Brent Council Executive Tonight

Brent Council will be holding an Executive tonight covering the new school build and the new food growing strategy as well as some quite interesting stuff around Meanwhile leases. Meanwhile lease are designed to prevent the blight of boarded up shops that you see in some areas, and are a mechanism that Brent is seeking to use to blunt some of the effect of George Osborne's recession.

Problems at Seneca

There has been plenty of publicity about problems at the Seneca recycling plant.  The Environment Agency is the responsible regulator and they have issued instructions to sort the problems out.  Three areas have been involved and there has been a temporary stoppage in the waste processing, but I understand that it is in the process of being sorted out.

Predetermination

There is another post on the supposed inevitable shrinking of the state here.  What interests me is not the gloomy prediction around the Coalition government's destruction of local services, but the comments. They all seem to fall into pre-existing categories of thought. Almost as if the authors had not read the piece that they are commenting on.

Dollis Hill House Almost Complete

I went to see the new structure that replaces Dollis Hill House in Gladstone Park a couple of days ago.  It has not yet had the soft landscaping, but you can see what it will look like.  Once a cafe is installed in the Stables building next door, it has the potential to become a real attraction for that area.  Much better than the derelict ruin that it has been for almost twenty years.

Olympic Parking

Before the Olympics, there were dire predictions about the Olympic Route Network and how disruptive it would be. In fact, it all seems to have turned out very well.  I was recently told that Brent issued only two parking tickets on its Olympic lanes during the games period.

Brent School Expansion

Next Monday's Executive has a hefty report on expanding Brent's school places.  The most pressing issue is primary school places, where we have shortages across the Borough.  However, there is a rapidly looming problem of secondary school places.  Not only do we not have funding for secondary places at the moment (following Sarah Teather abolishing Building Schools for the Future), we also don't have a clear site to build on.  I well recall some of the desperate suggestions made for sites when the Liberal Democrats were trying to delay or block the ARK Academy.  Thank goodness that school eventually got built.  Otherwise we would be short by an additional 1700 places.

Olympics

Now that the Olympics are over I feel some relief that Brent didn't see any major difficulties in hosting the events.  It is a tribute to the planning and professionalism of our officers.  It also contrasts with the debacle of G4S, something i hope government ministers reflect on next time they unthinkingly priase the private sector at the expense of the public.

ASB Training

I was interested in this report suggesting training people in how to handle low level anti-social behaviour.  It certainly sounds like a good idea in principle, although I wonder how one would make i work in practice.

Willesden parking

Martin Francis has been told by Sainsburys that they have no obligation to provide parking to any but their own customers. My understanding is that the Willesden Sainsburys has a planning obligation to provide car parking to Willesden Town Centre under a deal originally laid down by planning in the 1980s.

Food Growing Report

Next week's Executive will contain a report on our proposed food growing and allotment startegy.  This started in opposition, when we discovered that the waiting list for allotments appeared to be growing at an alarming rate.  Taking a closer look there appeared to be a double counting problem.  The new strategy now goes beyond traditional allotments to include forms of communal gardening as well.

Reverter

A couple of comments have come In on the reverted clause on the former library in Kensal Rise. There appears to be an assumption that Brent Council could simply use the building for any purpose.

This was never the case.

All Souls College have always been clear that if the building ceased to be used as a library, it would automatically revert to them.  As I understand it, their view is that the building automatically reverted on 3 February. They wrote to theCouncil shortly after to that effect.

The building is now being considered as a possible school site. Had it been considered prior to the reverter triggering, my understanding is that All Souls would have objected, as they did to the proposed children centre in Cricklewood Library about five years ago.

Update on Library Buildings

Those who read Brent Council Executive papers, a fairly select group I imagine, may have spotted that the report on school places published yesterday included a reference to the former Kensal Rise library building.  Council officers are exploring the possibility of using it to expand Princess Frederica school just the other side of the bridge.  Of course, there is no guarantee that this will happen as All Souls College may want to dispose of it elsewhere.

Further Details

My post of Monday appears to have stirred some interest.  People may be interested in the text itself:

"The purpose of the bid is not to provide a branch library.


Our proposal was to provide funding for refurbishment so that we could offer a number of services to the community, not least the provision of a free comunity space (with all the attendant benefits that such an environment can provide).

We particularly want to engage with children and young people offering them a place to work and/or study and to have resources to enable them to access education and employment.

This is a community initiative which has examined what it thinks this community needs and would like to be instrumental in meeting that need.

It goes beyond the provision of a council run small branch library."

Elearning in Brent Libraries

Justin Tomlinson MP recently suggested that libraries should force anyone who wanted to borrow an ebook to physically go to the library, which I thought a pretty crazy idea. Brent is trying to develop its online offer in a better managed way.  We will shortly make about 500 elearning courses in all sorts of subjects available via the Brent Libraries website.  These will be accessible to anyone with a library card and an Internet connection, including the Internet connection in a Brent library. That strikes me as a way cof spreading learning that actually uses the advantages of new technology rather than tries to bend it to old ways of working.

Manufacturing in London

The Guardian has an interesting reminder of London's manufacturing prowess, which seldom features  in accounts of the city. Whether the suggested role of local government in promoting manufacturing is likely to succeed is more open to doubt.

Local Government Pay in Brent

When we setting the budget in the first year of the administration, it was often suggested that the best way to make the required savings was to cut the pay of all Council staff. We didn't go down that route, but it is still occasionally suggested so it is useful to explain why it is a bad idea.

Firstly, there are practical difficulties. People often suggest that it should only be the most senior staff whose pay is cut, but this has the twin problem that that would not save more than a small proportion of the budget, and it would look like victimisation (which is illegal). Councils that gone down this route have therefore made all their staff reapply for their jobs at a lower rate.  The trouble with this is that you are incentivising your best staff to go to other employers, and you also damaging people's morale.  When this was done in Southampton, the Tory administration there also had to contend with bitter industrial action.

However, the effect that would most worry me would be the inevitable demoralisation of staff.  Since it is the staff who deliver all the services, devaluing their contribution would lead to worse services and the possibility of a downward spiral of decline.

Dramatic Change in Kensal Rise

In a remarkable turnaround the Friends of Kensal Rise Library have now written to Brent Councilsaying that they do not wish to run a library at the All Souls College owned building in Bathurst Gardens. How odd is that, after almost two years of campaigning for a library at that very site?

Judicial Review in Doncaster

I am intrigued by the recent decision in Doncaster, where a Court has upheld the right of the elected Mayor to ignore a budget amendment passed by the overwhelming majority of councillors.  If they aren't able to even pass a budget, I find it hard to imagine what the function of councillors in a Mayoral system is.

Well Done LIFT

I am delighted that LIFT, which used to be known as Brent Homeless Users Group, has been recognised with its programme with volunteers.

Trees in Brent

I recently had a bit of casework removing epicormic growth round street trees.  This is where a lime tree has horizontal shoots coming out of the trunk, often obstructing the pavement.  This caused me to find out that Brent is in the top quartile in London for the density of its street tree coverage.  Apparently, we have no fewer than 27,000 street trees.

Harlesden Library Celebrates Jamaican Independence

Harlesden Library is holding a day celebrating Jamaican independence on 6 August.  The 6 August marks the fiftieth anniversery of Jamaican independence.

Park House Application

Park House, which is the derelict building opposite the Salvation Army on Manor Park Road, got planning permision to be developed as flats some time ago.  A new developer has put in an application to extend the permission beyond the usual expiry date.  This is a power that was introduced under the last Labour government as part of an effort to encourage developemtns despite the recession.

Public Lending Right

I note that the government's confusion over whether volunteer libraries are subject to Public Lending Right continues. The minister appears to be trying to evade responsibility. It is of piece with the complete failure to work out any kind of legal or regulatory regime for the Big Society in general.

Recycling Point on Park Parade

As a result of resident concerns, the Council have installed a recycling point on Park Parade.  It will be interesting to see whether this succeeds in improving the look of the street.

Torch Relay in Brent

A video of the Torch Relay through Brent is now available here.

Beds in Sheds

Brent Council is undertaking a major effort to tackle "beds in sheds".  This is likely to become an evermore serious problem as the cost of housing remains unaffordable and the growing population leads to more overcrowding.  It is also the kind of thing that Councils will be able to if they have sufficent money to go beyond the bare legal minimum of services.  In other words, unless local government funding is changed to avoid the "graph of doom" scenerio, such efforts will cease to be made.

Graffiti

Cllr Lesley Jones mentions the recent conviction of a graffiti vandal from Liddell Gardens.  One sometimes hears the term victimless crime, but graffiti seems to me to be a profitless one.  I wonder how he feels at being given a one year sentence for doing something that didn't even benefit himself.

Reading Agency Challenge

Publicity is well under way for the Reading Agency's Summer Reading Challenge for children, including in Brent.  However, Brent also featured in the launch of a smaller scheme aimed at adults.  In fact we hosted the national launch this year.  Brent was picked because we had more particpants than any other authority in the previous year.  This year, we had 581 residents enroll _ more than we have ever had before.  This makes us the second most successful recruiter in the UK, and the most successful library service.  A key part of this success comes from the links that the Library service has built up with BACES as a result of co-location in Harlesden Library.

The Osborne Disaster

George Osborne is getting a well deserved hammering for his disastrous economic policies.  Many of the commentators are demanding that he adopt a Plan B, but I think in fact he has started to.  The trouble is he can't admit it, because that would be an admission that his entire economic policy has been completely wrong.  Nonetheless, quantative easing, releasing lending by banks and most recently talk of capital investment for housing and other infrastructure are all ways of admitting the economy needs a stimulus and therefore the overzealous tightening of public spending is self defeating.

Olympics today

Unfortunately I got only a brief look at the Torch bearer on OLympic Way this morning. The crowds were so great you couldn't see much. However, I spent much longer in the Olympic celebration event at King Edward VII park in Wembley. The other great benefit of today was the glorious sunshine.

Torch Relay Today

The Olympic Torch is coming through Brent this morning.  It travels from Sudbury, around the Stadium and over to Fryent. 

Brent Libraries Online Offer

Part of the point of Brent Council's Libraries Transformation Project was to adapt to new technology.  We are still very early in this process, but it is likely to involve a better online service and more use of ebooks.  Indeed, it may become increasingly common for Brent Library users to search the library catalogue online, and download books over the Internet _ meaning that some people may not make a physical visit to a library at all.

The June figures for the Brent Libraries web site show an increase of 36% in views compared to the same period last year.  They also show a 65% increase in ebook downloads.  Both of those sound like big numbers, but I suspect we will shortly see a much bigger jump as ebooks become more established.

Technology and Car Clubs

The Economist has an interesting piece on the changing technology around car clubs.  The technology, and particularly internet enabled phones, should make car clubs easier and easier to use.  This should be good in terms of reducing congestion, improving air quality and helping reduce the cost of living for occasional car drivers.

Ant like Organisation

Flip Chart Fairy Tales, which is always imaginative, considers the links between ant behaviour and general organisations.  This has already been noticed in fiction.  HG Wells wrote a short story in which he imagines ants forming a huge empire through ruthless conquest, and John Wyndham had a similar theme (with spiders) for his last novel Web. 

Seneca Wall

The Seneca Wall that I went to see on Wednesday vastly exceeded my expectations.  Not only is 180 metres long, it is also about 2.5 metres high so the effect is spectacular.  You can see it on your left as you north up the Jubilee line.

The artwork has 15 panels done by artists in collaboration with local youngsters.  The Seneca web site has more pictures of all the panels.  The panel above was done by kids from Barham primary school.  The panels are all made from recycled materials to demonstrate Seneca's belief in waste as a resource.  All this came as a way for Seneca to try to reduce graffiti on the side of their building, so it is also a very imaginative way of dealing with anti-social behaviour.

Unfortunately the sheer scale of the mural makes it hard to give a real impression of how impressive it is.  However, here is a photo of my favourite panel:

Volunteers and Public Libraries

Some of the tensions around volunteer run libraries can be gleaned from the comments on this piece.  I think the points about job substitution and  quality of service are sound ones.  The whole Big Society concept seems to me to be based on the idea that public services are fairly easy to deliver. 

In fact, to do the job adequately volunteer run libraries would need a great deal of support.  The most likely source of that support would be the Council.  Therefore I suspect that Boroughs like Camden, where three volunteer run libraries have been opened, will find that the volunteer libraries actually turn into a drain on the public library service as staff from the Council are pushed to spend time and money propping up the volunteers. 

On a small scale we saw this with the Kensal Rise Library scheme.  The scheme we rejected in April 2011 explicitly wanted public subsidy.  The unsolicited proposal put in subsequently was rejected as the reverter clause had been triggered, and we no longer had any legal say over the building.  However, my view is that the proposal concerned in fact would have ended up costing the Council a great deal of money and time, and I think this is confirmed in that the same group subsequently made two demands that would have cost the Council.  One was for ward working funds to the tune of £60,000 for various building works not included in the original proposal.  The other was that the bookstock actually in the building be left there, which would mean either a reduction in book stock across Brent libraries as a whole, or more spending to replace the books.

Incidentally, it is odd that a number of blogs and newspaper articles seem to take the line that volunteer run libraries will inevitably fail and are even an insult to professional libraries as devaluing their skills (a view I sympathise with), but then blame Brent Council for not supporting a volunteer run library at Kensal Rise.  The well known Public Libraries News blog is just one example of this kind of inconsistency.

I suppose it depends on how seriously you take the comment made by Phil Bradley in the thread I started with:

"This may of course mean that we end up with libraries being closed, with nothing to replace them. Doubtless some people will then criticise various library groups for not fighting to keep libraries open at any cost. I think we need to strongly make the point that - as I've said time and time again - a library without a librarian isn't a library, it's a collection of books. We need to focus on the activities in a library, run by librarians, rather than the artifacts. We don't talk about brain surgeons as people who weild scalpels, we talk about them in terms of saving lives. Librarians help people find jobs, increase literacy, help protect the vulnerable, teach and inspire. Etc. etc. etc."

Making the most of Brent's Library Space

One of the reasons people were resistent to the Brent Libraries Transformation Project was the perception that one Library is much the same as another, so a reduction in numbers must make things worse.  This is not really true.  We can see from the dramatically different footfall of the bigger libraries that some are a lot more attractive than others.

We also know that we are already making much better use of our libraries as a result of our libraries being open seven days a week.  It is less appreciated that we have managed to redesign our libraries to make them more effective.  After refurbishment, Ealing Road library has five new PCs, and ten more study spaces.  The Town Hall Library also has five new PCs and ten extra study spaces.  Harlesden Library has been reconfigured to give an extra seven study spaces.  Thus, we have an extra ten PCs and 27 study spaces from the same buildings.  The longer opening hours at these three libraries also mean that these resources spend less time standing idle.

Artwork

Later today I am going to the unveiling of a 180 metre mural done by artists and local children near the Seneca plant, close to IKEA.  They say it is the largest such mural in Europe.

Brent Population Grows

Brent's population has grown, according to the just released figures from the 2011 Census.  The new figure is 311,200, compared to 263,500 in 2001.  This is an increase of more than 18% (with London as a whole going up by 14%).  An extra 59,000 people is roughly equivalent to an extra four and a half local government wards.

Area Forum Rescheduled

The Harlesden Area Forum, which was cancelled on the tenth (due to another meeting) has now been rescheduled for 24 July.

Paralympics Torch Relay

Brent will see the paralympic torch come through on 29 August.  The route of the torch is likely to be through the southern part of the Borough.

Massive Increase in Brent's Libraries Outreach

My post on Saturday only covered the outreach programme around Kilburn Library, and I have been asked whether there is further outreach across Brent . Indeed there is. 

Brent Libraries service are delivering to 48 sites around the Borough.  This includes places like the St Raphaels Intergenerational Centre.  Since the diverting of the 206, the public transport links of the St Raphaels estate, never wonderful, have got mush worse, so that site is particularly welcome. There have also been stalls at particular events, like the Diamond Jubilee celebrations. 

The numbers are that in the April to June quarter, Brent Libraries outreach issued more than 10,000 items, which represented an increase of more than 700% on the same quarter last year.

Wrottesley Road Surface Water Flooding

There were two areas of conspicious flooding on Wrottesley Road.  As a result of the resurfacing, the camber of the road has been redesigned to discourage this "ponding".  The gullies are also supposed to have been cleared, although I have asked the department to take a second look, as I believe this has not been done properly.

Outreach from Brent Libraries

The refurbishment of Kilburn Library, which amazingly the Liberal Democrats frequently criticise, has helped Brent Library service to be much more imaginative about its outreach service during the interim.  I wish some of the people who criticise the Libraries Transformation Project would pay more attention to all the good work the Libraries staff do.

Since work began at Kilburn Library, the staff have visited about 3,000 children in Brent school assemblies to publicise the Summer Reading Challenge.  They have also set up book deposit collections at Cost, Starbuck's, Gail's Cafe, Salusbury Road Primary School and Princess Frederica Primary School.  I gather there is an adult reading group based in Costa, and an under five group in Gail's Cafe.  There is also an outreach service based in BACES Carlton Centre in South Kilburn.

I doubt whether any of this would be happening without the refurbishment or the wider Libraries Transformation Project, suggesting that what might appear a downside can be turned to good account.  Of course, when the refurbished library opens in September, we will also get a much improved Library.

Recycling in Town Centres

Brent Council has tweaked the waste clearence in the Borough's Town Centres to start separating recycling waste more effectively.  The first week has seen this piloted in Harlesden Town Centre, and more tons have been recovered.  It is estimated that rolling the scheme out across the entire Borough will lead to an increase in recycling of about 1,000 tons.

Eric Pickles and Propaganda

I see that once again Eric Pickles has been complaining about propaganda in local government.  In fact, local Councils follow strict restrictions and the publi8city they do produce is non-partisan and often legally mandated.  In contrast, Pickles own department is currently embarked on a major propaganda campaign promoting the Right to Buy.  This has included paying for posters around the country, but even gone to the extent of giving Councils a standard template letter to send to Council tenants.  A striking example of Eric Pickles' own politicisation of government publicity and contempt for local democrary i practice as opposed to rhetoric.

Planning and Overcrowding

There is a lot of anecdotal evidence that the Tory government's changes to housing benefit are leading to an increase in overcrowding.  It is said that a number of rapacious landlords are erecting buildings in their gardens without planning permission or proper certification in terms of things like fire safety.  Brent's plannng service will be devoting resources over the coming months to try to work out how extensive this problem actually is.  Where it occurs, we will use enforcement powers _ planning, health and safety or whatever _ to stamp it out.

Brent Council last night

I suppose I should report on the meeting of full Council last night, but it was really rather humdrum.  We took a decision to implement new standards arrangements as a result of the localism Act, and passed a few inconsequential motions and that was it.

UPDATE:

The option of retaining the previous balance of the Standards Committee was not a real one.  The government has revoked the previous conditions that allowed the Standards Committee to have a special make up, so it now falls under the standard rules of "political balance" i.e. the Committee has to have a membership that reflects the political make up of the Council.

Harlesden ACF Tonight

Unfortunately, the Harlesden Area Forum tonight has had to be postponed.  Hopefully it will be possible to hold it before the beginning of the summer break.

Brent Library Members Increase

As we get further along the road of the Libraries Transformation Project, we start to make real progress.  In April to June quarter, Brent Libraries signed up more than 4,300 new members, many of them as part of the Council's Every Child a Library Reader scheme.   That compares to 4,050 new members for the same quarter last year, an increase of 6%.  It is good that the Library staff can now concentrate on actually promoting the Library service, rather than constantly dealing with vexatious FoI requests.

Sacrilege in King Edward VII Park Wembley

Among the attractions at the Torch Relay on 25 July will be a massive party at King Edward VII Park Wembley.  Most startling will be Sacrilege, an installation artwork there for the day, but there will be a number of other attractions, including the culmination of Brent Dance Month..

Ebook Lending

Dan Jarvis has called for a taskforce to examine ebooks and public libraries, which has sparked a debate.  I have commented before that I think charging for ebooks is a far bigger threat to library services than building closures.  In a few years, ebook readers will be so prevalent that libraries that do not offer ebook lending will not be offering a universal service.  I think Justin Tomlinson's idea of only allowing ebook lending through a physical visit to a library pretty crazy, and the idea of charging abhorrent..  What kind of a service makes itself deliberately hard to access?

Universal Reading Offer

The Reading Agency has come up with the idea of a universal reading offer for libraries.  This is partly an atytempt at a form of shared services, but I suspect it will have more usefulness in benchmarking a standard group of library services. 

The danger in most authorities is that that they preserve nominal libraries, i.e. the buildings, but cut back on the opening hours, staff skills and activities.  Cutting back on all these can be readily achieved without the publicity that a building closure involves.  Evolving a widely used set of activities could serve as a benchmark that would make that kind of rosion in service quality much harder.

Standards at Brent Council

The next Brent Council meeting is on Monday and will see a major overhaul of the Standards system.  This is driven by the Localism Act, and has the effect of much reducing the demands on Councillors to follow rules of conduct.

The most serious offences are left to criminal prosecutions.  Suspension of the sort in the Bertha Joseph case, will no longer by possible.  The sanctions will be decided on by a politically balanced committee, which I would have thought opens the way to partisan abuse, and will be confined to demanding an apology, removing someone from a committee or giving them training. 

The long standing practice of declaring either a personal or prejudical interest will also be replaced by a new concept of a pecuniary interest.  However, the Standards Committee may end up with more to do, as the rules on dispensations are made much looser.

Willesden Green Library Centre

Willesden Green Library Centre will come to Brent Council's Planning Committee later than originally expected.  This is to allow further design work in order to take on board public concerns.  The new plan is for a scheme to go before the Planning Committee later in the year.

Dire Predictions

Last week's grim prediction on the financial future of local government is covered by Flip Chart Fairy Tales.  The outlook is so dire that somewhere in the UK we are likely to see a local authority simply collapse long before 2020.  What Flipchart Fairy Tales fails to pick up on is that the numbers of users is inverse proportion to the amounbt of money spent on the service.  Many of the social care users cost a huge amount per hear, whereas universal services like transport and highways are likely to face severe cuts despite being used by vastly greater numbers of people.

Schools and Olympics

My colleague Lesley Jones points out that a school in her ward and one in mine will have a particular role in the Olympics.  Well done to both Furness Primary School and St Andrew and St Francis School for being selected.

Dollis Hill House as was

I posted some pictures of the work currently underway at Dollis Hill House here and here.  It might be useful to contrast them with how the site looked in the recent past above.  I have explained why it was not practical to restore here.  The long history of attempts to find a way of restoring the House are here.  Keeping the building in the state it was in the photograph above costabout £25,000 or more per year.

Leafleting Concerns

The consultation on the amendment for leaflet regulations has now ended.  There were zero responses.  This confirms me in my view that the controversy over the whole thing was an artificial hype being whipped up two well known anti Labour activists just before the GLA elections.

Foxes and Brent Council

I occasionally get enquiries about foxes, and what Brent Council does about them.  As this falls under either the Environmental Health or Animal Welfare parts of my portfolio, I thought a short posting might be advisable.

Brent Council, like most Councils, encourages prevention of fox problems by such measures as secure housing of livestock and not leaving food waste outside.  Unfortunately, suburban housing gives foxes just the mix of foods and cover that they like best. 

Brent Council does not trap or kill foxes as it tends to be expensive and ineffective.  Foxes are territorial and will make their way back to their original patch if left even many kilometres from it.  Killing foxes even in huge numbers would not prevent them breeding, and simply replenishing their populations.  More can be learnt about urban foxes here and here.

Civic Centre Topping Out

The Civic Centre topping out is now complete, with even the weather being co-operative.  It is remarkable to think that this time next year, the centre itself will be fully occupied.

Draft Cemetaries Strategy at Last

It seems ages ago since we initiated a review of cemetaries, but the draft is now an item for discussion in the various Area Forums.  It will feature at the Harlesden Area Consultative Forum (ACF) on 10 July.

Brent Civic Centre Topping Out

Brent Civic Centre is getting its topping out tomorrow, which is a major milestone on the way to completion.  Council workers will only start moving into it between March and June next year.  The new Wembley Library will open there in June 2013, which should create a major boost in the number of people using Brent libraries.

More Tory Cuts

The Guardian gives a rather grim prognosis for local government during LGA Conference week.  The idea of a 20% cut in financing on top of the last rounds of cuts strikes me as impossible to sustain.

Martin Francis Insinuates

Martin Francis insinuates that Brent Council is going to build on Fryent Country Park.  In fact, he must be aware that I have stated that that is absurd, as he commented on the post concerned.  Any attempt to build on urban green space would be fraught with difficulty for the following reasons:

• It would breach the Labour Party's pledge in 2010 to "Continue our long standing policy of protecting public parks and open spaces".  Bizarrely, I think we were the only party to make a pledge like this.  I don't recall the Green Party mentioning the issue.
• It would obviously arouse widespread political opposition outside the Labour Party.
• It would run contrary to Brent and London planning guidance, which both seek to protect open space.
• It would sit uneasily with Brent Council's concerns about promoting public health and physical exercise.

Ironically, the only person I can recall advocating building on green space in Brent is Martin Francis!  I have argued before that this is part of Brent's supposedly environmentalist groupings to oppose environmentalist objectives. 

Turning back to reality, Brent Council is seriously considering rolling up grounds maintenance in a wider cleaning/waste management contract.  This may well save money.  It would also do away with our existing usage of having one set of people to clean parks and a second set to clean grass verges (sometimes even those verges right by parks!).  If that is the way Brent Council decides to go, it would be a very large contract subject to all the usual EU procurement rules.  The staff would also be protected by the standard TUPE laws.

Such arrangements are already in place among a number of London Councils.

Use of Olympic Logos

I have commented before about the strange restrictions that surround use of the Olympics logos. I know that many schools are planning sports events that tie in with the Olympics, so I hope they are careful not to infringe what LOCOG regard as their commercial prerogatives.  This is particularly difficult if there are commercial sponsors of the school event who might be seen as benefiting from the Olympic theme.  Advice can be obtained from LOCOG. 

The picture above should be okay as it was taken before 2012 and therefore relates to a previous games.

More Kensal Green Issues

I should update on a few more ward issues.  Residents at the junction of Rucklidge Avenue and Park Parade may be pleased to learn that a year long dispersal zone is being introduced to try to deal with the anti-social behaviour issues down there. 

The Willesden Social Club development was approved, which should mean that the area attracts fewer undesirables.  In conjunction with the redevelopment of the Green Man, I think this will effectively design out a lot of the problems.

The resurfacing of Wrottesley Road is also now complete, with just some line marking left to do.

Poster at Kensal Green?

I seem to be getting a lot of planning casework recently.  I was tackled in the street about a possible commercial poster near Kensal Green Tube.  The suggested site is on the Network Rail owned land by the Tube Station; the same land that was used by the engineers when they were strengthening the bridge.  It does noes strike me as a good site for a poster either aesthetically or in road safety terms.

New Homes Bonus?

A tale of perverse incentives and playing the system in housing has been uncovered by former minister Nick Raynsford.  Given the scale of this country's housing crisis, it really does feel as if national policy is simply about rearranging the furniture rather than solving the problem.

Keeping Going During the Olympics

Despite a great deal of publicity, I still hear worrying anecdotes that some firms are not prepared for the traffic problems surrounding the Olympics.  There is likely to be disruptio, especially in the area around Wembley Stadium. TfL have been trying to make people aware of this for months, with some help from Brent Council in terms of leafleting and door knocking.  There will be two more roadshows for people in July.

The basic advice is:

• Try to get non-perishable items (e.g. paper) delivered in advance of the games period.
• Where there are perishable items (eg food) try to get deliveries arranged outside peak traffic times
• Understand where the Olympic Road Network (ORN) is, so that it does not disrupt your business
• Encourage staff to work at home during busy times if possible.

More detailed advice can be accessed here.

Electrical Waste

It is reported that there has not been a significant rise in discarded televisions despite the digital switchover in London.  This surprises me.  The figures also show two trends that have become increasingly evident over time.  The first is that the recession is leading to a fall in waste arisings, and the second is that product design is reducing the weight of waste when products are discarded.

Olympic Torch Relay in Brent

I attended a briefing on the Olympic Torch's route through Brent on Monday (I am Lead member for the Olympics).  The route is finalised and there will be a major celebration event in King Edward VII park (the Wembley one).  Some of the street dressing has already gone up, and the rest should be in place by the beginning of July.

A curious sidelight of the Torch's progress I thought was its detour to Dublin.  Under UK law citizens of the Irish Republic are "non foreign" _ the only people to come into that category.  I wonder whether there is any other country where the Torch has done a preliminary visit to an independent country?

Free Legal Advice at Brent Town Hall

Brent's library service is trying out a new online legal advice service.  This will be free to Brent library users in Brent Town Hall library.  Brent Council is working in partnership with Instant Law UK to deliver the service from 10am to 5.30pm Monday to Friday.  It is another of the service enhancements that we are pushing forward as a result of the Libraries Transformation Project.

UPDATE

I should have explained that part of the offer is for secure video conferencing.

Wrottesley Road Resurfacing Underway

I am glad to see that the resurfacing of Wrottesley Road is finally underway.  It should be completed in a couple of days.

More Pictures of Dollis Hill House

I just thought I would add a couple more pictures of Dollis Hill House to yesterday's post.  These show the special kind of paving that English Heritage apparently insisted on.

George Osborne Admits He is Wrong

George Osborne Admits He is Wrong.  No really.  At least that is the logic of his stimulus package as explained by Jonathan Portas.  I think Osborne has actually been moving this way for a while, but I guess you can't admit that your entire economic policy has been totally counter productive.

Energy from Waste Plant

There have been some rumours of a planning application in Ealing not far from the borders of Kensal Green.  There is indeed such an application, for a energy from waste plant.  This obviously raises a number of potential issues around increased traffic and diminished air quality.  Brent Council has already objected.

The actual application details are here.

Dollis Hill House Replacement nears Completion

The replacement structure for Dollis Hill House is nearing completion having been delayed by various gremlines, most recently the wet weather.  The walls are now complete.  Most of the paving is now done.  Access to the cafe area is improved.  There is still some technical issue about which tree species to plant. 

The Stables buil;ding has also had a refurbishment.  Although it is envisaged that it will be a cafe, there will be some requirement for community events to have access there.

Altogether, it strikes me as much better than maintaining a derelict building. 

Police Numbers

The perverse effects of concnetrating on "police numbers" rather than actual outcomes are analysised by Dave Hill here.  He argues that getting rid of support staff has merely caused trained officers to do the jobs that could have been done by cheaper civilans.

Library Statistics

The library statistics for Brent in April and May are now available.  I don't think that they portray quite the disaster that the (anti?) library campaigners try to depict.  Instead, I think we are steadily building the service now that we have finally completed all the legacy issues from the legal actions and re-organisation.  However, the most striking figure is the enormous jump in ebook lending.  The overall number remains small, but at that rate of growth it is likely to become a significant part of the service within a couple of years.

Willesden Social Club Site Visit

The Planning Committee should be turning up to view the site of the former Willesden Social Club this morning at about 11.15am.  Whilst I know some people remain concerned about the size of the building, I think it important that the site finally get developed.  I first started a petition for its development in 2005, and it had been derelict for a long time even then.

Brent Council Tax Support

Brent Council's proposed changes to Council Tax support are now available online.  These sort of changes are being forced on all local authorities by central government, which is cutting the available funding by about 10%.

How do you measure the success of a library?

How do you measure the success of a library?  I have been pondering this issue as we start moving ahead with Brent's Libraries service.  During the Project itself, we concentrated on two measures which are of standard use around the country _ visitor numbers and book loans.

However, I think that changes in usage are likely to affect the interpretation of these numbers.  The growing use of the Internet and ebooks is likely to reduce visitor numbers.  This is because, people will be able to use at home or mobile Internet access to search an online catalogue rather than having to go to a building to look up the books, order them  and then come back later to collect them.  If they are ordering an ebook, they might do so without setting foot in the library at all.  If the general assumption, that ebooks will take up an increasing share of the book market is true, this will tend to create an important category of use which mere visitor numbers ignore altogether.  Again, if we believe that library services include encouraging reading, that might be attained through online discussion groups, which again do not require any physical presence in a library. 

Of course, this doesn't make visitor numbers a useless measure.  Far from it, I can't imagine a high quality library service that did not include homework clubs, bookstart sessions, book readings and so on.  Research that Brent did through Red Quadrant suggests that people are not willing to pay for a book delivery service, so people will still be physically picking books up from the library.  It is also true that a major feature of libraries is browsability which I cannot imagine be accommodated entirely through online methods.

However, over the next few years, I think Brent Library Service will have to start thinking about a broader range of measures in addition to book loans and visitor numbers.  These might include, for instance: computer log ons, page views for online services, and the numbers of people signed up to activities like book clubs.

Planning Application at the old Dust Club

The Willesden Social Club site finally has a proposed development.  The planning application will be decided next week.  Good points about this development include the high environmental standard (Code for Sustainable Homes 4 for the housing and BREEM "Excellent" for the non residential), and the removal of an eyesore and source of anti-social behaviour.  As is usual in this sort of development, it will be subject to "car free" restrictions.

Local Government Association Letter

I notice that the Local Government Association have published my letter to them online on the evergreen topic of libraries.  It was actually written in response to a characteristically acerbic piece from Cllr Paul Lorber.

Library Buildings and Services

The Carnegie Trust has published a discussion paper on the possible future of Library services in the UK.  Lots of points are made in it, but I was struck by the table distinguishing between library services and library buildings.  This is clear in the wording of the 1964 Act, where authorities have a duty to provide a comprehensive and efficent library service, but has no duties in relation to the number or quality of buildings.  However, I think it tends to get lost in the general discussion.

My view is that that there are essential features of any good library service, most obviously a good quality online offer, that have no relation to premises.  It seems to me that much of the opposition to Brent Council's Libraries Transformation Project is based around preserving buildings irrespective of the actual services being run from them. 

Air Quality and Neasden Goods Yard

Brent Council's concerns over air quality get some coverage here.  The article concnetrates on Neasden Goods Yard, which is one of the worst pollution hotspots in the South East, and is located in Dudden Hill ward. 

A key part of the problem is that many of the regulations are not really suited to the modern waste industry.  They were drafted when waste was overwhelmingly dominated by landfill.  The issues at Neasden Goods Yard date back at least a decade.  Brent's view is that we need to tackle the pollution at source i.e. enforcement has to be taken against the various businesses involved to contain their "bad neighbour" effects by (for example) enclosing their operations in a properly ventilated shed.  So far the Environment Agency and the London Mayor have shown greater interests in short term palliatives like spraying the area to reduce dust.

Local Government Taxation

Graham Allen MP appears to be the only politician pushing a genuine rebalancing of the roles of central and local government.  His point about statutory basis is interesting, but his proposals for finance are the central difference between his proposals and the rhetoric of the likes of Eric Pickles.  So long as central government provides most of the money, it will be virtually impossible for ministers to avoid meddling _ even if they are much more sincere in their belief in localism than the present government appears to be.

Homework Clubs in Brent Libraries

Another area where Brent Library Services have not had the praise they deserve is in homework clubs.  All six Brent Libraries have homework clubs, and numbers have shot up since they started being run by a qualified teacher.  To me, this is confirmation that library services have a future provided we protect and enhance the quality of provision.  The alternative that others have suggested of preserving a shell of a service as the quality is steadily diluted is in my view a course of decline that will eventually prove fatal.

Big Society and Libraries

An interesting side light on the whole "Big Society" agenda comes from Surrey, where campaigners allege that Surrey volunteer run libraries will not achieve any financial savings.  This may very well be true.  In fact, I suspect that a lot of such library schemes may soak up more resources than a conventional service.

The reasons are:

(a) Volunteers are not free.  They have to be trained and managed, which in itself may require skills that a conventional library service may not have.
(b) Local authorities are likelty to have a number of infrastrucutre costs around building maintenance, integration with the current Council services and so on that are very difficult to get out of.
(c) Each volunteer group is likely to lobby for resources for its own part of the organisation, distorting the distribution of resources.

Why therefore have so many authorities gone down this route?

I think a number probably didn't realise the potential complications.  Those that did, like Liverpool, drew back.  Some Tory authroities may have been blinded by an ideology essentially based on the idea that public service have little value and require little ability to deliver.  Others, I suspect, saw the Big Society as a way of cutting the budget and passing the blame to the volunteer groups.  Whereas this may seem a clever wheeze, I wonder whether it will come back to bite them.  They may find that they have just strtched the political pain over a longer period, and (if they have to add various subsidies to placate the lobbyists) they may even end up making deeper cuts to pay for the various "Big Society" schemes.

Valley Drive Clearence

Environmental Health have been forced to clear out a property in Fryent over run by more than sixty feral cats.  I am sure that the owners of this property don't understand the level of nuisance that they created for their neighbours, but the Council has had to clear up about 30 tonnes of rubbish, and clean the area as well.  The cost is likely to be charged against the property.

Employment Protection

Flipchart Fairy Tales questions the common assumption that poorer countries all have weaker employment protections than we do.  I do wonder whether his suggestions of strict rules in say India apply across the economy or just in the public sector and bigger employers.  Nonetheless, I don't see economic salvation coming from stripping down our employment protections yet further.

Liberal Democrat Membership Collapses

The Independent reports that Liberal Democrat party membership is collapsing.  While general membership is down by about 20%, the worst hit is none other than Brent Central, where Sarah Teather has seen more than 40% of her members leave in just one year.

Localising Council Tax Benefit

Further detail on the effects of the government's localisation of Council Tax benefit can be found from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation here.  Its report points out that the government appears to have two contradictary policies _ one on Council Tax reform and one on Universal Credit.

Improved Library Outreach Service in Brent

Now that we have finally got the various legal and property complications from the Libraries Transformation Project out the way, I am hoping that people will pay more attention to the positive aspects of Brent Library service.  Among these is an enhanced outreach service for very frail or disabled people to bring books to their home.  We have successfully recruited new drivers, and the April deliveries in this service went up by 50%.  In the context of the cuts, I often here people saying that the most vulnerable should be prioritised.  This is an example of such prioritisation in action. 

Council Tax Benefit Support

One of the government's least publicised, but worst, changes to local government is the changes in Council Tax Benefit.  These are being rushed through for implementation in April 2013, which effectively means that Councils will have had to respond to the government plans by the end of this year.

Central government is forcing each local authority to come up with its own scheme for Council Tax benefit, and abolishing the national scheme.  At the same time, the money to pay for concessions is being cut by 10%.  The April 2013 deadline means that the necessary scheme design and implementation is kept to an almost unfeasibly short time table.

Brent will be publishing its proposals for consultation in early June.  This is the kind of subject that doesn't get much publicity, and then comes as a tremendous shock to the people affected, so I hope the word gets spread as widely as possible.

Final Shortlist for WLWA

West London Waste, which processes Brent's waste, has been going through a lengthy procurement process to award contracts for the future processing of West London waste.  The final two on the shortlist are a consortium of Eon Energy from Waste and Tata Chemicals, and SITA UK.

The Rise of Ebooks

I was struck that Nottinghamshire Library service think that ebooks are going to dominate the future of publishing and hence of public libraries.  I agree, and I have commented before that charging for ebooks is the most serious current threat to public library services.  As I understand it, that is precisely what Nottinghamshire County Council has decided to do.

School Library Cards in Brent

I commented before that some of the "Library campaigners" appear to be actually campaigning against the improvement of library services.  The example I chose was our pilot for school library cards, which has now made some progress.

We have so far had 13, mostly primary, schools express an interest and several hundred pupils actually signed up.  As far as I know, this is the only pilot of its kind in the country.  Portsmouth has a scheme to get all their pupils to have a library card, but I don't think they follow it up in the way that we plan to.  We think that simply giving people a card doesn't necessarily mean that they will use it, so we are following up with the schools either to get them to arrange class visits, or to take part in an outreach service which brings books to the school, with some story telling element.  Hopefully this will get the pupils to be embued with a library culture, and a love of reading.  Of course, reading for pleasure is highly correlated with educational attainment.

Had we gone down the route of simply cutting opening hours and book stock, I don't believe a pilot like this would have even been on the cards.

Terrifying Statistic

I came across a terrifying statistic from the Arts Council recently.  39% of 9-17 year olds agree with the statement: "the information I find online is always correct."