Cllr Krupesh Hirani

More Jubilee line misery this weekend

Cllr Krupesh Hirani — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:15:19 +0000

(Photo credit: @Doug88888)

More incompetence from the Mayor of London yet again, failing to deliver for Dudden Hill residents who continue to be deprived of a weekend tube service. This is addition to the troubles that commuters faced this morning when the line was part suspended.

I recall a conversation I had on the doorstep with one of my residents who lives on Aberdeen Road who said that she had factored into her life that she doesn’t have a weekend tube service.

We were told that we would have no more weekend closures on the Jubilee Line. With the line not operating between Willesden Green and Stanmore this weekend, this promise has failed to materialise. Boris Johnson has lost his grip on the issue and it’s time that we had a Mayor that truly cares about our transport system.

That is why it is important that Ken Livingstone is elected as the Mayor of London on May 3rd as he is an individual that studies the detail, and takes a hands on approach to the Mayoral office rather than being one that poses for press and photo opportunities.

Partnership and Place committee meeting last night

Cllr Krupesh Hirani — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:56:19 +0000

It was great to have the opportunity to ask questions to Brent’s Borough Commander Matt Gardner last night at Brent Town Hall.

I took the opportunity firstly to thank him for the community reassurance role he played after the tragic fire on Sonia Gardens in my ward last year.

Some of the challenges that the Police are facing in Brent are profound but they are determined as are the Council in delivering the best for our residents despite the challenges we have with resources. Our job is to get on with what we have.

Last night it was revealed that Brent has the largest ‘success rate’ in London when it comes to stop and search. The police are adopting an intelligence based approach to stop and search targeting hotspot crime areas.

They are doing a lot more cross border work which is crucial in areas that neighbour other Boroughs.

We are already 6 sergeants down. Numbers should be ok for PCs. After next week there will be 35 PCSOs in Brent. Based on a formula which recommends that amount that a Borough should have in order to effectively police the streets, Brent should have 75 PCSOs. There is no recruitment drive for PCSOs. When asked what the Borough Commander would do about the recruitment of PCSOs, he honestly said there’s nothing he can do and that he’ll continue to do his job and manage to effectively police Brent with the resources he has.

He admitted that there will have to be a review into what the Police do and that some things they may just have to stop doing. He addressed the perception that we will be short of police in Brent over the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. We will actually get more resources in terms of police officer numbers because we are an Olympic Borough with the Wembley National Stadium and Wembley Arena hosting sporting events.

The Borough Commander said that 84% of his budget is spent on wages and given that there is a 20% to the Brent police budget, it’s not rocket science to see that there are challenges. He drew comparisons to the cuts that Brent Council is making to libraries and said that the Police may have to look into the future of Willesden Police station and whether they can afford to have it. There’s only so much that can be saved from cutting back from buying paper clips.

When I asked whether frontline staff were spending time doing back office functions such as administrative tasks, the Borough Commander replied “not yet”, but that he could see it possibly happening in the future, which is why the Police had to look at what they do.

The challenges that the Police and the Council are facing means that there will be greater partnership and pooling of resources between the two.

Frontline Police cuts are unacceptable

Cllr Krupesh Hirani — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:34:16 +0000

An article in the Independent has revealed that nine out of ten police officers lost because of Tory Liberal cuts were to the frontline.

In Brent, we know this is true as we have lost Police Sergeants in Brent as all were made to reapply for their jobs so that spending targets could be met.

At a Brent Council Partnership and Place Committee Meeting I revealed that even losses to back office staff to the domestic violence team in Brent meant that frontline staff were spending time they would otherwise spend helping people, doing paperwork and desk office functions.

The anwers I received reveals that even back office cuts has a profound impact on frontline services.

Labour Candidate for the London Mayoralty Ken Livingstone has pledged to reverse Boris Johnson’s cut of 1,700 police officers.

Even Margaret Thatcher knew that when times are hard, there should not be cuts to Police because crime usually goes up in a recession.

The Tory Liberals are failing to learn from their own idols.

Winter Snow and Ice Advice

Cllr Krupesh Hirani — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 13:17:52 +0000

Brent Council has published a Winter Snow and Advice guide which you can all read and view here: LINK

I will be going around Neasden with Sergeant Matt Howard from the Dudden Hil Safer Neighbourhood Team from 2pm onwards to patrol the area. This was an already scheduled walkabout to identify issues before the UK snow and we will continue with our work despite the weather.

(WIkiImage)

Guest Blogpost: Cllr George Crane on the regeneration of Willesden High Road

Cllr Krupesh Hirani — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:20:06 +0000

It was disappointing to see local MP Sarah Teather “saddened” at the Council’s plans to regenerate Willesden High Road. The new Library and Cultural Centre will be a major Civic building in the southern part of Brent and a major boost to the regeneration of the area for business, shops and residents.

Both Willesden Bookshop and BIAS will be assisted by the Council to find alternative accommodation in the High Road, in one of the many empty shops. The Council has also approved a detailed interim delivery strategy for the Library, Museum and Archive during the rebuilding period. The Customer contact point will be temporarily re located to the Job Centre in Harlesden a short bus ride away. Adequate study space is being planned at a number of locations in the vicinity. Local Liberal democrat Councillors are very supportive of the plans and see the potential long term benefits for the area.

What is of more interest is the deafening silence from Sarah Teather at the devastating news that London Mayor Boris Johnson has rejected Brent’s bid for 1.6 million pounds to continue the regeneration work in Willesden. Last year the Council implemented a very successful project “New Windows on Willesden”. The rejected Brent bid was for this project to continue during 2012. I hope the Brent Central MP will join me and Navin Shah Brent London Assembly member in asking Boris Johnson to reconsider Brent’s bid.

Cllr George Crane is a Brent Labour Party Councillor for Fryent Ward. He is the Lead Member at Brent Council for Regeneration. Fryent Ward Councillors blog on http://fryent-councillors-brent.blogspot.com/

Extremely proud of a Dudden Hill resident

Cllr Krupesh Hirani — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:07:07 +0000

I am extremely proud of a Cobbold Road resident from Dudden Hill Ward who I recently spoke to on the doorstep recently.

I have been encouraging local residents to note down details of anyone they see dumping and to send these straight through to me. This morning, a resident texted me through number plate details for a vehicle who dumped rubbish. I will be following this up.

Cobbold Road, Dudden Hill Ward, Image via Wikipedia

Thoughts are with Friends, Family and Colleagues of Cllr Alec Castle

Cllr Krupesh Hirani — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:35:47 +0000

Unfortunately, Brent Liberal Democrat Councillor for Dollis Hill Ward Alec Castle has passed away.

Condolences to friends, families and colleagues of Alec.

I first met Alec around three years ago, before I was a Brent Councillor. Alec used to chair the Willesden Area Consultative Forum (usually hosted at the College of North West London) before me.

Guest Blog Post: Richard Lynch on the widening gap between pay and inflation

Cllr Krupesh Hirani — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 06:35:55 +0000

The gap between pay increases and inflation is continuing to widen, according to figures from the pay research organisations and the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The figures for median increases during the three months to end October 2011 (with end September figures in brackets) show the following:

Income Data Services (IDS)-2.3% (2.4%)

Labour Research Department (LRD)-2.5% (2.5%)

XpertHR (formerly IRS)-2.0% (2.0%)

ONS figures for increases in the three months to end September 2011 (with end August figures in brackets) show:

Average total pay (including bonuses)-2.3% (2.8%)

Average regular pay (excluding bonuses)-1.7% (1.8%)

However, the ONS figures for the three months to end October (which are published later than the figures from the pay research organisations) show increases in average total pay falling to 2.0% and increases in average regular pay rising marginally to 1.8%.

None of the above figures go even halfway to matching October’s RPI increase of 5.4% and an average of all the figures shows that pay increases are running at less than 40% of price increases. This means that ‘real pay’ is falling for most people, and falling particularly badly for public sector workers and others experiencing pay freezes at present.

According to XpertHR, pay was frozen for 28% of workers in the three months to end October 2011, compared to 25% for the previous quarter. This situation is likely to continue for public sector workers next year and XpertHR is predicting that 10% of private sector workers will see their pay frozen in 2012 as well. And to add insult to injury, the coalition is now telling public sector workers that pay increases will be capped at 1% from 2013 and, if they succeed in introducing regional pay, millions of nurses, teachers, council workers and others will experience further cuts in their standard of living.

There are no such restrictions in the pay of Britain’s top bosses, however, and a recent report from the High Pay Commission showed that not only has their pay been motoring away ahead of ours, but some have enjoyed increases of up to and above 4,000% in the past 30 years.

Total pay for lead executives in BP, for example has increased by 3,006.5% since 1980 and has increased from 16.5 times’ average pay to 63.2 times’ average pay during that period. In Barclays, the total pay of lead executives has increased by 4,899.4%, with the multiple of average pay increasing from 14.5 to 75. The increase in Lloyds was 3,141.6%, with the multiple increasing from 13.6 to 75. Not bad for companies which have contributed more than most to either ecological or economic disasters over recent years!

Average total pay (including bonuses) is now £463 a week, according to the ONS, with average regular pay at £436 a week. LRD estimates that average full time pay is £618 a week. Average pay for the CEOs of FTSE 100 companies, according to the High Pay Commission, is £80,769 a week (£4.2 million a year). So much for all of us being in this together!

Richard Lynch is a Dudden Hill resident. He is a retired Unite the Union official and currently conducts voluntary work on employment rights for the Brent Community Law Centre. He also acts as an accompanying representative for the GMB union.

Cllr Hirani Slams Brent Tory Liberal Hypocrisy

Cllr Krupesh Hirani — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 11:34:18 +0000

I was absolutely dismayed at the level of hypocrisy shown by the Brent Liberal Democrats and Brent Tories at the Full Brent Council meeting this week. I tabled a motion at the meeting reading, “This Council condemns the £104 million cut to Brent’s Budget over the spending review period”, which Brent Liberal Democrat and Brent Tory Councillors failed to support.

While appearing to fight for local services they have adopted a peculiar position of apparently supporting the Coalition’s chosen method of cutting public spending which has led to more cuts to Brent’s Central Government grant than in other Councils.

There are two main arguments floating around as to why we have a large public debt. In short, one that it was a global economic crisis that led to a collapse of the banking system meaning that the Government had to borrow to stimulate the economy, bail out the financial sector and lost out on projected tax revenue income. The second that Labour public spending was out of control and is to blame for the country’s deficit and deficits of USA, Greece, Spain, Ireland, Germany, France and many more, which we have to pay for now.

Regardless of what line of argument you believe, I thought that all Councillors of all parties would be unified in condemning the scale of cuts to Brent compared to other Boroughs.

Even if you believe that the scale of cuts is necessary nationally and that the debt should be tackled within one Parliament (The Coalition Government’s original plan A on the economy), is it fair that Brent Council has to make cuts in the region of 27-28% of our controllable budget whilst other Councils are not being hurt as bad as Brent? Brent is losing out on £73 per resident whereas Guildford faces a cut of £10 a person and Richmond £5.39 a person.

If Brent Tory Liberal Councillors do blame Labour for creating the deficit, do they believe that people in Brent caused the recession more than residents from other areas and therefore should be made to pay and suffer more?

Barnhill by-election planned for 3rd May 2012

Cllr Krupesh Hirani — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:07:41 +0000

It’s an honour to serve at the London Borough of Brent with such a dedicated Labour Party activist in Councillor Judith Beckman.

Due to a change in personal circumstances, Judith is in the process of moving from Brent and therefore will resign from her position as Councillor for Barnhill ward in due course.

With less than 100 days to go until the London Mayoral elections on May 3rd 2012, it is only right that the London Borough of Brent has a by-election on this date in the interest of the Council taxpayer as this will minimise the cost to the public purse of having an election.

Judith will still be coming to Brent regularly.