St Patrick's Day parade

The St Patrick's day celebrations will be on Saturday 17th March this year, with a parade from Willesden tube station to the Library Centre.  This will be the last event of the council's funded festivals and events programme. Brent can be rightly proud of the generous funding for a number of festivals in the past, but the drastic budget cuts we have had to make has resulted in a future programme comprising support for a much reduced offer: a borough-wide "Brent Celebrates" festival, Holocaust Memorial Day and a fireworks display.  There will also be a small specialist team to help and advise groups planning their own events.  Meanwhile, let's make this St Patrick's parade the best ever. 

Ward Working 2010/2011

Ward Working is a way councillors can support projects and improvements in their wards. A small fund (£20,000) is available for each ward in Brent. The 3 councillors have to agree to allocate funds to works or projects that are not the council’s responsibility to deal with.  This year, projects have included:

Brent Museum and Archives  – textile craft workshops and workshops to explore support services for people with mental health problems

Kings Hall Community Centre – storage shed and resources for new youth club started by parents

Victory Youth Group – football project

Cricklewood Homeless Concern – Night Shelter

Brent Area Community Watch – burglary prevention project

Willesden Green Library multiplexor

Planting in troughs leading to Sainsbury’s store

SNT Alert box funding for connection charge to link alert boxes within shops along the High Road

CAB – Working with the Tricycle Theatre to deliver financial education to young adults

We are now seeking ideas for the next financial year and would be pleased to hear residents’ suggestions.

Latest on the Learie Constantine Open Space

There is new fencing in place but other work on the refurbishment of the Learie Constantine Open Space in Villiers Road has been sporadic.  There has been plenty of digging and the layout plan is emerging but there appears to be a long way to go before it is finished.  The delay may be due to having to wait to see if the Lib Con government would continue to fund playgrounds with the "Playbuilder" scheme. Recently heard this scheme was abandoned, but where work on a play space was advanced, it could be finished.  So it looks as though this play area will survive the cuts.  I am asking officers for the potential finish date and will include an update later.

Cinema at Library Centre

Lots of residents have raised the issue of the cinema closure. It would be good to find another new management for it, but the equipment would need upgrading.  Was given this statement on it:

"Unfortunately the cinema closed when the tenants decided it was no longer a viable business. We are currently looking Willesden Green Library Centre as a whole and how we can develop the cultural facilities to provide the best offer for local people. The cinema will remain closed in the short term as it does not meet the technical requirements for a modern digital cinema. We are investigating alternative uses of the space".

Ward Working 2010/2011

Willesden councillors will be meeting soon to discuss how we will use the Ward Working (formally Neighbourhood Working) fund (£20,000) to provide improvements in Willesden Green.  We can only spend on items not the responsibility of the council to deal with or "one off" events.  One or two ideas already, but would be good if residents shared their ideas with us.  Last year we cleaned up the statue area at the bottom of Dudden Hill Lane and got the "eyesore" wall refurbished.  This year we might be funding football kit for a Willesden youth team or a project in the Brent Museum.  Some areas might like some more street trees.  Your ideas please!

Kings Hall Community Association

The Summer Fete at the Kings Hall Community Centre went very well. To aid the fund raising, I used my local and family history interest to offer visitors look-ups of the 1911 census to see who lived in their house in 1911. Most of the houses had more people living there than today.  Some Kings Road addresses had servants recorded. There was even a professional footballer lodging at one local address.

Doubt whether many of today's professional footballers would be lodgers in NW10!

'Team Willesden’

Congratulations to the staff at Willesden Bus Garage who recently won the London Buses Award for Best Vehicle Centre. ‘Team Willesden’ were rewarded for their quick response to the vandalism of 29 buses at the depot in June 2009, cleaning every bus the morning after and preventing any delays for passengers. Well done, team Willesden!

Willesden Safer Neighbourhoods Police Panel

Attended the Willesden Green police panel this week. We are fortunate to have such a good safer neighbourhoods team who are making good progress in the targets panel members set them. Targets set have been addressing anti-social behaviour around the Library Centre, speeding vehicles and graffiti. Problems around the library have virtually stopped - helped in part by making the outside walls less attractive to sit upon!  Earlier this year around 50 street drinking incidents, there are now virtually none.  We changed this target to reducing burglaries – especially important in the Christmas period. There have been several speed testing operations around schools and some drivers found to be without insurance or using mobiles. There has certainly been a reduction in graffiti ‘tags’ around Willesden. Recording and tracking ‘tags’ is an essential element of the improvements, as is the successful court action against perpetrators.