Agenda item
Mayor's Announcements (including any petitions received)
To receive announcements from the Mayor.
Minutes:
The Mayor made the following announcements:
(i) Brent Holocaust and Genocide Memorial Day
The Mayor announced that, on 26 January 2017, over 200 people had attended the Brent Holocaust and Genocide Memorial Day, which had had a full programme that included a holocaust survivor testimony from Manfred Goldberg. The Mayor said that there had also been choirs, speeches and the lighting of memorial candles, which had added to the incredibly moving programme he had been honored to be a part of.
(ii) Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History Month
The Mayor reminded Members that Brent Council and Brent Housing Partnership would be celebrating the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) History Month with an event to be held in the Conference Hall at the Civic Centre on Tuesday 28 February 2017 from 6pm to 8pm. He said that LGBT History Month had been celebrated since 2005 and the theme of this year’s event, which would be open to staff, allies and members of the public was ‘Pride NOT Prejudice’.
The Mayor said that the event was also open to the public and was an ideal opportunity to learn more about relevant services provided by Brent Council, and to network with Brent residents, partners and colleagues.
(iii) International Women’s Day – Wednesday 8 March 2017
The Mayor was pleased to announce that Brent would be celebrating International Women’s Day with an event to be held in the Conference Hall at the Civic Centre on Wednesday 8 March 2017 from 10.00am to 2.00pm. He said that International Women’s Day was a global event that celebrated the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women and added that the day also marked a call to action for accelerating gender parity.
The Mayor said that International Women's Day was all about celebration, reflection, advocacy, and action and that, on the day, attendees would be able to hear how to move to purposeful action - and with men and women joining forces – how, collectively women could be helped to realise the limitless potential they offered both locally and globally.
The Mayor encouraged all Members to attend these events.
(iv) Mayor’s Final Fundraising Event of Municipal Year 2016-2017
The Mayor announced that he would be hosting his final fundraising event of his Mayoral year in the Grand Hall at the Civic Centre on Thursday 16 March 2017. The Mayor extended his gratitude to Members for their continued support during his year in office and hoped that Members again would support this, his final event.
(v) Petitions
The Mayor announced that, in accordance with Standing Orders, a list of current petitions showing progress on dealing with them, had been circulated around the Chamber.
In accordance with Standing Order 68, the Mayor drew to the attention of Members, a petition, which related to Islamia Primary School, and which had gathered over 1,200 validated signatures.
The Mayor invited the Lead Petitioner, Nur Enver, to address the Council.
Ms Enver said that she was attending the meeting on behalf of all the signatories of the petition to keep Islamia Primary School as a two-form entry. She said that the petition alone was a testament of just how important the school was. She said that in just three days, the petition had gathered 1,250 signatures. She said that Islamia Primary was a very unique school and the only voluntary aided Muslim school in Brent and which was oversubscribed. Ms Enver said that the school’s latest sats results had been amongst the top ten percent in the country. She said that the school catered for the needs of families who lived in Brent by providing equal opportunity and access to the school irrespective of families’ financial backgrounds. She said that the school provided a service to parents to be able to educate their children not only through the national curriculum but simultaneously with a faith ethos and British values. The school was a flagship school which was recognised nationally and internationally. If the school resorted back to a one-form entry, the impact on the school, parents, children, the local community as well as the wider community would be devastating. She said that the school would be faced with a sibling crisis and also a staffing crisis as well as job cuts and this would put huge stress on staff there. There would also be financial implications for the school. Ms Enver said that the new funding formula was putting a lot of pressure on schools and being a one-form entry school, would find it difficult to avoid going into deficit. Also, if the school reverted to one-form entry, the catchment area would be removed, which would mean that the School would be taking on children from outside of Brent and would add to the parking and congestion problems in the area. She said that it would also put additional pressure on Brent to provide primary places and that this would also have a knock-on effect on the environment and the carbon footprint. She said that she did not believe this but recently had started to think this was true and that there was an element of discrimination on the school’s behalf. Ms Enver said that she noticed that many schools in Brent had become three, four or five-form entry and had been given the green light to expand, even when over 90% of residents had actually opposed it. There was, she said, a school which was on the same road as Islamia School which was in more of a congested area, had been offered four-form entry and a further school, which housed 480 boys and was within walking distance to Islamia School and this school was not even a Brent school. She said she would like to know how many schools had been reduced to one-form entry when there was such a demand for primary school places. The events that had led to the new build being stopped had emerged from an unfair cap on Islamia Girls’ School, which was never part of the original agreement. Up until today, this cap had not been removed, which would hinder development at the girls’ school. The GCSE results of this school had topped the league tables in West London. The Josef Aslam Foundation had allowed the school to stay as a two-form entry and it had supported the school for ten years without asking for rent, and had provided space on the premises which belonged to the girls’ school and had not charged for this. It was, she said, a kick in the teeth from Brent since the school had accommodated an additional 500 children throughout the past 10 years. Ms Enver’s question to Council was “What has Brent done to resolve this?” The school would like Brent to find a permanent solution as its children deserved the same opportunities as others.
In response, Councillor Mili Patel, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People thanked Ms Enver for her petition and said that she was aware that Islamia was a very successful school which was delivering good outcomes for its pupils. She appreciated that Islamia was a popular school amongst its pupils, parents and governors. Councillor Patel said she wanted the school to thrive and to continue to deliver excellent outcomes to the community and that she would do whatever she could to help, however, she said that the Council was only one of a number of stakeholders and partners involved in this process and she pointed out that some of the concerns Ms Enver had addressed, specifically to the Council, were not solely in its gift to solve. Specifically, she said, the petition called on the Council to ensure that Islamia School remained as a two-form entry school thereby providing a viable solution to provide safe and secure premises for all 420 pupils there. Councillor Patel said that this was a positive goal, but it was not Brent Council which was consulted upon reducing its published admission number from 60 to 30 places, but Islamia Primary School’s Governing Board. She said that the Board had taken this decision without the Council’s knowledge and certainly without its support and hoped that parents would lobby the governing body and take part in the school’s consultation. Councillor Patel wished to make it clear that the Council did not have funding to expand the current building or to build a new primary school on the Salisbury Road school site. She said that the Council wanted to work with the Josef Aslam Foundation to achieve one of these outcomes. Unfortunately, she said, the Foundation had not been able to work with the Council to achieve this and its announcement in December of the withdrawal of the building had left the Council with an impossibly short deadline to achieve a sustainable and lasting outcome. Councillor Patel hoped that the parents and the Council could persuade the Foundation to reconsider and to work with the Council and the school on these proposals. In conclusion, Councillor Patel addressed one issue, which she felt should not have been mentioned in this discussion but as it had been raised by the petitioner she stressed that the particular religious practice at the Islamia School had no bearing whatsoever on the Council’s approach to this issue and that the Council had a duty to find educational places for all young people and wanted even more children in Brent to get the good education that people of Islamia got and that’s why the Council wanted to keep the school open.