Brent Council Meeting July 11^th

Went along to the full council meeting, on Monday which was very interesting to say the least, there was a full debate about “Hate Crimes “ which I think showed the diversity of the council, with many members recalling personal incidents of racism or Hate crimes, some of the contributions were quiet moving.

The council agreed the motion unanimously.

The rest of Monday meeting was taken –up by the Cabinet answering or failing to answer questions on issues from Tree Stumps (see previous blog), regeneration, and recycling all of which showed that they are not doing enough to improve our environment and are in fact going backwards in many areas.

Willesden Green

At Monday nights full council meeting, a Resident from Willesden Green raised the issue of regenerating and greening of Willesden Green, I did not quiet get what the two cabinet members responsible, said they were going to do about the High Road and surrounding area, but I had a feeling it was very little, if anything.

So for what it is worth, as an ex –Willesden Green Councilor, I went there on Tuesday to look at the problem. This is what I found and these are the things I think the cabinet should do to improve the High Road and surrounding area. I then went to a Kilburn resident meeting on Tuesday, where resident’s complaints were the same particularly about increase in dumping or flytipping in Kilburn.

(1) Local Regeneration

I would re-introduce the ward –working allowance. However I would centralize 50% of that fund. This would leave each ward getting £5,000 for general ward work and the central fund would have local environmental improvement fund (LEIF) of approximately £105,000.

The fund would be open to serious bids but not above 50k .The LEIF bid should be endorsed by the local councilors, residents and traders Association .The LEIF bid should be to improve High Streets (like Willesden) for greening, traffic management and business development. The bids would have to be at least match funded and offer employment or training opportunities.

(2) Footway.

Willesden High Road is a Zone1 (High Density Use) but suffers from pavement maintenance issues. I would introduce a Zone1+ for areas like Willesden High Road (along with all other High Street) ,which has heavy footfall and traffic management, this would involve regular inspections and grading , which should mean the maintenance standard for intervention for loose pavements or trips, would ensure the repair is carried out more quickly and at a earlier stage, to prevent accidents  and the conditions of the quality of pavement getting worse

(3) Street Cleansing and Refuse Collection

At the moment Willesden High Road have Time Banded Collection signs saying two Daily Collections take place between 7-30 – 8-30 AM and later 7-30- 8-30 PM. I believe the earlier time is too early for residents and shop owners and the morning collection should be put back to 9AM, which I believe would not only make it easier for residents and shop-owners to comply with, it would also stop black bags coming out during the day,and make it easier to enforce the collection times.

The reason I believe we should change the collection times is if a Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) was challenged in a court.The magistrate  may believe it’s not reasonable for residents to get –up at 6-45 am just to put the refuse out and the shops are likely to be closed for the evening collection. The other reason I am certain the council would lose in court and probably face costs is the confusion over collection times, if you go to the Brent website you will find if you look for collections in Willesden High Road, it says the refuse collection’s are not twice daily but every second Thursday, clearly somewhat confusing for the new residents.

FN. All the collection information given out by the council website and 5050 number  concerning time banded areas including Harlesden, Kilburn, Cricklewood and Wembley are wrong.

(4) Surrounding Area

The surrounding area particularly roads around Chapter Road are probably the worst areas for Fly tipping in Brent. There are a number of reasons, which are to do with population shift, HMO’s and others issues. However the council is also responsible for their failure to manage the environmental problems in that area.

(i) Proper Zone Designation.

Chapter Road and the Roads that run off it, are zone1 (High Density Use) the same as the High Road because of the fact it has a transport hub (Dollis Hill Tube Station) and heavy footfall. However in the contract they are designated as a zone 4 (lightly trafficked areas) and instead of being swept daily the contractor sweeps it once a week. This means the streets are below a Grade A cleansing standard practically all the time.

It is clear that if Chapter Road was designated its proper definition as a high-density zone, which is the top designation. Chapter Road would be swept daily and therefore the fly –tips would be removed at the same time. I believe that the local residents could (and my opinion would) have a case against the council to issue a Litter abatement order (Environmental Protection Act 1990 section 92) to ensure the council complies with their duty to keep the highway clear.

(ii) Flytipping

The problem of flytipping is becoming a pandemic in Brent and Chapter road area is typical and is one of the worst hotspots. It is clear the council need to introduce a Brent wide Educational Program for residents. The cost of this should be already including in the street cleansing contract costs and is just a matter of making the contactor comply with the contract. However the council’s failure to have a proper bulky waste collection service is one of the reasons, I believe that there is so much flytipping in the area .However Brent council are not helping, at the moment (Tuesday) if you asked for a bulky waste collection you will be told that your collection will take place on the 5^th September, this often means that bulky waste items are out in the open (maybe inside the boundary) for nearly two months. The way the bulky collections system works has to be reviewed and changed (there are many cost neutral improvements that could be made) to make it a real option for residents to use, instead of giving Veolia an extra £40K for the green bins service, we should have used that money to negotiate a better bulky waste service.

So there we have it, Willesden High Road  (and many other wards in Brent) is suffering from a lack of regeneration investment, a lack of priority for pavement repairs. Wrong information about collection Times .The surrounding areas are not being swept to the National Standard laid down in the Environmental Protection Act and it takes two months to get a bulky waste collection from the council. And they have a four-year backlog to remove trees stumps. Other than that everything fine in the environment

Tomorrow I intend to look at why Brent is going backwards on      recycling!!!!

              Brent Cabinet Stumped

             On how to deal with Trees!                                             

I am off to the council tonight and for the first time in 2 years, I have been allowed to ask a question.This will be my maiden speech.

The question I am asking 

“Why have the Labour Cabinet failed to deal with the 300 tree stumps that are have not been remove from our streets and are becoming an eyesore to our environment for over 18 months. What do the cabinet intend to do and how much extra will it costRatepayers because they failed to included the clearance in both the Trees contract and pavement replace contract?”

Now you would think every tree removal contract, would have a provision to remove the tree stump after you cut down a tree, alas not in Brent. 

I raised this issue in November 2014, but no attempt was made to find the revenue. At least you would have expected the Cabinet to make some financial allowance in last 2 years  for they removal and reinstatement of these stumps. Well you would be wrong. There are between 200-300 tree stumps (many in Kilburn) waiting grinding and then reinstatement. At the present rate it will take 4 to 5 years to remove the excising stumps, that if we do not cut any more trees down.

The cost to the ratepayer will be £270k,which works out at about £1,000 a tree, just to grind and reinstate the area around it. I spoke to to the lead member who seems to think its a capital project not something that should have been paid via the revenue account over the years or should have been specified  in the tree felling contract.

The cabinet made no extra provision for this service, knowing that there was no provision in the  contracts they decided to ignored the problem.Until now when we have find over 1/2 Million to remedy it .

This cost should been avoid by making the  grinding of the stumps and reinstatement part of the main contracts.But Hey -Ho what a  half a million quid between ratepayers.

Parking Costs,

Its long been a complaint of mine that the Cabinet aim their savings in Brent by cutting services,cutting terms and conditions of our workforce or from the public via the council tax.Over the last 2 years The Cabinet  have been addicted to the private sector and  privatising services and have never look to the contractor to either make savings ,or ensure the contractors are paying their way.

The cabinet have just gone throughout a root and branch review of the  parking costs for residents. however they decided not to included the subsidy we give the private sector.

Because of my concerns , I have had to write to CEO  about the small amount contractors paid to park anywhere in the Borough in comparison  to amount residents paid to park in a small area.

Dear CEO,

                          Private contractors Essential Users

                                   Permits subsidy (EUPs).

 As you are aware, I have been concerned about the way the Parking review has been carried out by the Cabinet. The Cabinet has failed to carry out a root and branch review instead relying on increasing parking costs, without also finding additionally from the private sector, who enjoy a large subsidised from us. 

As you are aware I ask your officers to give me the number of EUPs issued by Brent . they revealed we are issuing 865 permits to private contractor’s at a discounted price and another 360 to Brent direct services.       

See report attached.

I am very concerned to find -out there is a subsidy being given by Brent council officers to our contractor particularly Veolia. Your officers are wrong when they say that contractors are not getting a subsidy as the cost to Brent residents is £140 for each CPZ permit, that only allows residents to park in one zone.

Therefore, using Veolia as an example as we have 40 CPZ zones that make the bill for an all Brent permits for their 14 managers should be £5600 per permit not the £140 per vehicle, they are presently being charged. This means their yearly bill should be £78,400 not the £1960 we receive from them. This means council taxpayers subsidies a multi-billion pound company by the tune of over 76K PA.

Veolia managers are not essential users. In Westminster city council, where I was head of Street Cleansing Enforcement, they receive no permits and were expect to pay for parking meters out of the profits, if they receive a ticket they also pay for it out of their profits. We have no contractual obligation to give these permits to contractors.

On a broader point if we use the proper cost for all EUPS, to private contractors based on the price of all 865 issued permits. The value of the permits is 40x 140x 865 = £4.8million. (Yes £4.8million)

I also not saying these permit’s are not needed for many emergency and essential services. I am aware many of them are regular health visitors, but many are just contractors who happen to working for us and are being undercharged. I am not advocating we should withdraw the EUPs but we should negotiate a better deal for our residents

There are many formula’s you can use to get VFM (and I am willing to help to find that formula), which can be based on many inputs , size of contracts, emergency needs etc.  It would seem more than reasonable that the cost for a pass to park anywhere in Brent should represent somewhere near the true value of the permit. I believe from my experience the true value of a borough wide parking pass is somewhere between £240-£520,if that was the case it would raise between an extra £120k-340K.

I am also concerned there are 44 (5%) of EUPs issued,are to contractors we can't identify and the fact we issue 18 EUPs to the regeneration department, which may be important, but are neither essential or could be considered emergency work.

I would suggest you have a root and branch review, of the costing (subsidy) to private contractors, separate the council essential users (ensuring it not a unofficial manager’s perk) and review the needs of essential services.

I am therefore requesting you confirm that you set up a group ASAP (as I say I would like to be part of that group) to review the private sector subsidy. You also make the review/report available to the full council not just the cabinet who in my opinion has failed the ratepayers on this issue.

Regards