Willesden Junction Station Approach on the Hammersmith and Fulham Side

The pavement on the Hammersmith and Fulham side of Station Approach used to be in such a poor state as to be actually dangerous, as can be seen from the picture above.  The remodelled Station Approach is below.

Public Libraries News Quote

I was briefly quoted on Public Libraries News yesterday.  In fact the quote comes from a standard letter put out by Brent's library service.  It just explains that Wembley Library's first month has been a success, because:

“Overall issues were up by 1% to almost 84,000 and visits up by 20% from 112,000 to 134,000 during July 2013.  This was mainly due to the opening of Wembley Library which saw over 1,100 new borrowers join the library and over 49,000 visits made.”

George Osborne's Fracking Policy

I have been getting a number of emails about fracking in Brent.  I am not aware that anyone wants to try in our area, as I understand that fracking takes place in shale, not clay, so Brent is geologically unsuitable.

The national government is determined to encourage fracking, which strikes me as a thoroughly misguided policy because of the fears over groundwater contamination, carbon emissions, instability and so on.  However, George Osborne has made changes in national policy that make it harder to resist fracking facilities in themselves, as the LGiU recently blogged, so other areas will be affected.

Dutch Cycling

The BBC has a report on Dutch biking here.  The Dutch have achieved their very high levels of bike use after a determined national effort maintained over a forty year period.  I don't see any sign of a similar level of political will in the UK.

Library Problems in Suffolk

This report on the financing of Suffolk libraries caught my eye recently.  Suffolk went for a bold new model of minimalist local government, which quickly went down in flames.  Arising from this, they also spun off their library service to an industrial and provident society.  As far as I know, they are the only authority to have gone down precisely this route.

The link shows some of the strange smoke and mirrors of the funding, which makes it quite hard to work out whether Suffolk is actually saving money.  If the IPS is exempt from business rates, which is generally one of the main selling points of these trust type arrangements, the County Council probably makes no overall saving from the arrangement as it whatever it saved from not paying from the library budget it no longer collects though its revenue side.  That seems to leave the main potential saving as raising donations from local communities, but that sounds either artificial (coming from the Suffolk equivalent of Ward Working) or much lower than expected.

The trouble for Suffolk is that they seem to have acknowledged the IPS is delivering their statutory duty to provide libraries so they are now tied to a body they no longer fully control, and whose finances seem shaky.  Altogether, one can see why the model has not been taken up elsewhere.

Willesden Junction Station Approach Guard Rails

The original reason I started getting annoyed by the entrance to Willesden Junction were the guard rails pictured above.  As anyone can see from the picture, they narrow the pavement so much as to force people to walk in the road.  The new scheme has removed them entirely (below).

Harlesden Town Centre Web Pages

Brent Council has provided some web pages to inform people about the changes to Harlesden Town Centre here.  I think they are rather good in being easy to use and informative.

Tricycle Theatre Funding

The Forward Plan for this month contains details of funding arrangements for the Tricycle Theatre.  I have long seen the Tricycle as being of key importance, especially to the Kilburn area.

By a historical quirk, the funding Brent Council gives to the Tricycle is simply on an annual basis.  Other grants that the Council gives, to the CAB for example, are done on a three yearly basis.  An annual grant makes the Tricycle's financial management much more difficult than it should be, so when I was Lead Member I suggested extending the period to the standard three years.  I am glad that this has finally got through works of the Council bureaucracy.

Street Benches

I have been reflecting on the issues around street benches, such as the ones outside Willesden Green Post Office pictured above.  At first sight, it may seem as if there are no issues, but in fact they can easily attract controversy.

The ones above became a focus of street drinkers once the open space outside what used to be the Willesden Green Library Centre became unavailable.  Street drinking appeared to be virtually the only genuine pastime that the advocates of a Town Green could legitimately point to as being of long standing.  I gather that thebenches may now be removed, which seems a real shame.  A long time ago, there was a similar problem with youths hanging around the benches in Hazel Road.  Kilburn High Road has a similar problem with people hanging around Kilburn High Road station.

The problem is that removing the benches makes the areas concerned less attractive, especially to the elderly who want resting places.  Given the Council's need to make the streets more pedestrian friendly, that creates an inevitable tension.

Willesden Library Interim Services

I haven't seen the figures for July yet, but I thought it worth mentioning that the interim services at George Furness House and the Lewinson Centre appear to be a success.  There were gloomy predictions when the project was being designed, including some wildly exaggerated claims of the "closure of Willesden Library."

The figures for May and June tell a different story.  Admittedly both issues and visits are markedly down, but that was only to be expected.  The book issues for those two months still amount to 16,404 issues for those two months.  That gives Willesden a respectable 10.9% of book issues in those months, which is surprisingly just ahead of the Town Hall/Wembley library figure.

Visits for the same period are 40,937, which is just over 19% of the total.  Incredibly that makes the interim service at Willesden our second most popular library in that period.

I expect that Willesden's overall share will start to reduce as the new Wembley Library becomes more established, but it is still quite a testament to the planning that went in to maintaining the service during the rebuild period.  Of course, once the new facility opens in 2015, it should have dramatically higher figures.

Former Kensal Rise Library Building and Planning

I understand that there is now a planning application out for the former Kensal Rise Library Building.  I shall be making no comment on this before it goes to committee, and probably not publishing comments on the subject either.

Brent Civic Centre Biomass Plant

One of the aspects of the new civic centre which I think, in it's own nerdish way, is rather exciting is the biomass boiler supplied by Fleetsolve.  With minor adjustments, this can be made to take a variety of different fuels.  The original intention was to use vegetable oil, but this has now changed to waste fish oil I.e. fish oil from food processing companies that would otherwise be thrown away.  The unit should recapture its own waste heat, giving it a high efficiency rating.

The intention is that surplus electricity will be sold on to the national grid.

Willesden Junction Station Approach Completed

The work I have agitated for at the Station Approach end of Willesden Junction has finally been completed, and I thiunk it looks quite good.  I will post some before and after photos over the coming days to show the contrast.

Water Leak on Wrottesley Road

I have just reported a major water leak on Wrottesley Road outside the Law Medical Group practice.  I had hoped these things were now in the past.

Willesden Library Rebuild Under Way

I am glad to see that the demolition of Willesden Library Centre is now well under way.  The new centre is timetabled to open in early 2015 with performance spaces that actually have sufficent sound proofing to be useable, an enlarged library with a cafe and the return of the Brent Museum.

Once the library is finished, we will have achieved the six excellent libraries that were the centrepiece of the Libraries Transformation project we embarked on in 2011.

More Thoughts on Border Agency Goons

Thinking more about the appearance of border agency goons at Kensal Green Tube today, I think it must be part of a concerted campaign by Lynton Crosby (an immigrant himself of course).  I also note that the goons were apparently operating within the confines of Kensal Green Station in which case it must be with TfL's permission.  Was Boris Johnson involved I wonder?

Border Agency Goons at Kensal Green

Not content with sending lorries around Brent promoting racism, I gather that David Cameron's government sent some Border Agency goons down to Kensal Green station this morning to stop people as they tried to get in.  Apparently they ignored white people and stopped non-white people.  Clearly, Lynton Crosby has decided that promoting hostility to immigrants and non white people in general is the way to get votes.

Censorship in a Library

I was interested to read, via Public Libraries News, this short tale on modern censorship.  It is striking that lots of people got angry about the "censorship" but only expressed the anger through social media comments rather than attempting to directly engage the politics of the institution.  It sounds as if the commenting was just letting off steam, rather than an instrumental act to change the problem.

More on Transport Policy and Air Quality

Following yesterday's post around the civic centre and Wembley transport arrangements, I looked up the air quality report from May last year.  It shows the decline in pollution levels in Brent under section 3.1.9; the lighter the area on the map, the less pollution there is.  While the map refers to NOx, these should also be a good proxy for reducing CO2 and PM10s as well.  It also specifically says:

6. "Implementation of emissions based car parking charges and car free housing development in areas with high Public Transport Accessibility Levels like Wembley and Harlesden have contributed to the reduction of NO2 levels." 
   

A Return to Snagging at the Civic Centre

My recent post on Civic Centre snagging drew an impassioned anonymous comment.  I agree that the Melting Pot should sell tap water, and I am sorry that the ladies lavatories have been breaking down, but both of those sound quite sortable issues.  The other point is that very few people are going to drive to the Civic Centre, and that is not going to change.

When the rebuilt Wembley Stadium was being designed fifteen years ago, the planners correctly pointed out that it would have to be a public transport venue.  In other words, traffic would have to be managed so that the vast majority of people came to a match by means other than the car.  If you try to imagine what traffic in Wembley would be like if 80,000 all travelled by car to a kick off, I think it is obvious that the Stadium would simply not be able to function.

This is also true of the area as a whole. Urban areas simply have to shift their transport provision from cars to other forms of transport on grounds of traffic congestion alone. There simply is no space for everyone to come by car.  That is recognised in national, regional and Borough transport planning.

It is recognised in the design of the Civic Centre, which of course had to obey the above planning restrictions.  The Centre has about 150 spaces, and will have about 2,000 employees in it when full.  Therefore only a vast majority of those coming to the Civic Centre will have to come to the Civic Centre via the Tube or other means.

There are other good reasons why this has to be so.   Transport emissions are one of the main sources of pollution in urban areas.  When I asked why air quality had improved over the past few years! I was told that it was largely down to transport improvements.  Better air quality results in fewer people dying of various diseases.  There is also the argument around climate change, where cars contribute to carbon emissions.  The urgency of these problems mean that our whole society has to shift away from car dependency and fast.

Shifting from a way of life that is so deeply entrenched is not easy, but it is possible and we have to do it.

UPDATE

A second impassioned comment appears below. The author obviously feels strongly, although the anonymity makes it difficult to see where she is coming from.  I return to the issue I addressed: urban centres have increasing traffic (journeys). Continuing the same proportion of such journeys by car is literally impossible. Therefore, public authorities have to get people to accept travelling by other means.

The author suggests that pedestrian movement is currently unacceptable to her. Her description suggests it would be unacceptable to anyone else, although many people do actually travel by such means every day all over London.  The solution to such problems is not to provide a more isolated form of transport for a select few, but to deal with the problems highlighted.  For instance if non car users are subject to fear of crime or road safety issues, we need to tackle those issues.  Putting everyone into cars simply can't be done.

The Decay of the Big Society

The Guardian confirms that the charity sector is in trouble.  Many of the problems are reminiscent of local government, and indeed tied to the decking budgets of Councils.  Aside from there simply being less money, procurement is being tightened across the sector, and many organisations don't have the skills to beat bigger rivals in bidding for contracts.  I doubt whether Mr Cameron gave the slightest thought to this when he embarked on the austerity agenda.

The second feature I recognise is the Tory prejudice that anyone other than the private sector must be a mediocrity, and private companies are always better and cheaper.  This prejudice is maintained even after numerous private sector failures.

Local Welfare Assistence Schemes

A recent comment by the LGiU into local assistence schemes suggests that most authorities are not making loans in their schemes but merely crisis payments.  This is certainly the approach in Brent. When the DWP had a national scheme, they could recover loans by docking future benefit payments. Local authorities would have to send bailiffs round, and frankly you spend much more trying to get the repayment than the actual sum involved.

The result is that the amount of money available will be far smaller even as the need increases.  Sadly, I don't think government minister care about that.

Ebook Lending in Scotland

Edinburgh appears to have an interesting approach to lending of ebooks here.  I particularly like the idea of an app that allows you to compare the books in a store to the library catalogue, although I doubt it will appeal to retailers.

Willesden Social Club Building Begins

I am glad that work finally appears to be starting on the old Willesden Social Club site.  I have been pushing for this for years, so it is good to see the site cleared.  This will be for the application I mentioned before.  Building on the site should finally deal with the complaints around prostitution and drug dealing around it, as well as limiting other anti-social behaviour.

More Willesden Green Mural Pictures

I am posting a few more pictures of the Willesden Green mural to give a better idea of the extent of the mural than in my previous post, but the best way to appreciate it is to look at it in situ.

The view from the Brondesbury Park end:

A tribute to the Archives:

Nearer to the middle:

Brent Council Civic Centre Snagging

I just thought I would add a short post on some of the minor snagging that is still coming up in the Civic Centre.  I don't think any of these are particularly dramatic.  They are just the kind of things you have to expect with a new building.

The one I hear most complaints about is the car parking, which seem to exert a dreary fascination over some people's imaginations.  The camera that opens the way into the car park apparently could not read some of the number plates because of the position the cars drew up in.  The solution to this is to paint markings in the road to encourage drivers to park in the right place.

More concerning, in my view, is that the ventilation does not seem to work as well as it should.  I am told that this is largely down to people not being clear on how to operate it.  Hopefully it will clear up as people get more used to the system.

The biggest problem is that the signage is currently inadequate, which is particularly unfortunate in an unfamiliar building where nobody knows where anything is.  I am told that this is deliberate.  A budget has been held back until the building is functioning, so that signage can be optimally designed.  I can understand this argument, although I think it has been taken too far.  I noticed at the Planning Committee last week that pieces of paper had been stuck to various doors to give people a clue where they were going.  The sooner proper signage goes up the better.

The final niggle I have is that there are no water dispensers on the boardroom level, which strikes me as a design mistake, although one I should think can be solved fairly easily.

Altogether for a major new building, these all seem quite minor niggles.

Willesden Green Mural

I hadn't realised how extensive the Willesden Green mural around the site of the old Willesden Library Centre actually is until I passed it on Monday.  Above is the view as you look from Willesden High Road towards the Library Centre.

Long Term Waste Strategy in Brent

Having pointed out the success of the alternative weekly collections in Brent, I thought it might be worth looking at the longer term.

More Recycling
Recycling has gone from less than 30% to 43% now following the introduction of the blue top bins.  This year, we aim to bring the recycling per centage to 50%.  This will through smaller schemes, including improving trade waste enforcement, recycling more cardboard, working with landlords to improve waste treatment at rented properties and continuing mechanical recovery where possible.

Less to Landfill
However, increasing recycling becomes harder as the percentages rise.  The main area of future progress is likely to be diverting waste from landfill.  This is largely the province of the West London Waste Authority, which deals with "back end" waste treatment.  In April, the WLWA agreed to a contract with SITA to dispose of waste via a new power plant in the West Country.  This plant is due to come onstream in Summer 2016.  Once it is operating, less than 5% of WLWA waste should go to landfill.

Climate Change Emissions
There are some green campaigners who regard this as a bad thing, although it is common in many countries.  The main component of the landfill is food waste, so burning it counts as renewable electricity generation.  The effect is actually better for climate change emissions than burying it, because allowing the food to rot in the ground generates huge amounts of methane.

Scottish Wild Cats

I mentioned rewilding in a recent post, which seems a visionary project in many ways. However, there is one UK species in great danger that would benefit from a major conservation effort _ the Scottish wildcat.  This is reported as down to double figures in its core area of the Scottish Highlands.  If Alex Salmond wants to protect Scottish heritage, this would be a good place to start.

Brent Library Strategy Achievements

Today is the second anniversary of the Brent Library court case hearing, so I thought it would be a good time to review how far we have come.  Those who have somehow managed to miss all the publicity can catch up with the terms of the judgement here.

Physical Refurbishments
We now have five of our libraries recently refurbished and the sixth (Willesden) with rebuilding underway.  The schedule is:

2008: Kingsbury moved to a new High Street location and fitted out
2010: Harlesden opened in March 2010 after a major £2.5 million refurbishment.  This included moving BACES into the upper floors, giving the whole building proper disabled access, introducing a mezzanine floor and completely altering the look of the whole library both internally and externally.
2012 March:  Ealing Road gets refurbished with interior decoration, new shelving and furniture and more computers.
2012 September: Kilburn Library opens after a major refurbishment.  This includes repairing the leaking roof and windows, repairing masonry and guttering, putting in new heating and lighting, rewriting to allow more computers, a total interior refit and more books.
2013 June: Wembley Library opens as Brent's first new library in a quarter of a century. More space, books, iPads, computers.

Distance Services
We have seen an expansion in both the home delivery service for housebound people, and the outreach service.  Outreach is going to many more locations and a much wider variety of sites.  The web pages have been redesigned.  Online reference is improved, and periodicals are now available online.  Ebook lending has been expanded.

Events
A wide variety of events have taken place, including music, dance, book readings, artist workshops, poetry performances and talks on a huge range of subjects.

Courses
Courses on all sorts of subjects have taken place.  These have included CV writing, money management etc.  They also include the Summer Reading Challenge, the Six Book Challenge for adults and regular homework clubs for children.

Books
The book stock budget has been maintained, and about 69,000 new books have been added.  The expansion of the London Lending Consortium means that even more books are order-able.

All this has been done at the same time as the overall library budget has been reduced.

UPDATE

Just had a comment claiming two refurbishments had nothing to do with Labour.  I assume this refers to the major works to Kingsbury and Harlesden Libraries.

Naturally, I supported these in opposition, but they were only possible because we had a Labour government at the time, which gave a much more generous financial settlement to Brent Council and local government in general than is the case now.

Now the question is how much will we be cut by; then, it was how much more will we get?

At the time Tory and Lib Dem councillors criticised the government for not giving enough. Now that their parties are in control of central government, they are strangely silent.

Car Ownership Down

Something I forgot to mention in my blog yesterday is that car ownership appears to be sliding down.  At least in central London.

This is another thing I took away from the London Councils event recently.  Car owning households are now a minority in some boroughs, although in Brent they still account for more than 50%.  However, the sheer inconvenience of car use in central London appears to be driving a long term decline. 

Pedestrian Road Deaths

Last week I went to an interesting London Councils event about walking and cycling where I was startled by one of the statistics quoted.  The number of pedestrian deaths on the roads is three per day in London.  If we had a rail accident where 21 people died that would be seen as a major disaster, but that is just the weekly average for road deaths, and goes unremarked.  What is worse is that the death rate has been going up for the past couple of years.

Queens Parade Application Withdrawn

The proposal for a large residential development at Queens Parade has been withdrawn by the developer.  Any possible proposal for Electric House would be separate.

Positive Coverage for Positive Arts

I am glad to see that the Kilburn Times appears to be a bit more positive in their coverage of the Willesden Library murals than in their previous reports.  Their earlier report struck me as unduly negative for the reasons I explained.

Public Debate and the Facts

A reminder of the sheer ignorance of public debate in this country has been published by the Royal Statistical Society here.  I find the scale of the mismatch between reality and perception really quite depressing.  How are we going to have a sensible debate when "common sense" is so out of kilter with reality?  How can we bring perception in line with fact when there is a constant stream of deception from the tabloid press?  Of course, ministers like Iain Duncan Smith, with their faith based policies, don't help.

Iain Duncan Smith in Denial

Iain Duncan Smith's recent comments on benefits seem even more crazy than usual.  Saying "you cannot disprove... " seems especially desperate.

Library Colocation

Co-locating libraries is an idea that is doing the rounds, and has been for some time.  However, I am not sure that forms of co-location are fully appreciated.

A lot of Councils are seeing it as a way of saving money, an understandable approach in current circumstances.  Sharing the costs of a building with different agencies can reduce costs, but if the space given over to each service is smaller that can lead to a worse service.  It should be possible to avoid that through good design, but it remains a danger.

A second possibility is that it can be seen as a way of closing a library without making that quite so clear.  When I heard of Barnet's former plan to "merge" libraries, I could not help but think that this was intended as a cynical PR manoeuvre.  The trouble with such attempts is that people are unlikely to be fooled for long.

The real value of co-location, in my view, come from the very juxtaposition of services helping each attract higher footfall. Brent's new civic centre should be a prime example of this.  People who would not normally go to the library serendipitously turn up, because they are in the building to attend one of the other services.

Unconventional Co-location
All this is pretty conventional, but it strikes me that there are effective forms of co-location that are not thought of as such.  Temporary events held in libraries, such as the various Brent Dance Month events, have a similar effect.  They draw in people who might normally attend libraries, but find the library more familiar once they have been there, and may come back.  Of course, many may not, but it is effectively a form of marketing for the library.

A similar logic applies the library going outside.  Brent libraries do this when they have stalls at outside events, but also through the outreach service.  Although the refurbishment of Kilburn Library gave us a temporary hit in numbers, I think the outreach that went on there was an effective way to advertise the service to audiences that are not normally library users.

Both of these seem to me to be effectively forms of co-location, although they are not normally regarded as such.

Co-operating with Privatisation

There is growing concern that the use of "co-operatives" is just a cover for privatisation.  I think this all too likely.  David Cameron, who has always struck me as shallow, neither knows nor cares about co-operative principles.

Taking Planning Powers

The government's commitment to local democracy is thrown further into doubt by its threat to take planning powers away from Councils that don't process cases swiftly enough.  In practise, I suspect this will be difficult, as central government probably hasn't got capacity to deal with lots of planning cases itself.  Burdening the Planning Inspectorate in this way will presumably slow the rate of appeals.  A cynic might conclude that the government is more concerned with bending over for rich property developers than protecting local areas.

Runaway Hearse

Yesterday I saw a runaway hearse (really).

I was going down to the traffic lights at the bottom of Furness Road when I heard the sound of horses' hooves. A hearse drawn by two black horses sans occupant or driver then trotted past.   I assume something scared the horses.

I crossed over to wait at the bus stop, and then observed two undertakers in hot pursuit.  One stopped a passing car, and asked to be driven in pursuit of the now disappeared hearse.  The driver obliged.  I assume that the hearse belonged to James Crook and was intended for Kensal Green Cemetary.

Not something you see every day.

Planning Site Visit

This morning I am going on a planning site visit.  This includes a proposed new block of flats in Stonebridge, on the site of the old Stonebridge precinct and opposite the Fawood Children's Centre.  I won't make any comments on the actual application until after the meeting, other than to observe the length of time that major regeneration takes. Stonebridge has been in redevelopment for twenty years.

Sarah Teather and Immigration

Sarah Teather MP has suddenly discovered a conscience on immigration after ten years as a MP.  How odd that after serving as a minister in the present government up to the point of being sacked, this should suddenly occur.

Food and Shopping

An interesting piece on the value of food and street food businesses in the vibrancy of an area here.  I have long thought that food retail is a key part of the attraction of both Ealing Road and Harlesden Town Centre, helping both of them maintain their status as shopping destinations.

Creationism and Free Schools

One aspect of the free schools debate that has achieved surprisingly little attention is their ability to vary the curriculum.  The Guardian has a short piece on how this relates to creationism.  For once, Michael Gove appears to be on the side of the angels on this.  However, the increasingly chaotic organisation of education in this country is likely to lead to plenty of situations where neither he nor anyone else knows what is going on.

Precautionary Principles and Politics

The Guardian blogs on the shortcomings of the precautionary principle and some rather disparaging remarks about the nature of its appeal.

The author is right in that the precautionary principle can easily become a way of simply blocking change, which can be bad if the potential change has positive consequences.  Since big changes usually have both positive and negative consequences, this suggests a rational approach is to weigh up the evidence in a dispassionate manner.

Unfortunately, politics (and many of these decisions are inherently political even when taken by non-politicians) generally doesn't work like that. I thought it would be interesting to think about why not, and here is what I came up with:

1) Simplicity is great for campaigns.  If you are organising a campaign, you need a simple message that people can easily get.  Stop this, is such a message.  Slightly more difficult is: GM foods could be dangerous, so stop them, but that still works pretty well.  The message: here is all the evidence, and a careful examination shows a net disbenefit does not work at all.

2) Elite groups are these days distrusted.  I suppose in the 1950s many people were more inclined to trust various expert or authoritarian groups such as governments, scientists etc. numerous scandals revealing lying, arrogance, incompetence and manipulation in their own self interest have greatly damaged the reputations of such groups.  The whole NSA spying scandal is just the most recent prominent example.  There also seems to have been a change in popular culture to value an image of an heroic outsider taking on authority, although I suspect this is more valued as fiction than in reality.

3) Problems are getting more complex.  Or at least we seem to have more and more information about problems which makes decision making more complex.  It is natural to seek a way to simplify such problems with a crude principle such as the precautionary principle, although I believe it is one example among many.  Another commonly used simplification is ad hominum.  I like and trust  so-and-so, who is on this side of the argument so I will back his argument is another example.  It was noticeable that Dr Wakefield was discredited over MMR not by the scientific arguments, but by allegations of self interest.

4) The Pristine Myth.  This applies to particularly to the field of ecology, that there is a natural or original state that everything should conform to.  In fact we know that everything is always changing in all sorts of ways.  The entire English landscape has been fundamentally shaped by human interaction.  Indeed human beings themselves and various organisms they interact with have shaped each other; just look at the domestic dog.  The argument that the current state of things is natural ignores the way in which things have been changed by mega fauna that no longer exists  _ a central argument for rewilding for example.

5) There is only one right decision.  Finally, there is the idea that the public good unequivocally demands one decision, often the one that coincides with the advocate's own good.  more generally, political decisions are made to distribute resources between different groups with different views and interests, and the decision maker has to balance these different groups rather than just caving in to one.  A rigid application of the "precautionary principle" would presumably benefit those who benefit from the status quo rather than those who would benefit from change.

6) Groups have disproportionate stakes.  A group that loses out particularly may shout much louder than a larger number of people who benefit from change only a small amount.  There is also a paradoxical effect where a small interest group can convince themselves and others that they represent the true public interest, when in fact they represent only a sectional interest (Classically seen with NIMBY groups in planning applications).

Technology and Litter Bins

Boscombe in Devon has an interesting example of new technology in bins, according to the BBC.  Litter is not an area that most people would consider technology sensitive, but even here advances in technology are changing the nature of how things are done.  The advantage in terms of cost would be that emptying the bins less often will mean fewer staff and vehicles, and hence less cost for the Council. In future, such technology might also help Councils to differentiate their collection rates according to the amount of litter.  This would be most useful where rates of rubbish accumulation differ according to circumstances.  For instance near Wembley Stadium.

Willesden Green Murals

My colleague Cllr Lesley Jones has pointed out the two new murals being put up as part of the Willesden Green Library redevelopment.  The Kilburn Times seems unable to hear the word "library" without trying to turn it into some sort of attack on Brent Council.

I think the murals are an imaginative approach, which should be regarded as best practice.  They give local children the opportunity to work with an artist in an educational way.  They help advertise the interim library service to the public.  They also do something to brighten up Willesden High Road, and they also help support artists in Brent at a time when budgets are ever tightening.  Hopefully, the children who work on the project will also get a sense of pride from seeing their work on public display.

Payday Loans, Betting and Libraries

Haringey Council becomes the latest Council to block payday lenders from its library computers.  It has also been done in Cheshire, Dundee and Edinburgh.  Dundee was responding to a specific local problem.

Payday loans are also seen as a widespread problem in Brent, and I suspect that blocking them from library PCs would be a good idea, although I suspect we need other measures as well. My colleague Cllr Janice Long has long been an advocate of supporting credit unions as a way of giving people a better alternative.  It would also be good if we could use planning and licensing to limit them more effectively, although as with betting shops there are legal limits to this.

In principle, Brent libraries would not give access to certain kinds of materials _ racist materials for example.  However, it seems to me that there is food for a much wider debate here.  I can imagine that some people might want to limit all sorts of things.  I think that the line has to be drawn at things that do active harm, rather than simply what one disapproves of, but still leaves plenty of grey areas.

Library Figures for the First Quarter in Brent

I thought it would be interesting to have a look at the library figures for the first quarter (April to June) this year, which I have now been sent.  This is likely to be the trickiest time of this year, as Willesden closed for rebuild on 25 April and the new Wembley Library only opened on 17 June.  It is therefore a transition quarter before what I remain confident will be a big take-off in numbers during the rest of the year.

The first bit of good news is that overall visits are up by 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year.  Issues are up by 1.7%.  That is an impressive performance given that our best used library, Willesden,   Is currently operating an interim service from the Lewinson Centre.  Both visits and issues have roughly halved at Willesden as a result.  The slack has been taken up by enormous growth at Kilburn, and more modest increases in Ealing Road, Harlesden and the Town Hall (now Wembley).  Kingsbury has a slight fall in visits although a rise in issues.

The other noticeable thing is that more than a quarter of issues are not made at a physical library at all.  Online and phone renewals account for most of these, although there has been growth in both outreach and home delivery issues. ebooks still account for less than 1% of Brent's total issues.

Tony Blair on Egypt

I have just been reading Tony Blair's comments on the events in Egypt.  It is so stomach churning I cannot trust myself to comment.  To think this man is a "peace envoy" to the Middle East.

Qat and the Ban

Theresa May is banning Qat.  I am not sure what the effects of this will be.  Brent has significant rates of usage, especially among Somalis.  I have spoken to Somalis who regard it as a very serious problem within their community.  The more traditional UK approach is to regard it as a more manageable issue, like alcohol.  Does anyone have experience/evidence to help?

Brent Camden and BREEAM

There is a report that Camden Council has been motivated to ensure that it's new Civic Centre has an outstanding environmental performance to match that of the Brent Civic Centre in Wembley.  If so, I am glad that Brent's ambition has spurred on Camden.

The other interesting aspect of the piece is the complaint around the limitations of the measurements. This is I guess inevitable with any system of standards.   It has to be constantly updated as more innovation comes on stream.

Dollis Hill House RIP

Going to Gladstone Park on Sunday, I dropped in to see the "folly" that has replaced Dollis Hill House.  It looks much the same as when I took pictures before, although on Sunday a family was picnicking there.

Looking at this rather pleasant, sunny scene, it struck me what a huge amount of sound and fury had been pointlessly expended on the site.  There were still efforts to block the demolition when I spoke at the Planning Committee back in 2010.  I have previously given a timeline of the travails of Dollis Hill House here.  All the money that was paid out by the insurance after the arson had by that time been used up paying for the scaffolding around the House.  Vast quantities of officer time had been spent trying to find a renewal solution long after it was clear that that was not possible, and in the interval the wrecked House had blighted that part of the park for almost twenty years.

It seems a great pity that we did not reach the current solution a decade ago.

New Plays at the Tricycle Theatre

The Tricycle Theatre is including a revival of Red Velvet in its latest programme.  If you didn't see it the first time, it is well worth going, although I imagine the tickets will be sold out pretty quick.

UPDATE

Details of booking tickets are here.

Willesden Junction Redevelopment

Some people may already have had leaflets asking about the redevelopment of the Willesden Junction area.  The potential for redevelopment is signalled by High Speed 2 and Crossrail both potentially having connections near Willesden Junction.

Brent Council has currently drafted an official response to this without choosing to consult local councillors.  This is disappointing as some of us have been engaged with these issues for many years.

My own view is that this scheme has good potential to massively improve the interconnectivity of Harlesden and Kensal Green, but we need to ensure that a station at Old Oak Lane has effective linkage to Willesden Junction.  Otherwise our area may simply be bypassed.

Willesden Green Library Centre Rebuild Begins

I see the hoardings have now been put up around Willesden Green Library Centre.  It will be good for the building work to finally get going.  I hope people will agree with me that the interim library service at the Lewinson Centre is very good.  I know that the library staff put a great deal of thought into how to do it.  Crucially, it is very close to the existing Library Centre, which should make it much better used than the interim service during the rebuild of Harlesden Library.

I am not sure that the significance of the Willesden Green Library Centre is fully appreciated in terms of Willesden Green and it's potential for regeneration.  Willesden High Road has seen some improvements over the past few years, but at the moment it doesn't really have a unique selling point in the way Ealing Road has its various Asian offerings, Harlesden High Streets it's food shops and Kilburn High Road the Tricycle.  The new cultural centre, if it works as it should, could be that kind of draw to reinvigorate the High Road.

Eric Pickles Opaque Transparency

Local Government Lawyer analyses Eric Pickles latest pseudo-diktat.  Since the purpose of the pronouncement is supposedly to encourage transparency, it has naturally been concocted in secret without consultation.  This contributes to its poor quality.  Taken literally, it appears extremely burdensome to implement, and the legal underpinning seems shaky.  Eric Pickles sets an extraordinary example of executive incompetence to government both centrally and locally.

Weekend Events

After door knocking yesterday, I went to the Gladstonebury festival in Gladstone Park, and then on to the residents party in Furness Primary School.  It is a pity that now that we finally have some Summer weather, all these events clash.

Brent Civic Centre as Democratic Centre

Brent Civic Centre today becomes the official centre of the Council's democratic structures.  Personally, I am not at all sorry to leave the Town Hall, which was inferior in a number of ways.  The new Civic Centre already appears to be a much livelier place.

Councils Helping the Arts

Following the retreat of Newcastle from cutting all their arts funding, and the more recent debate on creative industries in the Commons, how Councils support the arts is becoming a hot topic, so I thought I would blog about some of the things they can do.  I take the value of such support as read, and just go through some of the ways in which it can be provided, and a few of their pros and cons.

Venues
Most Councils have a variety of potential performance spaces.  In principle, this could include any park, but also a variety of Council buildings.  These work best if designed for the purpose, such as "folly" erected on the site of the former Dollis Hill House.  In Brent we have three major venues identified in our Arts Strategy. These are the Tricycle Theatre, Willesden Library Centre and the Civic Centre.

Willesden Library Centre is a cautionary tale in terms of designing such spaces.  It is now being totally rebuilt in what will hopefully be a far more effective form. The 1980s original had some performance spaces without any sound proofing, meaning that they could not be used as the neighbours complained of the noise.  I suspect the same was true of the outdoor space at the back.  The cinema there was originally intended to be a theatre, but was built without any dressing rooms.

The Civic Centre should be a much better venue, albeit still with some problems.  The atrium has already hosted some worthwhile events.  The meeting rooms in the drum are designed to be as flexible as possible, and of course there is the libraries.

Brent libraries are a key part of our Arts supports in this and so much else.  Now that they are all available 24 hours a day, it gives much greater flexibility for events, with virtually no cost to the Council.  Lots of the Brent Dance Month events take place in libraries for instance.

The final way in which the Councils can support arts through buildings is Meanwhile spaces.  This is problematic as you either have to pay the business rates direct or forgo the revenue, which obviously costs either way.

Direct Funding
Councils can also give direct funding, as Brent does to the Tricycle Theatre for example.  The days when you just gave money to people are long gone, so these grants are subject to agreed objectives and monitoring.  This kind of thing is becoming more and more difficult as central government cuts the budgets.

Indirect Support
Indirect support is not as obvious, but could be valuable.  For example, I suggested to the library service recently that they could do specific displays around each of the Tricycle's productions as they came up.  The new Artistic Director seems to have a penchant for plays with many layers of meaning, which should give plenty opportunities for book stock on lots of different themes.  It is also possible to give a bit of publicity and communications support.

Support via Planning
There are also ways to support the Arts through planning.  Some capital can be made available through planning gain, like the IKEA football.  This can be controversial, as art is such a subjective business.  More interestingly, planning policy can be used to build some arts provision into an area, a bit as has long been the case with community space.

Addendum on Paul Lorber Book Sale

A quick further note on Cllr Paul Lorber's summer book sale, as posted on yesterday.  It was referred to in the Kilburn Times headline as a "summer reading campaign". Brent has an annual non profit reading campaign, the Summer Reading Challenge.  This is promoted by many local authorities in partnership with the Reading Agency, a well known UK charity that promotes reading.

Last year's Summer Reading Challenge was hugely successful.  The 2012 Challenge saw 4,335 children join; more than in 2011.  I hope that this year! Which has a creepy house theme, is as successful.  Brent is also a leader in an adult version, the Six Book Challenge, where last year we had more participants than any other library service.

Lending or Selling?

The Kilburn Times reports that Cllr Paul Lorber's organisation "Friends of Barham Park Library" is offering books for 50p as part of an effort aimed at "slashing the cost of reading".  There are several odd features about this story.

Firstly, I understood that Cllr Lorber had solicited book donations as part of what he regards as a library service.  Those of his doners used to municipal library services may well have assumed that a library service was one that lent books for free.  Giving you a book in return for a "donation" sounds more like selling books along the lines of a second hand bookshop.  I like second hand bookshops but they are a different thing to libraries.

Secondly, this is all supposed to raise funds to hire part of the Barham Park buildings.  These buildings have been through a tendering process, and the Council (as Trustee) has decided to rent them out to an Arts organisation for a period of 15 years.  If they are being used for that purpose, I don't see that as being easily compatible with Cllr Lorber's organisation moving in.

Thirdly, the justification that Cllr Lorber has generally advanced for retaining a library at Barham Park is that Barham Park is too far away from the alternatives for people to travel to alternatives.  His organisation is based at a shop in Wembley High Road.  It seems to me to be slightly further away from the site of the former Barham library than the Brent operated Ealing Road library.

Finally, although this is touted as a time limited scheme, Cllr Lorber is quoted as saying he is "slashing" the cost of reading. That implies is used to be much higher, which makes me wonder whether he was lending books for free previously.

Fairtrade Recertification for Brent

I am glad to see that Brent has been recertified as a Fairtrade Borough.  The original Certification took place only after years of campaigning, in which my colleague Cllr Janice Long was prominent.  She helped ensure that attaining Fairtrade status was a pledge in the Labour manifesto, and got included in the Corporate Strategy.  The previous Tory/Liberal Democrat administration made a half hearted application in 2008, but basically gave up after that was refused.  Indeed the Tories always came across as negative about the whole idea.

More Local Government Cuts

It looks likely that local government is going to get another severe round of cuts by George Osborne.  I really don't know how already very hard hit Councils like Brent are going to cope.  The reports focus on the main 28% cut, but that is in addition to others such as the reduction in Council Tax Support and crisis payments.  Somehow local authorities will have to make the budgets add up, as the kind of denial practised by that mendacious clown Grant Shapps is not possible.

Electric House in Willesden

Yesterday, I went to the closing party of Electric House in Willesden, which is now being closed for redevelopment.  It has previously been used by BAR as an art gallery and by Brent library service for extra study spaces during the exam period.

Technological Trends in Brent Libraries

This time last year it looked as if ebooks were sweeping all before them in the book market.  More recent figures suggest a slowing down.  If true, that should make the problems around lending ebooks less urgent for libraries, but they will remain as a creeping trend.  It is therefore still important for the government to address the issues in the Sieghart Review.

The other technological trend that is less remarked on is that people are increasingly bringing their own devices into libraries and using them there.  This is quite different from the model which people have been used for the past twenty years or more, of users logging on to a library owned computer.  It seems that Internet usage is now spreading more to mobile devices.  Brent libraries, of course, provide free WiFi.  The new Wembley library also has a number of iPads.  It will be interesting to see how this trend develops.  For instance, will people increasingly want to access the Internet from soft seating rather than desks?

Changes in Food Growing in Brent

A while ago, the Guardian carried a piece on transition towns.  These are self formed networks interested in working out innovative ways to develop low carbon living.  Brent has its own version in Kilburn.  They tend to focus mostly on food growing projects, such as fruit harvesting, and it reminded me that I have been meaning to post how the Council's food growing strategy has evolved beyond a traditional allotments approach to something more imaginative.

When we were in opposition, my concerns focused simply on providing allotments to meet demand, which appeared to be rising rapidly.  Once we won power, I asked for some work to be done on this, and it turned out to be quite artificial.  The database was never cleaned, so that people just stayed on it forever, even if they moved away.  After a cleaning exercise, and a rise in fees, the demand seemed much more manageable.  With the additional step of giving smaller allotments to newcomers, it looks as if we can meet that traditional type of demand.

However, the strategy we passed in August 2012 now recognises that there are lots of other approaches to food growing these days.  In some cases, schools have adopted food growing projects.  There are also a number of food growing opportunities around meanwhile sites.  At a modest level, there are herbs being grown in the plants on Tubbs Road Pocket Park. A lot of these types of schemes have in common that they are in some sense collective and communal, whereas traditional allotments tend to be more individual and proprietary.

On the Doorstep Again

Out on the doorstep in Harlesden Road and Doyle Gardens yesterday.  It was a reasonably nice day, but it seems to get harder and harder to find people in, whatever the time.  No doubt this is part of social change, but it can't be good for democracy.

Comprehensive and Efficient Library Services

Lincolnshire library services are now being cut back in a way that I have suspected that many authorities would sooner or later come round to.  It is a harbinger of the situation predicted by the Local Government Association, where authorities simply have no money to perform their most basic functions, and sometimes not even then.

For libraries, this means cutting back to the bare minimum even when they are delivering a statutory service.  This is a point often lost in discussions on statutory services _ that you can deliver them in different ways including minimalist ones.  As local authority budgets dwindle, there is a logic to authorities defining their statutory duties in the narrowest possible terms.  However, Lincolnshireshire appears to have gone further than anyone else:

This is the first  authority I can recall whose cuts have been so clearly tailored to reach the minimum statutory provision. Public Libraries News

A Curious Duty
In terms of the 1964 duty to provide a "comprehensive and efficient" service, this could lead to restrictions that will distress many people.  The duty has some curious features.

Firstly, it does not apply to buildings at all.  There is no duty to provide library buildings, merely services.  Hence there is no legally enforceable standard for how many buildings you have.  In principle, an authority could provide a service without any buildings at all, although I don't see how that would work in practice.

Secondly, the SoS takes the view _ expressed clearly in all the (non) intervention decisions _ that computers are not part of the library duty.  This is so absurd in terms of how people understand modern libraries that many people find it hard to accept.  Logically, it would mean that PCs, WiFi access and even ebooks have no place in any legal library duty, which would mean a Council would have no duty to provide them.  I have suggested before that if this interpretation is allowed to stand, there will effectively be no library duty at all.  However, I think that in the Brent case, Mr Ouseley J implied that there could be a duty to have electronic devices implied in the Act.  The best way to resolve this would be new legislation which would mean that we were no longer working with laws drawn up before the invention of the microchip.

An Even More Curious Argument
It is also interesting that Lincolnshire are interpreting the law with an emphasis on a duty to provide an efficient service.  That comes out strongly in paragraph 2.49 of the Lincolnshire report where they say they have"no choice".  In other words they are using it to argue that they have an actual duty to close down their less efficient branches to come into line with the 1964 Act.  That sounds to me like a rather desperate excuse to close down libraries that you want to close down anyway.

The Brent Approach

In Brent, we have chosen a very different route, of trying to maximise the quality of our library service.  This has been a difficult argument to get across, as it seems counter intuitive to many people, but as we move into a more positive phase _ with more library users of six libraries than we had with twelve, I hope people will begin to see that the blanket condemnation was not the right response to what is actually a positive and well thought out strategy to bring our library service into the present century.

Betting Shops Again

Unfortunately, Newham lost its test case on betting shops that I alluded to a few days ago.  The lead member in Newham goes into the reasons here.  The frustrating thing here is that the public overwhelmingly want a reduction in these kind of outlets, but the regulations work in such a way that it is incredibly hard for local authorities to deliver on their wishes.

Nick Boles, the Tory minister responsible, seems quite relaxed about betting shops spreading all over the place.  I concede there is half a point in wanting to avoid empty shops, but surely that is the kind of decision that should be made locally rather than by a central government minister? Harlesden Town Centre, for instance, has an occupancy rate above the national average, so no pressing need to lower standards to get more shops in.  The problems are more around low margins and the types of shops.  People complain about too many betting shops and chicken shops.  Surely authorities like Brent should be given the ability to listen to their wishes.

Willesden High Road Regeneration

Over time, I have been asked a number of questions about the state of the public realm in Willesden High Road. This currently, understandably, dissatisfies many people.

I have pointed out before the experiment that Brent has been carrying out with trade waste. There is also the issue if household waste.  Currently, officers are targeting Harlesden and Stonebridge, as the worst areas, but hopefully others can be targeted as those improve.

Secondly, pavements near the Willesden Sainsburys seem to be in a very bad way, but hopefully we can relay these. It has been noted as an area of poor paving in an area of high footfall.

Thirdly, there is a ponding issue at the junction of Willesden High Road and Brondesbury Park.  In wet weather, the street simply fills with water. This is partly due to the lie of the land, but also down to poor drainage.  When the Willesden Library redevelopment was going through the planning process, I made this objection specifically and it is now part of the conditions.  More widely, we now have a gully cleaning contract that should improve our gully cleaning substantially, thanks to the application of new technology.  This will also benefit part of the High Road, such as just outside what used to be The Crown pub, that have also suffered from surface water flooding.

This sort of thing may all seem very minor, compared to big issues like the redevelopment of Willesden Library Centre or The Queensbury, but improvements to the public realm are proven to be beneficial to shopping centres as a whole.

Photos of Wembley Library

Photos are now available of the newly opening Wembley Library here.  None of them give an external look unfortunately. This is a pity as the outlook on Arena Square and on Wembley Stadium are two of the things that make the site so good.

Brent Poet Laureate

Tomorrow evening, Brent's Wembley Wordfest will feature an evening with the Brent Poet Laureate Simon Mole.  Simon is well known in Brent, but this is the first time that the Brent Library Service has had this kind of formal relationship with a writer.  It seems an innovative way for libraries to work in support of the wider Arts agenda, and was one of the many good ideas put forward in the Libraries Transformation proposals passed in 2011.

Changing Waste Management

Something of the complexity of the waste management market can be gathered from this piece in the FT.  West London should be diverting almost all its remaining landfill waste to energy from waste by 2016/17.  This will be much more in accordance with the waste hierarchy than our current arrangments.

Tree Treatments

I have been finding out a little more about treating trees.  The most recent publicity was about the oak processionary moth, which has killed off oak trees in some parts of London.  Brent did have an issue of this sort in King Edward VII park, but fortunately there is an established chemical treatment which Gristwood and Toms (our contractor) were able to implement.

Most of Brent's oaks are in our parks. Our bigger problem is with ash trees, where there is no identified solution for ash tree dieback.  We have several hundred ash trees on our streets and many more in our parks.

Incidentally, anyone interested in urban trees might want to be part of the tree survey currently being undertaken by the Natural History Musuem.  It is intended to give a baseline for the study of the damage done not just be diseases, but also the effect of climate change.

Official Opening of Wembley Library

I attended the official opening of the new Wembley Library today, which I guess is the culmination of the Brent Libraries Transformation Project.  As I came up to the new library, the little girl in front of me opined that the (automated) door in front must be magic as it opened without any human aid.

Once inside, the library proved every bit as good as I hoped.  It actually opened to the public yesterday, and more than 2,000 visitors went through that first day

More on the UK's Low Wage Economy

There are some interesting figures on the UK's low wage economy here.  The constant pressure on wages and incomes is not only immiserating, but also unsustainable.  It helps to destroy domestic markets and depress the economy further.  All government ministers' rhetoric on deregulation and so on will not alter that.

End of the Co-Op Bank

The end of the Co-op bank is prophesied here.  If so it is a dark day for mutualism. Financial services have traditionally been a good area for mutual solutions, with the Nationwide the strongest example, but if the Co-op Bank goes down, it will have a chilling effect on mutualism as a whole.

Bracken Moor at the Tricycle Theatre

Last week I went to see Bracken Moor at the Tricycle, which is well worth seeing.  It is essentially a ghost story, and comparably good to The Woman in Black.  The Artistic Director, Indhu Rubasingham, told me that she likes the audience to be surprised by her programming, and it certainly does that.

Bridge Park Sports Centre Redevelopment

Tomorrow's Executive has a long awaited report on redeveloping the Bridge Park Sports Centre in Stonebridge.  The existing sports centre was I believe originally a bus garage, and is really in need of very significant investment to bring it up to modern standards.

The basic idea of the new proposal is very similar to the redevelopment of Willesden Library Centre. There is a partial land sale to a developer to provide capital to rebuild the centre.  In this case, the sale would be to the landowner of the long derelict office buildings next door.  Redeveloping those into something productive would itself be an improvement worth having.

At present, the proposal is at an exploratory stage.  The things I would like more detail on as the project moves forward are:

1) What would the facilities of the new sports centre?
2) Would it have the same pricing structure and concessions as other Brent Sports Centres (as we secured by agreement in the Moberly sports centre)?
3) Is it possible to vary the archaic management arrangements?  The existing centre is one of the very few in London to be run directly by a Council.  This was a condition of the grant that built it back in the early 1980s.  It is likely that rolling it in with a wider leisure services contract would give the taxpayer a much better deal.

Creative Industries Debate

I am glad to see that Harriet Harman has managed to secure a debate on the creative industries.  Hopefully, this will raise the profile of a sector whose economic importance is often overlooked.

More Detail on the Defection of Cllr Carol Shaw?

Cllr Carol Shaw has gone into more detail of the reasons for her defection on the Hampstead and Kilburn Conservative web site.  It makes for curious reading.

Blaming the Liberal Democrats for their hypocrisy in promising no tuition fees before the election and then voting for them afterward is a widely shared view, but after all the Tories voted for the same policy.  Her opposition to improving Willesden Green Library Centre does no favours to her constituents. She may well have not been supported by her colleagues on various issues, although I suspect they probably feel unsupported by her.

I still haven't seen any response by either Sarah Teather or Brent Liberal Democrats as a whole to this further desertion from their party.

Feel the Lack of Quality with Capita

The FT carries an interview with Paul Pindar, the chief executive of Capita. I am surprised that his approach to outsourcing appears to be based entirely on bargain basement pricing.  Most procurement exercises I have taken part in (for example the current waste and street cleaning contract procurement in Brent) have paid a great deal of attention to quality.

I doubt whether his apparent model of lowest cost no matter how poor the quality is going to work over the long term. The veneer may be coming off his desk, but at some point he really will need a new desk. More seriously, he doesn't mention redesigning services to be more efficient, which should be perfectly possible in some cases.  More seriously still for his model, if your only offer is charging less than someone else, there will always be someone else willing to charge even less.  At some point that pressure will start cutting into your profit margins.

In the meantime, the cheap as chips services you provide are likely to become notorious for their poor quality.  Once that reputation reaches a certain point; it becomes very hard to turn it around.

I am glad I don't live in Barnet, where Mr Pindar's company is taking over most of the Council's services.

Some Sort of Answer on Help to Buy

As reported in the Guardian, I am glad to see David Cameron rolling back from Help to Buy in response to a question from Seema Malhotra MP.

I have criticised this policy before as likely to increase housing costs, enmire the government in the sub-prime market and do nothing to help the unaffordable cost of housing. Although David Cameron's answer helps limit some of the damage, it still shows no awareness that overpriced housing is a result of not supplying houses, and that market mechanisms have been totally inadequate.  Cameron's answer is also characteristically vague as to what mechanism is going to deliver his desired outcomes.  I particularly wonder about how he is going to stop people from abroad  taking advantage of the scheme for speculative purposes.

Boris Johnson's Empty Promises

Boris Johnson has produced a policy document full of ambitions that he presumably hopes someone else will achieve.  During his five years as Mayor, he has managed lots of words, but actually activity has been allowed to run into the sand.  House building has reached a nadir.  Transport investment is under threat.  Police numbers are being cut.  At least on air quality has now done a screeching u-turn although I suspect only because he is afraid of an EU fine.  Meanwhile, the city has been entertained with various vanity projects, of which the new routemaster is the most prominent.  It is a warning that whoever succeeds him needs to have skills others than those needed for generating publicity.

Betting Shops Test Case

An important test case on betting shops is coming up in Newham.  This is also important for Brent as the epidemic of betting shops has reached a similarly unacceptable level here.  Current laws make it very hard for Councils to stem the tide of more and more of these shops opening everywhere, despite their unpopularity.  Many of their users seem to find them addictive, and spend a vast proportion of their income on the machines where are the real driver of profitability.  They are also frequently associated with crime, particularly drug dealing.

Cllr Carol Shaw Defects to the Tories

Cllr Carol Shaw, erstwhile Liberal Democrat in Brondesbury Park, is reported to have defected to the Tories.  It will be interesting to compare her explanation of her new allegiance with her remarks on leaving the Tories in 2003.

Brent Council Civic Centre Opens Today

The Architects Journal reports on the new Brent Civic Centre in Wembley, which opens to the public for the first time today.  A detailed rundown of the environmental benefits can be found here.  A quick summary of the benefits in general is here.

The whole project illustrates the importance of staying the course.  We now have a building with demonstrable benefits environmentally, fiscally,  organisationally and in wider economic terms.  It has taken more than a decade to achieve.  There have been numerous attempts to push the whole thing off course, which would have cost the taxpayer dearly.  The whole project is a reminder not to allow mischievous and often unelected elements to undermine your strategic objectives.

Public Accounts Committee on Local Government

The Public Accounts Committee has reported that a number of local authorities could face financial collapse, in the sense of no longer performing their legal duties.  What surprised me is that although this has all been widely debated for years now, the Department of Communities and Local Government has no plan for what it will do when it occurs.  One of the possible collapses is said to be Birmingham, so it is not a marginal issue.

The report also confirms that the government does not understand what the implications of the various changes the Tory/liberal government have forced through actually are.  That probably means it is in breach of of it's equalities duties, and perhaps even that it has acted irrationally in a legal sense.  I don't suppose it will be taken to court for this, but it does suggest that the quality of Eric Pickles decision making is not the greatest.

Harlesden High Street Bring Bank

I noticed a short time ago that the bring banks outside 139 Harlesden High Street have been removed.  On inquiry, it turns out this is a temporary measure to better enable access to the old service station site next door, which is finally being developed.

Local Authority Pensions

The FT has been doing a series of articles, such as this one, on local authority pension schemes.  This looks like an area where local authorities could achieve real savings without impacting on services.  As well as demanding lower rates from fund managers, there really seems no good reason why each authority has to have its own scheme, rather than just merging them.  Of course, a problem with the Brent scheme is that historically it has been so underfunded that merging with Brent may not be an attractive proposition.

Brent Central Parliamentary Selection

Following my recent post on Sally Gimson, I have been asked about the Labour selection for Brent Central.  My view is that there is currently no front runner. The list is open and it could go anywhere. The selection does not start until September.

Brent Council Civic Centre Opening

As the Brent Civic Centre is on the brink of opening (on Monday), it is worth looking back at some of the photos of the construction period.

Arts and Politics

I am not sure that Liz Forgan gets it quite right in her interview with the Daily Telegraph.  Whereas it is true that many politicians see the arts as an "add on", I suspect that attitude is shared by people in general.

The kind of view she expresses about the Bristol Old Vic as an integral part of Bristol is not commonly recognised. In Brent, I would say the Tricycle Theatre can play that sort of role for Kilburn High Road. The new Civic Centre could act as a regeneration magnet, and the new Willesden centre might be able to do the same for Willesden High Road, but not sure that is widely appreciated.

I am also not sure that I sympathise that the "new rich" should be the mainstay of arts funding.  If arts activities really provide wide social value, which I think they do, what is wrong with them being funded from public funds?  Do we really need to fund from grotesquely overpaid bankers?  In fact aren't such charitable donations just a way of covering up gross inequalities that should not be there in the first place?

Brent Benefit Problems

With another councillor, I popped into the Harlesden Job Centre to see how well the Council's one stop shop facility had relocated from Willesden.  Aside from the signage, which we both thought poor, it looks like a good facility.  The number of enquiries being dealt with have gone up markedly, but there is extra resource to cope.  I suspect many people are still going to Brent House, but from 10 June, the facilities of the Brent Civic Centre will become available.

Sally Gimson at the Tricycle Theatre

I went to the Sally Gimson event at the Tricycle Theatre this evening, which was interesting.  My impression is that the Hampstead and Kilburn candidature for Labour remains wide open.

Housing Impacts

The gloomy effect of the government's benefit cuts are covered by Dave Hill in the Guardian.  The picture he paints is of small localised communities desperately trying to keep together to the bemusement of the government policy makers.  Recently, David Cameron opined that policy research, in that case into equality impacts, was unneeded because"smart people in Whitehall" knew best.  This seems to be an example where the narrowness of backgrounds of the smart people in Whitehall, and their failure to ask the people on the receiving end of their policies directly contributes to policy failure.

New Highways Contract

The upgrade of Harlesden Town Centre that has just begun is the first to be done under the new Lohac contract.  That may seem an unexciting fact, but the important thing about it is that it allows costs to the taxpayer to be driven down without loss of service quality.

The new contract comes after years of work by TfL to develop a common London wide specification for Highways work.  Brent is one of the first Boroughs to come on stream. The common specification allows costs to be compared across Boroughs so if one is markedly higher than another, the difference will be clear.  It also means that contractors that have performed well under the contract will have an entree into a much wider pool of work than they could get from one contract alone.

Mammoth Curiosity

The BBC is reporting that frozen mammoth remains have been found with liquid blood inside.  I am intensely curious as to how liquid blood is found in frozen remains.  The idea of cloning the creature strikes me as extraordinarily cruel for such a social animal, so I hope no one attempts it.

Wembley Library Wordfest

Details of the opening festival of the new Wembley Library are now announced.  The sheer variety of the events is what impresses me the most.  Of course, the whole Civic Centre. Building was designed with performance in mind, making spectaculars like this far easier to mount.  Thus our libraries transformation project transforms not only our library service, but also our arts strategy.