Fryent Councillors Blog

I note that my Labour colleagues have set up a blog here.  There are now Labour councillors blogs in Willesden Green, Dudden Hill, Barnet and (of course) Kensal Green.

Distracting from the Cuts

The Guardian carries a piece on excessive salaries in local government.  This is being used by the current Tory led government as a distraction technique from their ideological cuts programme.  The percentage of a Borough budget that the Chief Executive's pay account for is tiny.  The likes of Eric Pickles know this, but they are hoping that directing publicity on Chief Executive pay will create the impression that it is local authorities that are chosing to make the cuts rather than central government that is pulling levers to make the cuts happen.

Kenton By Election Today

Today is the date of the Kenton By election, giving Kentonites the opportunity to give their views on the cuts programme of the current Tory led government.

Carbon Emissions and Waste Management

I was surprised to have the carbon emissions performance of our proposed new waste management system queried recently.  In fact the proposed new system should lead to far lower carbon emissions than the current arrangements.  The full details were in the appendices to the orginal waste report on 11 August 2010.

Placemaking Guide

Tonight, for the first time in a long while, we will be having an Executive without any controversal reports coming up under my lead.  However, we will finally be considering the Placemaking Guide (which used to be called the Urban Design Guide, and possibly something else before that).  This has been knocking around in various guises for many months and I shall b e delighted for it finally to come to a decision.

Stuckist Pictures in Willesden Green

The small exhibition of Stuckist pictures in Willesden Library Centre is worth a look for anyone who is around there.

Kenton By Election

I was out in Kenton helping Ellie May Southworth in the by election at the weekend.  When I first heard that there would be a Council By election there, I assumed that Labour would have no chance, saince Kenton has never elected anyone other than Tory councillors, but I am no longer so sure.  Ellie seems to be very popular, and there seems to have been a feeling by many people that they have been taken for granted by the Conservatives.  We shall see what the results say on Thursday.

IKEA Gateway to Wembley

A commenter here asks what happended at the meeting.  We decided on a winning scheme having gone through presentations by four different artists.  Certainly I think the winning scheme is very impressive.  Details of what it is, along with a public engagements process led by the artist, will be put out by Brent Council press office shortly.

Oxbridge References

Reading a debate on education in the Guardian recently, I noticed that once again Oxbridge seemed to get disproportionate attention.  This always annoys me.  Debates around higher education in this country always seem to degenerate into references to Oxford and Cambridge, as if they were the only universities in the UK.  Obsessing over two universities distorts the whole discussion.  Perhaps there should be an equivalent to Godwin's Law to prevent this.

West London Waste Falling

West London Waste continues to fall, which is good for the environment and Council budgets, but is nonetheless rather puzzling.  Traditionally waste levels have increased every year in this country.  The falls of the past two or three years are a departure from the long standing trend and no one really knows why.  Part of it is undoubtedly down to poor economic performance, but perhaps some of the recycling and waste minimisation messages are finally getting through?

UPDATE

In answer to the comments, Brent has no plans for incinerators.

Kensal Green Open Space Restored

I am glad to see that the green space outside Kensal Green Tube sation has finally been restored.  This is how it looked in the Summer.  The land is actually owned by Network Rail, but they looked as if they were going to do nothing about it until Brent Council's streetcare officer started badgering them.  After several months, the message finally got through.

Perils of Democracy

Monday's Harlesden Town Team meeting, which I managed to get to very late in the day, illustrated some of the problems of the increasingly trendy participatory democracy approach.  I joined a team debating the public realm, and in particular a possible upgrade to Station Road NW10.  The hotly contested topic was the colour scheme of the pavements, with an even division between light grey, buff coloured and dark grey.  At some point a choice will have to be made, and it will have longstanding implications for the rest of Harlesden Town Centre.  At the end of the session, there was a vote but it was virtually evenly divided.  If a slightly different mix of people had attended the choice might well have been different.  Yet, if Station Road is to be upgraded, a definite choice will have to be made by someone.

Library Stock

I saw a striking factoid in the Camden New Journal recently.  Camden are considering reducing their book buying budget by 40% to save money.  This would save half a million pounds a year.  If Brent were to save this amount of money by cutting book buying at our libraries, we would reduce that budget by 90% (to just 50,000 pounds a year)  It gives a clear idea of just how under resourced Brent libraries have been compared to other Boroughs.

Paul Lorber and Diwali

I forgot to mention, that in the Call In Committee on Arts & Festivals, Cllr Paul Lorber had quite an outburst against Brent's Diwali festivities.  He said that for years he had wanted to abolish the grant Brent Council gives to Diwali but was stopped by Tories.  Quite bizarre.

Public Art and IKEA

Today, I am going to spend the morning listening to a series of artists.  This is because I am on the panel judging how about £100,000 should be spent on a major piece of public art at the IKEA road junction.  The money was planning gain from IKEA's car park expansion in 2004, but is only now being spent.

Harlesden Town Team Tonight

The Harlesden Town Team are meeting again tonight.  Unfortunately, I have a meeting with a library group that clashes, but I will do my best to get there nearer the end.

Air Quality

Dave Hill has details on the air quality debate here.  When I was touring the ACFs last year in the wake of a presentation on emissions based parking, I was struck at how important air quality was to people in the southern part of the Borough.  It may become more important to Boris if the government passes on any EU fines to local authorities, as it has threatened to do.

Library Consultation

You can still fill in the Brent library consultation questionaire here.  The deadline for the close of the consultation is 4 March.

Closing Libraries in Brent

Brent Liberal Democrats are continuing to sell the line that Brent Labour Party has had a long standing secret plan to close various libraries.  This has never been true, but perhaps it would be useful to clarify the arguments.

Egregious Liberal Democrats such as Paul Lorber, argue that a consultant report from 2004 proposed closing four libraries.  It should be understood that Council officers and outside advisers frequently come up with option papers and recommendations that for one reason or another never get adopted.  This report was rejected by the then Labour administration and so came to nothing.  That is why the previous Labour administration of 1996-2006 never closed a single library.  I am sure that Paul Lorber knows the difference between officer/consultant recommendations and member decisions, so I assume that he is knowingly misleading people.

Liberal Democrats and Bin Collections

I see that the Kensal Triangle Association's minutes state that: "Cllr Simon Green also recommends opposing fortnightly grey bin collections".  In fact when the Tories put forward a motion at Full Council in September opposing fortnightly collections, the Liberal Democrats abstained.  The same minutes report Cllr Green as informing everyone that the £25 charge for collecting bulky items has been abolished without mentioning that he and his party would like to reinstate the charge.

This is very similar to the approach of his Liberal Democrat colleague Sarah Teather in supporting a £37 million cut to Council funding and then pretending to oppose the subsequent cuts in Council services. 

People have got wise to the way in which Liberal Democrats say one thing to one audience and the opposite to another.

Causing the Cuts

Martin Francis has a round up of various cuts stories here.  Many of the comments he cites suggest that it is the Council that is causing the cuts.  Of course the reality is that it is the current government that has created a financial settlement specifically to shrink public services.  Ministers are pretending that the current cuts are avoidable, but no one who knows about local government believes that.

Cllr Margaret Eaton, the chair of the LGA and a Tory councillor, said as much in her Guardian piece a few days ago.  The four arguments I have heard the likes of Eric Pickles present are:

1) That major savings can be made from the pay of senior managers.  In fact sacking all Brent's most senior managers would achieve only a tiny fraction of the savings necessary to balance the budget

2) That reserves can be used to moderate the cuts.  Brent Council has only £7.5 million in reserves.  After George Osborne's July budget last year, Brent Council faced a projected overspend of £7.1 million, so there is an argument for us increasing the reserves rather than reducing them.  In any case, reserves can only be used once.  It you support your spending with them this year, you will find the money run out next year.

3) That "shared services" between Council can generate economies of scale.  In some cases this is true, and Brent does participate in some shared services (The West London Waste Authority is effectively an example), but ministers have made it as difficult as possible to achieve such savings by frontloading the cuts.  Brent Council is getting a cut in grant of almost 12% this year, and 7.4% next year.  This was announced in December as part of a 28% cuts package over four years.  Joining up a service with another Council requires legal and financial agreements and major organisational restructuring.  That takes much longer than the three month period between the grant announcement and the setting of the Council Budget.

4)  That lots of local government money is spent on things people don't value.  A lot of the commenters on Margaret Eaton's piece seem to have fallen for this line.  In fact, the reaction recorded by Martin Francis demonstrates exactly the opposite.  People are protesting because they value the services that are being cut.  There simply are not large sums of money lying around being spent on nothing of value.

I note that that some of the quotes in Martin Francis' piece come from former Liberal Democrat councillor Peter Corcoran.  It would be interesting to hear him or any of his colleagues justify the govenrment that they campaigned for at the General Election.  So far, I have heard a number of Brent Liberal Democrats defend their government's strategy of public spending cuts beyond what they were calling for in the General Election, but they have not presented any alternative ways for the Council to react to the decisions of their government.

Civic Centre Ground Breaking

As I suspected, Paul Lorber chose not to attend the ground breaking of the Civic Centre, despite having claimed credit for the project at the previous Council meeting.  He seems unable to decide which way to face. 

Brent Council has a rather small picture of the ground breaking here.

Cleaner Air Campaign

Environmental Protection UK is promising a campaign for cleaner air here.  In the last round of Area Forums, I was struck by how important clean air issues were to people in the Willesden and Harlesden areas.  It certainly seems to me to be a subject that has not had the kind of attention it deserves.

Teather Twisting on Libraries

Channel 4 tracks some of the the twists and turns of Sarah Teather's positioning on libraries here.  Essentially, she is trying to avoid admitting that the £37 million cut in this year's Council budget carries an inevitable price in terms of cuts in Council services. 

I thought her point about timing particularly disingenious.  The timing is as determined by the government as the size of the cut.  The financial settlement for Councils was only announced at the end of last year, and she knows that Councils are legally obliged to pass their budgets in time for Council Tax bills to be sent out.

Cuts by Choice

David Cameron is still peddling the line that Britain was forced into the current government cuts by the demands of the market.  Paul Krugman says:

"There was no sign of a crisis of confidence in the UK budget before the May election; the Conservative government chose to embark on austerity, it wasn’t forced into it."

The article is here.  One of Krugman's most commonly made points is that the right in America ignores reality completely.  David Cameron seems to be going the same route.

Sarah Teather and Libraries

Ann John did yet another TV interview on libraries last night, but I was more interested in the lobby of Sarah Teather reported in the Guardian this morning.  She has been advising people to borrow books from Kensal Rise Library in a similar protest to the one reported in Milton Keynes.  What she is not reported as doing is taking responsibility for cutting her local Council's budget by £37 million this year and more in the years to come.  It is fundamentally dishonest for her to pretend that the coming cuts to Council services are anything other than a direct consequence of the Liberal Democrats decision to form a government with the Tories.

Library Closures

Krupesh Hirani reminds us that library closures are not just something happening in Brent but all over the UK in authorities of varying political complexions.  Lisa Nandy, the MP he refers to, initiated a debate on libraries in Westminster Hall, which you can find here.  Among the speeches is a very good one by Glenda Jackson MP.  The common factor in library closures across authorities with different kinds of political control is of course the decision of central government to cut local government funding.

As so often with controversial issues, Sarah Teather failed to make an appearence.

Brent's Festivals Strategy

Brent Liberal Democrats have done another of their rather strange calls in.  This time it is on proposals to review, and because of the financial climate, probably substantially cut the Council's support for festivals.  The odd thing is that the report just wants to discuss what to do, so that in calling it in the Liberal Democrats are simply delaying a formal discussion rather than objecting or contributing to a substantial policy.  In that respect it is very similar to their call in of the library strategy in December.

Martin Francis Review

Martin Francis appears to have done an extraordinarily detailed review of the Wembley Area Consultative Forum here.  As so often, it concentrates on describing our proposals rather than providing viable alternatives.

Navin Shah Web Site

Navin Shah, our Assembly Member on the London Assembly, has a new web site here.

Civic Centre Ground Breaking

This afternoon, we will be having the ground breaking ceremony for the new civic centre.  It will be interesting to see whether Liberal Democrat Leader turns up, given the way he has been rowing back from his previous support for it.

Government Cuts Followed by Lower Growth

The BBC reports that growth is lower following the onset of the Tory austerity programme. What a surprise.  If George Osborne manages to keep his promise of sticking to the cuts programme, growth can only get worse.  As growth gets worse, tax revenues fall, and the deficit widens.  Then the Tory led government will have a choice of more cuts (perhaps further damaging growth) or reversing its economic policy.  All this was quite predictable, and was predicted by Labour and the Liberal Democrats at the General Election.  Nick Clegg and his team must now be hoping they were wrong.

Salvation Army

I dropped into to see the Salvation Army on Friday.  I hadn't realised how extensive their building is.  I gether they want to become more active in the Harlesden area, so hopefully we can work out some more effective ways to use the premises.

Cycles

Food for thought here on designing streets for cycling.  The Town Team project in Harlesden Town Centre gives an opportunity to consider drastically redesigning the Town Centre to make it more habitable.

Third Party Libraries

I continue to hear rumours of various groups offering to take over a library as a third sector operation.  Anyone contemplating this needs to contact the Library service as soon as possible.  We have met one group and agreed to help them work up a proposal, but doing that requires a lot more effort and expertise than some people seem to think.  The sooner you start looking at the nuts and bolts the better.

Library Forums

I have now presented the library strategy at the various Area Forums and events that were advertised.  There is still one presentation to go, at the Kingsbury and Kenton Area Forum, but the Head of Libraries will present there in oprder to avoid any accusations of political publicity ahead of the Kenton by election.

All the meetings have been extremely lively, but no one has yet come up with a feasible alternative to our strategy of improved the offer in a smaller number of libraries.  A lot of people have argued for improving all the libraries, but the size of the government cuts in our grant mean that that is not a realistic option.  After all, if we could not afford things like seven day opening in all our libraries when the last Labour government was increasing our grant year after year, how can we now that the Tory led government is cutting our funding year after year?

The other suggestion that has been made is what I think of as a "genteel decline" option.  This would mean keeping all the library buildings, but massively reducing their opening hours.  That would lead to a slump in visits but retain the fixed costs of the building, raising the cost per visit.  It would also mean many more staff being made redundant.  By sacrificing the capital receipt, it would also mean no more investment, making it far harder to develop the service to deal with ebooks or any of the other changes that happen in the future.

Cameron's Big Society Failure

Liam Byrne has a fierce attack on the Cameron's government failure to live up to its own "Big Society" rhetoric here.  Essentially, the Tories and Lib Dems are doing to the third sector what they are doing to all other public services: starving them of resources and thereby destroying their ability to do the task.

Sarah Teather on Libraries

Our library strategy got support from an unexpected quarter  according to this blog.  Sarah Teather, no less, regrets the budget situation that is forcing library closures, but agrees with the thrust of our fewer, better libraries strategy.  Of course, all Brent Council services would be better if the government of which she is a member had not decided to cut back public spending further and faster than anyone suggested in the General Election, but lets not be churlish.

Eric Pickles Goes into Fantasy

Eric Pickles is now claiming that local government is as responsible for the economic downturn as the banks. Even people in his own party are denouncing this as absurd.  Given the very large number of authorities controlled by the Tories, is it really a sensible line for a Tory Secretary of State to take?

Brent Civic Centre

Following on from yesterday's post around the Civic Centre library, perhaps it would be good to explain why we decided to go ahead with the Civic Centre project.

The first reason is financial.  Although the debts from building the centre cost us about £7 million to service, we actually save £9.5 million in the running costs.  This is because we move out of 15 existing buildings (mostly currently rented or in a state of disrepair) into a modern building that will be far cheaper to run.  Thus, not going ahead with the Civic Centre would actually have cost us money rather saving it.  In other words, we would have to cut Council services by another £2.5 million per year to make the books balance.  It is also true of course that, now that the contract has been awarded, we would incur huge penalties if we tried to back out of it.

Secondly, the new building has lots of environmental advantages.  In particular, by itself it should reduce the Council's carbon emissions by more than 12%.  The waste vegetable oil boiler could also be used ain a district heating system for Wembley at some stage.

Thirdly, the project is a vote of confidence in regeneration in Wembley.  As such it supports the redevelopment of the area, and helps to generate jobs for local people.

Finally, the new Civic centre project helps to drive organisational change across the Council, particularly in improving customer contact.

Civic Centre Library

An idea has been floated that it is possible to find lots of money for Brent libraries by scaling back the library in the Civic Centre.  In fact this is not so.  The revenue budget for running the library will simply transfer from the old Brent Town Hall library.  The extra floor space of the new library does not transfer into higher running costs.  In terms of capital, the library is part of the wider Civic Centre project.  Asking the architects to redesign a building in the middle of building it would raise costs rather than lowering them.

Practicalities of Budget Cutting

By the way, one of the issues with the current ConDem government's cuts programme that I haven't seen addressed anywhere is the sheer speed of their implementation.  Whilst these cuts would be bad in any circumstances, it is the fact that they are being rammed through so swiftly that makes them especially difficult to manage.  Most of the spending in public services involves employing people, so that when you cut a budget on this scale, you generally have to make people redundant.  Quite rightly there are rules in terms of consultation, notice periods and so on that take time to implement, delaying the time before there is any saving.  I don't see any sign that government ministers have given any thought to this.

Satellite Dishes

Here is an image of the satellite dishes that seem to line almost every house on the northern side of Wendover Road (although not the south, oddly).  In conservation areas, this sort of thing generally has a rule against it.  The proliferation of satellite dishes has diminished in the past few years for technological reasons, so it is not regarded as a planning enforcement priority even in conservation areas.

Ward Working Projects in Kensal Green

We have now agreed all our ward working projects in Kensal Green so I thought I would quickly summarise them.

We agreed that we needed to do more to contact the Portuguese speaking community, so we gave a grant to the White House (which is a Portuguese speaking advice service) to buy some computer equipment, and we also paid for Flavas of Brent to have a programme specifically targeted at Portuguese speakers.  Flavas of Brent is a Council programme designed to train and certify people to set up small scale catering businesses. 

We also gave a large sum to St Mark's Church to build their new Church Hall, a contribution to the Night Shelter project led by Cricklewood Homeless Concern that helps homeless people, a contribution to the Junction Association for a clean up day in the Tubbs Road area, a small amount to the Friends of Odessa and Palermo Road to help pay for a neighbourhood party and an amount to help promote Fairtrade during the coming Fairtrade fortnight.

Police and Disabled Parking by Tesco

I was less than impressed to see this police car parked across two disabled parking spaces by the Harlesden Tesco on Monday.  I have written to the Borough Commander asking him to make sure his officers don't do it again.

UPDATE

I have now been assured that the police in this case were dealing with a violent incident, so there were exceptional circumstances.

Sarah Teather Runs Away

I see that Sarah Teather has pulled out of the Brent Fightback debate with John McDonnell despite having suggested the date originally.  Ducking difficult issues worked well enough for her in opposition, but I doubt whether she can continue the tactic successfully as a government minister.

Repairing Paving in Tubbs Road

I am glad to see that following my complaint of a few days ago, the Thames Water contractors are back putting the pavements in the state theyshould have been in the first place.  I am sorry for the disruption but hopefully, if they get picked up every time they fail to do the job properly, the contractor will learn to do adequate work first time round. 

Liberal Democrats in Decline

UK Polling Report has an excellent analysis of the dire state of the Liberal Democrats here.  I really can't see how they can recover, despite Mark Pack's optimisim about the Oldham by election tomorrow.

Polly Toynbee and the Lib Dems

Polly Toynbee is puzzled by Simon Hughes' refusal to walk away from the coalition.  She points out the damage that the Tory led government is doing to all the things he claims to have supported over the years.  Surely, just like Sarah Teather, Simon Hughes never really supported these these apart from in rhetoric?  He and Teather have made careers for themselves by making fine sounding speeches and ignoring the practical consequences.  Why stop now?

Tory Hypocrisy

Grant Shapps has a remarkable piece of hypocrisy in this BBC story.  His government has cut Brent's grant by £37 million, and intends further cuts in future years.  Brent, along with other Councils faced with similar cuts in grants by this extreme right government has little choice but to end the below cost charging for some services.  I am, sure Grant Shapps and his colleagues knew that would be the result when they gave us the financial settlement they did.

The next Harlesden Area Consultative Forum, and indeed the other Area Consultative Forums, will have a discussion on the effect of the Con Dem government's cuts on Brent Council, presented by the Council Leader Cllr Ann John.  It takes place at All Souls Church, Harlesden High Street at 7pm on 11 January.

Brent Council and the Cuts

One of the major issues raised at the Library Consultation I went to on Thursday was the extent of the cuts imposed by the Con Dem government and how they affect Brent Council.  The Council has set up a web page explaining this here. 

Paving in Tubbs Road

This is how the contractor for Thames Water left the paving in Tubbs Road after the recent water works there.  Definitely not up to scratch in my opinion.  I have asked the Council to get them to come back to do it properly.  I believe it is the same contractor who made such a mess of the area by Kensal Green station.

Oldham By Election

Went up to the Oldham by election recently.  It looks at the moment as if Labour is likely to win, which will be another set back for the Liberal Democrats.  Essentially, they have for a long time relied on being the anti-politics party.  Now that they are in power, they don't seem able to offer anything other than going along with the Tories.

Harlesden Town Team Meeting

Harlesden Town Team are meeting on the evening of 10 January.  This will be the first meeting since the news came through that Transport for London are granting £3 million over two years to the project.  Unforuntately, I have another meeting at the same time, but I hope as many people are able to contribute as possible.

Brent Friends of the Earth: How Not to Do It

As promised, here is a second post on why I think that Brent Friends of the Earth are such an ineffective lobbying group, covering tactics.

Their campaign against our waste management plans shows a deeply misguided appraoch. Although I met them with a senior officer at Brent House, and attended on of their member meetings, they failed to voice their opposition to our scheme until 20th October (the very last day of a 50 day consultation). Their contribution proposed opening the consultation all over again, thus delaying the whole thing by at least a couple of months. This is part of a pattern of throwing in random suggestions, often with no evidential backing, very late in the day. Thus at one Executive meeting, Brent FoE suggested we adopt the system used in Sheffield, apparently oblivious that our proposals has been developed over a period of more than a year using extensive comparisions with other authorities. At the next Executive meeting, Brent FoE dropped the Sheffield suggestion and proposed the systems used in either York or Ealing. You simply can't adopt complicated systems in that kind of back of an envelope way. Thus, I think their first error is not to appreciate the intellectual rigour with which the Council's proposals have been developed.

Their second is to throw suggestions in without any warning. During this process, I have been given the imprerssion that Brent FoE do a bit of googling, produce some factoids and throw them in not so much as serious suggestions as simply attempts to derail the adoption of the new system regardless of its merits. An example of this would be their suggestion that Veolia would send waste to China to be processed with child labour, a suggestion for which they produced no evidence whatever.

A third error that an effective lobby group would not make is to take no account of the concerns of the body they are lobbying. Obviously we want to increase recycling, reduce emissions and save money. Remarkably we have a system that fulfills these three objectives. Certainly, at the December Executive they made no effort to engage with constraints such as the inevitably limited budget. Indeed their report of that meeting, makes no reference to what anybody else said at all. From their description, one would imagine that Brent FoE turned up, said their piece and we then voted our policy through without discussion, which was not the case.

Finally, Brent FoE have allowed an impression to be created that they are in the pocket of the Liberal Democrats, who as far as I can see have little or no interest in the Environment. As well as allying themselves with the Liberal Democrats over the waste issue, they have conspicously failed to criticise the Lib Dems poor record on recycling, Sarah Teather's volte face on Brent Cross, the Liberal Democrats' opposition to emissions based parking permits, the decision to cut a post from the Environment Unit, or indeed the abolition of the Green Zone scheme (which was caused by the Con Dem government's withdrawal of grant part way through the year).  They have even issued a press release criticising our abolition of the £25 charge for collecting bulky waste.  This is an article of faith among Brent Liberal Democrats, but I have never encountered this view except in card carrying Liberal Democrats.

It is hard not to believe that two or three of the members of Brent FoE are more motivated by a strong loyalty to the Liberal Democrats rather than an interest in the Environment.

Brent Friends of the Earth: What Not to Do

I guess one of the biggest disappointments I had last year was the failure of Brent Friends of the Earth to support any of the new Labour administration's (quite bold) environmental policies.  This is a great pity as it would be very useful to have an effective environmentalist lobby pushing the Council to do sensible things.  Brent FoE don't do this, partly because they pursue off the wall objectives and partly because they use the wrong tactics.

Our key policy is obviously the changes to the household waste management, where we plan the most radical restructuring the Council has ever had.  I am certain that our plans are the way of the future not just in Brent, but also across London.  The new way of doing things will allow people to recycle a greater range of materials (e.g. tetrapaks and mixed plastics), and consequently lead to a vastly greater weight of waste being recycled.  Brent FoE, bizarrely for a supposed environmentalist group, oppose this.  They argue that the quality of the recyclate will be lower, which is true, but ignore the vastly greater quantities that w2ill be produced.

If that were the only green policy they oppose, I could dismiss it as an aberration, but in fact they have either attacked us or remained indifferent to every initiative.  The emissions based parking permits, just coming to the end of its statutory consultation, is another example.  Here they don't quite have the courage to oppose it outright, but the tone of their response was so negative that they effectively do.

Again, they have shown no real interest in the passing of the Local Development Framework Core Strategy (a key part of improving conservation standards in the Borough), or the Brent "going green" project, or our objective to cut the Council's carbon emissions (still under development).

One early intervention they did make, in a rather odd way, was over the cutting of a post in the Environment unit.  This post was frozen under the previous administration and then abolished under ours.  Brent FoE stayed silent when the Liberal Democrats made the initial decision and only protested once Labour won power, which may give a clue to their real motivation. 

This is turning into rather a long post so I will split it into two.  Tomorrow, I will talk a bit more about Brent FoE's misguided tactics.

Designs on Tubbs Road Park

I have been asked what these pillars in Tubbs Road Pocket Park are for.  They are purely decorative.  The designs were done by children from Furness Road Primary School during the development phase.  Hopefully some of the children will recognise them when they use the park.

Seeing the Light

Bjorn Lomberg argues that more efficient lighting simply leads to more consumption here.  It is certainly true that making something easier makes you use more of it, in the way building roads generates traffic, but surely for lighting there is an upper limit that people don't leave lights on when they are not there, or when it isn't dark.  As electricity costs money, they still have an incentive to limit their usage even if the light bulbs are efficient so I don't think the Lomberg stacks up.

The Future

As its New Year, I thought I would make a stab at some predictions for the coming year.

Firstly, I suspect the Con Dem coalition will hang together despite the harm it is doing the Liberal Democrats.  They have lost their (always illusory) reputation for integrity.  They are attacking many of the priniciples that their long standing supporters hold dear, and there are signs that their parliamentary party is beginning to fall apart under the pressure.  They may well fail to win in Oldham, lose badly in the local elections in May and lose the referendum on the alternative vote.  Nevertheless, I expect them to continue to hang in there with the Tories, because breaking apart has too great a risk of causing a general election where they get slaughtered.  As Benjamin Franklin said: "We must all hang together, or hang separately."

Whether Sarah Teather manages to continue avoiding publicity and engagements during the year is more doubtful.  She already looks weak, as her absurd interview with Sky News "on her way out" showed.  She will start having to engage with her critics at some point, rather than just running away from them as at present.

In the Council, I hope the onset of our new waste management system will be a success.  A lot is riding on it.  We should also be able to come out with some other good environmental initiatives during the year, including in the transport field, and a strong target for carbon emissions.  The big challenge for the Council as a whole will be the budget.  We have enough savings for this year, but we need to develop some for next year's round of central government cuts, and we need to find a means to control overspend in the Social Services.  Altogether it is going to be the most challenging time that the Council has faced since the 1980s.

Brent Cemetaries

This rural field is in Brent, sort of.  It is actually part of the Carpenders Park Cemetary in Hertfordshire, which is our main open cemetary.  We will be developing a long term cemetaries strategy during the second half of next year.

Gladstone Park Allotments

Brent Council have no capital allocation for creating allotments so planning gain is probably the only realistic route for an expansion of allotment places.  The only possible site on the horizon at the moment is in Gladstone Park, close to Campbell Gordon Way.

The site in Gladstone Park is currently some derelict sports facilities. They originally belonged to a school, but the school was closed twenty years ago, back when projections suggested that London's population was falling. The sports facilities were kept but not maintained. Hence, the abandoned cricket nets disfiguring that part of Gladstone Park, as well as the astroturf pitch too close to housing to be used.

Allotments would make much better sense.

UPDATE:

Responding to David below. The stroturf pitch has been extensively vandalised, and is too near to housing to be useable at night (according to modern standards).  I understand no one has used the pitch for at least eight years.  It is being turned back into grass.

Boris on the Buses

Tory Troll explains Boris Johnson's continued war on bus passengers here.  What is curious is that Johnson still retains an image of being vaguely green at the same time as favouring the growth of motoring, the most unsustainable form of transport possible.

Harlesden Town Centre Makeover

I understand that Brent Council have now had Transport for London funding confirmed for the makeover of Harlesden Town Centre.  The total amount will be something like £3 million for the redisgning of the public realm including possible traffic measures.  Well done to the officers of Brent Transport Department for having gained such a sum at a time when most budgets are being cut back.

Con Dem Government Weakness

I see that our Con Dem government has pulled back from abolishing the Bookstart programme, only a short time after pulling back on proposed cuts to school sports. 

In itself good news, but it does suggest that Philip Pullman is right in saying that the government is making proposals that are ill considered to begin with, and that it doesn't have the courage to back those proposals against serious opposition.  Such an approach guarentees maximum embarressment, rather like John Major's appraoch to defending Cabinet Ministers who were being pressed to resign.  He would back them for months only to see them resign eventually. The media started to doubt his credibility and therefore subjected each minister to a prolonged campaign on the grounds that it would eventually get him.  The present Con Dem government risks a similar lack of respect.  Not least because the Telegraph has been publishing these stories that even government minister (e.g. Vince Cable) don't believe in their own government.

Fabric of a Nation

Finally got to see the Fabric of a Nation exhibition at the Willesden Green Library Centre, and I recommend it, particularly if you are not Ghanian.  I doubt whether the Grange Musuem is open today, but the exhibition still has some time to run.

Osborne on Ireland

Via Paul Krugman, I notice this article by George Osborne arguing that his economic policy will make us more like Ireland.  It was originally published in early 2006, but the prediction of an Irish Future seems to be getting closer every day.

Tubbs Road Park Opening

This rather splendid cake comes from the opening of Tubbs Road Park in its revivified form.  The cake disappeared during the afternoon, but the park remains.  In the Spring there will be additional planting, and a higher fence will be installed at the front.

Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA)

Seema Malhotra has unearthed some interesting stuff about the Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA) here. Quoting the IFS, she suggests it particularly helps ethnic minorities from poor backgrounds.  As far as I can see the Con Dem government is proposing to abolish it without replacement, which gives you an idea of how far improving educational attainment comes on their list of priorities.  The only alternative that I have seen Michael Gove suggest is that individual schools set up a hardship fund paid for out of their core funding.  This doesn't sound like an adequate substitute.  It also sounds like a way to divert "pupil premium" from funding education directly to other uses, casting doubt on whether Sarah Teather's claims to be increasing funding are in fact true.

A Coalition of Choice

Steve Richards suggests here that the alliance between the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives was not quite the forced arrangement the likes of Sarah Teather would have us believe.  He thinks that the "Orange Book" liberals took over the negotiations and that the resulting combination, mad attack on public services and all, is their ideological choice.

No Post in the Post Box

Here is a post box I saw recently. Why would someone set up a post box with that message on it. Is it post modern art?

Tyres and Pollution

Environmental Protection UK has an interesting report on the use of tyres to reduce pollution and noise in government car fleets. Something that any organisation with a large vehicle fleet should think about.

Well London

I am sorry that the Well London project will be winding up in March. It has done a lot for the Kensal Green area, especially the Tubbs Road Pocket Park. What is wasteful about these temporary projects is the whole temporary, bidding process involved. It takes a long time to get to know an area like this, and now that Well London have gotten to know it all that painfully acquired knowledge is going to be dispersed.

Blogs and Libel

Sense about Science has a guide for bloggers who face legal threats here.  I had an issue of this sort with Atiq Malik, although I don't believe his threat of legal action was a serious one.  When I started this blog I also had a problem with a number of comments posted anonymously carrying what I took to be libelous or sometimes just nasty remarks about individuals.  Although they claimed to be from several different authors, I suspect they were actually posted by two rather sad individuals.  Happily, both of them have ceased to post, but that is the reason that I always moderate the comments rather than allow instant publication.

Blue Mountain Display

One of the issues that has come up around Harlesden Town Centre is pavement displays.  Brent's licensing people are keen for better demarcation, as currently some of the displays spill on to the pavement, often with litter problems.  This could be done by painting the edges of the private forecourts, or (in the longer term) useing pavement studs. 

However, there is an argument that shops spilling on to the pavements can be good.  For instance, the fruit and veg display outside Blue Mountain in Craven Park Road could be said to add to the feel of the place.  A similar argument could be made for the little shopping parade outside the Gracelands Cafe opposite the Island pub. 

What do people think?

Buggies Off the Bus

I understand that the problem I predicted with buggies in the new double deckers on the Number 18 is coming to pass. What makes it worse is when a bus stops part way along the route. The mother concerned has to wait for several more buses because the only buggy space is occupied. Thanks Boris.

Ireland and Brent

The Irish turmoil is obviously a tragedy for the Irish people, but will it also have an impact in Brent?  When I first moved here in the late nineties, there was still a substantial Irish population of people who had come to London for work.  The Celtic Tiger years saw those people disappear as more work was to be found in Dublin.  I assume the unemployment in Ireland will see many more people come over here, looking for jobs and housing and we will need to cope with the influx.  It may also affect the funding of the Brent Irish Advice Service, which partly comes from Dublin.

Ward Working and St Marks

The Kensal Green councillors have agreed to use seven thousand pounds of their ward working money to contribute to the redevelopment of St Mark's Church Hall.  Most of the funding comes from the Church and its own fund raising, but this should allow the work to begin after Christmas.  Full details can be found on the St Mark's Church website.

Library Call In

The call in of the library report turned out to be something of a damp squib on Thursday.  With the exception of Paul Lorber, none of the people who signed the call in turned up to ask anything about.  The main points that he made were already in the strategy, so it really was not a good use of time.

Lib Dem Hypocrisy

A Liberal Democrat MP told me that he didn't want to sign the tuition fees pledge, but the party headquarters actively pressured him to do so, so he did.  I thought this an extraordinary confession.  Even though Nick Clegg had doubts about the policy, he pushed all his MPs and himself to sign the pledge.  He then made it one of the central planks of his campaign to oppose a rise in tuition fees.  The other feature of his campaign was the importance of trust and not breaking your promises.  He gets into office and does precisely that.  It really makes you wonder about his honesty, but also his political competence.  How could he not foresee the kind of difficulty he would get into?

Policing the Protest

Here is a photo of the police in Parliament Square that I took before the violence got underway.  What kind of a government needs this kind of military  operation to protect itself from its own voters?

Tubbs Road Pocket Park Officially Opened

Today, Tubbs Road Pocket Park is having its official opening, from about 2pm to 4pm in the park itself.  I am immensely relived that this project got through despite Sarah Teather cancelling the rest of the PlayBuilder programme that part paid for it.

ACME Studios Open Day

Tomorrow the ACME studios development on Harrow Road is having an open afternoon to be followed by a similar event on Sunday.  I will be going to the official opening of Tubbs Road pocket park, but I am sure the artists would welcome as many poeople as possible.

Roundwood Youth Centre

It looks as if Roundwood Youthb Centre will have the last Labour government's grant unfrozen and therefore be able to go ahead with the planned rebuild.  However, I am not yet sure whether the full grant will be given, or whether the details will show a cut.

Brent FoE and Emissions Based Parking

An anonymous commenter, who sounds as if they are from Brent Friends of the Earth, claims I was selective in quoting from their response to the Council consultation on emissions based based parking permits, so perhaps I should go through it in greater detail.

The Brent FoE response conceeds the principle of the scheme is good, but proceeds to make various objections that are politically and financially unrealistic and would effectively debar the Council from implementing the scheme at all.

The statement that really stands out is: "It is also the case that the scheme will have no effect whatsoever in the large proportion of the borough not covered by Controlled Parking Zones, as it only applies to CPZ schemes."  Obviously, the Council cannot not ask for a CPZ fee in areas that have not asked for a CPZ.  CPZs have always only been implemented with the consent of residents in Brent.  Areas which have them have opted to pay a fee in return for residents being given privileged parking rights over people from outside.  To impose fees on the whole Borough would destroy public consent by charging people who don't regard themselves as getting a commensurate beenfit in exchange. 

They also complain that it applies only to on street parking.  Indeed so, but the Council has no legal (or many would say moral) rights to charge people a fee for parking on their own properties.  Councils can restrict parking rights for private property through the control of crossover permissions, and in fact Brent has tightened its policies in this regard, but Brent Friends of the Earth seem to be demanding that the Council do something outside its legal powers.

Brent FoE also suggest that it is "unfair that only householders who presently have cars will be rewarded, rather than those who already use only public transport or bicycles."  I find it hard to work out what is envisaged here.  The Council offer is to people who give up their permits for a set period.  How would you extend the offer to people without permits to give up?  Is it being suggested that a payment be made to everyone?  If so, in what way does it incentivise behaviour. 

They are also objecting to the speed of implementation, and want a longer consultation period.  The proposals were decided by the Executive in August 2010, and, if passed, should come into effect in April 2011.  That is the best part of a year.   Personally, I am quite frustrated that things take so long to implement.  The FoE response also makes the entirely incorrect point that "Bringing the new scheme in very quickly (implementation next April), means that very few people are likely to be influenced by the incentives it puts forward." Surely, the longer you delay the introduction of the policy, the longer it will be before anyone can claim a benefit, and therefore the more you delay any influence it has.  As far as I can work out, whoever wrote the FoE response thinks that you can only claim the incentive in the run up to implementation (say 1 April) and not thereafter.  In fact, you would be able to claim the incentive on the day of implementation or at any time thereafter.

There is also some stuff about buying and selling cars, suggesting that buying newer, less polluting cars is has a higher lifecycle cost.  I don't believe that there is any evidence for that, but in any case the parking permit is a very small component in the cost of motoring.  The effect of the policy is likely to be more on people buying a car anyway, especially a highly polluting second hand car.

Finally, Brent FoE have the chutzpah to suggest that the scheme should be part of "an overall plan which makes it much easier to use other forms of transport," as if it were not already.  Of course, Brent Council, like every other local authority, has a range of policies and schemes in place to manage traffic issues.  These including pro active measures like cycle training, planning policies and fees and charges.  The fact that Brent FoE fail to understand this further diminishes their already dwindling credibility as an environmentalist group.

Plandemonium

Yesterday, I went to the Inns of Court for the launch of a book of cartoons on planning issues called Plandemonium.  I recommend it to anyone who likes jokes about Local Development Frameworks. 

Sarah Teather on Her Way Out

Sarah Teather was door stepped by Sky TV about tuition fees.  She refused to answer questions about tuition fees.  Asked why she wouldn't answer she explained: "I'm on my way out."

Indeed.

Furness Road Water Leak

There is a water leak on Furness Road just outside the pocket park, particularly bad in this time of freezing weather.  I reported it yesterday, only to find someone had been ahead of me;  reporting it at 2.05am.  I am intrigued to know what this civic minded person was doing at 2.05am.

St Mungos in Pound Lane

A while ago I went to an event in the St Mungos facility in Pound Lane.  Everyone was very gloomy about the forthcoming disaster caused by the Con Dem government's changes to housing benefit.  The changes have been sold by using atypical examples of unemployed families in central London claiming large sums, but most of the people hit by the cuts will be low paid workers claiming much more modest amounts.

However, touring the actual facility in Pound Lane was inspiring.  It cost more than £9 million, and arranges a gradual progression for homeless people towards independent living.  the idea is to reverse the kind of "revolving door" that emergency only support gives.  It is of course probably more cost effective in the long run, but also just the kind of thing the present government is likely to cut.

The centre at 115 Pound Lane is open to the public.  They have a cafe, meeting rooms and a computer room so it is worth going in just to have a look.

BFOE and Emissions Based Parking

Brent Friends of the Earth continue their decidly peculiar brand of environmental campaigning with a submission on our Emissions Based Parking Permit proposals.  For a supposedly environmental group, it is staggerly lukewarm and grudging.  It states that "we are not opposed to the principle of emissions based parking permits."

Not exactly leading the charge on Climate Change, are they?

I think I will do a further post on their ill considered and unrealistic objections at a later date.

Teather's Broken Manifesto Promise on Schools

When Sarah Teather and her boss Michael Gove decided to abolish the Building Schools for the Future programme, they defended by saying there was not enough money to pay for the new schools. The promises put out in the run up to the election were a little different.
What the Brent Liberal Democrats said in their 2010 manifesto was:

"Brent has now been admitted to the Building Schools for the Future scheme (something the previous Labour administration failed to achieve). This will fund major works at Queens Park Community, Alperton, Copland and Cardinal Hinsley schools."

Did the Brent Liberal Democrats not consult their MP before publishing the manifesto? Did she care so little about education in her constituency that she didn't bother to ask them what their plans were? Or is this yet another case of a broken Liberal Democrat promise?

UPDATE:

Responding to the anonymous commenter below.  Sarah Teather Con Dem coalition have cancelled £85 million of Building Schools for the Future money that had been allocated to Brent.  She now claims that money was not there, even though it was promised in the Brent Liberal Democrat manifesto.  The Crest Academies bid was well under way when Labour lost power.  The only thing we have to be grateful towards Sarah Teather when it comes to the Crest Academies is that she managed NOT to close that programme.  Not closing even secondary school building programme in Brent (only some of them) is not much of a boast.

Public Sector Waste

Patrick Butler has an excellent rejoinder to all those "waste" stories about public services.  These stories are promulgated by (a) journalists looking for a quick and easy story, and (b) rightwing ideologues trying to vilify any form of public spending by pretending it does nothing.  This then sets up an atmosphere where massive cuts can be pushed through to shrink the state.  Brent Liberal Democrats have been playing this game for years, and will no doubt continue to do so, but is it not odd that the private bankers whose incompetence and greed almost destroyed the world economy are allowed to get away without scrutiny?

Harlesden City Challenge Grottiness

This is the kind of grottiness, I hope Harlesden Town Centre will be able to avoid in future. The peculiar design of the street has led to it being poorly maintained. Indeed, I understand that it is often used as an exemplar of what not to do in urban design.

Carbon Tax

One of the hidden charges to local government is a new carbon tax of £12 for each ton of carbon dioxide emissions. For Brent this adds up to almost half a million pounds. The anomaly is that it is charged to those authorities that monitor their carbon emissions, i.e. those who are keener on reducing emissions.

Times Article

I gather I have had an article published in The Times on compulsory recycling, although as they have a paywall I can't link to it.  Still, one can always buy a copy.

Kensal Rise Library

I went to the Friends of Kensal Rise Library yesterday.  The numbers present certainly demonstrated the level of concern.

It was decided to form a committee to see how the library could be kept open.  I have already told Mr Butcher that I am happy for officers to meet with them to go through the practicalities of any scheme.  I think that a successful solution would need:

a) The permission of All Souls.  As they have a covenant giving the library back to them if it ceased to be a library, their permission would be crucial.
b) A clear concept of what the building is for.  I am a little worried that many of the people there want to continue with a standard library, which I don't think will work.  Inm my opinion, there needs to be maximum flexibility in how to uise the space in order to draw in partners.
c) Funding, both capital and revenue.

This is obviously a big task, but it might be doable.

There were also some misconceptions that need to be cleared up:

i)  The Council does not have an enormous pot of money to be made available after agitation.  Central government have cut Brent's grant to a greater extent than at any time in the past.
ii)  It was suggested that Brent was the only Borough in London proposing library closures.  In fact a number of closures are mooted in Camden, Lewisham and I believe elsewhere.
iii) It was suggested that reducing library opening hours by 40% would allow all twelve to be retained.  Whereas cutting hours by 40% would save a similar level of revenue, it would not generate any capital receipt for improvements.  It would lead to a much larger number of redundancies among staff, a massive fall in book borrowing and a massive fall in visitors.  In other words, it would make all our libraries unsuccessful.

Are we in this together?

The Guardian carries the story that the government cuts have been skewed to hit the most deprived (generally Labour) authorities hardest, and the more prosperous (generally Tory) less.  It is even suggested that some authorities, like Tunbridge Wells, will be given substantial rises at the same time as others are struggling to balance their budgets.

Kensal Green Tube

In the Summer, I mentioned the terrible looking state of the "green" space by Kensal Green Tube Station.  This is not actually a public park but an area of land owned by Network Rail.  The land was desolated after contractor put heavy machinery and materials on it whilst they were working on the bridge over the rail line.  The contractor is obilged to put it back into its prior state at their own expense.  Currently they seem to have compacted the earth and put so much gravel in that the plants cannot grow, but I understand we are still chasing them to get the area landscaped properly.

Harlesden High Street Bottle Bank

I am glad to see that the bringbank outside 139 High Street Harlesden has finally been cleared after weeks of overflowing.  Hopefully, the glitch in it being collected will not recur, and (if there is contamination) it will be emptied in due time.

Brent Library Consultation Launched

Brent Council has now officially launched its library consultation.  You can access it here.  Note that the first consultation meeting is tonight at the Willesden Green Library Centre, although there will be plenty of other opportunities at the Area Consultative Forums.