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!!!!