Bramston Road Street Surgery

Bramston Road will be getting a street surgery on Saturday 9th January from 12.30. This is where the Police give advice on how to avoid burglaries, of which there have been a spate on the roads off Wrottesley Road until recently.

Conservatives in Brent Central

I have been puzzled by the ongoing absence of Cllr Sachin Rajput, the Tory candidate for Brent Central, from Brent. Not the Barnet Times suggests that he is too taken up with his new Council Executive responsibilities in Barnet. Along with the continuing failure by the Tories to select a candidate in Brent North, it suggests that their performance in the Borough as a whole is likely to be dismal.

Boris Johnson's New Year Cheer

Boris Johnson is reported by the New Statesman here to be overseeing a bold act of redistribution from the poor to the rich, courtesy of his hikes in transport fares.

Thomas Becket

Today is the feast of St Thomas Becket, as well as being the anniversary of his martyrdom.

It reminds me of my earlier posting on Thomas A Becket Close. This was a proposal that we turned down against officer recommendation. The developer appealed, asking for costs. After losing the appeal, the developer has come back with a new proposal that met the previous reasons for objection (excessive scale, privacy problems over distances between balconies and windows). It seems a good case where you can see Planning as a rational evidence based process.

Incidentally, Frank Barlow, in his definitive life of the Saint remarks that “Thomas A Becket” was a name St Thomas would have never used, and he should always be referred to as simply Thomas Becket.

New Safer Neighbourhood Team Base on Station Road, NW10

In January, the Police will finally be opening their new Safer Neighbourhood base in Station Road (on the corner with Ranelagh Road. This will be the base for the Harlesden SNT, the Kensal Green SNT, and the Harlesden Town Centre Police Team.

This should be a big help to the Kensal Green Team, who are currently based in Harlesden Police Station. Having a base actually in the ward, will lead to them being much more visible. I suspect the drug dealers rumoured to use Ranelagh Road will be less evident as a result.

Burglary Down in Kensal Green

I understand from the Police that burglary has dropped dramtically in Kensal Green during December. Partly no doubt because the thieves find it as hard to get about in this weather as the rest of us, but also because the Safer Neighbourhood Team have specifically targeted burglary recently.

St Stephen's Day

I dare say many people will be spending part of today stoned with alcohol, which is perhaps appropriate on the Feast of St Stephen, but I intend to be rather more abstemious.

Blog

In August I decided that would make a least one entry per day on this blog, and I am glad that I have so far succeeded, but I intend to ignore that rule tomorrow and probably indulge in the sin of gluttony.

Street Furniture

Below is a photograph I took of a Keep Left bollard in Longstone Avenue that I took recently.



As you can see these bollards are easily knocked over. They are also an unecessary use of electricity. Many Boroughs (e.g. Barnet) use reflective signs that are more robust and use no electricity at all. There is no reason why Brent can't do this, and it would provide better signage at lower cost. It doesn't happen because Brent Council is crippled by inertia.

Stop the Tower

I have heard rumours that the Stop the Tower group is becoming active again, after three years of silence. I posted before that I thought this group was really an astroturf organisation trying to help the Liberal Democrats in an underhand way, and strange to say they are reforming shortly before the local elections. I wonder what their purpose could be?

Fantastic Mr Fox

Yesterday morning I was stunned to see a fox trotting along the pavement in Harlesden Gardens at 10am.

Street Gritting in Kensal Green

Getting loads of complaints from constituents about the lack of gritting. The main roads seem to be more or less clear, but the pavements are largely covered in ice still. I have been out doing various deliveries and almost fallen over times too numerous to mention.

Lib Dems: The Party of the Rich?

At the last Planning Committee of the year, on Wednesday, I was startled to hear one of the Liberal Democrat councillors argue that the residents of a particular road should be shown special consideration because they lived in a “nice road” where they had spent “a lot of money for their houses.” Even the Conservative Chair baulked at that, and reminded everyone that you can’t show people special consideration for being rich. Still, it shows that the Liberal Democrats are not quite the left wing alternative to Labour that some people would have us believe.

Will Boris Johnson Stand Again?

There seems to have been a sudden burst of speculation about either Lord Mandelson or Boris Johnson standing as London Mayor in 2012. The Mandelson stuff seems quite plausible to me, certainly more so than David Lammy. Johnson standing again also seems unavoidable for him unless he wants a reputation as a diletante quitter. However, I can't think of any reason why he couldn't win a second term as Mayor, and then serve consecutively as a MP for a Tory seat in London, as French politicians seem to.

Sustainable Communities Act & Brent Council

In the Summer, Brent Labour Group used the Scrutiny process to embarrass our Tory / Lib Dem administration into taking notice of the Sustainable Communities Act. As a result of our efforts, the Liberal Democrats felt forced to put forward a motion committing the Council to using the Act. That was back in July (on Bastille Day as it happens). The officer group set up to work out how the Council was to do this did not even meet until October. This means that Brent Council has missed the next round of activity.

Once again Brent Liberal Democrats appear to be bidding for beacon status for sloth.

Lib Dems Get Confused

Looking through the Full Council questions from October, I notice the rather confused response given to my Harlesden Labour colleague Cllr Lincoln Beswick. Back in July, the Liberal Democrats were pushed into a motion as a result of political pressure to adopt the Sustainable Communities Act (explained here). With his usual lack of clarity, Paul Lorber dragged in a reference to the London Local Authorities Bill. Since this Bill is too far advanced to be changed, it seems rather pointless for Paul Lorber to have raised it.

Cllr Pawan Gupta: The Phantom Councillor

One of the curiosities of Brent’s Planning Committees is the presence of Cllr Pawan Gupta, the Liberal Democrat councillor for Dudden Hill. He has taken to standing at the back of the room during each meeting, but never comments on an application. Last time this seemed especially strange, since there was a controversial application in his ward (at Dudden Hill Parade). He remained in the meeting from 7pm to 11pm (when it ended) without commenting. In fact the only time that I can recall him saying anything in any form of Council meeting was when he announced that he never spoke to his local police team.

Krupesh Hirani

Krupesh Hirani has a post on the shocking state of services for disadvantaged children in Brent here.

Harlesden High Street Service Station

The application to build 23 flats on the old service station site on Harlesden High Street was rejected on Wednesday. This application was, in my opinion, worse than the previous one of about 18 months ago with a higher building, a less interesting facade facing Rucklidge Avenue, and a poorer frontage to High Street Harlesden.

Greenhouse Application Rejected

Incidentally, the application for a new housing development at the Greenhouse site in Welsh Harp was rejected on Wednesday. It really was a pretty terrible application, trying to build a housing estate in the middle of a nature reserve. Planning officers said that they thought Barnet Council would be likely to reject the parallel proposal on the Cool Oak lane side as well.