The Hardy Ash Tree

A little while ago I was in St Pancras churchyard, where there is something called the Hardy ash tree. When Thomas Hardy, the novelist, was a young man he was employed to clear part of the churchyard to make way for the new railway.  The gravestones were taken together and placed around the eponymous ash tree.  The Internet has lot of photos such as these.

The effect is a poignant memorial to death, rather more affecting than most modern art I have seen.  Of course, if the tree suffers from ash dieback, it will add another layer to the story.

Centralised Education

Simon Jenkins has a well directed tilt at over centralisation in education here.  I understand that the department of Education, having almost abolished local eduction authorities, is now considering constructing a middle tier between themselves and schools.  Apparently, they have realised that there are too many schools in England to be run centrally.  Perhaps the middle tier might be known as local education authorities?

Tough Times for Councils

The Audit Commission has published a report showing just how bad the financial situation is for local Councils.

I suppose the first point to note is the unfairness.  The government has concentrated the cuts on the poorest areas, in London and the north of England.  The most deprived areas of England saw a cut of just over 14%, compared to a bit over 4% in the richest areas.  The poorer areas tend to be more dependent on central government grant, making the impact even worse as it accounts for a greater share of the spending.  I don't believe it is coincidental that the worst hit areas tend to be Labour.

Administratively, the Councils have been fairly successful in holding together, but over time it will get worse and worse.  As time goes on, future savings will become more and more dependent on shared services and partnerships that are inherently harder to deliver.  The Audit Commission regard more than a tenth of Councils not to be "well placed" to cope with next year, let alone the longer term.

I wonder what Eric Pickles will do when some start to just collapse?

Library Musings

One of the things that distresses many municipal librarians is that the general image of their role is so outdated.  It is a little like education in that many people seem to feel that the way they remember things working in their childhood is the only "real" way in which they can work.  In fact, like anything else, libraries evolve all the time.  It is quite possible that modern technological developments are making them change faster now than they have for decades, but some kind of change is inherent in any living service.

An idea of how extensive these changes can be can be found on this website.  Some of it is about good architectural practice; some the impact of radio frequency identification technology (RFID), 3D printing, ereaders of various kinds and so on.

The frustrating thing is that the political debate really just hasn't caught up with any of this at all.

Krugman Compares

I greatly admire Paul Krugman and his works.  The Nobel Prize is a bit of a distraction. The important thing is the intellectual rigour and honesty. Both of these are important, and probably linked.  In two recent posts he compares the USA and the UK (here) and rigour.  What worries me is how few people listen to these messages.

Building More Housing

A summary of the case for building more housing can be found here.  The failure to supply adequate housing in this country is one of the great political tragedies of the past thirty years.

Sarah Teather No Longer Credible

I see that Sarah Teather is denying rumours that she plans to defect.  She refers to the people suggesting this as "twits", but is it so odd people believe this?  After all she hardly has a rock solid record of principle does she?  She has back tracked on lots of things,; I suppose tuition fees would be the biggest example, although one might choose economic policy.  I suppose in personal terms her biggest betrayal would be sticking the knife into Charles Kennedy.

She always seems to be motivated by whatever pleases people at that moment. Hence she always demanded more spending.

She has recently lost her ministerial job, no doubt as a result of some back room deal.  Since then she has suddenly decided the government is immoral, after defending it thoroughly before.  Is it any wonder no one trusts her?

Acton Lane Cleaning

At the recent KG residents meeting, an issue was raised around blocked gullies in Acton Lane.  Cllr Lincoln Beswick and I have both raised this with Brent Council's Transport department, and I understand the blocked gullies have now been cleared.

London Ambulance Services

My Labour colleague makes the excellent point that, in the publicity surrounding hospital services, the vital ambulance service is being overlooked.  The speed at which paramedics can reach you is often a vital part of ensuring your survival.  Yet the ambulance service in London is facing cuts despite David Cameron's promises to protect health spending.

Croydon North by election

I spent today In Croydon North, where Steve Reed is standing.  Steve is well known in London local government as a former Council Leader. He should make a really good MP.

Eric Pickles Blusters

Eric Pickles is once again blustering about weekly bin collections.  I am surprised that the Guardian fails to point out that hardly anyone is trying to use his vaunted £250 million fund to restore bin collections because it is well known that they are ineffective in increasing recycling.  The five year timescale also means that that scheme isn't really long enough to merit a new contract.  However, Mr Pickles continues to repeat his obsession.  I don't think he believes it himself any more.

Ash Tree Dieback in Brent

People have been asking me about Ash tree dieback.  This has yet to reach Brent, although as the spores are airborne, I imagine it will only be a matter of time.

Brent has about 7 or 8 hundred street trees that are Ash, and an unclear number of ash trees in our parks.  Unfortunately, there is currently no known treatment for the dieback disease, which has wiped out most of the Ash trees in the countries where it has struck.

It is therefore fair to say that the outlook is gloomy.

Your Square Mile

What amounts to an obituary for David Cameron's Big Society can be read here.  What is more interesting are the suggestions in the piece about enriching communities. Despite the discrediting of volunteering by the inadequacies of the Big Society, this kind of thing is still needed. Perhaps it is needed all the more as a result of the policies of the present government.

Kensal Green Residents Meeting

I felt the ward working meeting of Kensal Green residents last night went very well.  We had a much better turnout than we expected at the back of Casa Nossa on Park Parade, and the atmosphere struck me as very positive so let's hope we can move things forward.

Council Last Night

Brent Council managed a very low quality debate on the budget last night.  Perhaps the most interesting feature of a dreary night was a complete absence of Sarah Teather's "immoral" attack line on the present government's course.  Indeed none of the liberal Democrats mentioned the forthcoming burdens in housing benefit, universial benefit or council tax support that Ms Teather's argued would lead to a "Jarrow March in reverse" only on Sunday.  Does this show a waning of influence even in her own party, or a deliberate distancing.

Barham Park Trust Committee

Full Council meets this evening.  One of the items is the changes to the Council's constitution necessary to follow up the proposals on the Barham Park Trust outlined at the last Executive.   To recap, Barham Park was bequeathed to the Council in the 1930s as a charitable trust.  The Executive are given decision making powers as Trustee. This means that their decisions about the Park are made solely with regard to the objectives of the Trust, rather than as part of the Council's overall strategy.  The position is analogous to my position on West London Waste, where I am required to follow the interests of West London Waste rather than those of Brent Council.  In both cases, however, the interests of the different bodies (WLWA and Brent Council or the Barham Park Trust and Brent Council) are likely to be reasonably closely aligned.  However, it certainly is administratively neat to have a specific sub-committee for the Barham Park Trust to further emphasise that the requirements of the Trust are not necessarily those of Brent Council.

Brent Libraries and Emagazines

One of the most striking findings of the Libraries Transformation Project was that more than 50% of respondents used the library to access periodicals.  I was very surprised that the proportion was so high.

Brent Libraries is now integrating this element into its electronic offering by allowing people access to 41 titles electronically.  As with ebooks, we have constraints as to which titles can be made available. The format is compatible with iPhones, iPads, Windows and various tablets.

You can learn more about Brent Council's online library resources here.

Sarah Teather Discovers Morality

Sarah Teather is interviewed by The Observer and claims to have discovered an interest in the immorality of the government's welfare reforms.  How curious that this interest should only emerge after her sacking as a government minister.  She is presumably hoping that words of sympathy for the victims of the government she continues to support will help her to save her seat at the next election.

Somerset Shows the Way of the Future

A Council in Somerset has questioned its own long term viability.  We are likely to see more and more of this as the "graph of doom" moves forward.  At some point even the government will have to notice.

Housing and Hypocrisy

Red Brick relates the sad tale of government hypocrisy with regard to homelessness.  Government cynically set standards that they know their own policies make it impossible to meet.  It is now inevitable that large numbers of people will face upheaval as they are forced out of London.

What happens next? The way I imagine it, large numbers of people get dumped in the poorer parts of the UK.  As these parts have fewer jobs available, they are more likely to get trapped in a cycle of poverty and benefit dependency, the opposite of what the government says it intends.  Poverty also tends to encourage greater use of many public services, putting those services under greater strain. This is likely to lead to resentment among the indigenous population, and social conflict including violence which no doubt the ministers will condemn.

Meanwhile, London will see parts of its population unable to afford decent housing, but unwilling to move out to part of the country where it will be impossible to earn a living. This will encourage a black economy of overcrowded housing with probably extremely poor standards in terms of building controls, fire safety and so on.  The problems of overcrowding will also encourage wider effects such as declining educational standards, poorer health and so on.  This will create more problems within London's public services.

These possibilities must have occurred to government ministers. One assumes they simply don't care.