Saturday 25 February 2012

More than just Wembley

Several readers of this blog have recently reproached me regarding the title 'Wembley Matters' suggesting that it should really be called 'Brent Matters' or 'Wembley and Willesden Matters' or that I should set up a twin blog called 'Willesden Matters'. Unfortunately  that can then be extended to Kilburn, Harlesden, South Kilburn, Queens Park, Dollis Hill etc  Unfortunately the title Brent Matters is already in use in printed matter.. Exacerbating the issue is that many residents of Brent, in the East and the South, are critical of the 'Wembley-centric' nature of the council with major regeneration taking places around the stadium and the building of the new £127m Civic Centre being built in its shadow.

My blog was set up in the autumn of 2009 when the proposed ARK academy was the subject of a union and residents campaign over the loss of playing fields next to Wembley Park station and with the Wembley Masterplan a subject of great local controversy.  As a local resident and Green Party activist I set up this blog to air the issues and to support the campaigns.  However from the beginning the blog has covered issues that concern all in the borough with some crossing borough boundaries (the Brent Cross regeneration) as well as national issues such as the privatisation of education. 

I have reported on the neglect of the south of the borough, particularly as regards what I see as the unfair distribution of secondary schools in the south. Ironically the Willesden Green Cultural Centre, which the Council sees as an attempt to have a hub in the south, has been so poorly handled that local people rather than seeing it as an attempt to redress the balance, instead see it as an imposition.

Wembley Matters is probably too established a title to change it now. The title does not mean that I reflect the council's wembley-centrism and this blog is open to all in Brent and further afield who want to air the issues that concern them. Guest blogs are welcome.

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