Affordable Homes at Redbrick Blog

The gloomy future of affordable housing in London is laid out be the Redbrick blog here.  I haven't previously come across this blog, but it seems very good on the way in which social housing is being dismantled aqt the same time that the government's policies increase homelessness.

Allotment Meeting

For those who want to read them, the minutes of the meeting of Brent allotment holders are now published.  I must admit I come across as slightly more rambling than I thought I was being at the time.  It is interesting how a live event differs from a report in cold print.

LGiU Blog

By the way I have added the Local Government Information Unit Blog to the blog roll, as it seems to get updated fairly often.

Olympics Inspiremark for Kensal Green Kitchens

I understand that the Kensal Green Kitchens project that the Kensal Green councillors decided to fund from ward working has now been delivered.  This trained a number of local residents in how to run their own food business.  The project was similar to a scheme linked to the 2012 Olympics, training people for small catering operations that can take advantage of the opportunities around the Olympics next year.  It may even get a London 2012 Olympics Inspire mark.

Dollis Hill House Demolition

The Secretary of State has finally given permission for Dollis Hill House to be demolished.  I know this still upsets many who have campaigned long and hard for the House to be restored.  But I really do believe that everything that could have been tried has.

This is a short timeline of all the different attempts that have been made (taken from the Planning report last year):


1994 June Declared surplus to needs by Council.

1994 October Proposal by Whitbread PLC for reuse as a public House restaurant was resisted

by a significant lobby of local residents.

1995 June First arson attack.

1996 June Application submitted for Whitbread proposal (withdrawn August 1995).

1996 April Second arson attack.

1999 June Torkilsden & Barclay Leisure Management report concludes that reuse is

unlikely to succeed without substantial subsidy from Council.

2000 March Property marketed on open market for nine months.

2000 November Council agreed a four-month delay to allow setting up of Dollis Hill House Trust

(DHHT).

2001 November Council agrees £30,000 from insurance fund for DHHT to develop business

plan and funding applications.

2002 September Council agrees £28,350 from insurance fund to further develop DHHT business

plan.

2003 June Third arson attack.

2003 December Council Executive considers future of Dollis Hill House. Decision to demolish.

2004 Spring Brent Primary Care Trust (PCT) expresses interest in site as a community

health centre.

2004 June Gladstone Park Heritage Lottery Funded restoration scheme completed.

2005 May Brent PCT decides not to progress their proposal.

2005 September DHHT agrees to submit revised business case for consideration.

2006 October Council agrees to second marketing exercise.

2007 June Marketing exercise completed and no viable proposal obtained. One of the

bidders, Training for Life (TFL), given three months to submit a feasibility study for the future of the House.


2007 September Council officers instructed to prepare application for Listed Building consent to

demolish subject to outcome of TFL study

2008 February Council Executive gave TFL twelve months to develop full business plan,

secure capital funding and obtain planning permission.

2008 December TFL not able to progress their proposal due to funding constraints.

2009 March Council instruct DPP Heritage to submit application for Listed Building consent

for demolition of House.

Zadie Smith and Libraries

The presence of Zadie Smith in the Kensal Rise Library campaign is no doubt part of the reason for the extraordinary amount of publicity is has attracted.  It seems to be to her that we indebted for recent coverage in the Wall Street Journal, the Daily Mirror, and two Italian newspapers here and here.  It also illustrates the complicated nature of "saving" local  libraries.

In her Today programme piece, she referred to her childhood memories of Willesden Library, reminiscences that Toby Young used against her in his rebuttal to imply that she was claiming that Willesden was up for closure which she clearly did not.  Before she moved to New York, her nearest local library would have been Kilburn Library on Salusbury Road in Queens Park.  In fact, under the proposals we passed on Monday, both these libraries would benefit substantially.  Kilburn in particular, would open for seven days rather than the current five.  Both would see an improvement in stock, more events, better equipment for disabled people and (I hope) better trained and motivated staff. 

Thus, in opposing the proposals, she is actually campaigning against improving the libraries that one might have expected to be closest to her heart.  Then again, she also claimed (possibly falsely) that her family stole numerous books from Willesden library, so her approach to defending libraries has always been a bit odd.

More Clean Up Days?

This is how one of the skips at the Tubbs Road Clean Up Day last Saturday looked within a couple of hours of the start.  Fortunately, the others weren't so full, or we might have been forced to stop.  However, it does suggest that there is a lot of demand out there, so we might think about a similar exercise on a different set of streets.

Libraries Update

I don't want every post to be about libraries, even though it is the topic of the moment.  However, the Library strategy has been "called in", which means that the decision is in abeyance until the Scrutiny Committee considers it on 27 April.

There were two separate calls in, one by Tory councillors and one by Liberal Democrat councillors, although the reasons they gave were very similar.  Neither addressed any of the suggested improvements in the Strategy.

Liberal Democrat Library Plans

Cllr Paul Lorber has been so riled by my criticism of his proposals on libraries that he has sent out an email to all councillors accusing me of being misleading.  I certainly don't want anyone to be misled, so lets go through the various proposals Paul has put forward.

1) In an interview on 2 February to the Wembley Observer, he proposed setting up six charitable trusts, one for each library proposed for closure.  Each of them would get £100,000 from the Council, giving a total annual revenue cost of £600,000.  Additional revenue would be made up from unspecified fund raising and rentals.  There were no details around whether Brent staff would be working in these libraries or whether Brent would provide functions like building insurance, IT etc.

2) On 28 February, he presented what I think is quite a different proposal at Brent's budget meeting.  This was costed at £408,000, and seemed to be to keep the existing libraries working in the same way as at present i.e. as part of Brent's library service at least until groups of community activists had worked up plans how to take each building over.  No explanation was given as to how the community activists' plans would be examined, or what would happen if no one put a proposal forward.

3) The proposal he actually submitted for appraisal by the officer in the Libraries Transformation Department was different once again.  It related solely to Barham Library, and was only vaguely defined.  It suggested various dubious ways of raising money, was unclear whether he was taking over part or the whole of the Barham building (and indeed park), or how it would relate to the Trust.

He is annoyed with me because I have suggested that he never bothered to submit his first proposal, despite telling the press: "These proposals are fully costed and if the Labour Executive is serious in their promise to listen to local people they will accept these proposals and give local people a chance to save their much loved local Library.”  I still think I was right that he didn't submit prposal 1, and that far from having a costing scheme, he has only the vaguest notiuon of what he wants.  On his second option, it strikes me more as a bit of procrastination than a plan.  As for his third, I agree with the officers that it is a complete no hoper.

The two other points that strike me are: that a man who presents three quite different schemes in a two month period spending hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money is not a very serious person.  He strikes me as being more in the position of grandstanding for political advantage.  The other criticism I have is that he doesn't seem to have even begun to consider the most important issues in drawing up a strategy.  For example:

How do we design the service to meet the needs of the various equality strands?
How do we ensure that we use the limited resources we have as wisely as possible to maximise use of the service?
What do we need to do in response to technological and social change?
How do we balance the sometimes conflicting needs of different user groups?

Altogether I think I am entirely justified in regarding the Liberal Democrat response on libraries as utterly inadequate.

Cllr Lesley Jones on Libraries

My colleague Lesley Jones has posted on the national picture on Library closures.  It is worth remembering that Brent's Library Transformation Project provides for:

An enhanced online service
An enhanced outreach service to schools and children centres
Seven day opening at Brent's six libraries
Continuing investment in book stock
More IT in libraries

In other words we are looking to extend and improve the service despite all the financial challenges.

UPDATE:

I think the comment below relates not to the Chair of the Labour Group, but to the branch Chair of Kensal Green, who has a long history of denouncing all sorts of Labour politicians including numerous MPs and councillors.  If the reported comment is true, he must have forgotten that he is not empowered to decide who stands for the Labour Party and who not.

Blooming Brent's Food Growing Fair

I thought I should give a quick plug to Blooming Brent's Food Growing Fair, which you can find out about here.

Toby Young on Kensal Rise Library

Last week I spent some time talking to Toby Young for some time about Kensal Rise Library for his Spectator piece on the subject.  He is obviously determined to fight the Tory Party's corner for them by invoking the "bleeding stumps" argument.

This deeply implausible idea is that the biggest cuts in local government that anyone can remember can in fact all be accommodated without any real problems.  He thinks that Labour Councils are deliberately closing down much loved local services when they don't have to, in order to discredit the government.  The Eric Pickles line in fact.

I know that is not true in Brent, and I doubt whether it would be true anywhere.  Firstly, I know that councillors, of whatever party, get satisfaction not from closing things but from establishing them.  Experienced councillor boast about securing this service or that service.  You never hear them boasting of cutting spending or closing things down.  Secondly, how does Toby Young square his view with the many Tory Councils that are cutting services?  For instance, are the cuts being made to Tory run Barnet's children's centres cynically designed to embarrass their own government?

Library Meeting (Again)

Following on from the Executive, there will be another debate on libraries tonight, although the result of any vote will have no formal power to change the Executive decision.  I suspect both the other parties will try to use the occasion to imply they oppose the strategy without proposing an alternative.

Dexion House

I went on the Planning Committee for the first time since the last election last Tuesday (I was alternating for someone who is away).  Dexion House was one of the schemes up for approval.  This is a scheme off Empire Way in Tokyngton to provide student accomodation alongside a new swimming pool open to the public.  It was given permission.  If it goes ahead, it should help counter some of Brent's very low sports participation, at no cost to the taxpayer.

Brent Council Executive

Tonight is the night of the April Executive.  I have a suspicion, the meeting will be dominated by the Libraries Transformation Project, but there are a number of other reports worth noting including reports on school places, the possible disposal of Knowles House and changes to the Gambling regime (which sounds very technical but often gets people very concerned in practice).

Tubbs Road Clean Up Day

The Clean Up Day on Tubbs Road was almost too successful for its own good yesterday, with the two skips on Tubbs Road almost full by the middle of the morning. Fortunately, the two skips on Nightingale Road didn't get as full so there was still some space.  Well done to the Junction Association for organising such a successful event.

Labour Poll Lead

UK Polling Report has a characteristically incisive analysis of Labour's current poll lead here.  Clearly, there is no room for complacency.

Library Mythology

Some myths appear to be growing about the Libraries Transformation Report, judging from the emails I have started getting. 

The first is that the report has no equalities analysis.  Anyone who knows Brent Council would find this unlikely and if you look at the web site you can indeed find extensive information on equalities. 

A second myth is that the various proposals have not been subjected to serious analysis.  Again the web site has reports on each of them, and the report itself explains that a team of officers conducted an appraisal process in each case.  There is a related story that Brent Council has not been willing to engage with groups.  In fact I have met with people a number of times, and officers have repeatedly sent detailed figures and information on request.

A third suggestion is that Brent Council has not been responding to queries.  In fact an anonymised record of enquiries from the public can be found here.

Finally, people attending my surgery last Saturday had been told that Mr Tim Coates had arranged a meeting with Brent Council's Chief Executive to discuss Library issues.  When I asked about this, it turned out the Chief Executive had no idea who Tim Coates was, so I take it he has not even been approached.

Ward Working Themes

On Tuesday, the Harlesden Area Consultative Forum (ACF) had a discussion around Ward Working.  This is the first time that the Forum process has been used in this way, and there was some lack of knowledge of the concept.  One of the ideas brought forward was to contact landlords to encourage greater engagement with recycling by their tenants.  This sounds like a good idea, but we will have to work out how it dovetails with the publicity campign Brent runs around recycling when we start rolling out our new collection system.

English Around the World

Johnson has an interesting piece here about the countries most likely to use English around the world, especially regarding the use of English in China and India.

Rats in Hazel Road

There have been persistent complaints about rats in Hazel Road Open Space at the end closest to Kensal Green station.  I was down there with the parks department yesterday, and they will arange for some traps to be put down in the bushes by College Road.  However, it would be useful if people could stop feeding the pigeons, as the same food that attracts the pigeons also attracts the rats.

Extraordinary Council Meeting on Libraries

The Lib Dems and Tories have called for an extraordinary Council meeting on libraries.  The Mayor has called one for 13 April, which will be two days after the Executive makes a decision.

As at the budget meeting, neither the Tories or the Liberal Democrats or the Tories are suggesting an alternative strategy.  Indeed, they submitted their request for a meeting before the final Library proposals were published, so they have not engaged with them at all.

Calling for a full Council meeting is rather an odd thing to do under the Council's present Constitution.  Until about 2000, Full Council meetings could overule decisions by Council committees, so you can see the purpose.  Under the Executive system in place since then, Full Council no longer has the ability to change Executive decisions, so it is really just a talking shop.

Disappointing Scrutiny

Cllr Krupesh Hirani has a post on his experiences of Brent Council's Scrutiny process here.  Unfortunately, scrutiny in Brent suffers from an excessively partisan atmosphere, coupled with (as Krupesh notes) a serious lack of engagement in the issues.  This is unfortunate, since I believe that the Scrutiny has great potential to improve public services in Brent but outside the direct powers of the Council.

Online Library Offer

One of the proposals in the Library Transformation Strategy is to improve the online offer of Brent's libraries.  The current offer strikes me as okay, although somewhat pedestrian.  Compare it to Edinburgh's library offer, and you get an idea of which direction Brent wants to go.

Brent Libraries Report Published

The Library Transformation Strategy finally gets published today in time for the Executive on 11 April.  As well as the paper report, we will set up a microsite with all kinds of extra information.  I believe this is the first time Brent has done this.

UPDATE:

The report can be accessed here.

The Onion and Newt Gingrich

This story from The Onion made me smile.  I wonder why the UK doesn't seem to have a comedy paper as good as The Onion?

Market Regulation

Paul Krugman has an interesting example of the madness of how money markets operate here.  Yet there are still people who thing it is in principle wrong to have any kind of market regulation.

Car Clubs in Brent

Kensal Rising has a post on car clubs, and how they fit into the policy.  The point about the car club cars being allowed to park anywhere in a CPZ is that you take the car from its designated space, drive where you want to go to park, and then return it to the designated space.  Hence there will still by specific car club spaces.  However, it will make using a car club car much more attractive for people to drive to a CPZ other than their own, and should therefore increase car club take up, reducing congestion.

Why March?

Last Saturday's Independent carried an article by Tim Lott which struck me as epitomising the wrong response to the current government cuts.  It argues that the cuts have to happen sooner or later and the way or the speed at which they are done doesn't really matter.  Hence don't even bother to protest.

Firstly the scale of these cuts may well increase the deficit by destroying economic growth.  Secondly, the cuts, especially to local government, have been front loaded maximising the difficulty of meeting them through greater efficiency or reorganisation.  They are part of an ideology designed to shrink the state on a permanent basis, not a repsonse to economic conditions.

Not only is this worth protesting about, but the TUC March was the right way to protest.  Of course a demonstration is just that it doesn't in itself change everything.  But the March did demonstrate that the Tory line that it is only an unrepresntative group of public sector workers that is upset was contradicted by the sheer number and variety of those involved.

Allotment Waiting Lists in Brent

Some time ago, I posted on the steadily rising waiting list for allotments in the Borough.  I understand that the waiting list is now close to 1,000.  We really will have to look at ways of increasing supply, limiting demand and distributing allotments as fairly as possible as there appears to be no sign of the trend towards ever greater waiting lists discontinuing.

March for the Alternative

Today is finally the day for the TUC March for the Alternative.  We should never forget that the cuts facing Brent Council and other public authorities are not inevitable, but a matter of choice.  The Con Dem coalition want these cuts to implement their version of warmed over Thatcherism, and they have deliberately targeted Labour Councils for political reasons..

The more people who turn up to the March, the more impressive will be the signal sent to the government.

Another Teather U Turn

The Willesden and Brent Times reports on Sarah Teather changing her position on human rights here.  My main quarrel with this is with the first sentence: "Sarah Teather has been accused of going back on her pre-election promises for a second time since entering government."

It is not the "second time".  As well as breaking her long standing commitment against tuition fees, she and her fellow Liberal Democrats have broken their promises not to raise VAT, to implement Building Schools for the Future, not to cut public spending too far and too fast because it would cause massive economic damage and a whole host of other issues.

It would be far more newsworthy if the Willesden and Brent Times could find an example of Sarah Teather keeping a promise for a second time.

Willesden Junction in the OAPF

Disappointing to see such a limited appreciation of the area around Willesden Junction in Boris Johnson's Open Area Planning Framework for Park Royal.  In particular very little detail on the possible effect of a station for Crossrail and the proposed High Speed Rail Link.

Pollution Around Willesden Junction

There is still alot of concern around smells drifting on to Tubbs Road and elsewhere from the other side of Willesden Junction.  I don't know if these are linked to the PowerDay site or not, but I have spoken to the Environment Agency about it.  they have a problem with enforcement in that they need verified claims of smells in order to act.  Therefore it would be useful if residents could keep a log of any problems.  Of course, that still leaves the issue of verification, but it is a start.

Return to the Mayor

A commenter on my Mayor post asks whether the cost of the office can be cut back.  It is worth remembering that the office covers not just the Mayoralty, but also Brent's training for elected members (where the Council recently got an award from London Councils).  Comparison with other Boroughs is difficult as the office of Mayor can cover very different things, but the Mayor of Brent is said to be among the cheapest in London.

Eric Pickles and Council Publicity

The Local Government Chroncile covers some of the confusions in Eric Pickles pronouncements on Council publicity.  Essentially, I don't think it possible to severely restricit both the quantity and methods by which Councils communicate tot ehir residents, and simultaneously champion effective engagement with those residents.

Final Well London Event

Well London will be holding its final event _ open to all _ in Tubbs Road Pocket Park on 26 March from 2pm to 5pm to celebrate the end of the project.  If you are not going on the anti-cuts March, please come along.

The Anti-Green Greens

I see Martin Francis, erstwhile Green Party candidate in Brent North, has called for some Harlesden's green space to be built on, albeit with a building with a "very small footprint."  What is it about the so called Green campaigners in Brent that makes them campaign against environmentalist objectives?  Martin's party colleague in Brent Central last time and numerous other elections before advocates abandoning the Civic Centre apparently unfazed by the effect that that would have on the Council's carbon emissions.  Brent Friends of the Earth fought the Council's proposals to increase recycling tooth and nail, throwing in a number of absurd accusations to boot.   The same group opposed our very modest proposals to link CPZ charges to vehicle emissions.

What makes these people think that they are environmentalists?

Ward Working and the Budget

During the budget process a number of people have suggested raiding the Ward Working budget to pay for other items.  I think this fundamentally misunderstands the logic of ward working.

Ward working was set up under the last Labour administration in Brent, which plagiarised adapted the idea from Newcastle.  It is fundamentally about community engagement rather than handing out grants.  For this reason, complaints that it has too large an "administrative" budget are misguided.  The supposed "administrative" budget is in fact an engagement budget.  Propoerly engaging with the public and finding out what the community wants, especially in such an extraordinarily multi-ethnic and fast moving community as Brent, is no easy task.

The £20,000 grant that each ward is allocated is there so that when an issue is identified, there is at least some money available to address it.  As most problems require money to solve, an engagement process that had no money attached, would risk seeming impotent.  For the same reason, the ward working budget for each ward cannot be entirely swallowed up by one project.  If money was entirely allocated at the start of the year, or subject to an understanding that it would always be handed to the same groups, it would cease to be useful as an engagement tool.

Over-management at Brent Council

One of the canards that Eric Pickles and his ilk like to put is that numerous Council officers are paid more than the Prime Ministers.  This is such an obvious distraction tactic from the Tory led government's responsibility for the Cuts programme that I am surprised people fall for it, but maybe it is worth addressing.

The first thing to say is that it is probably literaly untrue.  David Cameron gets (I believe) £142,000 per year as Prime Minister.  That job does not sufficently fill his time so he also gets paid as MP for Wirtney.  As a MP, he is also entitled to various allowances, although I dare say he no longer claims for wisteria trimming.  In addition, as Prime Minister he gets the use of Downing Street, all kinds of travel and of course the use of Chequers.  I have never hired a stately home, but I imagine it would be quite expensive.  All in all, I would think his vartious emoluments are well beyond what any local authority officer is allowed to claim.

In Brent Council, it is true that we have identified that we have more management layers than we should, but the idea that we could find more than £40 million simply be eliminating "waste" is absurd.  We currently have a staffing review specifically designed to bring our management spans to what PWC have advised us is a more appropriate level.  We have already abolished the most egragious example of bureaucracy in the Council.

This was the so-called "Business Transformation dEpartment" created by Paul Lorber to oversee efficiency changes under a highly paid officer head hunted from another authority.  Although its task was supposed to be reducing management layers, it was overloaded with expensive management staff.  Indeed the unit had more managers than it had people to manage.  Unlike the most recent budget, its abolition was not greeted with demonstrations outside the Town Hall.

Alternative Vote Polling

According to the excellent UKPolling Report, the opinions of people on the Alternative Vote vary quite wildly according to how the question is phrased.  Whatever, the merits of the different systems, that is surely a powerful argument against the whole concept of referendums.

Roads and Pavements

I am glad to say that the top third of Furness Road is finally going to get resurfaced in this coming fiancial year, rather than just patched.  The Council decides its schedule of carriageway and pavement resurfacing on the basis of engineers surveys and public complaints, and Furness Road has finally been scheduled.  As you can see from the photo below, there are almost more potholes than road surface and the patching that was done last winter is already wearing away.

The other Kensal Green street to get some work will be Ancona Road, where the pavement needs to be renewed.

Paying for the Roads

Later on I will be going to the Brent Council Executive, where one of the reports will be on the coming year's investment in Borough roads.  This is separate from the Transport for London funding that makes up a lot of what we spend on transport, and comes from "unsupported borrowing."  In other words, we borrow money and fund the interest payments from our revenue.  At some point this model of funding will have to change, as a greater and greater proportion of our revenue risks being swalloed up in interest payments.

Artistsandmakers

I was interested to visit the artistsandmakers.com project in Peel Precinct in South Kilburn recently. They are renting what was previously a derelict shop down there, and doing a variety of poetry and oral history related projects down there.  They also publish a guide for anyone who things they might be interested in a similar project.

David Cameron and the Enemies of Enterprise

David Cameron's "enemies of enterprise" speech of a few days ago really depressed me, as it shows what a right wing ideologue we have running the country.  It rolled out the same tired Tory lines that government is simply paprasitic on the private sector.  It ignores that obvious value of public services like the NHS, education transport and so on in order to pretend the entire public sector accomplishes nothing.  What is really amazing though is that he is still blamed regulation, and pretending it has no useful role.

Did he not notice that the financial crisis and the consequent economic disaster were created by banks that took unsustainable risks because nobody was regulating them effectively?  Failing that, does he not remember other cases where an industry held its supposed regulator in thrall, e.g. the farming industry prior to the BSE crisis?  He seems just to be recycling thatcherite dogmas without any reference to reality.

He also made quite a misleading point about public sector procurement, suggesting that it is simply a set of meaningless rules.  In fact a lot of the procurement rules are (a) about securting value for money (b) driven by European regulations that are intended to open up the European Union for Free Trade, which Mr Cameron is upposed to favour.  Simply wishing them away is not a serious option. 

More sensible would be to do what Brent Council has been doing with the Civic Centre;  Training smaller firms in how to bid for contracts within the procurement rules.  But of course Mr Cameron wouldn't want to know about that, as it is an example of the "enemies of enterprise" actively helping the private sector.

Paul Lorber's Missing Library Plan

Back in February, the Wembley Observer reported that Brent Liberal Democrats had a plan to continue running six of Brent's libraries via trusts.  On the night of the Budget, Paul Lorber chose not make this proposal, and again failed to make it by the close of the library consultation on 4 March.

Yet Cllr Lorber told the Observer: "These proposals are fully costed and if the Labour Executive is serious in their promise to listen to local people they will accept these proposals and give local people a chance to save their much loved local Library.”


In fact, the Liberal Democrats have failed even to put their proposals forward.  Could it be that they were intended for a press release rather than a serious discussion?

Brent Allotments

Tonight I will be going to the allotments forum, where a number of people are unhappy about the rise in allotment rents.  This is entirely understandable, but the Council is forced to raise charges in all kinds of different areas in order to cope with the cuts from central government.

Although there may be many problems with a number of our sites, the allotments services has had a lot of attention over the years, with the creation of an Allotment Officer post and the Brent Allotments Forum in 2002.  Since then, there has been investment in better fencing, in toilet blocks and there are possible plans to expand the number of allotments to meet still rising demand.  However, we do need to look at management to make sure we keep the DIY culture of allotments, whilst not creating any risks by land contamination or whatever.

Local Government Chronicle Cuts Blog

The Local Government Chroncile has a rolling blog on local authority cuts here.  Among other things, it questions how realistic some local authority budgets are, given the speed at which they have had to be implemented.

Missing Lib Dem Budget Proposal: The Mayor of Brent

One of the Lib Dem proposals that was press released but mysteriously failed to be presented on Budget night was to cut back the budget for the Mayor of Brent.  Leaving aside the merits of this proposal, how does Paul Lorber expect to be taken seriously when he issues proposals to the press, and simply fails to make them in the Council Chamber?

Manor Park Road Closed Again

As I discovered on the No. 18 bus yesterday, a gas leak has closed Manor Park Road, again.  It is estimated that it will take about a week to repair.

Census 2011

The Census forms for 2011 should be coming through the letterboxes now.  As well as the paper version, you can do it online at the Census website.  The information is used to plan the provision of public services for the Council and other bodies.  Brent has traditionally been undercounted, meaning that our services get less funding than they should, so please try to fill it in.

Dogs in Parks

There is concern over proposed limits on dogs in parks. Essentially, this is about different needs by different users.  Non dog owners tend to get really annoyed by the amount of dog fouling in our parks, and not all owners are responsible.  The restriction not to walk more than six dogs is really aimed at professional dog walkers rather than a pet owner walking their own dog.

Lib Dems and Recycling

A noticable absentee from the Liberal Democrats' budget proposals was anything about recycling.  After some dithering on the issue, the Liberal Democrats eventually came out in opposition to our plans to recycle more by altering the frequency of collections.  However, they decided not to propose reversing this, or to suggest any alternative.  It does argue for a certain intellectual poverty in the Liberal Democrat group in Brent.

Libraries and the Liberal Democrats

One of the Liberal Democrats proposed budget amendments was for more youth and community activities to be run from libraries.  It does make me wonder whether they understand that running more activities from libraries is a key part of the Library Transformation Strategy.  I wonder if they even read the report before calling it in in December?

Lib Dem Budget: Car Parking Charges

Following my earlier post, I thought it might be interesting to examine some of the Liberal Democrat budget amendments to see how they stack up.  One interesting one is to lower CPZ permit charges so that no extra revenue is generated, leaving the Council short of £1.1 million compared to the Labour budget. 

I am interested in this because it shows an approach focused purely on budget numbers and not interested in the actual policy.  The Lib Dems simply ignored the whole logic of our changes, to have CPZ permits based on emissions, and simply went for a populist message of lower cost.  I find it hard to understand how they could keep the charge level at £50 (where it has now been for more than a decade), and still have a big differential between high and low polluting vehilces, so I take it they also want a flat rate _ destroying any credibility they might claim to promote green objectives.

South Kilburn Speaks This Saturday

An arts project in South Kilburn is having a reading event tomorrow.  Is this a possible sign of how the Arts could work in Brent in the future?

Fairtrade Success

By the way, I thought the Fairtrade event last night was a great success. Well done to Peter Moore and all the other people who organised it.

The Budget and the Libraries Consultation

A commenter asks how we can pass a budget before the Libraries consultation ends today.  Firstly, it is important to note that we have a legal duty to set a balanced budget by 10 March as well as a practical imperative to do so before the Council Tax bills go out for April.

However, although the budget we passed is based on certain assumptions, every year some of these assumptions turn out to to be incorrect and the actual spending turns out to be different from the spend predicted in the Budget.  For instance, we have assumptions around inflation and fuel prices which are often factored in to the amount we pay our contractors.  If we have picked the wrong level (as we may well have done) we are likely to have pay various contractors either more of less than we expected.  That is just one example.  Last year, it looked at one point as if we were going to overspend dramatically because of George Osborne's in year cuts to our budget, taking an unexpectedly high number of children into care and pressures in adult social services.  We therefore cut spending in various areas we didn't expect in order to bring the budget back into line.

If we change the proposed strategy on libraries to spend more in some way, we would need to make compensating savings somewhere else in the Budget.  If, for instance, we were to opt to keep a library open instead of closing it that probably implies making more staff redundant.  Therefore the budget decision does not automatically determine the decision on libraries.

Sarah Teather: A Rare Appearence

Sarah Teather has put in one of her increasingly rare appearences to launch a campaign around the Jubilee line closure.  This is in fact a relaunch of an old campaign that I commented on here.  Still no answers to any of the questions of course.  Sarah Teather's "campaigning" seems to consist of little more than telling people she is in favour and against the unpopular.  When her constituents need her to speak out against things like savage cuts to public services, she is strangely absent.

Fairtrade This Evening

There is a Fairtrade event this evening from 5pm at Brent Town Hall including food from social enterprise Spice Caravan.

NLGN on Shared Services

The New Local Government Network (NGLN) has rightly suggested that Eric Pickles' proposal of greater shared services as a means to avoid cuts is over optimistic.  It is also worth observing that the frontloading of the cuts means that designing shared services and implementing them is incredibly difficult if the savings are to be realised this year.

Spotted Dog

I recall giving the Spotted Dog permission for redevelopment ages ago, so it is good to see it finally in train.  Part of the conditions for its development (as a block of flats) was to demand the retention of this facade.  I am not sure how sensible it is to insist on this.  It makes it into a rather peculiar building (at least according to the designs that went in front ofg the Planning Committee.

Liberal Democrats and Reserves

One of the principal flaws in the Liberal Democrats Budget proposals last night was their use of reserves, which betrays a fundamentally mistaken attitude to the use of balances.

The Lib Dems seem to see Council reserves as a pot of money to be squirrelled away for "a rainy day" in the words of Cllr Jack Beck.  In fact reserves should be used to cover likely risks.  Our risks are huge and growing, and the Finance Director has advised that we need to put more aside to deal with them.  They include possible overspends in social services, in building projects, political inteference by the government like George Osborne's in year cuts of 2010 and so on.

We need to keep a reserve so that we can manage these risks without a panic response.  For example at one point this year we had a forecast overspend of £7.1 million, compared to reserves of only £7.5 million.  If we hadn't tackled this overspend, we would have had to cut the budget by a further £7 million on top of the central government cuts of more than £40 million.

The Liberal Democrat proposals last night were to ignore the Finance Director's advice, and use the money to avoid making difficult decisions over, for instance, Charteris Sports Centre to keep it open a bit longer.  The trouble with this approach is that at the end of using up your reserves, and possibly exposing yourself if things go wrong, you still have to close the service because the reserves eventually run out.  Proposals to continue funding services, like libraries for instance, should not be made without any analysis of the quality or sustainability of the services, and they should not be made using one off reserves that cannot support ongoing revenue committments.

Brent Council Budget

The Lib Dem and Tory attempts to derail our budget setting meeting last night failed fairly absymally, with Paul Lorber proving to be as inept in opposition as he was incompetent in office.  It is the first time for many years that Paul Lorber has failed even to pretend to present a budget.  Instead producing a series of amendments intended to be eye catching.

Of course, the Lib Dems were hampered by the obvious fact that it is their government that has imposed such a savage cut in central government grant as part of the price of jumping into bed with the Tories.  They also had some problems adjusting to some of the last minute changes to the Budget.  Evidently, they were not expecting Brent Private Tenant Rights Group, the Brent Law Centre or the Welsh Harp Educational Centre to continue to recieve funding, and lacked the debating skills to turn around their speeches once they found out that they would.

The Lib Dem / Tory Alternative

Tonight is the budget setting meeting, and I imagine it will be a lively one.  We will see whether the Liberal Democrat and Tory councillors have the courage to propose a budget.  Paul Lorber and Harshi Patel have both downplayed the extent of the cuts, and suggested that budgets can be set without affecting services.  Lets see what they come up with.

Kensal Green Kitchens

Kensal green Kitchens is a Ward Working initiative designed to use the Olympics to help people set up catering businesses.  It is specifically targeted at our Portuguese speaking community.

Brent Youth Parliament and Libraries

On Tuesday, I went to the Brent Youth Parliaamnet partly to listen to their discussion on the Library strategy, and partly to talk them a bit about what the Environment department does.  Compared to most of the adult meetings I have attended on libraries, they seemed much more polite and open minded.  Their were opinions ranging from almost hostility to libraries to concern over closures, but the biggest concern seemed to be the need for study space.  The consultation on libraries ends on 4 March, and I am sure that the report for the April Executive is going to be hugely complicated, almost as much as with the waste strategy last year.

Responding to Budget Cuts

Some of those who regard themselves as being on the Left have been critical of the current Labour administration in Brent for setting a legal, balanced budget despite the swingeing cuts imposed by the government.  I gather they want us to refuse to set a budget at all, as some authorities did in the 1980s.  My memory of the 1980s was that this was not a successful strategy, but I also wondered whether there are any examples of any local authorities anywhere in the countrey (even Tower Hamlets) trying to follow it? 

Perhaps if no one is going down that route, those who advocate it should reflect on whether it is a credible strategy.

More Distraction

Martin is still concerned over Chief Executive's pay.  I haven't looked at his payslips, but it will be a tiny fraction of 1% of Brent Council's budget.  The important thing is not to fall into the trap of focusing on minor issues, but to follow the approach of Willie Sutton, who famously robbed banks because "that is where the money is."  The question is how can the massive cut in central government grant be accomodated in a balanced budget that minimises dameage to public services?

Dollis Hill House Again

Dollis Hill House has suffered from a fire yet again.  No one has been hurt, and it is not clear if it was arson or accidental.  However, it does underline the need to sort the place out.  The Secretary of State has had our demolition application on his desk for months.  Each month he waits we have to pay for the scaffolding surrounding the building at a time when budgets are under severe pressure.

Willesden Junction

A longer perspective on Willesden Junction is offered here.  Willesden Junction is such a potential opportunity for Brent, especially with Crossrail and a High Speed Rail link coming up, that is is tragic to see the lack of attention given to it, even the lack of basic maintenance.

Liberal Democrats and the Mayor

I see Cllr Paul Lorber has returned to one of his favourites _ proposing the reduction or abolition of the office of Brent Mayor.  Leaving aside the arguments about whether the Mayoral budget is the right one, the current allocation of the Mayor's office was voted through in March 2010.  This was under a budget proposed by Paul Lorber and voted through with the support of the Liberal Democrats and Tories.

Kenton By Election

So the Tories got through in the Kenton By election with a 6% lead.  I still think it is impressive that Ellie May Southworth got so close, given that Kenton has never been represented by anyone other than Tory councillors.  It is difficult to compare reasonably to the 2010 result, because of the simultaneous General Election, but in 2006 the Tory with the lowest majority was still 800 votes ahead of Labour.

The worst result was for the Liberal Democrats who found themselves knocked into fourth place by an independent, Robert Dunwell.

The Brent Magazine and the Government Code

Roy Greenslade has some good points on Council papers here, but he doesn't cover the political angle.  Certainly in the case of the Brent Magazine changing it from a monthly to a quarterly publication does not save money.  It may actually cost us more.

This is because quarterly publications are less attractive to advertisers (which cover most of the cost of the Brent Magazine), and the Council has to publish a number of notices regarding planning etc. by law.  Some of these may have to be diverted to commercial papers, making the whole exercise more expensive.  Given the popularity of the Brent Magazine as a source of news, cutting it back may not even be popular with local people. 

Nor does it fit in with the goivernment's supposed committment to localism for it to insist on the number of times a Council publishes a newsletter.

I suspect the real reason for this attempt to reduce Council's freedom over publicity is that the government is afraid of Council's telling people that the cuts come from central government.  Councils can't do this in a political way, of course, because of long standing restrictions on local government communications with regard to party politics.  However, they can giive a factual description.  Such a factual description wopuld have to say something like "Your Council gets most of its money from central government.  Central government is cutting back this money on a massive scale.  That is why there are cuts to local services."  That reads like a condemnation of the government to any reasonable person, and that is why Eric Pickles is trying to stop straightforward factual information from bneing circulated.

Willesden Library Dead Frontage

Following on my post of yesterday, here is a photo of Willesden Library's dead frontage on Brondesbury Park.  As far as I know, this space is only every used for an occasional French market, which seems a dreadful waste of space.  I am sure a commercial developer would have put in some active shop fronts.

Willesden Library Centre and the Public Realm

There has been some disquiet about a possible rebuild of Willesden Library Centre.  I don't know whether such a rebuild will happen.  A key issue will be whether such a scheme could pay for itself through house sales, but thinking about it has caused me to look again at how the Library Centre interacts with the rest of the area, and for the most part it doesn't.  This view from the car park actually strikes me as being one of the better views of what is a very inward looking building.

Cllr James Denselow Blog

I forgot to add my colleague Cllr James Denselow of Queens Park to my list of blogs earlier.  As well as local issues, James also writes about the Middle East.

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.