Thames Water Leaks

If you want to report a burst main, which judging from the four burst mains I have come across in the ward during January, Kensal Green residents may well do, you can call Thames Water on 0800 714 614. To be fair, they have always been fairly quick in sending someone to inspect the site of the leaks I report.

Hastings Banda in Harlesden

It was recently suggested to me that Hastings Banda should be commerated with a blue plaque in Kensal Green. The reason is that he was a GP in this area during the 1950s. I have been told that he lived in either Bramston Road or Ridley Road.

However, as you can see from the Wikipedia link, Hastings Banda was not an entirely attractive figure. Does this matter in terms of having a blue plaque, or should we just acknowledge that whatever his faults he is a significant historical figure?

Lib Dem Solution to Carbon Emissions

I have blogged before on Brent Liberal Democrats lack of ambition in cutting the Council's carbon emissions, for example here and here and here. Brent Council has signed up to the 10:10 pledge, but it turns out that they have a rather odd way of meeting the pledge.

Council documents reveal that Brent Council expects to cut its emissions by 3% during 2010. That is, if you count emissions from all the Council. Roughly half of the 6,000 people employed by the Council are employed by schools. Brent Liberal Democrats have decided that they will meet the 10% target by only counting non-school emissions. Since the schools have seen emissions rising fast over the past few years, ignoring them makes it much easier to "cut" Council carbon emissions.

Of course, one could extend this logic further. Brent Liberal Democrats could probably get an even bigger cut by excluding bits of the non-school parts of the Council. Brent Liberal Democrats could further improve the Council's carbon emissions to exclude both school and non-school emissions. Since this would take out all the Council's operations, this would mean that Brent Council could become the UK's first zero emissions authority.

Of course, many members of the public might have a less imaginative view of emissions than the Lib Dems. They might think that excluding the bits of the Council that had the fastest growing emissions, and claiming that this showed a "cut" in emissions was a complete con.

Liberal Democrats Losing Here

A (hopefully) final sidelight from the Liberal Democrat accounts. According to their accounts, their Brent membership was 299 in January 2005. By December 2007, it had fallen to 230, and the 2008 accounts discretely omitted mention of the subject. In other words their membership across the whold of Brent is much smaller than the Labour Party membership in Brent Central alone.

Primary School Funding

As well as the Building Schools for the Future funding that the government announced for schools like Cardinal Hinsley, Copland School, Queens Park Community School and Alperton Community School, Brent is also being given almost £15 million for primary schools in the Borough. I am currently trying to get hold of a list of these as I think Furness Primary School should be among them, as it is certainly in a dreadful state.

I will post when I know more.

Liberal Democrats' European Earner

Incidentally, whatever the facts about Sarah Teather's use of allowances there is another small item in the Brent Liberal Democrat accounts about the European Parliament. Their 2004 accounts state "for the first time we have recieved remittances from the EU by including items submitted by the London MEP in our literature distributed within Brent East."

Does anyone know whether that is allowed under EU rules?

Some Parties do 'ave 'em

The BBC report here that Camden's Liberal Democrat Mayor, Cllr Ansari, has been arrested over allegations of fraud. The Camden New Journal has a report here. The Liberal Democrats really don't seem to be very good at vetting their candidates. You can read about their record in Camden on Theo Blackwell's site. In Brent, they had Cllr Vijay Shah elected for Wembley Central, and (unlike Cllr Ansari) actually convicted of fraud. They had Cllr Pawan Gupta in Dudden Hill, who turned out not to be legally qualified to stand. They almost had the late Rocky Fernandez as a candidate in Queens Park, even though he had previously been convicted of defrauding Brent Council.

They do pick 'em , don't they?

Is Sarah Teather Ripping the Taxpayer Off?

There have been rumours going round for the past fortnight that Sarah Teather is likely to be asked to pay back some of her parliamentary allowances because of abusing the system. Given the way she has been posing as a saint on the issue, I suppose this is bound to add to her reputation as a shameless hypocrite if it happens.

The 2008 accounts for Brent Liberal Democrats certainly suggest that her "joint tenancy" arrangements with her local party are rather odd. They state:

"The office at 1 High Road is the principal responsibility of Sarah Teather who utilises her parliamentary allowances to pay a large percentage of the operating expenses. We have agreed to pay certain expences of up to £5,000 per year to supplement those allowances and this is achieved by paying the business rates."

Hmm... "principal responsibility" doesn't sound like a very equal joint tenancy arrangement. And not more than £5,000 a year doesn't sound like a high proportion of the cost of a prime commercial site on Willesden High Road.

The 2008 accounts also state that they employ a Borough Organiser with £20,817.50 being paid by Brent Liberal Democrats, and £4,768.08 by Sarah Teather (presumably out of her personal income).

Brent Liberal Democrats' Disappearing Phone Bill

A blog site called Political Scrapbook has been alleging that Brent Liberal Democrats do not pay a phone bill, and that instead it is paid through Sarah Teather's parliamentary expenses. In fact, the story seems slighter odder.

The Liberal Democrat accounts lodged with the Electoral Commission show an item "Telephone." The figures for this item each year are: £500 (2004), £673.62 (2005), £300 (2006), blank (2007), blank (2008). The accounts for 2007 and 2008 don't seem to give any explanation as to why the Liberal Democrat phone bills disappear.

Meanwhile, the Political Scrapbook graph, which I assume is collated from Parliamentary invoices, shows a quarterly bill of several hundred pounds being paid by the taxpayer from July 2004 into 2008 (The last year for which there are accounts).

Why do Sarah Teather's parliamentary duties entail a phone bill so much higher than her party's, and why did the party cease using the phone after 2006?

If you look at the Brent Liberal Democrat accounts you can find even more interesting questions, which I will cover in a later post.

Queens Park Tower

The Willesden & Brent Times is reporting the passing of the recent Marshall House application by Brent's Planning Committee as "Yes to the Queens Park Tower". From the story I susepect this is a case of Paul Lorber, the Liberal Democrat Leader of Brent Council, having his spin backfire on him.

Back in 2006, the Liberal Democrats ran a shamefully dishonest campaign alleging a Labour plot to build a tower block just by Queens Park Tube. Unfortunately, the lies were successful in getting Liberal Democrat councillors elected in the area. The site of the supposed Tower application has remained untouched. He now seems to have tried to use the Marshall House application to argue that the Liberal Democrats have installed a positive alternative on the site, although the Marshall House application is for a rather different site in South Kilburn.

No doubt the local residents who supported the Liberal Democrats because they thought they would ban tall buildings feel ratgher disappointed that permission for an eleven storey block has been given.

The Constitution Club, Chamberlayne Road

I posted a few days ago about the newish arthouse cinema in Chamberlayne Road, the Lexi Cinema. It reminded me of when I last heard of that building, which was as the site for a political rally by David Gauke. David Gauke has now gone on to higher things as MP for South West Herefordshire, but back in 2001 he was the Conservative Party candidate for Brent East. I picked up a flyer for a Tory Party rally at the time at 194 Chamberlayne Road which included the advice that no one in jeans or trainers would be admitted.

The kind of image Mr Cameron is desparately trying to drop.

New David Cameron Poster

Following yesterday's post, here is my suggestion to help that nice Mr Cameron improve standards in public life.

http://mydavidcameron.com/

I have come across a new site on David Cameron. The picture below gives you the idea:

Improving Scrutiny

The Local Government Chronicle has an article about the future of scrutiny here. It quotes John Denham arguing that Councils show scrutinise all bodies spending public money in their area, not just the NHS. If that came into force, it would be a major advance in making the Council more effective in partnerships. It also makes the suggestion that Councils should have specialist scrutiny departments. That might be attractive, but I think it would take a real committment to the importance of Scrutiny that at present simply isn't there.

Station Approach: Who Owns it?

As part of my efforts to get Station Approach fixed, I contacted Hammersmith and Fulham Council to see if they owned it. They insist it is privately owned, but don't know by who. Network Rail continue to fail to have any reponse and TfL deny ownership. How is it possible for a road which is used by large numbers of vehicles and pedestrians each day to have no clear owner?

Little Progress on Park Parade

The water leak in Park Parade remains cordoned off. Contrary to what the Brent Council web site says, the road is not blocked off. There are temporary traffic lights allowing one lane to be used each way alternately.


However, as you can see from this photo taken yesterday, no one appears to be repairing the mains, so goodness knows how long this will continue.

London Pollution

The Evening Standard reports here that London's pollution is so bad it breaks the entire EU emissions target for Nitrogen dioxide. Does Boris finally regret not going ahead with the Low Emissions Zone?

The Ongoing Silence of Sarah Teather

Sarah Teather remains tight lipped about the accusations being published about her on MPs expenses here and in the Daily Mirror. A parliamentary source tells me that she has been scarcely evident in Parliament since the New Year began. Now that it has got in the Mirror, I suspect the stories will get much wider circulation.

Tubbs Road at the Highways Committee

I attended Brent Council's Highways Committee as it was discussing my Councillor Call for Action on Tubbs Road last night. The actual result was good, but the process was farcical.

The Highways Committee is chaired by Cllr Daniel Brown, who is the worst chair I have ever seen. He created a totally unnecessary conflict with the residents who had turned up by refusing to let them speak without prior notice. He had obviously come primed to fob everyone off with nothing. Fortunately, the Assistant Director of Transport intervened with a recommendation that the problems of the road be seen to more or less along the lines we suggested. Whereupon, the Committee rubberstamped his recommendation.

However, neither the Liberal Democrats or the Tories who make up Brent's Highways Committee seem to have any capacity for independent thought. The whole half hour meeting was just a charade, and we could have have just asked the Transport officers to announce what they had decided without bothering with drongoes like Cllr Daniel Brown.

Sarah Teather's Less than Saintly Expenses

Sarah Teather, the Liberal Democrat MP for Brent East, is facing questions over her use of taxpayers' money here. The allegation is that she has allowed the taxpayer to subsidise Brent Liberal Democrat campaigning. If true, that would be embarressing and possibly politically fatal for someone with her record of unctious sanctimony.