Showing posts with label Sudbury Court. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sudbury Court. Show all posts

Wednesday 17 February 2016

Barry Gardiner and Brent Council at loggerheads over mega primary

The Kilburn Times LINK reports today that Barry Gardiner, Labour MP for Brent North,  accompanied by Martin Dickens, chair of Parents Against Byron Court School Expansion and Suzanne D'Sousa, chair of Sudbury Court Residents Association, met with DfE officials to protest at plans to expand Byron Court Primary School to 5 forms of entry.

Brent Council proposals would increase the school to a total of 1,050 4-11 year olds plus nursery. Gardiner accused the Council of putting their statutory responsibility to provide school places above the well-being of pupils.

Brent Council has been under intense pressure over  primary school places for several years now and has moved from providing ad hoc 'bulge classes' to permanent expansions. The situation is exacerbated by rules under the Coalition and the present government that forbid local authorities from building new schools where they are needed. Instead any new school must be a free school or an academy which is of course dependent on providers coming forward.  Unfortunately this leaves provision at the whim of such providers who often make proposals in areas which are not those of greatest need.

In the secondary sector in Brent some academies have come forward with proposals for a new Brent North secondary free school that they will jointly sponsor.  There haven't been any similar proposals for primary so an increasing number of schools have doubled in size, affecting place space and facilities such as halls and libraries, as well as impacting on the ethos and management of the schools.

One loophole that is rapidly closing is the creation of 'satellite' schools under the auspices of an existing school but in a different building, often some distance from the 'parent' school.  Leopold Primary is such a school with an annex in Brentfield Road.  The DfE is likely to deem these to be new local authority schools in the future and thus not allowed.

I share the view that schools of this size are not suitable for the education of young children.  Sometimes plans are made for expansion with headteachers only for their long-term implementation and consolidation to be left to their successors. The arguments over the education benefot of very large primary schools have beenpreviously on Wembley Matters LINK

Mega primary schools result in highly paid headteachers who often have an 'executive' role quite different from the traditional role of the headteachers of smaller schools. There are increasing difficulties in recruiting new headteachers in the current climate created by government policy and the task of finding suitable candidates for mega primary schools, when current headteachers move on, is daunting.

Government policy, inherited from the Gove era, really must change - it does not serve the interests of children, parents or local democratic accountability.

Brent Council told the Kilburn Times that the decision to approve the expansion would not be reviewed.

This comment on the Council planning site gives a flavour of the opposition to the expansion which it is claimed was opposed by 90% of consultees (unedited)  LINK


There are several words I could use to describe my objection to this application: DISGUST that a proposal which had such overwhelming objection at the public consultation stage was passed through to planning. DISBELIEVE/OUTRAGE that the local councillor and cabinet members response to such objections was that most of them could be resolved at planning - the site is too small meaning the proposed building will be obtrusive to the immediate neighbours and detriment to our children's health as they will no longer be able to enjoy the fast array for physical activities currently available at the school; isolated in an already congested residential area - with increasing congestion and pollutions levels being experienced on East Lane and Watford roads as the main roads serving the estate; the school places are not needed in this area of the borough, Wembley High's primary school (when finished) will already provide a surplus of places in the area meaning the new attendees will have to be travelling some distance coursing further traffic and parking issues in the immediate and wider area (because of the limited public transport available in such an isolated area at the northern most boundary of the borough); and that the proposals are completely out of character for the area - frankly unless you are proposing to relocate the entire school to a more suitable location these are not issues which can be resolved. DISAPPOINTMENT at the behaviour of the Head teacher - backtracking on her own statement of a few years ago that "three form entry was more than big enough for a primary school" and her attempts to garner support from the parents by holding propaganda assemblies about the proposed new facilities with the children, sending them home to tell their parents to support it and the attitude of the school management and councillors in pushing these proposals forward are to the detriment of the local community. A state school, local council and its democratically elected members should be there to serve its community not to impose its own agenda irrespective of the needs and wishes of that community - it is telling that the only comments of support for this application have given the school address or addresses outside of Brent for their authors. As parents, of course we want better facilities for our children, of course we want the existing canteen with its leaky asbestos roof (which should have been condemned decades ago) replaced, of course we want to see the 'temporary structure' (porter cabin classrooms) which have been in use since the 1970's & 80's replaced with permanent classrooms in keeping with the current school architecture. BUT not at the expense of an intimate, cohesive, caring educational establishment which you should expect of a primary school and I am sure you cannot replicate in a school the size of the one being proposed. I urge those with the power to make a decision in this matter to reject it for the good of the children already attending the school and for the wider local community. Why should this small corner of the borough bear the brunt of the councils lack of planning over the last decade for an ever increasing population, coursed both by the increasing birth rate and the unsustainable over development without infrastructure (some distance away from Byron Court) in Alperton and Wembley Park and at other locations across the borough (but not immediately local to Byron Court)?


Friday 12 June 2015

Brent Council's green bin 'grab and smash'



Brent Council has been collecting green bins this month from those households not willing to pay the £40 annual 'garden tax'.

They collected from the close in which I live about 10 days ago and I don't think any household has kept their green bin.

We were told that the green bins would be stored by the Council for re-use and there was some discussion on Streetlife about possible re-use.


Now a Sudbury Court Estate resident writes:
Good afternoon Martin, 
I  thought you would be interested to know about a recent development in connection with the above.  
At home we compost the majority of our garden waste and did not take up Brent's most very generous offer to pay a surcharge for removal of our garden waste. We were advised that redundant bins would be collected during June. 
Today, two vehicles arrived, one to empty any bins containing waste followed by another to take the bins away. The Contractors then proceeded to smash the wheels and the bottoms of perfectly good bins with a hand axe. A pure act of vandalism and a total waste of resources. How environmentally friendly is that? At a time when Brent Council is whinging about Government cuts forcing them to cut services, they are destroying perfectly good equipment which could be used by others. 
I have issued my comments to our local councillor and chairperson of our Residents Association requesting their comments. 
I hope you can investigate this matter in your usual efficient way. 
With very best regards. 

Sudbury Court Estate Resident.
Can anyone shed light on Brent Council's, or is Veolia's, action?


Friday 31 October 2014

Brent allotment holders encouraged to go green as sites with short waiting lists advertised

Birchen Grove allotments near the Welsh Harp
It is good to see Vanessa Hampton, Brent Food Growing and Allotments Officer, taking action to encourage greener gardening by allotment tenants.  This was sent to allotment holders today:
Earlier this year I ran a couple of free cultivation classes which were attended by approx. 50 people.  So back by popular demand I’ve organised another 2 classes which any tenant is welcome to come along to.  The classes are identical, so you don’t need to go to both.

We will be covering useful topics for beginners on the allotments looking at tools and how to get your plot cleared and dug over, composting and how to garden more sustainably, reducing the use of chemicals on a plot.

The classes start at 10.30am and there will be a poster on the gate showing where I am on site if you can’t see me from the entrance. The class will last for approx. 2 hours and I have enclosed a useful information sheet that covers some of the subjects we’ll go over in the class.

Saturday 29 November at Gladstone Park Gardens allotment, Dollis Hill, Broadfield Close entrance, NW2 6NR  Map and travel info   There is a car park at this allotment.

Saturday 10 January 2014 at Woodfield Avenue allotment, North Wembley, HA0 3TP  Map and travel info   The entrance to the allotment and car park is in the park: go down Sudbury Avenue, take the first turn on the right into the park and you will see a building, North Wembley pavilion and the car park opposite where the gate to allotment is. 

I will also be contacting every tenant in December to invite them to complete a short questionnaire about their gardening methods with a view to finding out how green are our plot holders, for example do you have a water butt if you have a shed and how often do you use pesticides?  We will then re-survey everyone in a year’s time to see if people are getting greener.

I am also producing a Conservation Management Plan for the allotments and the aim will be to improve the places for wildlife at every site.  This will involve some fun habitat improvement activities like making log piles and ponds, building bird boxes and managing hedgerows.  If you are interested in joining in with a habitat improvement activity on your allotment site, please let me know.
Meanwhile the Council is advertising some potential plots on its website:
If you fancy your hand at food growing, some of our allotments have short waiting lists where you can be offered a plot within a year or so.
The short waiting lists are at:
  • Cecil Avenue, Wembley, HA9 7DY
  • Dors Close, Kingsbury, NW9 7NT
  • Kinch Grove, Kenton, HA9 9TF
  • Lyon Park Avenue, Wembley, HA0 4DZ
  • Sudbury Court Road, Harrow, HA1 3SD
Allotments are a great way of growing good quality and fresh fruit and vegetables for your family and friends at a low cost.
Apply online for an allotment plot or call 020 8937 5619.