Anything goes

Muhammed,

I have two questions..

1)How are you going to make a difference to Brent in 2009?

2)Will our Council Tax go up because of the money lost to Iceland?

Jenny, the only way we can make a difference is by taking part , taking part in this discussion with yourself and others shows that there are people out there who have concerns and those concerns need to be addressed. If people do not let their councillors know of what is on their minds then what we do as councillors probably will not be in tune to what you want or need.

If you have any concerns, I will take those concerns and push them forward at the appropriate meeting and try to get a response, which will be passed onto yourself. Obiviously there is a limit to what can be done by one person, but sometimes that one person may just enough to start the ball rolling.

Will the money lost in Iceland affect the council tax, we all sincerely hope that it does not, as we are in the process of trying to recover the monies from the icelandic organisations. There is 10 million pounds at stake with the Heritable bank, this bank is under the administration of Ernst & Young. The propspects at the moment seem to be that the value of the assets exceed the value being claimed by the creditors, which is on the face of it good news, but if the value of the assets decreases and a buyer is not found then we will be in trouble. If the administrators have a fire sale and dispose of the assets at less than the market value because they just want to realise a cash value then this will also be be problematic for us, both scenario's mean that we will not get our money back or we may get back a smaller amount and we would have also lost the interest, a double whammy.

This explains the £10 million, now for the £5 million left in Glitnir bank. There is also another amount of £5 million pound in Glitnir bank which is a purely icelandic bank, and it is subject to the rules and regulations of Iceland. We are one of the creditors who have applied to get our money back, but the value of the assets do not come close to the amount owed by the bank. Another problem there is that Iceland has a population which is roughly the size of Brent and trying to find suitably qulaified people who understand the intricacies of the financial regulations is going to be very challenging, and also finding enough people to translate the necessary paperwork and documents is another challenge that is emerging very quickly. We are try to recover our money and there are large american banks and organisations who have a lot money and legal expertise on their side and they will be able to shout a lot louder than us, so we will have to wait in line.

Gordon Brown, our prime minister will have to allow councils caught up in this crisis plenty of time to spread the loss over 7 to 10 years, this will lessen the impact on the amount of increase in the council tax. There were warning signs given by various newspapers, and financial observers, which many councils failed to see and Brent was one of them. Jenny P, I hope this reply helps, If there is anything else you would like answered or cleared up, please ask. Muhammed

Hi, I just wanted to know what councillors do? I've never known. Thanks!

Robin

Hi Robin, I hope that you had a pleasant break.

Your query about what a councillor does is quite an open ended question, some of the things that we do are helping residents with issues and problems that they have with the council departments, helping with environmental issues like noisy neighbours, we put you in touch with the council's appropriate departments so that the issue will be handled in the most effective manner., We also have to attend meetings where decisions are made according to the council's strategy, this strategy can change according to the people who come into control, at the moment our council is led by a coalition of the Lib Dem's and the conservatives., Some of the decisions taken by the executive are listed on the Brent website under democracy pages.

Consultation's are also part of the work of the council, this is where we have to engage with the people of the borough about issues that will have an impact on their lives, some of the consultations include the issue about a birthing centre that was consulted upon regarding the move to Northwick park hospital from Central Middlesex Hospital, another issue that will impact upon the lives of the residents is the Academy program., The proposal is to build a new (School) Academy which will be funded from the government, a consultation had to take place so that people were made aware of what is going to happen, alot of people responded to the consultation, and there is an section of the community who have voiced concerns about the siting of the academy( that it is not in the most deprived area of the borough with the greatest need for school places).

Policies have to be formed on Housing, crime and environment and we have to make sure that we have plans to attract businesses into our borough to encourage employment. We also have to make sure that we have policies in place for open spaces, school places, not forgetting that we have to look at things like parking control, if we do not control how and when people are able to park, we could end up in a gridlock situation making it impossible for people to move about.

We work with transport for London and try to make sure that there are adequate transport services available serving all the area's where people live and work. We also work with the the primary care trust to make sure that there is adequate health service access, this does not mean that there will be a doctor or dentist on every street corner, but you will be able to get to see one when you need to, also looking at trying to bring better services so that people can actually get access to services when they need, by extended opening hours, more service provision etc.

I hope this helps, it is long winded but the role is quite extensive and does eat in to your time. Kind regards, Muhammed

Dear Councillor Butt, many thanks for your offer to address our questions and issues. May I take this opportunity to address the matter of racial bias in Brent. I am an English person living in Brent, and when I first arrived I was shocked by the blatant racism against White people. Whenever Brent Council puts up a poster to advertise a service, it always uses a photo of a Black or Asian person, never an English person. Similarly, there was recently an exhibition by Brent Black Music History in the Willesden Green Library: any non-racist Council would have celebrated ALL musicians in the area, without discriminating against White musicians because they have the 'wrong' skin colour. This has now been replaced by an exhibition celebrating Asian people. True to form, Brent Council totally ignores the existence of English people in the Borough, and actively discriminates against them. Such blatant racism should not be allowed in 2009!

Hello David,


thank you for your comments, as I was reading your comments I was going to mention things about the ethnic make up of Brent and the number of people from different parts of the world, but you are already aware of that fact.


You suggest that there is a racial bias against a section of our community in Brent.You mention that Willesden green library has held events for other sections of our communities, please take a look at the festivals website and you will see a list of events that try to include all sections of the community.


Brent does have to try to involve everyone, and not all events will be held in one place. You are quite fortunate that you can visit Willesden Green Library as this library holds many events that would appeal to yourself and others.


Having events and festivals from other cultures, in my view enhances our knowledge of other people and will help us all to get along if we understand each other's religions, festivals and customs.


There is always so much going on in Brent that it can be hard to keep upto date with all the events taking place, the best places to find events taking place are the brent council website, Festivals site, local newspapers and not forgetting the community centres and churches.


If you have an idea or suggestion for an event you can email festivals@brent.gov.uk and they will take a look to see if it can be done.


I am happy for you to contact myself with an idea or suggestion for an event and will pass it on ot the appropriate person for careful consideration.


David we have people from all over the world and we all need to get along in Brent, Changes in poplulation make up happen all the time and some times there are changes like the newly elected President of America Barack Hussein Obama which are monumental in their occurrence, this shows that racism has no place in any society, and racism is definitely not tolerated in Brent.


Society needs all of us to work together otherwise we as the society will break down, this cannot be allowed to happen.


Regards


Muhammed

If anyone is interested in becoming a councillor please take a look at the following website:

www.beacouncillor.org.uk

This will give some more information about what the role of a councillor is.

Regards

Muhammed

I used to be a library assistant at one of Brent library and i would like my job back.