Barry attended both the morning and afternoon services on Remembrance Sunday. The morning service, led by the Royal British Legion, was held at St John the Evangelist Church.
The afternoon service, the Borough Civic Remembrance Service and Parade, was at the Memorial site in Barham Park.
It was a lovely innovation at this years service to have a piper. Poignant as ever. We are forever grateful to the sacrifices made by those before us.
Lest we forget.
Barry officially launched his General Election campaign outside Wembley Central station today. Barry is campaigning to be re-elected as MP for Brent North to help deliver the real change this country needs.
Barry was thrilled to be invited to Manor School with Tulip Siddiq to sit in on their Black History Month assembly.
Both Barry and Tulip absolutely loved it as did the children in attendance and the school are doing great work. Long may it continue!
Over the years Barry has enjoyed his early morning visits to the Mandir to wish everyone Sal Mubarak.
Yesterday morning Barry celebrated Arti and marvelled at the themed Annakut at BAPS celebrating the 200th anniversary of the VachanAmrut and at Kingsbury the 175th of Jeevanpran Shree Abji Bapashree.
Happy Diwali to all in Brent North and further afield!
Barry attended the protest this morning at Brent Clinical Commissioning Group with Dawn Butler MP and members of Brent Labour. This was following on from the announcement that the Urgent Care Centre based at the hospital would be closing at night.
Barry also met with the Chief Executive of Brent CCG with Dawn Butler following the demonstration, to make clear his opposition known to the intended closure and local health cuts more widely and together with Dawn, Brent Council have also made this official Council policy and through working together, hope to ensure the closure doesn’t happen.
A Labour government would invest in our NHS, to give patients the modern, well-resourced services they need for the 21st century. Labour will ensure that NHS patients get the world-class quality of care they need and that staff are able to deliver the standards that patients expect.
Barry was absolutely delighted to once again visit the Memory Cafe at St. Cuthbert’s Church. During the visit he was in the audience to hear the wonderful Memory Cafe choir perform, and spent a wonderful afternoon with the customers at the cafe.
The memory cafe is specifically designed as a meeting place for anyone affected by dementia, memory loss or loneliness. The atmosphere is always friendly, and all are welcome.
The cafe is open every Thursday 11-1pm and every Tuesday a ‘remembrance group’ is run from 11-1pm.
You can find out more about the Memory cafe here
Barry had the pleasure of visiting the Wembley Delivery Office to see first-hand the operation of delivering post to Brent North residents every day and to pass on his thanks to the dedicated, hardworking staff. Barry also joined a local postie on his delivery round.
The Royal Mail is an integral cog in our society and it is important to remember the fantastic work they do all year round and in all weather.
I had a great day out in Queensbury on Sunday morning.
Thank you to all the residents who gave such positive feedback on all the councillors are doing to tackle the speeding cars and sort out anti-social behaviour.
This Saturday I was delighted to attend the procession from St Luke’s Hospice in Kenton to Shree Swaminarayan Mandir in Kingsbury.
We celebrated the 5th anniversary of the opening of Shree Swaminarayan Mandir and the fantastic work of St Luke’s Hospice.
I met with a large delegation of constituents today.
I was deeply shocked to hear first hand about how they were kettled by violent mobs of protestors outside the Indian High Commission when they were celebrating Independence Day on the 15th August.
Peaceful Protest is a right. Hurling bottles, eggs and potatoes at children is a crime.
I have written to the Mayor’s Office and to the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service to pursue the concerns I have after hearing about the breakdown in order and the appalling violence to which so many of my constituents were subjected.
Today, Brent Council Cabinet are meeting to take a decision on the future of Roe Green Strathcona Primary School.
Please find below my letter to Cabinet, expressing the deep concerns I have in relation to the proposals to move to a formal consultation on the closure of the school, which I believe to be flawed on every level.
On Friday I visited Wembley Jobcentre to discuss with staff and Wembley residents the roll out of Universal Credit in Brent North.
Only 1100 people are currently on UC in Brent North and only new claimants are going on to UC. We are not one of the pilot areas. This means that here in Brent we will not see claimants who are currently on housing or disability benefits having to migrate onto the single Universal Credit system for more than two years yet.
I hope this will have allowed time to resolve many of the problems there we have seen in other parts of the country before residents here are affected.
Certainly the staff I met with on Friday have been doing everything they can to help people into work; and where that is not possible to secure all the benefits to which they are entitled.
When I was there on the 17th of May, the oldest outstanding claim for Universal Credit dated from the 7th May — just 10 days — and that delay was because they were trying to secure all the necessary documentation. But the emphasis was very much on helping people get what they were due as quickly as possible.
I want to thank all the staff who showed me round, answered all of my most searching questions and really impressed me with the way they saw themselves, as providing a service to the whole community.
UC is a single payment which replaces six means-tested benefits and tax credits for working-age individuals and families.
I was concerned because it has been plagued by problems in its design and delivery in other parts of the country. It was intended to lift people out of poverty and smooth the transition into work to ensure that it always pays.
Unfortunately, the programme caused real hardship for many people who had to move off their existing benefits onto UC and has pushed some claimants into debt and rent arrears.
The stopping of the roll out and the start of a new pilot scheme in 18 months came only after much pressure from Labour MPs and a change of two Secretaries of State at the top.
So it is a great relief to know that Brent residents are not going to have to go through the migration process until things are properly sorted.
If you are a resident of Brent North, and are having problems in relation to your Universal Credit or benefits claim, please contact my office at barry.gardiner.mp@parliament.uk, and I will be happy to work with you as your Member of Parliament.
Last Friday I was delighted to visit a number of small businesses on Kenton Road, including ‘Artistic Visions’, who produce bespoke exhibition and trade fair stands.
I discussed with the owners Natalie and Subhash, the real difficulties many small businesses in the local area face, when subject to the pressures of high business rates and rent increases.
These family businesses and SMEs are the backbone of our economy, providing 60 per cent of private-sector jobs.
Yet this Conservative Government has taken small businesses for granted. The outdated business rates system is crippling high street retailers and creating an uneven playing field.
Last April, rates were re-evaluated resulting in the average small shop being hit by an extra £3,663 in rates over the next 5 years.
In comparison, large supermarket chains saw a 5.9% reduction in their rateable value, while online retailer ASOS bill fell from £1.17million to £1.14million despite UK sales growth.
A Labour government will revise the criteria of “reasonable professional judgement”, to make sure that every business has a practicable right to a fair appeals system.
It is unacceptable for businesses to be required to pay up to 15% over their true rateable value, and a Labour government would reduce this in line with business recommendations.
We have promised to launch a review of the entire business rates system and to consult properly with business about what a system of taxation suitable for the 21st Century should look like.
When I took up this particular case with Brent Council, I was advised that they qualified for ‘Retail Rate Relief’. It is good that Brent Council is now identifying certain businesses in the constituency that are entitled to relief under this scheme.
However, if you are a small business operating within Brent North, and you think you are entitled to relief, please contact my office at barry.gardiner.mp@parliament.uk, and I will be happy to work with you to check your Retail Rate Relief eligibility.
Last week I faced a tough grilling from a panel of experts. I have often spoken before select committees in parliament. And John Humphries on the Today Programme is well known for his no-holds-barred interview style. But these guys didn’t so much conduct an interview as an interrogation!
I am talking about the official spokespeople for Year Six at Wembley Primary School.
They were grilling me on air pollution in front of about 100 of their fellow students and they had done their homework.
They knew that in London 9,000 people die prematurely each year because of air pollution. They knew all about Diesel cars producing particulate matter that damage children’s lungs. And they were planning to construct “Green Screens” to act as a barrier around the hotspots they had identified around their school.
But they wanted to know what government could do. So we talked about the target to ban the sale of fossil fuel vehicles by 2040 and why this was far too far in the future. One budding maths professor worked out, quick as a flash that at that rate 189,000 more people would have died in London before we had solved the problem. We agreed that an earlier target of 2025 or 2030 would be much better.
It was good to know that most pupils had walked or cycled to school that morning — a real change from a few years ago. The students had even proposed their own solution: to close East Lane for part of the day and divert the traffic down a narrow neighbouring residential street — and before residents in Clarendon Gardens start writing to me; Please Don’t! I did explain why that just would not be a great idea. Our discussions led us on to consider a scrappage scheme with an incentive of a couple of thousand pounds payment to people to trade in their old polluting vehicles to buy a new one with zero tailgate emissions.
I was hugely impressed by the students engagement; their real passion to deal with complex issues and find a solution to a serious problem that is affecting them. Now if only my colleagues in Parliament could have the same maturity to approach things in that way!
I am incredibly pleased to announce that St Gregory’s Simone Ryan has been presented with the UK Parliament Teacher of the Year award!
Simone is a Personal Social Health Education Co-Ordinator and the Head of Citizenship at St Gregory’s Catholic Science College. Hosted by the Speaker in the Houses of Parliament, Ms Ryan was bestowed with this award for creating lessons that drive pupils to campaign for issues that they feel passionately about, such as raising fire awareness in the home, in light of the Grenfell tragedy.
Ms Ryan has organised School elections at St Gregory’s which mirror general elections and referenda, as well as arranging the delivery of Digital Surgeries through the Politics Project.
Congratulations to Simone for being a fantastic example of the many outstanding teachers and educational leaders here in Brent.
This Saturday I paid a visit to Queensbury for a walkabout.
Over the past few weeks I have been working with the police, TFL and the planning and enforcement officers from Brent Council to resolve a number of concerns that I know are shared by many residents and local businesses.
Anti-social behaviour, street drinking and illegal parking are all having a damaging effect on the quality of life in the area.
So I hope you may find it helpful to receive this update on the work I am doing as your MP, along with Sandra, Kana and Ramesh as your local councillors, to resolve these matters and ensure that the proper enforcement action takes place.
I conducted a walkabout in Queensbury and Kingsbury on 15th February. Along with local residents we identified problem hotspots and met with a number of retailers and businesses to discuss their concerns.
It is simply not acceptable that any resident should feel uneasy walking around Queensbury circle because of the large groups of men drinking outside the shops and often blocking the footpath.
The first thing I did was to meet with the Acting Borough Commander of Brent Police to point out the areas that require specific additional patrol and enforcement.
I then conducted a further walkabout at the beginning of March with six enforcement officers from the relevant Brent Council departments in addition to the Neighbourhood Manager for the area.
During this walkabout I challenged them over the various issues that I had already written to bring to the council’s attention, but that still had not received the necessary action. These included cleansing, anti-social behavior issues, planning issues, TFL land management and health and safety issues relating to a business in the area.
Following this the council have advised me that the following specific action that has now been taken:
Westmoreland Road Parking
On Westmoreland Road, the Council have put out a consultation on extending the Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) controls to 8.30am to 6.30pm which currently operate between 10am to 3pm. Following consultation and presuming that the strong support that was previously identified for this is confirmed, the Council state they will progress the Traffic Management Order and implement changes as quickly as possible.
Contact has been made with the developer at this location and they will install concrete blocks on the railway side of Westmoreland Road from the development near the roundabout all the way down to the junction near A1 Autos.
The Council also advised that the barriers will be painted in a way that they stand out, have reflective material applied to them so they can be seen at night and will be placed at 7m intervals to deter trucks and vans with trailers but allow for car parking.
Both TFL and the Electricity Supplier have been contacted in regard to clearing and making good the areas identified around the bridge and the substation. In the interim both areas have been litter picked and jet washed by council contractors.
Queensbury Parade is now swept morning and evening to deal with the build-up of litter that is occurring.
Doric bollards have now been installed along Capitol Way to reduce the opportunity for foreign HGVs to park along Capitol Way. However this is only an interim measure whilst the Council design a sustainable long term solution.
Following my intervention about Anti-social Behaviour I am advised that 106 warnings and Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) have been issued to offenders in the Queensbury Ward in relation to anti-social behavior.
Whilst I am pleased that enforcement action is taking place and the police advise that the incidence of anti social behaviour and breaches of the Public Space Protection Order have reduced, I have emphasised that we need continued strong enforcement to get the message across.
I will ensure that the Council continue to use the powers available to them to tackle these issues and discourage this behavior that is causing so much distress to residents.
On Saturday 23rd I again visited the area with three officers from Brent Council. Within 25 minutes we stopped 4 people from street drinking and issued them with warning notices explaining that they would face a £100 penalty if caught again.
In Westmoreland Road I challenged the drivers of three illegally parked HGVs and got them to move on.
The police joined us for this enforcement action and immediately afterwards issued 9 further warnings to street drinkers in Essoldo Way.
I will be seeking further clarification on progress being made to implement the appropriate enforcement action and to ensure that the necessary steps are taken to address the pertinent issues affecting the community.
I do hope that you found this information useful. If you have any further concerns you would like to raise with me regarding this matter, or any other, please do not hesitate to contact me at barry.gardiner.mp@parliament.uk
