(Photo credit: Simon Oosterman)

In my first Executive meeting on 21^st May 2012, I will be the responsible Member for introducing the item on inviting tenders for introducing a Carers Hub to Brent. The Carers Services Hub will provide a single point of contact for carers through the coordination and delivery of a wide range of services.

Through consultation with carers, we were told that people were frustrated with the system and the lack of a clear pathway to access help and support. Through this Carers Hub, we aim to create a single point of contact for unpaid carers and better coordinate services to them. It will also serve as a reference point for voluntary sector organisations providing support services to people in Brent.

The Carers Hub Model is endorsed by the Princess Royal Trust for Carers as a best practise model. We will be pooling our Budget with NHS Brent in order to deliver this.

In a show of contempt to the Brent Council Taxpayer, the Liberals look like they will be holding a Council by-election sometime in the next couple of months in Dudden Hill, when they had the choice to hold it on the same day as the London Mayoral elections.

By-election costs come out of the Council’s general fund.

There was a flurry of activity in Dudden Hill today for the first time since May 2010. I was out on the doorstep, as I am every Saturday, when I even spied Sarah Teather. A couple of people living near Gladstone Park have mentioned that they have been canvassed by the Liberals.

Interestingly, I spoke to a Lib Dem activist who had come over from Kensington to help out the Lib Dems in Dudden Hill. He first of all looked surprised and was impressed with seeing a young Councillor. He vented his disappointment at the way in which the Government was handling the economy and that the richest landowners in society had the means to pay off debt with a one off payment rather than targeting welfare and disability benefits. I asked that you can raise that with the MP that is there today. He said I’ve seen her briefly today – but this sort of thing is “too advanced” for her. At which point we exchanged contact details. Says a lot when Lib Dem activists feel more comfortable talking to Labour Councillors than Lib Dem MPs, Councillors and Government Ministers!

This level of activity from the Liberals is unprecedented in my tenure as a local Councillor, which suggests to me that a by-election in Dudden Hill is coming soon.

Cllr Hirani with Shadow Minister for Public Health Diane Abbott MP

As Lead Member for Adults and Health, I will be overseeing transition, monitoring progress and implementing huge structural changes as our local authority adjusts to the passing of the Health and Social Care Act 2012.

I will bring a person centred approach to the role, as I have been championing outside of my Local Authority work in my profession. I am a passionate believer in helping the most vulnerable in our society, stemming from my Labour and Hindu values that make me who I am.

At 26, I am possibly the youngest Council cabinet member in the country and I am immensely proud of this achievement.

Mayor of Brent – Cllr Michael Adeyeye

Deputy Mayor of Brent – Cllr Bobby Thomas

Leader of Brent Council – Cllr Muhammed Butt

Deputy Leader of Brent Council – Cllr Ruth Moher

Lead Member for Adults and Health – Cllr Krupesh Hirani

Lead Member for Children and Families – Cllr Mary Arnold

Lead Member for Crime Prevention and Public Safety – Cllr Lincoln Beswick

Lead Member for Customers and Citizens – Cllr Lesley Jones

Lead Member for Environment and Neighbourhoods – Cllr James Powney

Lead Member for Highways and Transportation – Cllr Jim Moher

Lead Member for Housing – Cllr Janice Long

Lead Member for Regeneration and Major Projects – Cllr George Crane

Here are the results in percentages Ward by Ward. I will comment below the graph on certain key results that may have wider implications.

Alperton

In a ward where the Liberals currently have two Councillors and Labour has one, Labour polled first by miles (63.4% of the vote!). The Tories even beat the Lib Dems who came third in this seat. Labour is on course to take all three Council seats in Alperton in 2014.

Barnhill

In a usually straight Labour Tory battle, the Tory vote collapsed. The Lib Dems didn’t field a candidate in the Barnhill by-election at all but in the Party vote they polled 9.1%. My suspicion is that many Liberals who were deserted by the Brent Council Lib Dem Group voted for the Conservative Party candidate in the Council vote.

Brondesbury Park

In a ward which currently has three Lib Dem Councillors, the Liberals were battered into fourth place behind Labour, the Tories and the Greens. Well done to the greens who won 11% of the vote there.

Dollis Hill

Perhaps this was due to there being a fresh Council by-election victory for the Liberals in Dollis Hill Ward, but it the Liberals polled higher in Dollis Hill than in any other ward in Brent with 14.1% of the vote. However, they were still beaten by Labour (56%) and the Tories (16%). It is interesting though that in the Ward where the Liberal vote now appears to be the strongest in Brent, they only sneaked in a by-election victory in March 2012 by 37 votes!

Dudden Hill 

My Ward. I share this ward with one Labour Councillor and a Lib Dem. In this ward, Labour polled 54.4% and the Tories 14.8%. This means there are less Tory votes for the Liberals to prize away, as is their usual tactic.

Kensal Green

The Liberals polled well here in the last Council and general election, but came a miserable fourth in this Ward.

Kenton

In the only ward in Brent where there are three Tory Councillors, the Conservative Party did well here.

Mapesbury

The Lib Dems currently have three Councillors in this Ward but signs for a Labour gain in the future are positive. Labour membership in this Ward has spiked up since the Lib Dems entered Government and the Liberals polled third behind the Tories and Labour in this Ward.

Queensbury

In what is known as a Labour vs Tory marginal Ward, Labour won more than twice as many votes than the Tories in this Ward.

Stonebridge

This is our strongest Ward with Labour winning 78.9% of the vote. The Lib Dems were battered into fourth place behind us, the Tories and the Greens. There narrowly polled ahead of the Christian Party who won 2.9% of the vote in Stonebridge. This is 0.2% less than what the Liberals polled. This is bad news for Brent Central MP Sarah Teather who did poll better than expected in Labour heartlands in Brent in order to win the Brent Central seat in 2010.

Sudbury

Labour currently has one Councillor in this ward and these poll results show that Labour is on course to gain at least another in Sudbury. Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group Cllr Paul Lorber is in a very nervous position and it will go down to the wire for the Sudbury Council vote in 2014.

Specific data released on the London Mayoral 2012 elections has revealed that former Brent East MP Ken Livingstone polled more than all the other candidates put together. Ken Livingstone won 54% of first preference votes, winning 22% more votes in Brent than the eventual winner of the overall election Boris Johnson who won 32% of the vote in Brent.

The vote spells bad news for the Liberals who’s candidate Brian Paddick only polled 5% in Brent.

There was more encouraging signs for Labour as Brent and Harrow London Assembly Member Navin Shah was the highest polling candidate in every single Ward in Brent. There is a huge drop in Lib Dem in Brnet with them coming an embarrassing third and even fourth in some wards where they have three Councillors!

I’ll blog further on this later.

(Picture Source: ConservativeHome)

Front page of today’s Daily Telegraph. Pictured in the corner is Vincent Kompany, captain of Manchester City Football Club, celebrating after his club won the Premier League championship last night. At the same time, the Tory supporting Telegraph report on the Tory Liberal Government’s attack on the most vulnerable in society with 500,000 set to lose out on disability benefits.

Fraud for the Disability Living Allowance is estimated to be in the region of 0.5%. However, the Government will cut funding for the Personal Independence Payment (which is the new disability benefit replacing the Disabiliy Living Allowance) by 20%. This simply means that disabled people will have less support.

FullFact.org  highlights the lack of media understanding on disability benefits for the most vulnerable in our society.

For more information see here – LINK

The document exposes the Liberal Democrat MPs in Government for being responsible for imposing the cuts but hypocritically opposing them locally.

Brent Central MP Sarah Teather gets a starring role in the document on page 4 with the hypocrisy of their campaign in Dollis Hill Ward that I highlighted in March 2012 featuring strongly.

You can read the document highlighting the two-facedness of the Lib Dems here – LINK

The Liberal Democrats introduced a £25 charge for collecting bulky items when they ran Brent Council in Coalition with their Tory partners. This created a bizarre situation where residents who arranged by phone to have bulky items collected and paid £25 would have their items collected within two weeks. Dumpers got a better deal as those selfishly throwing items out on to the street would have items collected in a matter of days. At the time, this was famously branded the Dumper’s Charter.

Brent Labour’s number one manifesto pledge was to make bulky item collection free for residents again and we delivered that within a matter of months of regaining control of Brent Council in May 2010.  You can now arrange for bulky item collection online through this website http://www.brent.gov.uk/streetcare2.nsf/pages/lbb-68.