to the economy as well as tackling the pressing news of the population.
Tuesday, 22 January 2013
A Return to Performance Related Pay
Responding to a comment on performance related pay in teaching, I wasn't talking about pay in general but specifically teaching. The results of teachers depend on their pupils. A set of bright motivated students may be much easier to teach than a more demoralised class. It can quite easly be the case that a teacher does a better job (I.e. makes more of a difference) by getting a struggling child to learn to read than another teacher does in getting an already achieving child to get straight As. The dynamic is therefore quite different from (say) achieving a sales target, although there is nothing wrong with that.
I guess I am arguing that what Michael Gove calls performance related pay bares no relation to actual performance. If the pay and performance are not linked, you are effectively not incentivising the teacher to change their behaviour, because they know that their behaviour is not linked to the "performance".
I guess I am arguing that what Michael Gove calls performance related pay bares no relation to actual performance. If the pay and performance are not linked, you are effectively not incentivising the teacher to change their behaviour, because they know that their behaviour is not linked to the "performance".
Monday, 21 January 2013
Zoned Collections in Harlesden?
I bumped into two members of the Harlesden Town Team on Saturday, and mentioned a trip I made recently to Green Lanes in Haringey. Over there they have a time limited collection twice a day. In other words, you put waste out between 7.30am and 9pm or at a later slot in the evening.
The street seems much cleaner than Harlesden Town Centre, and I am wondering whether such a system could work over here.
I can see that it would need a lot of enforcement resource, and the waste people I spoke emphasissed the importance of community support and peer pressure. Haringey is also different in that they have a more homogenous community of mainly Turkish Cypriots in their area.
The street seems much cleaner than Harlesden Town Centre, and I am wondering whether such a system could work over here.
I can see that it would need a lot of enforcement resource, and the waste people I spoke emphasissed the importance of community support and peer pressure. Haringey is also different in that they have a more homogenous community of mainly Turkish Cypriots in their area.
Sunday, 20 January 2013
More on Brent Gritting
More snow is expected today, and I have just had an update on street gritting. I understand the "priority network" of main roads was gritted last night and it is being gritted again today. Brent Council cannot grit every road, but it does the major ones and a few in hilly areas. I understand that because of heavy parking there were a small number of roads in hilly areas where the glitters could not progress.
All the Borough's grit bins were full on Friday, and will be replenished on Monday. Pavements in town centres have been gritted to give room to walk, although not fully cleared.
Saturday, 19 January 2013
Heavy Snow
Lots of snow in Kensal Green. Our gritters were out all day yesterday. I was updated last night and at that time more gritting was expected from 6am this morning. There looks to be a threat of continuing snow for the next few days.
A few bin collections in the north of Borough have been delayed but there should be a catch up during the week.
A few bin collections in the north of Borough have been delayed but there should be a catch up during the week.
Friday, 18 January 2013
Former Service Station Site
I was not able to go to the Planning Committee on Wednesday, as I had another event at the same time, but I gather the old service station site development on Harlesden High Street was approved with a much smaller scheme than previously. It is good to see that long vacant land finally developed.
Thursday, 17 January 2013
More Snowfall
Brent Council's gritters should be out tonight as it is expected that road temperatures will go below freezing and there will be snow falling in the morning and perhaps tomorrow afternoon.
Women's Institute on Volunteers
The Women's Institute has published a report arguing that volunteers cannot adequately replace paid staff in libraries. This has been a fraught subject during the library campaigns.
In Brent, we offered to consider having volunteers running our libraries, but made it clear that we still had to make financial savings. Many people assumed that volunteers are just free, but in fact there is growing evidence that is not the case. In Surrey, the Council lost a court case by failing to provide provision for training volunteers. In Oxfordshire, the authority has accepted the need to have a paid co-ordination post. I find it difficult to imagine how you can have a volunteer run solution without some sort of backing like this, and of course that eats into the Council's financial savings on an ongoing basis.
There is also the question of what happens if something goes wrong. Even if you have some kind of document limiting the Council's formal liability, the Council is still likely to be perceived as having an implicit duty to step in. Such an implicit guarantee is hard to quantify. As yet, we haven't seen any volunteer libraries running into these problems, but I shall be very surprised if it doesn't happen before long.
These things are likely to be from the Council's library budget proper, not just money but also staff time and expertise. The WI report emphasises that volunteers don't work without professional support. This suggests that the standalone "Big Society" libraries won't work effectively. Thus, some Councils which have gone down the volunteer route may find that they are actively damaging their staffed library network by draining out resources.
Of course, there is evidence that in Brent volunteers have been a very effective part of improving libraries and the Home Delivery service in particular. I take from that that volunteers can enhance libraries but only as part of a coherent service, not as a financially driven expedient.
In Brent, we offered to consider having volunteers running our libraries, but made it clear that we still had to make financial savings. Many people assumed that volunteers are just free, but in fact there is growing evidence that is not the case. In Surrey, the Council lost a court case by failing to provide provision for training volunteers. In Oxfordshire, the authority has accepted the need to have a paid co-ordination post. I find it difficult to imagine how you can have a volunteer run solution without some sort of backing like this, and of course that eats into the Council's financial savings on an ongoing basis.
There is also the question of what happens if something goes wrong. Even if you have some kind of document limiting the Council's formal liability, the Council is still likely to be perceived as having an implicit duty to step in. Such an implicit guarantee is hard to quantify. As yet, we haven't seen any volunteer libraries running into these problems, but I shall be very surprised if it doesn't happen before long.
These things are likely to be from the Council's library budget proper, not just money but also staff time and expertise. The WI report emphasises that volunteers don't work without professional support. This suggests that the standalone "Big Society" libraries won't work effectively. Thus, some Councils which have gone down the volunteer route may find that they are actively damaging their staffed library network by draining out resources.
Of course, there is evidence that in Brent volunteers have been a very effective part of improving libraries and the Home Delivery service in particular. I take from that that volunteers can enhance libraries but only as part of a coherent service, not as a financially driven expedient.
Wednesday, 16 January 2013
Performance Related Pay
Michael Gove is introducing performance related pay into teaching. This was rejected many years ago as Ineffective. mr Gove is supposed to be intelligent. Does he think about the implications of his policies or just not care?
Tuesday, 15 January 2013
Council Tax Changes
The Guardian has an article on the impact of Council Tax Support changes this morning. The picture it paints is a bleak one. Of course, Eric Pickles has deliberately set this situation up by requiring each Council to design its own scheme. At the same time he has cut the funding for the schemes and ensured that it will not be indexed to inflation. With many Councils also seeing huge cuts in their funding the results are likely to be appalling, which I suspect is exactly what he wants.
Monday, 14 January 2013
Snowfall
As I write the snow is falling heavily as forecast. Last night, Council officers gritted the main roads of the borough. There are also more than 300 grit bins available around Brent streets. Hopefully, this will help ensure that we don't get the kind of traffic problems we used to have a few years ago.
Whatever Happened to Stalin's Leaflets?
Some time ago, there was a big spat over changes to regulations for leafleting on the streets. The changes introduced were actually an update of rules in place since 1994. It would be easy to argue that they liberalised existing rules. For instance the old rules exempted "political parties", the new ones leaflets for "political purposes".
Nonetheless, two well known anti-Labour activists chose to attack the policy immediately prior to the 2012 elections, and it was called in as a result. It was passed despite their opposition. I have not heard anything from them since, despite their claim that the new rules were "Stalinist".
If you really thought these changes were a threat to democracy, would you not make a fuss afterward? Or are they too scared of being shot?
UPDATE
I have had two comments on this piece. The second one raises a concern over the definition of "political activity". In fact the regulations we were putting in force allowed an exemption for "political purposes". That compares to the old regulations that only allowed an exemption for "political parties". Thus, I think most people would agree we were liberalising the rules in that respect. My argument is that the person who accused me of being Stalinist was simply wrong headed.
Nonetheless, two well known anti-Labour activists chose to attack the policy immediately prior to the 2012 elections, and it was called in as a result. It was passed despite their opposition. I have not heard anything from them since, despite their claim that the new rules were "Stalinist".
If you really thought these changes were a threat to democracy, would you not make a fuss afterward? Or are they too scared of being shot?
UPDATE
I have had two comments on this piece. The second one raises a concern over the definition of "political activity". In fact the regulations we were putting in force allowed an exemption for "political purposes". That compares to the old regulations that only allowed an exemption for "political parties". Thus, I think most people would agree we were liberalising the rules in that respect. My argument is that the person who accused me of being Stalinist was simply wrong headed.
Sunday, 13 January 2013
Bin Contamination
A comment appears that I don't entirely understand.
Yes, we do have an ongoing issue with bin contamination. This is down to various factors including language issues and the very high turnover of much of the Borough. However, we continuously communicate to residents via the Brent Magazine, the press, and door knocking. The last of these is the most labour intensive, and of course no method can be guaranteed to get through. However, the commingled system is actually less demanding for householders in terms of sorting than the old green boxes.
Yes, we do have an ongoing issue with bin contamination. This is down to various factors including language issues and the very high turnover of much of the Borough. However, we continuously communicate to residents via the Brent Magazine, the press, and door knocking. The last of these is the most labour intensive, and of course no method can be guaranteed to get through. However, the commingled system is actually less demanding for householders in terms of sorting than the old green boxes.
Saturday, 12 January 2013
Eric Pickles' Folly
Eric Pickles sheer folly is once again emphasised in some figures sent to me recently. Nine out of ten of the Uk's most successful waste authorities use alternate weekly collections, which Labour have introduced in Brent. Eight of the bottom ten authorities continue with weekly collections.
Friday, 11 January 2013
Academy Admissions
Some concerning findings about entry into some academies can be found here. With another hat on, Christine Gilbert is currently the acting Chief Executive of Brent Council. In the past, I have been assured that no such practices occur at the Capital City Academy. It would be interesting to find out whether Brent Council could use its scrutiny powers to introduce more accountability to academies, as I suggested at a Labour Party meeting last night.
Thursday, 10 January 2013
Falling Police Numbers
Boris Johnsonhas released his new policing plans. Navin Shah has suggested these will reduce police numbers in Brent by 35, with Safer Neighbourhood Teams particularly hard hit. Given Johnson's record, I find the sight of him breaking his promises on police numbers unsurprising.
Wednesday, 9 January 2013
Green Charter and Carbon Emissions
I mentioned Brent Council's Green Charter briefly on Monday. The various issues in it strike me as deserving a longer treatment, so I propose to do a series of posts.
The Charter points to impressive progress in cutting carbon emissions. The ones it considers are mostly building related. Although we have yet to move to the Civic Centre, some of the gains are already happening. The Civic Centre project has driven a lot of the IT related cuts in carbon emissions as well as some building and travel related reductions. We have also seen a noted reduction in energy use at Sports Centres, and in the recent Kilburn Library refurbishment.
We move in to the Civic Centre in April, and finish the Council's total move in June. The full carbon benefits won't be felt for a while, as some of them can only be maximised as the Centre is used.
For the future, we will have to do more on employees' travel arrangements, but the next big target for cutting greenhouse emissions in Brent Council itself is street lighting, where the advance of technology makes carbon reduction ever more viable.
Of course, all this is in addition to lots of other things the Council does in reducing emissions, such as the effect of increased recycling in curbing greenhouse gases, but it is important that as a major employer in Brent we show the way if we are to have any credibility in getting others to follow.
The Charter points to impressive progress in cutting carbon emissions. The ones it considers are mostly building related. Although we have yet to move to the Civic Centre, some of the gains are already happening. The Civic Centre project has driven a lot of the IT related cuts in carbon emissions as well as some building and travel related reductions. We have also seen a noted reduction in energy use at Sports Centres, and in the recent Kilburn Library refurbishment.
We move in to the Civic Centre in April, and finish the Council's total move in June. The full carbon benefits won't be felt for a while, as some of them can only be maximised as the Centre is used.
For the future, we will have to do more on employees' travel arrangements, but the next big target for cutting greenhouse emissions in Brent Council itself is street lighting, where the advance of technology makes carbon reduction ever more viable.
Of course, all this is in addition to lots of other things the Council does in reducing emissions, such as the effect of increased recycling in curbing greenhouse gases, but it is important that as a major employer in Brent we show the way if we are to have any credibility in getting others to follow.
Tuesday, 8 January 2013
Are the Liberal Democrats Weak or Stupid?
Red Brick blog publishes a diatribe against the Liberal Democrats for agreeing to all kinds of viscous policies on housing and benefits without a mandate or even any explicit deal with the Tories. This critique puts Sarah Teather in a curious light. Having been part of a government that supported policies she regarded as immoral, she is now trying to backtrack. Is her attitude better described as immoral, hypocritical or just a cowardly attempt to save her seat?
141 - 153 High Street Harlesden
There is yet another planning application at 141-153 High Street Harlesden, which was formerly a service station. I am currently trying to get greater detail, although the report at present makes no mention of the effect on outlook for 139 High Street, which stymied the last proposal.
Waste Figures in Brent
A commentator has asked about recycling definitions. The definitions used by Brent are the same as those used by other local authorities. This is a good idea, as it makes comparison straightforward.
UPDATE
I don't know what the below commentator is referring to, as I have published all recent comments. Of course, if people sign their comments it would be easier to trace them and see if they have been published.
UPDATE
I don't know what the below commentator is referring to, as I have published all recent comments. Of course, if people sign their comments it would be easier to trace them and see if they have been published.
Monday, 7 January 2013
Green Charter Reviewed
I have one report at Brent's next Executive, but it is a wide ranging one. It reviews all the progress on Brent Council's green charter. This covers a whole gamut of activities, and I am glad to say there has been substantial progress on cutting carbon emissions, promoting food growing, promoting Fairtrade, improving air quality, encouraging the sustainable use of water, reducing and recycling waste, supporting animal welfare and supporting biodiversity. All of this when the financial problems of Brent Council are far greater than at any point in the Borough's history.
Sunday, 6 January 2013
Brent Libraries
Yet another anonymous blogger has asked for a comment on Brent's Libraries Transformation Project in the light of the CIPFA figures. In fact I provided an extensive set of opinions based on more up to date figures already. I also provided a brief comment on the CIPFA figures here.
Perhaps any would be anonymous commentator might think of leaving their name next time?
Perhaps any would be anonymous commentator might think of leaving their name next time?
LGiU and Local Government
The LGiU has been getting exercised about local government reducing obesity. One might question how far councils will be able to pursue this agenda given the coalition government's numerous budget cuts.
In the meantime, I wonder if they have approached Eric Pickles to inform him that obesity is not acceptable?
In the meantime, I wonder if they have approached Eric Pickles to inform him that obesity is not acceptable?
Saturday, 5 January 2013
3D Printing and Libraries Again
Phil Bradley has some interesting thoughts about 3D printing and libraries here. I am quite interested in seeing whether Brent can do something in this area although I suspect it would be better linked to the Brent Museum.
Friday, 4 January 2013
New Sports Pitch
This morning I went up to the Vale Farm Sports Centre, where a new artificial pitch was opened by Trevor Brooking. It was paid for by the Football Foundation and Brent Council. It is good to see positive stories like this amidst all the doom and gloom.
Too Much Generosity for Teather
I think the Red Brick blog is too generous to Sarah Teather here. Ms Teather's recent attacks on the government she used to be part of strike me as simply an attempt to save her own political skin in a Labour area that has finally seen through her.
Thursday, 3 January 2013
Brent Archives' Untold Story
One of the nicest things about being a councillor is that it gives you an insight into often unappreciated part of how local government works. One such area is Brent Archives and Museum.
The Archive and Museum has had a complicated history. It was based in the Grange, at Neasden roundabout. The move to Willesden Green Library Centre is generally agreed to be a big improvement. It was achieved via a Lottery grant.
The archive and Museum are now being rehoused again. Both will be in the new Willesden Green Library development. During the building period, an interim appointment service will be housed across the road at the Council's Grange Road offices. the Museum will do a series of outdoor and outreach services.
I know these will strike many people as less than ideal, but I think they have the potential to be constructive. Certainly, the outreach services during the Kilburn Library refurbishment seemed to help reach new audiences, and I don't see why the same may not be true for the Willesden facilities.
The Willesden project wil also allow us to further develop the online services that are already an important part of the Archive, and could be a more effective part of the Museum.
The Archive and Museum has had a complicated history. It was based in the Grange, at Neasden roundabout. The move to Willesden Green Library Centre is generally agreed to be a big improvement. It was achieved via a Lottery grant.
The archive and Museum are now being rehoused again. Both will be in the new Willesden Green Library development. During the building period, an interim appointment service will be housed across the road at the Council's Grange Road offices. the Museum will do a series of outdoor and outreach services.
I know these will strike many people as less than ideal, but I think they have the potential to be constructive. Certainly, the outreach services during the Kilburn Library refurbishment seemed to help reach new audiences, and I don't see why the same may not be true for the Willesden facilities.
The Willesden project wil also allow us to further develop the online services that are already an important part of the Archive, and could be a more effective part of the Museum.
Wednesday, 2 January 2013
Comprehensive and Efficient
I have argued before that including electronic information in the definition of a comprehensive and efficient library service is essential is public libraries are to survive. Currently, there appears to be a widespread body of opinion that all electronic means are not included in the legal duty. The Secretary of State appears to be among those who accept this. If that is the legal position, it had better change soon or no libraries will be left.
However, rereading paragraph 116 of Mr Justice Ouseley's judgement in the Brent case (on the sidebar) makes me think again. He seems to think that Internet access is implied. I assume, from my memory of the court case, that this is by the reference to gramophone records in the wording of the Act. He is inferring a duty from those intermediate devices. A reference to gramophone records gives you some indication of how out of date the 1964 Act is.
In any case, don't we desperately need Parliament to look at this again?
However, rereading paragraph 116 of Mr Justice Ouseley's judgement in the Brent case (on the sidebar) makes me think again. He seems to think that Internet access is implied. I assume, from my memory of the court case, that this is by the reference to gramophone records in the wording of the Act. He is inferring a duty from those intermediate devices. A reference to gramophone records gives you some indication of how out of date the 1964 Act is.
In any case, don't we desperately need Parliament to look at this again?
Tuesday, 1 January 2013
Hollowing Out Libraries Again
Over Christmas, there has been a surprising amount of activity around a post on Brent libraries I did back in October. A more up to date post on my position on libraries is here. I hope people find it illuminating.
New Year
Welcome to the New Year!
For Brent Council, this is going to be a bit of a lull before the storm.
This year's budget, has fairly limited cuts but the failure of George Osborne's economic policy and the Conservative Party's hatred of local government mean that we will face massive fiscal pressures for years to come.
Brent Council is likely to respond to these by having a much tighter economic focus on everything we do. This means that Council services will need to demonstrate a much more direct effect on economic well being than hitherto. Local government has never had a challenge like it.
For Brent Council, this is going to be a bit of a lull before the storm.
This year's budget, has fairly limited cuts but the failure of George Osborne's economic policy and the Conservative Party's hatred of local government mean that we will face massive fiscal pressures for years to come.
Brent Council is likely to respond to these by having a much tighter economic focus on everything we do. This means that Council services will need to demonstrate a much more direct effect on economic well being than hitherto. Local government has never had a challenge like it.
Monday, 31 December 2012
Stagnating Economy
Ending the year with Robert Skidelsky's assessment of where economic policy went wrong. I think he overestimates the universality of the error. A lot of people saw the likely effect of austerity but George Osborne persisted anyway. Less obvious was the limited effect of quantitative easing which has failed to stimulate the economy or lead to higher inflation.
Sunday, 30 December 2012
Clues Criticised
This week's Willesden and Brent Times carries a letter criticising David Clues for suggesting that the Anglican Church "transferred" him to Brighton as if he had no choice in the matter. The letter suggests, I believe correctly, that Anglican ministers normally apply for jobs. They don't simply get put in another diocese.
As he sips a pre-prandial sherry, perhaps the Rev. Clues might reflect that staying on as a Brent councillor having moved to Brighton really just isn't worth it, and it would be better for his own reputation if he just stood down.
As he sips a pre-prandial sherry, perhaps the Rev. Clues might reflect that staying on as a Brent councillor having moved to Brighton really just isn't worth it, and it would be better for his own reputation if he just stood down.
Tubbs Road Pocket Park Water Supply
I understand that Tubbs Road pocket park has finally had a water supply connected. It is quite extraordinary how long you have to persist with these things before something happens.
Saturday, 29 December 2012
Bookshops and Libraries
A BBC report suggests that bookshops are used by many customers for window shopping before they go home to buy the same books online for much lower prices. If so, this would be very sad. However, it does make me wonder about the future role of libraries.
I know of some American evidence that libraries in the USA perform a similar function. Users that a first look at a book in a library, and subsequently purchase it from a retailer. I am not aware of any UK research on this, but it is a key argument in suggesting that the book industry should see libraries as allies in building demand for books rather than as enemies seeking to cannibalise their sales. Libraries have Ben particularly attacked for this in terms of ebook sales.
If one were to accept such a view of the role of libraries, it would be confirmation of the rightness of Brent in maintaining its book stock (and substantively increasing it in Kilburn Library). It might also help inform the design of libraries.
I know of some American evidence that libraries in the USA perform a similar function. Users that a first look at a book in a library, and subsequently purchase it from a retailer. I am not aware of any UK research on this, but it is a key argument in suggesting that the book industry should see libraries as allies in building demand for books rather than as enemies seeking to cannibalise their sales. Libraries have Ben particularly attacked for this in terms of ebook sales.
If one were to accept such a view of the role of libraries, it would be confirmation of the rightness of Brent in maintaining its book stock (and substantively increasing it in Kilburn Library). It might also help inform the design of libraries.
Friday, 28 December 2012
Walking and Planning
The Guardian has piece on walking today. This is a much neglected area of urban planning. One of the key intentions of the Harlesden Town Centre development is to make the Centre friendlier to pedestrians.
It's animating principle is the "road user hierarchy" which tries to arbitrate between the many groups that use a universal service like a street. The hierarchy puts pedestrians first and motorists at the bottom. This is obviously quite a stark choice, but then decisions about a finite universal resource frequently are.
The consequences of ignoring pedestrians in street design can be seen in places like South Kilburn, where the big tower blocks put up in the 1960s completely fail to create a sense of place. An artist told me that she reacted very well to them as sculptural forms, which is no doubt what the designers intended, but they simply do not work as places to live. Because, the streets are inherently unwelcoming, people simply use them for transit from A to B. This means that they effectively disintegrate the community, which has no natural points of interaction_ feeding into all kinds of social degeneration.
A separate issue is the relationship between motor traffic and pedestrians. Currently, many of our urban areas are designed around cars, and the intention of developments like Harlesden is to shift the emphasis back towards people. Sometimes indeed, measures like guardrails that are intended to safeguard people, actually endanger them. The worst example I know of are the rails on Station Approach by Willesden Junction station, which force people to walk into the road. Hopefully, these will be gone by June.
We have a policy now to try to ensure these kind of quality of life issues are taken into account, but it becomes more and more difficult as the resources available to the Council diminish.
It's animating principle is the "road user hierarchy" which tries to arbitrate between the many groups that use a universal service like a street. The hierarchy puts pedestrians first and motorists at the bottom. This is obviously quite a stark choice, but then decisions about a finite universal resource frequently are.
The consequences of ignoring pedestrians in street design can be seen in places like South Kilburn, where the big tower blocks put up in the 1960s completely fail to create a sense of place. An artist told me that she reacted very well to them as sculptural forms, which is no doubt what the designers intended, but they simply do not work as places to live. Because, the streets are inherently unwelcoming, people simply use them for transit from A to B. This means that they effectively disintegrate the community, which has no natural points of interaction_ feeding into all kinds of social degeneration.
A separate issue is the relationship between motor traffic and pedestrians. Currently, many of our urban areas are designed around cars, and the intention of developments like Harlesden is to shift the emphasis back towards people. Sometimes indeed, measures like guardrails that are intended to safeguard people, actually endanger them. The worst example I know of are the rails on Station Approach by Willesden Junction station, which force people to walk into the road. Hopefully, these will be gone by June.
We have a policy now to try to ensure these kind of quality of life issues are taken into account, but it becomes more and more difficult as the resources available to the Council diminish.
Thursday, 27 December 2012
Mixing Traditions
Modern Christmas appears to be becoming ever more of a mélange of different cultural traditions. According to the Economist, American Jews are adopting Christmas In there own ways. Muslim families have long eaten turkey at Christmas, and I have noticed that the British Christmas appears to be becoming ever more Americanised. Well before the day this year, I saw cranberry sauce on sale everywhere. For much longer "Santa Claus" has been easing out the English "Father Christmas". I suppose this has been going on for centuries, not least with the many different roles Christmas trees have played down the years.
Wednesday, 26 December 2012
The Alternative to Hollowing Out Libraries
I see that Derbyshire County Council have made the opposite choice to Brent in deciding to "hollow out" their services as an alternative to closure. This will be much easier for them politically, but lead to a long term decline, as I have argued before.
For a while they can get along with cutting opening hours and book stock, as they are currently doing. They can also reduce wider services, for example lower grade computers, fewer electronic materials and higher charges for discretionary things like ebook lending. They can also increase fines for late books, and safeguard their revenue by making those books harder to renew (for example, by not allowing online or telephone renewals). All these are short term measures that can keep them going for a bit, but they all erode the quality of the library experience for the user. They also create a new baseline of lower expectation. In the pattern of savage cuts to Council funding, it will be difficult for any future administration in Derbyshire to restore book buying to the previous level; lower book stock will simply become the new norm. Indeed I believe Gloucestershire had already cut back it's book buying dramatically. I suspect that they then decided to start closing branches because they could no longer obtain savings from the book budget. In other words, this pattern of across the board cuts in services may well simply delay branch closures rather than prevent them.
At the same time, the technological changes that the book industry and society are going through are as dramatic as the rise of printing itself. If libraries don't engage with the ongoing spread of digital information in every walk of life, they will simply become irrelevant. Libraries without up to date technology will not be able to help people into the job market or to help people with educational requirements because they simply won't have the technology that education and increasing numbers of companies need.
All this brings me back to the Brent answer to these problems. Instead of salami slicing across the service we are concentrating our increasingly limited resources on a smaller number of buildings. Each of these buildings will be in a transport node, preferably co-located with other services, and with an excellent range of library services available for as many hours as possible. We will also use an outreach service and other means to try to draw in as many users as possible to make maximum use of library resources, and (incidentally) maintain public support for the service.
UPDATE
Comments below seem to be on a different subject to the post. I was interested that Derbyshire, and earlier Southampton, both framed the problem in the same way as me independently. The real choice facing authorities bearing the brunt of Eric Pickles brutal attack on local government is should their library services absorb the pressure through cuts in staff and services (as Derbyshire and Southampton have chosen to do), or by prioritising services at the expense of buildings?
For a while they can get along with cutting opening hours and book stock, as they are currently doing. They can also reduce wider services, for example lower grade computers, fewer electronic materials and higher charges for discretionary things like ebook lending. They can also increase fines for late books, and safeguard their revenue by making those books harder to renew (for example, by not allowing online or telephone renewals). All these are short term measures that can keep them going for a bit, but they all erode the quality of the library experience for the user. They also create a new baseline of lower expectation. In the pattern of savage cuts to Council funding, it will be difficult for any future administration in Derbyshire to restore book buying to the previous level; lower book stock will simply become the new norm. Indeed I believe Gloucestershire had already cut back it's book buying dramatically. I suspect that they then decided to start closing branches because they could no longer obtain savings from the book budget. In other words, this pattern of across the board cuts in services may well simply delay branch closures rather than prevent them.
At the same time, the technological changes that the book industry and society are going through are as dramatic as the rise of printing itself. If libraries don't engage with the ongoing spread of digital information in every walk of life, they will simply become irrelevant. Libraries without up to date technology will not be able to help people into the job market or to help people with educational requirements because they simply won't have the technology that education and increasing numbers of companies need.
All this brings me back to the Brent answer to these problems. Instead of salami slicing across the service we are concentrating our increasingly limited resources on a smaller number of buildings. Each of these buildings will be in a transport node, preferably co-located with other services, and with an excellent range of library services available for as many hours as possible. We will also use an outreach service and other means to try to draw in as many users as possible to make maximum use of library resources, and (incidentally) maintain public support for the service.
UPDATE
Comments below seem to be on a different subject to the post. I was interested that Derbyshire, and earlier Southampton, both framed the problem in the same way as me independently. The real choice facing authorities bearing the brunt of Eric Pickles brutal attack on local government is should their library services absorb the pressure through cuts in staff and services (as Derbyshire and Southampton have chosen to do), or by prioritising services at the expense of buildings?
Monday, 24 December 2012
Welfare Change Delays
On the eve of Christmas, we learn of delays and disfunction in the Colition government's welfare changes. Aside from the sheer brutality of the changes, the speed with which the government is trying to push them through is likely to lead to bureaucratic chaos. By the way, I notice that Ms Teather is continuing her u-turn on the issue. I suspect that had Mr Cameron chosen to keep her in a ministerial job she would now be quite happy to stay silent as her constituents suffered.
Sunday, 23 December 2012
Father Christmas Under Modern Management
Flip Chart Fairy Tales imagines Father Christmas using modern management techniques here. Unfortunately, Father Christmas still seems to use off fashioned face to face when he should be seeking channel shift to more cost effective online mechanisms.
Shopping
The last couple of days have seen queues of extraordinary length outside John Line the butchers in Harrow Road. It sets me thinking about how to promote the health of shopping areas, which are being doubly hit by the rise of Internet shopping and the ongoing recession.
I don't think that there can just be one solution. Looking at Harlesden Town Centre we do have a major advantage in the range of our food shops and we should seek to capitalise on that. Brent Council is also promoting a number of other measures, such as the use of meanwhile space and encouraging networking among businesses, but there is no doubt that the government's austerity and technological change give major headwinds.
I don't think that there can just be one solution. Looking at Harlesden Town Centre we do have a major advantage in the range of our food shops and we should seek to capitalise on that. Brent Council is also promoting a number of other measures, such as the use of meanwhile space and encouraging networking among businesses, but there is no doubt that the government's austerity and technological change give major headwinds.
Saturday, 22 December 2012
More Council Budget Cuts on the Way
Eric Pickles announcement of local government funding looks as if the funding of Brent will continue to fall. It is difficult to be clear at this stage, as the government deliberately makes the announcement in a way to make the details as obscure as possible, But it looks as if a fall in 2013 will be followed by a much bigger fall in 2014. This will also be true for lots of other Councils in poor areas, although much less so for Councils in richer areas.
There is no doubt that this is driving some Councils towards collapse, and that before long they will be unable to carry out their statutory as well as non-statutory services.
There is no doubt that this is driving some Councils towards collapse, and that before long they will be unable to carry out their statutory as well as non-statutory services.
Friday, 21 December 2012
Another Coalition Power Grab
Our mendacious government continues to pretend to be devolving decision making whilst doing the opposite. The latest proposal, now out to consultation, is to allow the Secretary of State to designate certain planning authorities as too slow to make decisions and then take over their planning powers for major applications (more than about 10 properties).
I suspect the main effect of this power grab would be that the SoS wold find that he was being asked to decide far more cases than he had staff to deal with, and decisions would have much longer delays and probably worse quality decisions.
I suspect the main effect of this power grab would be that the SoS wold find that he was being asked to decide far more cases than he had staff to deal with, and decisions would have much longer delays and probably worse quality decisions.
Thursday, 20 December 2012
Ebook Lending in Brent
Our ever entrepreneurial library staff are using Christmas to advertise our ebook lending service. Only about a third of English library services lend ebooks, and some of them charge for loans. Brent's service is free.
Andy Gale and Government Mendacity
An extraordinary tale of government mendacity is told by Patrick Butler here. There is surely something desperate in the DCLG trying to deny its links to an adviser as soon as he is quoted explaining the obvious effects of the government's housing policy.
Wednesday, 19 December 2012
Murad Qureshi on Air Quality
I am not sure the photo op was well advised, but Murad Qureshi raises a serious point about air quality. It is greatly to Murad's credit that he has persisted on the air quality issue for such a long time.
Tuesday, 18 December 2012
Town Centre Problems
Out door knocking on Sunday, I came across a number of issues around crime, anti-social behaviour, prostitution and noise pollution. Some of these are already under investigation, but the nature df these things tends to be intractable. Just as I did with Willesden Junction's Station Approach, I Intend to pursue these, but it will take time.
Monday, 17 December 2012
Kilburn Library Resident Artist
I am just back from a talk given by Anya Beaumont on her experience as a resident artist in Kilburn Library. I got a real sense that, if money can be found, resident artists could add an enormous amount of value to our libraries. Anya spent a lot of time in the library itself, but also went out to the Granville Centre and St Mungos in Chichester Road.
Futures for Local Government
I still get the impression that many people just don't get the extent to which the current government's cuts aren't just temporary. Although it had no mandate for such a change at the General Election, the coalition really is trying to enforce a complete transformation, possibly without understanding what it is trying to transform us all into. The Guardian has some interesting speculation about possible futures here.
Sunday, 16 December 2012
Comments
Just approved a couple of comments to this blog. My policy is to approve unless there is a positive reason not to e.g. Libel, offensiveness etc.
However, I am often struck by the certainty of the comments and their anonymity. They often make factual statements without evidence (for example, the idea that I or other members did not challenge the WLWA accounts, which is flatly untrue). They are also remarkable in that the people making them fail to identify themselves. The comments I post here are clearly attributable to me. Why don't other people choose to stand up for what they say they believe in?
However, I am often struck by the certainty of the comments and their anonymity. They often make factual statements without evidence (for example, the idea that I or other members did not challenge the WLWA accounts, which is flatly untrue). They are also remarkable in that the people making them fail to identify themselves. The comments I post here are clearly attributable to me. Why don't other people choose to stand up for what they say they believe in?
Social Networking and it's Annoyances
I recall many years ago I set up a Facebook account in order to access a particular site. My usage (such as it was) ceased with that site. Nonetheless, I continue to get a stream of marketing rubbish from Facebook to this day. I am sure that the same would be true of twitter and so on.
With phone numbers, which also used to be plagued in this way, one could sign up for tpsonline.com. This stands for telephone preference service and allows the user to block out much of this annoyance. Indeed, even the companies themselves appear to have worked out that the calls are counterproductive and given up. How much longer before Facebook wakes up to the same message?
With phone numbers, which also used to be plagued in this way, one could sign up for tpsonline.com. This stands for telephone preference service and allows the user to block out much of this annoyance. Indeed, even the companies themselves appear to have worked out that the calls are counterproductive and given up. How much longer before Facebook wakes up to the same message?
Saturday, 15 December 2012
Labour's Housing Review
The Labour Party has launched a new review into improving the private rented sector for housing. Such a review is long overdue. Having said that the document appears longer on diagnosis than on solutions, but at least Labour is trying to address a problem that affects large numbers of people living standards.
Friday, 14 December 2012
Multi-layered Democracy in London
Yesterday I went to the London Councils Transport and Environmental Committee, and later today I am going to the West London Waste Authority. I doubt whether even councillors and Council officer fully understand all the various layers of London government and how they interlink, which cannot be good for transparent local democracy.
Incidentally looking round the room yesterday, at London TEC, I saw only two women members including the Chair Catherine West and very few non-whites.
Incidentally looking round the room yesterday, at London TEC, I saw only two women members including the Chair Catherine West and very few non-whites.
Thursday, 13 December 2012
David Miliband on Marine Biodiversity
David Miliband reminds us of the importance of marine biodiversity here. He tackles it from the angle of protecting dwindling resources, which is fair enough. Personally, I would be inclined to a more Romantic view of preserving the wonders of nature.
Wednesday, 12 December 2012
Effective Street Gritting
A quick look around Kensal Green this morning suggest to me that the Council contractors have been very quick in getting gritting out on to the pavements. Well done.
Library usage Roundup
The Guardian has a useful roundup on library usage around the UK. Most striking for me is the dramatic fall off in web site visits, which is completely contrary to my expectations. After rapid rises up to a couple of years ago, web site visits have gone into a sharp reverse at the same time that most services become ever more active online.
Tuesday, 11 December 2012
Council Tax Support Scheme Decided
Last night, Brent Council decided on its new Council Tax Support scheme to replace the national scheme that the government is abolishing. This is a particularly outrageous example of the Liberal Democrats and Tories hitting the poor. Not only are Councils told to design their own scheme, but the funding to pay for the scheme is automatically reduced by 10%. There is no offer of increases in future years so we can expect the finance to be further reduced as inflation bites.
This forces Councils either to cut spending by even more, or to recover the reduced revenue by widening the Council Tax to people who have hitherto been exempt.
Last night, I thought even some of the Liberal Democrats felt ashamed as they listened to Cllr Paul Lorber's posturing on the subject.
This forces Councils either to cut spending by even more, or to recover the reduced revenue by widening the Council Tax to people who have hitherto been exempt.
Last night, I thought even some of the Liberal Democrats felt ashamed as they listened to Cllr Paul Lorber's posturing on the subject.
Monday, 10 December 2012
Street Gritting Update
As cold weather is forecast, I thought I would do a quick update on Brent Council's preparations. Brent has about 2,400 tons of grit in stock, which is more than the Borough has ever had to use. 326 street bins are available. Further details on dealing with winter problems in Brent can be found here.
Sunday, 9 December 2012
Councils And the Arts
Newcastle is going through an unwelcome experiment in cutting the Council's entire arts budget. I imagine that is heartbreaking for all the people who having building up Newcastle's arts infrastructure over the years. The buildings may remain, but what. Use are they without money to pay for the activities within them? Making up the shortfall from elsewhere is likely to be difficult. Areas outside London struggle to achieve outside funding, and Council funding often provides a stamp of approval and some seed money that can be essential to drawing in additional resources.
That is why I am keen to avoid a similar fate in Brent. Our arts programme is much more modest than that of Newcastle, but it does a huge amount of good out of all proportion to its funding. Most important, however, in these times when all services need an economic justification, the arts have potential to generate employment and wider regeneration that is becoming increasingly important to urban areas. The main trouble in making this argument is that it draws heavily on softer measures rather than hard data.
That is why I am keen to avoid a similar fate in Brent. Our arts programme is much more modest than that of Newcastle, but it does a huge amount of good out of all proportion to its funding. Most important, however, in these times when all services need an economic justification, the arts have potential to generate employment and wider regeneration that is becoming increasingly important to urban areas. The main trouble in making this argument is that it draws heavily on softer measures rather than hard data.
Saturday, 8 December 2012
Cutting Business Rates
Friday's posting on the government's cynical offloading of Council Tax Support to local Councils has put me in mind of some of the other wheezes that the Tories and Liberal Democrats are using to deflect criticism for the failure of their austerity policies.
One of these, which has been covered elsewhere, is the ability to vary business rates. The government is actively suggesting that Councils should do this, but at the same time ministers know there is record in raising those rates year after year, and that the areas in most need are in local authorities that have been worst hit by changes to the government grant.
If only ministers would direct the ingenuity they display in blaming others to actually helping to revive economic growth.
One of these, which has been covered elsewhere, is the ability to vary business rates. The government is actively suggesting that Councils should do this, but at the same time ministers know there is record in raising those rates year after year, and that the areas in most need are in local authorities that have been worst hit by changes to the government grant.
If only ministers would direct the ingenuity they display in blaming others to actually helping to revive economic growth.
Friday, 7 December 2012
Council Tax Changes on Monday
One of the many ways in which the Tory and Liberal Democrat government is hitting people by stealth is through changes to the Council Tax. It "allows" each authority to design its own discount scheme in place of the existing national scheme. However, the funding is being cut by 10%. In Brent that is about £5 million. That either has to come from cuts in spending or reducing the amount of discount available.
Brent Council will be making this decision on Monday evening.
The Guardian gives a rather generous interpretation of very late changes that the government has announced. In practice, these changes, which in some ways seem to go against the professed objectives of the scheme, are so late in the day that it would be enormously difficult to take them on board. The Guardian rightly observes that they came too late for an effective consultation. They are also very late for software to be changed and properly tested.
They are also very late in terms of getting people who have never paid Council Tax before engaged in the process. The Council estimates that, if the draft scheme to be debated on Monday is voted through, this would amount to more than 20,000 people. The Council is likely to set up a phone bank to contact as many of these people as possible before the Council Tax bills start arriving in mid March. There is also a major programme to try get the message though via wider publicity and door knocking, as well as a team of people for one to one sessions at the One Stop shops. All that is best organised with as much notice as possible.
Of course, it is also coming on top of all the government's other benefit changes in 2013. Either the government don't understand how difficult it is to implement its demands, or it is indifferent to the consequences for people on the ground.
Brent Council will be making this decision on Monday evening.
The Guardian gives a rather generous interpretation of very late changes that the government has announced. In practice, these changes, which in some ways seem to go against the professed objectives of the scheme, are so late in the day that it would be enormously difficult to take them on board. The Guardian rightly observes that they came too late for an effective consultation. They are also very late for software to be changed and properly tested.
They are also very late in terms of getting people who have never paid Council Tax before engaged in the process. The Council estimates that, if the draft scheme to be debated on Monday is voted through, this would amount to more than 20,000 people. The Council is likely to set up a phone bank to contact as many of these people as possible before the Council Tax bills start arriving in mid March. There is also a major programme to try get the message though via wider publicity and door knocking, as well as a team of people for one to one sessions at the One Stop shops. All that is best organised with as much notice as possible.
Of course, it is also coming on top of all the government's other benefit changes in 2013. Either the government don't understand how difficult it is to implement its demands, or it is indifferent to the consequences for people on the ground.
Thursday, 6 December 2012
Where George Osborne went Wrong
Not the Treasury View has the most incisive analysis of the Autumn Statement I have come across. It is naturally gloomy. The present government made fundamentally wrong decisions a couple of years ago, and now people at large are paying the price. I think even Osborne knows this, but cannot admit it for political reasons. Would that some of his cheerleaders became as realistic.
Air Quality and Boris Johnson
Dave Hill gives us an update on Boris Johnson's evasions over poor air quality. Brent's air quality has actually improved over the past few years. This is largely down to transport and planning policies that promote virtually any form of transport other than the car. Boris Johnson's programme of hiking public transport fares by eye watering amounts seem to go in the opposite direction. Meanwhile, he engages in subterfuges of the kind Dave Hill describes to avoid confronting the problem. That may work for Boris Johnson as a short term political fix, but just allows poor quality to persist and thousands of Londoners to die or fall ill unnecessarily.
Wednesday, 5 December 2012
Improving Gully Cleaning
I often get complaints about the quality of gully cleaning in Brent. I always pass these on, and various individual gullies are cleaned as a result. However, it has long seemed to me to be a systematic problem, especially in the south of the Borough. I am particularly thinking of Kensal Green, Queens Park, Harlesden, Kilburn and Willesden, but there may well be others.
Does anyone have specific examples of problem areas where gullies are blocked?
Does anyone have specific examples of problem areas where gullies are blocked?
Tuesday, 4 December 2012
Southampton, Brent and library opening hours
Over in Southampton the local authority has opted to cut back library opening hours. The reaction is very hostile, but there still seems to be no recognition that central government cuts are forcing these kind of decisions on Councils. The Southampton representative poses the question in very similar terms to the way I responded to Cllr Paul Lorber. The difference is that we chose fewer locations; they are spreading their resources more thinly over their existing locations.
That really is the kind of stark choice local authorities face.
That really is the kind of stark choice local authorities face.
Monday, 3 December 2012
David Cameron and Selective Judicial Review
Speaking to someone recently, she said that David Cameron wanted to restrict judicial review. I think a closer reading of his comments is that wants to restrict judicial review of central government (I.e. his decisions). There is no indication of him wanting to restrict judicial review of other bodies.
This surely indicates the present government's them and us mentality.
Rules that they find burdensome are unacceptable. The same rules can happily be imposed on others.
The comments on equality are almost self parody. We no longer wil have a legal requirement for equality impact assessment (we never did), because "smart people in Whitehall" decide. We seem to be going all the way back to Patrick Gordon Walker and "The Man in Whitehall really does know best".
I wonder what happened to localism?
This surely indicates the present government's them and us mentality.
Rules that they find burdensome are unacceptable. The same rules can happily be imposed on others.
The comments on equality are almost self parody. We no longer wil have a legal requirement for equality impact assessment (we never did), because "smart people in Whitehall" decide. We seem to be going all the way back to Patrick Gordon Walker and "The Man in Whitehall really does know best".
I wonder what happened to localism?
Sunday, 2 December 2012
Boris Johnson Hypocrisy on Housing
Dave Hill has a piece on Boris Johnson's hypocrisy on housing here. The rocketing price of housing all over London is leading to massive overcrowding problems and will also create knock on effects for health, educational achievement, domestic violence and so on.
Saturday, 1 December 2012
Update on Willesden Junction Station Approach
Yesterday morning I met with a Brent Transport officer about local transport matters. There has been a rumour going around that the work to Station Approach might be delayed or even abandoned, but he assured me that this was not so.
The design team are still working on the exact design. The current version has a pavement on both the Brent and Ealing sides although the Brent side will be wider. However details are still subject to change.
UPDATE
The comment below asks for clarification. My understanding is that, at the moment, the southern pavement is to be narrowed and the Brent side pavement to be widened. This should allow more room on the northern side for pedestrians (especially after the removal of those absurd guardrails) but also sufficient room for buses (not least to avoid them mount the pavements). Since more than 90% of users come along the Brent side, it seems obvious to me that that is the side that needs the wider pavement.
However, detailed design is still being worked on and therefore there may be changes.
The design team are still working on the exact design. The current version has a pavement on both the Brent and Ealing sides although the Brent side will be wider. However details are still subject to change.
UPDATE
The comment below asks for clarification. My understanding is that, at the moment, the southern pavement is to be narrowed and the Brent side pavement to be widened. This should allow more room on the northern side for pedestrians (especially after the removal of those absurd guardrails) but also sufficient room for buses (not least to avoid them mount the pavements). Since more than 90% of users come along the Brent side, it seems obvious to me that that is the side that needs the wider pavement.
However, detailed design is still being worked on and therefore there may be changes.