This article from the USA raises the need to define the objectives in the American context, but it seems just as important that we do so in the UK. Unfortunately debate on libraries is still largely dominated by a "just say no" approach by campaigners to any sort of reform and a focus on keeping buildings open by local authorities keen to avoid political flak.
Such approaches ignore the fact that both library services and the areas they serve are going through huge change because of technology, demographics and so on.
Monday, 10 November 2014
Sunday, 9 November 2014
Old Library Buildings in Brent
Following my earlier post on Kilburn Library I thought I might as well do an update on the old library buildings and their new uses.
Barham Park: This is a complex of buildings, not just the former library. The Childrens Centre and Veteran Club continue. Following a consultation, it was suggested that the part known as "the cardroom" might be redeveloped as a cafe. I don't know whether that has been progressed. The rest of the building (including the area that used to be used by the Parks service as offices) has been rented by ACAVA. Hopefully they will help draw people to Barham Park in themselves as well as providing the Barham Trust with a regular income for the first time. There is also now a plan for gradually redeveloping the park to make it more attractive.
Cricklewood: The owner at Cricklewood is hoping to get planning permission for a development. This would involve housing and a community centre area. The community centre has a local group lined up for occupancy after a long negotiation. Planning permission has yet to be granted.
Kensal Rise: The Friends of Kensal Rise Library have agreed a similar deal to the Cricklewood one. This will be an interesting one as the same people previously denounced a very similar arrangement as "unworkable". We shall see what happens next.
Neasden: Back in 2011, this was rented to a church. They are a sub tenant of Brent Council who remain until 2023. It is unlikely that Brent Council would want to continue as tenants after that date. The sub tenancy allows the Council to cover its costs.
Preston: Preston I have covered in a couple of posts here and here. This is the most problematic as the group that seeks to occupy the building appears to envisage various forms of subsidy (although some of the other groups may look for subsidy and be subject to the same legal objections arising from the Bailey judgement) At the moment the building continue as part of Preston Primary School. It should become clear whether this will continue in early 2015.
Tokyngton: Tokyngton was sold to an Islamic Cultural Association and is now used as a mosque.
UPDATE
I have had a comment which, with dreary inevitability, centres on the former Kensal Rise Library. Anyone who wants to see the reasoning for refusing the original proposal from FKRL can follow the link here. I don't intend to publish any more comments on the subject, as they just seem to repeat points made many times in the past. Perhaps once FKRL publish their new proposals I might do a post then.
Barham Park: This is a complex of buildings, not just the former library. The Childrens Centre and Veteran Club continue. Following a consultation, it was suggested that the part known as "the cardroom" might be redeveloped as a cafe. I don't know whether that has been progressed. The rest of the building (including the area that used to be used by the Parks service as offices) has been rented by ACAVA. Hopefully they will help draw people to Barham Park in themselves as well as providing the Barham Trust with a regular income for the first time. There is also now a plan for gradually redeveloping the park to make it more attractive.
Cricklewood: The owner at Cricklewood is hoping to get planning permission for a development. This would involve housing and a community centre area. The community centre has a local group lined up for occupancy after a long negotiation. Planning permission has yet to be granted.
Kensal Rise: The Friends of Kensal Rise Library have agreed a similar deal to the Cricklewood one. This will be an interesting one as the same people previously denounced a very similar arrangement as "unworkable". We shall see what happens next.
Neasden: Back in 2011, this was rented to a church. They are a sub tenant of Brent Council who remain until 2023. It is unlikely that Brent Council would want to continue as tenants after that date. The sub tenancy allows the Council to cover its costs.
Preston: Preston I have covered in a couple of posts here and here. This is the most problematic as the group that seeks to occupy the building appears to envisage various forms of subsidy (although some of the other groups may look for subsidy and be subject to the same legal objections arising from the Bailey judgement) At the moment the building continue as part of Preston Primary School. It should become clear whether this will continue in early 2015.
Tokyngton: Tokyngton was sold to an Islamic Cultural Association and is now used as a mosque.
UPDATE
I have had a comment which, with dreary inevitability, centres on the former Kensal Rise Library. Anyone who wants to see the reasoning for refusing the original proposal from FKRL can follow the link here. I don't intend to publish any more comments on the subject, as they just seem to repeat points made many times in the past. Perhaps once FKRL publish their new proposals I might do a post then.
Saturday, 8 November 2014
Stonebridge Adventure Playground and Brent Council
I have been following the campaign against the redevelopment of the Stonebridge Adventure Playground with interest. It seems to me an obvious example where a political choice has to be made.
Advocates of change would point to the importance of providing school places, which every one would agree with (I suppose). Many would say more housing is also important, although I suspect the housing is there to pay for the cost of the school expansion. I have seen some rather unfair comments on unsupervised play. The Stonebridge Adventure Playground has play equipment that needs to be supervised, and serves an area of high deprivation, but that doesn't mean that unsupervised play has no value. Brent Parks has built a wide range of MUGAs across the Borough, and in the right place, they can be highly effective for play for older children. Such children may specifically prefer play without adult supervision. On the other hand, the Playground campaigners obviously feel the existing facility has enormous value which is in danger of being lost.
It seems to me that the political role here is in the first instance to work out whether both sets of needs can be accommodated. Either the ward councillors and/or the Executive members should examine the details of the scheme to ask (for example) Can the existing facility be incorporated or reprovided in a new scheme? Can the housing be reprovided at another site, and how much social value does it have? What are the needs of the local area based on evidence, rather than just gut feeling?
Once you have some evidence, you can then make a value judgement as to what the best way forward is. To claim you are "neutral" doesn't really cut it. A choice has to be made. Maybe it might be for a third option that meets both the Playground campaigner and the school goals, but a choice will have to be made at some point, and it is the business of the councillors as elected people to make that choice in a reasoned and transparent manner.
Advocates of change would point to the importance of providing school places, which every one would agree with (I suppose). Many would say more housing is also important, although I suspect the housing is there to pay for the cost of the school expansion. I have seen some rather unfair comments on unsupervised play. The Stonebridge Adventure Playground has play equipment that needs to be supervised, and serves an area of high deprivation, but that doesn't mean that unsupervised play has no value. Brent Parks has built a wide range of MUGAs across the Borough, and in the right place, they can be highly effective for play for older children. Such children may specifically prefer play without adult supervision. On the other hand, the Playground campaigners obviously feel the existing facility has enormous value which is in danger of being lost.
It seems to me that the political role here is in the first instance to work out whether both sets of needs can be accommodated. Either the ward councillors and/or the Executive members should examine the details of the scheme to ask (for example) Can the existing facility be incorporated or reprovided in a new scheme? Can the housing be reprovided at another site, and how much social value does it have? What are the needs of the local area based on evidence, rather than just gut feeling?
Once you have some evidence, you can then make a value judgement as to what the best way forward is. To claim you are "neutral" doesn't really cut it. A choice has to be made. Maybe it might be for a third option that meets both the Playground campaigner and the school goals, but a choice will have to be made at some point, and it is the business of the councillors as elected people to make that choice in a reasoned and transparent manner.
Friday, 7 November 2014
You May Have Missed...
Brent's own Conrad Hall (the Finance Director of Brent Council) has some comments relating to LOBOs and Treasury Management here. I wonder how on top of all this Brent councillors are.
London Libraries in the Firing Line
More London Library services are now considering closure programmes. Both Barnet and Harrow are thinking about the issue. Personally I am glad that Brent settled its strategy in 2011. If it were only being considered now, I suspect the Council would be going through a crude budget cutting exercise, with little regard for service improvements.
Barnet's plans strike me as especially strange, as they emphasize creating much smaller libraries with more limited services. That is the opposite of what was done in Brent, where services were concentrated in larger buildings which people could travel to. Making the buildings smaller makes them less flexible for events, and helps ensure that only one thing can be done at a time. For instance a noisy storytime session in a very small library might drive other users out, while a big library like Wembley can accommodate such sessions whilst other people continue to use the library for quiet space.
I can also see that the Barnet report has been written with potential litigation very much in mind.
Barnet's plans strike me as especially strange, as they emphasize creating much smaller libraries with more limited services. That is the opposite of what was done in Brent, where services were concentrated in larger buildings which people could travel to. Making the buildings smaller makes them less flexible for events, and helps ensure that only one thing can be done at a time. For instance a noisy storytime session in a very small library might drive other users out, while a big library like Wembley can accommodate such sessions whilst other people continue to use the library for quiet space.
I can also see that the Barnet report has been written with potential litigation very much in mind.
Thursday, 6 November 2014
Tower Hamlets and Brent
Eric Pickles has intervened in Tower Hamlets, and effectively taken over control of parts of the Council. Something similar was done by the Welsh government in Anglesey, and I have warned it is a danger for any authority that fails to meet its legal obligations, including Brent. The full statement is here. I thought it would be useful to go through his statement and see how it could be applied to Brent. His words are in italics.
PwC found that the mayoral administration’s grants programme handed out taxpayers’ money with no apparent rationale for the grant awards... There was no proper monitoring. Grants were systematically made without transparency.
This has been a fear in many local authorities. Brent has made long strides to try make its grant giving systematic and transparent, but there have been problems in individual cases. I particularly think of the "offer" around the former Preston Library as running into difficulties as not being in line with the Council's established policy on libraries or its fiduciary duty. A lot of people seem to have trouble connecting this kind of concrete example to these rather abstract principles, but I think there is a real danger of the former Preston Library case offering a possible reason for SoS intervention.
This has also often been a danger in some cases of ward working grants. Hence, it is vitally important to have a paper trail to show that everything is above board. The fact that some councillors and groups find this irksome makes it no less important. Eric Pickles has explicitly justified his intervention on the failure of Tower Hamlets to carry out its "best value" duty.
On land disposal, properties were sold to third parties without proper process.
Again this is a danger for any Council. Undeclared interests, leaks of confidential information in the bidding process and "sweetheart" deals are all dangers. Whether any of these have applied to Brent Council I cannot say.
Taxpayers’ money was spent on unlawful political advertising for the mayor.
As far as I know, Brent has not run into this kind of difficulty. Occasional complaints by one or other party have struck me as essentially groundless. However, the number of communications staff has grown in the past couple of years, which is rather odd as in some cases communications work has been outsourced. Whether there is anything wrong about this is impossible to say without further information.
Irregular practice took place in the awarding of contracts. For example, PwC identified cases in which one of the council’s officers recalls that, during a meeting, the mayor allegedly annotated a list of suppliers to indicate which suppliers he did not wish to be selected.
There were attempts to do this in the case of the award of the Public Realm Contract to Veolia. Despite some rather unnecessary toing and froing, that attempt failed, and the Public Realm Contract was awarded on proper criteria.
The council’s core governance arrangements have centred on the three statutory officers: the head of paid service, the chief financial officer, and the monitoring officer. The council has failed to make permanent appointments to those key positions. Currently, all three posts are held by interim appointments. PwC concludes that the governance arrangements do not appear capable of preventing or responding to the succession of failures by the mayoral administration. Executive power is unchecked and executive power has been misused.
This is a very serious danger for Brent Council. Brent last had a permanent Chief Executive in October 2012, when the incumbent was removed without explanation by Cllr Muhammed Butt. Since then the post has been held by an interim Chief Executive. This is part of a pattern of relying on a growing number of interim staff, and has caused me concern in the past.
Free and fair elections must be the bedrock of local democracy.
As far as I know, there is no substantial reason to be concerned by the conduct of local elections in Brent.
In addition to the reasons given above for intervention, Brent Council has credible concerns over the possible misconduct and/or incompetence of its human resources. There has been a well documented Employment Tribunal case involving racist bullying, but I believe that there have been other cases of bullying and victimisation, and that there is currently no effective mechanism addressing this. The rise in the use of interim staff also concerns me as its may well point to wasted public resources.
At the same time, institutional barriers to corruption have been weakened, and the Scrutiny functions that should provide a check on abuses have been virtually abolished. In addition, the switch away from collegiate decision making to a more Leader led model makes all the operations of the Council less transparent, and arguably less competent.
Hilary Benn's response shows that there is cross party agreement that competent and honest decision making in local government must be safeguarded. I certainly don't think that Brent has got to anything like the depth of Tower Hamlets, but there is a real danger that standards are slipping, and I hope Brent councillors take action before outside parties do. If Brent were ever to lose its reputation in the way Tower Hamlets has done, it would take many years to recover.
PwC found that the mayoral administration’s grants programme handed out taxpayers’ money with no apparent rationale for the grant awards... There was no proper monitoring. Grants were systematically made without transparency.
This has been a fear in many local authorities. Brent has made long strides to try make its grant giving systematic and transparent, but there have been problems in individual cases. I particularly think of the "offer" around the former Preston Library as running into difficulties as not being in line with the Council's established policy on libraries or its fiduciary duty. A lot of people seem to have trouble connecting this kind of concrete example to these rather abstract principles, but I think there is a real danger of the former Preston Library case offering a possible reason for SoS intervention.
This has also often been a danger in some cases of ward working grants. Hence, it is vitally important to have a paper trail to show that everything is above board. The fact that some councillors and groups find this irksome makes it no less important. Eric Pickles has explicitly justified his intervention on the failure of Tower Hamlets to carry out its "best value" duty.
On land disposal, properties were sold to third parties without proper process.
Again this is a danger for any Council. Undeclared interests, leaks of confidential information in the bidding process and "sweetheart" deals are all dangers. Whether any of these have applied to Brent Council I cannot say.
Taxpayers’ money was spent on unlawful political advertising for the mayor.
As far as I know, Brent has not run into this kind of difficulty. Occasional complaints by one or other party have struck me as essentially groundless. However, the number of communications staff has grown in the past couple of years, which is rather odd as in some cases communications work has been outsourced. Whether there is anything wrong about this is impossible to say without further information.
Irregular practice took place in the awarding of contracts. For example, PwC identified cases in which one of the council’s officers recalls that, during a meeting, the mayor allegedly annotated a list of suppliers to indicate which suppliers he did not wish to be selected.
There were attempts to do this in the case of the award of the Public Realm Contract to Veolia. Despite some rather unnecessary toing and froing, that attempt failed, and the Public Realm Contract was awarded on proper criteria.
The council’s core governance arrangements have centred on the three statutory officers: the head of paid service, the chief financial officer, and the monitoring officer. The council has failed to make permanent appointments to those key positions. Currently, all three posts are held by interim appointments. PwC concludes that the governance arrangements do not appear capable of preventing or responding to the succession of failures by the mayoral administration. Executive power is unchecked and executive power has been misused.
This is a very serious danger for Brent Council. Brent last had a permanent Chief Executive in October 2012, when the incumbent was removed without explanation by Cllr Muhammed Butt. Since then the post has been held by an interim Chief Executive. This is part of a pattern of relying on a growing number of interim staff, and has caused me concern in the past.
Free and fair elections must be the bedrock of local democracy.
As far as I know, there is no substantial reason to be concerned by the conduct of local elections in Brent.
In addition to the reasons given above for intervention, Brent Council has credible concerns over the possible misconduct and/or incompetence of its human resources. There has been a well documented Employment Tribunal case involving racist bullying, but I believe that there have been other cases of bullying and victimisation, and that there is currently no effective mechanism addressing this. The rise in the use of interim staff also concerns me as its may well point to wasted public resources.
At the same time, institutional barriers to corruption have been weakened, and the Scrutiny functions that should provide a check on abuses have been virtually abolished. In addition, the switch away from collegiate decision making to a more Leader led model makes all the operations of the Council less transparent, and arguably less competent.
Hilary Benn's response shows that there is cross party agreement that competent and honest decision making in local government must be safeguarded. I certainly don't think that Brent has got to anything like the depth of Tower Hamlets, but there is a real danger that standards are slipping, and I hope Brent councillors take action before outside parties do. If Brent were ever to lose its reputation in the way Tower Hamlets has done, it would take many years to recover.
Wednesday, 5 November 2014
Human Resources Failures in Brent Council
Tonight, the General Purposes Committee of Brent Council is discussing yet another restructuring. The document is restricted, so one can't learn what is in it. It follows on from another recent restructuring that I suspect has been been badly botched. Given the same people are now conducting another restructuring so soon after the previous one, I doubt whether any of the key questions will be either asked or answered. This really is an area crying out for wider scrutiny by councillors.
Tuesday, 4 November 2014
Kilburn Library Refurbishment
I suggested that I would go through the benefits of the Kilburn Library refurbishment, following a rather ignorant comment published yesterday. The refurbishment was budgeted at £650k, although I believe it came in slightly under. You can see some photos of the refurbished Kilburn Library here. Unfortunately, I don't have photos of how it looked before.
The Alternatives for Kilburn Library
Kilburn Library had been neglected for years prior to the Libraries Transformation project, and some of the "Library Campaigners" would not only have been happy for that to continue; they actually argued it should be closed completely. That may startle people, but it is nonetheless true. If you look at option 1 of the "Save Preston Libraries Campaign" (page 167 here), it says "Close Kilburn instead of Preston". The same document suggests closing Neasden, Tokyngton, and Willesden Green. Closing Kilburn Library was also suggested by the Leader of the Liberal Democrats in a Council committee in 2011. Some campaigners also favoured cutting opening hours drastically, perhaps by 40%, which would have left Kilburn Library open only three days a week.
The Kilburn Library Refurbishment
For some years, Kilburn Library had a problem with leaks in the roof and the windows, which the refurbishment fixed. A French drain was installed in the Kilburn Library garden to limit dampness coming though the walls. There was also treatment of the brickwork, the guttering and so on. This was a substantial part of the capital cost.
New heating and lighting was installed. The building was completely rewired, allowing for more use of computers. A new children's area was created at the front, and the building redesigned inside so that quieter areas would be at the back, and the whole inside made more user friendly. There is now more flexibility about events, and a proper disabled accessible toilet. The capacity of Kilburn Library for books was increased from c. 25,000 to c. 32,000, and staff now circulate within the Library. The bookstock was also upgraded.
Following this refurbishment, user numbers have roughly doubled.
The Alternatives for Kilburn Library
Kilburn Library had been neglected for years prior to the Libraries Transformation project, and some of the "Library Campaigners" would not only have been happy for that to continue; they actually argued it should be closed completely. That may startle people, but it is nonetheless true. If you look at option 1 of the "Save Preston Libraries Campaign" (page 167 here), it says "Close Kilburn instead of Preston". The same document suggests closing Neasden, Tokyngton, and Willesden Green. Closing Kilburn Library was also suggested by the Leader of the Liberal Democrats in a Council committee in 2011. Some campaigners also favoured cutting opening hours drastically, perhaps by 40%, which would have left Kilburn Library open only three days a week.
The Kilburn Library Refurbishment
For some years, Kilburn Library had a problem with leaks in the roof and the windows, which the refurbishment fixed. A French drain was installed in the Kilburn Library garden to limit dampness coming though the walls. There was also treatment of the brickwork, the guttering and so on. This was a substantial part of the capital cost.
New heating and lighting was installed. The building was completely rewired, allowing for more use of computers. A new children's area was created at the front, and the building redesigned inside so that quieter areas would be at the back, and the whole inside made more user friendly. There is now more flexibility about events, and a proper disabled accessible toilet. The capacity of Kilburn Library for books was increased from c. 25,000 to c. 32,000, and staff now circulate within the Library. The bookstock was also upgraded.
Following this refurbishment, user numbers have roughly doubled.
Monday, 3 November 2014
Ed Vaizey not Minded to take Library Action Again
The DCMS is apparently "not minded" to order an enquiry into Sheffield as had been threatened Despite quoting the Lincolnshire judgement, the DCMS makes no comment on whether IT provision is now considered as part of the "comprehensive and efficient" duty. I also notice that the minister considers the community managed libraries to be additional to the legal duty i.e. if they fail, they will not be a trigger for action.
A copy of the letter is linked here.
A copy of the letter is linked here.
Sunday, 2 November 2014
Alfred the Great and Today's Austerity
Here is a beautiful tribute to learning and languages, via Clerk of Oxenford, by Alfred the Great. The King's words are as good a tribute as I have read to the importance of books and learning. That he could recognise the importance of such things, that some politicians consider "extras" today given his own experience of near annihilation at the hands of the Danes is a tribute to his humanity and true greatness, compared to the shallowness of many modern politicians.
Saturday, 1 November 2014
Fracking and Brent Council
GetWestLondon has a story on Brent Council and fracking here. It mistakenly refers to the Council as "anti-fracking". Although there has been a press release to that effect, there haven't actually been any changes in planning policy. Any changes should, I think, appear in this document and I can't see any.
Fracking in Brent has never struck me as a major concern, since my understanding is that Thames Valley clay is not suitable for fracking (as Brent Council appears to confirm). I do find it odd that a group demands an anti-fracking stance. The Council Leader pledges to devote legal resources against fracking, and then nothing is done. It is even odder that this is being done despite the nature of the Brent soil meaning that no fracking will take place anyway. It is as if everyone is just operating in a realm of fantasy.
Fracking in Brent has never struck me as a major concern, since my understanding is that Thames Valley clay is not suitable for fracking (as Brent Council appears to confirm). I do find it odd that a group demands an anti-fracking stance. The Council Leader pledges to devote legal resources against fracking, and then nothing is done. It is even odder that this is being done despite the nature of the Brent soil meaning that no fracking will take place anyway. It is as if everyone is just operating in a realm of fantasy.
Friday, 31 October 2014
Brent Council in Private Eye's Rotten Boroughs
I see that Brent Council has featured in Private Eye's Rotten Boroughs. In the bad old days of the 1980s and 1990s, this was a regular event. When I got elected to the Council in 2006, I recall an officer proudly telling me that "Bent" Council had not featured in Rotten Boroughs for some years, so it is sad to see the circle turn. The cause this week is the finding of racist bullying in an employment tribunal, although the curious relationships of members and officers are also mentioned. This strikes me as more damaging to the Council's reputation than an article a little while ago that mentioned the curiosity around the disposal of the former Tokyngton Library.
UPDATE
Another anon comment on libraries, I see. In fact, I don't think Brent libraries ever featured in the Rotten Boroughs column, although it did occasionally appear in "Library News". Of course, Private Eye doesn't do positive stories so we won' t be seeing many mentions in future of how satisfaction is rising and both visits and loans are up, or the numerous other improvements since 2011.
ANOTHER UPDATE
Really the world of anonymous comments is an odd one. The comment from 17.19 on 1 November complains of the opening hours at Kilburn Library post transformation. Actually, the Libraries Transformation Project ensured for the first time that all Brent Libraries were open seven days a week. Previously, Kilburn Library had been open only five days a week. As for "security staff", I don't believe Kilburn Library has any, it is staffed by Library staff for all its opening hours, as it was when I was last there on Saturday.
It really is odd how people makes things up and then start believing them. Perhaps, Kilburn Library deserves another post of its own to highlight the benefits of its refurbishment. UPDATE: I have now done another post on Kilburn Library here.
UPDATE
Another anon comment on libraries, I see. In fact, I don't think Brent libraries ever featured in the Rotten Boroughs column, although it did occasionally appear in "Library News". Of course, Private Eye doesn't do positive stories so we won' t be seeing many mentions in future of how satisfaction is rising and both visits and loans are up, or the numerous other improvements since 2011.
ANOTHER UPDATE
Really the world of anonymous comments is an odd one. The comment from 17.19 on 1 November complains of the opening hours at Kilburn Library post transformation. Actually, the Libraries Transformation Project ensured for the first time that all Brent Libraries were open seven days a week. Previously, Kilburn Library had been open only five days a week. As for "security staff", I don't believe Kilburn Library has any, it is staffed by Library staff for all its opening hours, as it was when I was last there on Saturday.
It really is odd how people makes things up and then start believing them. Perhaps, Kilburn Library deserves another post of its own to highlight the benefits of its refurbishment. UPDATE: I have now done another post on Kilburn Library here.
Thursday, 30 October 2014
Car Clubs and Air Quality
Car clubs are once again being put forward as a solution to the problem of London's growing population, increasing congestion and falling air quality. There are already suggestions that technological change is making car clubs easier, and integrating them with oyster cards would be a sensible thing for any progressive London Mayor to look at. By lowering costs for residents, car clubs also help the cost of living crisis which has been one of Ed Miliband's major themes. Brent some time ago was catching up with this agenda, but subsequently progress has stalled. Perhaps it is time to look again at the possibilities.
Wednesday, 29 October 2014
Paul Krugman and Derp
One of the pleasures of reading Paul Krugman is his invention of useful terms. I have just come across "derp" that he has apparently used for some time. I shall add it to incestuous amplification, zombie ideas and confidence fairy.
Tuesday, 28 October 2014
Failure and Accountability
Jonathan Portes hands in a damning judgement on the failure of Iain Duncan Smith at the DWP, but I am struck by the lack of accountability. Here we have a minister ignoring repeated warnings of inevitable failure, brushing aside clear evidence of totally unobtainable objectives, huge private sector failure and billions of taxpayers' money wasted. Yet no one resigns, or even admits culpability.
The whole ship of state just goes yet further in unnavigable waters, and no one stops it.
At the same time ministers are pilloried for personal indiscretions, gaffes (which sometimes consist of telling the truth) and relatively minor misconduct. Doesn't our whole political system have its priorities wrong?
The whole ship of state just goes yet further in unnavigable waters, and no one stops it.
At the same time ministers are pilloried for personal indiscretions, gaffes (which sometimes consist of telling the truth) and relatively minor misconduct. Doesn't our whole political system have its priorities wrong?
Monday, 27 October 2014
Kilburn Literary Festival
Interested to read of a new Kilburn Literary Festival coming up. It sounds like a good initiative, that could help the regeneration of Kilburn High Road. I hope it survives, and that Brent and Camden Councils can find ways to support its development.
Sunday, 26 October 2014
Council Buildings and Potential Clawback
I did a couple of posts about the former Preston Library building here and here. As I explained, there are a number of problems with the hope of the Friends of Preston Library to simply take control of the building. In my view, indeed, they are insurmountable.
One that I didn't mention is the importance of guaranteeing performance. The days when Brent just gave people money and let them get on with it ending a long time ago, which given the potential for abuse is probably no bad thing. The many organisations that get grants from Brent: Brent CAB, the Tricycle Theatre, all sorts of ward working schemes and many others are required to report on progress towards whatever the objectives of the grant are.
Essentially, you have to list your objectives, have some sort of reporting mechanism on whether you are achieving them, and a correction mechanism if you do not.
In the case of a building, I would expect this to be a clawback mechanism, where if the building ceases to be used for the stated purpose it returns to the ownership and control of the Council. This is a long established principle of such arrangements, for example it applied to the old Carlyon Plant, the Bridge Park Sports Centre, Brent Museum and others. I have remarked before that, despite their increasing ubiquity, there appears to be no agreed criteria for measuring the success of community managed libraries. The closest I can find is this.
Ignoring such issues does not make them go away.
One that I didn't mention is the importance of guaranteeing performance. The days when Brent just gave people money and let them get on with it ending a long time ago, which given the potential for abuse is probably no bad thing. The many organisations that get grants from Brent: Brent CAB, the Tricycle Theatre, all sorts of ward working schemes and many others are required to report on progress towards whatever the objectives of the grant are.
Essentially, you have to list your objectives, have some sort of reporting mechanism on whether you are achieving them, and a correction mechanism if you do not.
In the case of a building, I would expect this to be a clawback mechanism, where if the building ceases to be used for the stated purpose it returns to the ownership and control of the Council. This is a long established principle of such arrangements, for example it applied to the old Carlyon Plant, the Bridge Park Sports Centre, Brent Museum and others. I have remarked before that, despite their increasing ubiquity, there appears to be no agreed criteria for measuring the success of community managed libraries. The closest I can find is this.
Ignoring such issues does not make them go away.
Saturday, 25 October 2014
Two British Museum Exhibitions
I heartily recommend the two exhibitions currently on at the British Museum. Firstly their Ming exhibition, and also the exhibition on German history. It is particularly nice to see something on German history that does not obsess over the Second World War to the exclusion of the rest of German culture.
Friday, 24 October 2014
Waste Hierarchy and Landfill Diversion
By a somewhat circuitous route, I learn that the green waste charges are seen as possibly increasing recycling levels. I think this unlikely. Whatever the other merits of charging for garden waste _ and I can certainly understand the point about financial necessity _ I suspect that the new system is almost bound to lead to a reduction in measured recycling.
There are two reasons for this. Firstly, waste that is composted (which is environmentally and financially more desirable than the Council collecting it) will not count towards a recycling target. That is perhaps a comment on the importance of not allowing targets to overcome objectives since in that case lowering the recycling actually achieves the policy aims better. The second is that the former Environment lead apparently expected the reduction in garden waste to be offset by an expansion in food waste collections.
I think this reasoning is flawed. I regretted at the time that the policy was not properly explained in the report before members or analysed by Scrutiny. The lead member for environment at the time has now been replaced by the first ever Brent Executive member to be simply appointed without an internal Group election (a retrograde step in my view). The previous member appear to believe in the article quoted above that only 60,000 households in Brent had a food waste collection. In fact this has been untrue since 2012. The food and garden waste collection that covered 60,000 households was in that year supplemented by a food waste collection to an extra 28,000 households. This had some success, although there was a problem in take up in some areas such as Kilburn. I understand that the Council is extending food waste collections to flats more, but the reason that this is only happening now because by definition those are the areas hardest to get to. Again it is frustrating that the reasoning and analysis behind this policy has simply not been made public in the way it should have been.
Another point is whether the recycling target is a bit out of date, and should be replaced by a landfill diversion target. This accords well with waste hierarchy principles. West London Waste Authority (WLWA) already leads on reducing waste. WLWA is now locked into a new procurement coming into force in 2016, which will eliminate almost all landfill from West London waste disposal, so effectively Brent is already committed to this policy.
There are two reasons for this. Firstly, waste that is composted (which is environmentally and financially more desirable than the Council collecting it) will not count towards a recycling target. That is perhaps a comment on the importance of not allowing targets to overcome objectives since in that case lowering the recycling actually achieves the policy aims better. The second is that the former Environment lead apparently expected the reduction in garden waste to be offset by an expansion in food waste collections.
I think this reasoning is flawed. I regretted at the time that the policy was not properly explained in the report before members or analysed by Scrutiny. The lead member for environment at the time has now been replaced by the first ever Brent Executive member to be simply appointed without an internal Group election (a retrograde step in my view). The previous member appear to believe in the article quoted above that only 60,000 households in Brent had a food waste collection. In fact this has been untrue since 2012. The food and garden waste collection that covered 60,000 households was in that year supplemented by a food waste collection to an extra 28,000 households. This had some success, although there was a problem in take up in some areas such as Kilburn. I understand that the Council is extending food waste collections to flats more, but the reason that this is only happening now because by definition those are the areas hardest to get to. Again it is frustrating that the reasoning and analysis behind this policy has simply not been made public in the way it should have been.
Another point is whether the recycling target is a bit out of date, and should be replaced by a landfill diversion target. This accords well with waste hierarchy principles. West London Waste Authority (WLWA) already leads on reducing waste. WLWA is now locked into a new procurement coming into force in 2016, which will eliminate almost all landfill from West London waste disposal, so effectively Brent is already committed to this policy.
Thursday, 23 October 2014
Progress at Harlesden Town Centre
Things have settled down a little following the switchover in traffic directions in Harlesden Town Centre. I know that there are still some grumbles about loading, rubbish collections and confused travellers, but I would suggest waiting a bit longer for the system to bed down before condemning it. Firstly, it is still very much under way. The area in front of Harlesden Methodist Church is currently blocked off for works, and a good deal of pavement remains to be done. I don't think it is really fair to judge the scheme until it is physically complete.
The loading arrangements, I expect shopkeepers will get in hand as they adjust to the new system. Similarly, as people get more used to the location of new bus stops and so on, there will be less muddle about where to go. I recall, the much more minor changes at the Wrottesley Road traffic lights I campaigned for took quite a while for people to get used to, but were generally welcomed eventually.
The loading arrangements, I expect shopkeepers will get in hand as they adjust to the new system. Similarly, as people get more used to the location of new bus stops and so on, there will be less muddle about where to go. I recall, the much more minor changes at the Wrottesley Road traffic lights I campaigned for took quite a while for people to get used to, but were generally welcomed eventually.