Minutes of BRAT Committee Meeting
8thMay 2018
Present:
Brian Glasser (Chair) | |
Jane Clist (Secretary) | Mary Loughnan |
Judy Easter | Annette Morreau, |
Fiona Finlay | Caroline Lynch |
Al Forsyth | Mary O’Connor |
Richard Kates | Paul Schulte |
Maggie Linford | Sheila State |
Apologies:Jason Barnes, Clifford Bastian, Mali Bastian, Celia Purcell, Annaliese Richards, Wendy Roberts, Kamilla Williamson
- Minutes of meeting held on 6thMarch 2018
The minutes of the previous meeting were approved.
- Street cleanliness: minute 5 of 6th March 2018
Noted that enforcement officers were being brought in by the Council to deal with street rubbish. Agreed that the problem was exacerbated by landlords who rented out too many bedsits per property. One house was known to contain 10 bedsits. This raised fire safety issues too. Another problem was that timed street collections were happening before the time given to people to put their rubbish out. Agreed that Fiona and Brian would draft a letter to the Council. Noted that the Cleaner Brent app produced positive results.
Further noted that the designation of the BRAT area as a conservation area applied only to planning issues and not to rubbish clearance.
- New councillors
Noted that two of the three councillors recently elected for the BRAT area were new and had never been councillors before. They were Abdirazak Abdi and Faduma Hassan, who were serving with Rita Conneelly.
Agreed to keep them informed of BRAT’s activity by copying them in to letters to the Council and informing them of previous actions. Further agreed that Brian would invite them to the next meeting.
4. Crime: minute 6 of 6th March 2018
Noted that 77 Calcott Road had been broken into on Sunday 15th April while the owner was absent. A neighbour had seen that a front, ground floor window had been broken and someone was removing items from the property. The police were called and they arrived in time to apprehend the person concerned. Two other residents in the BRAT area had been burgled the following night.
Noted that Costa Coffee at 73 Kilburn High Road were hosting events where people could meet local police officers on 9th and 15th May from 13.00 to 14.00.
- Rough sleepers
Noted that there had been a spate of rough sleeping on the Brent side of the Kilburn High Road near the tube station. The meeting was informed that rough sleepers could be reported to a charity called Street Link who assessed homeless people and helped them to access hostels. Also noted that some ‘homeless’ people belonged to gangs of beggars working for gang masters.
Agreed to raise the matter of rough sleepers with the new councillors.
- Tricycle Theatre
Noted that the name of the newly refurbished theatre was being changed to the Kiln. This was very unpopular with local people as nobody had been asked to comment on the new name and there had been a demonstration on Bank Holiday Monday, 7th May, to protest at this change. Richard Kates was part of the group, headed by Martin Fisher, formed to object to the name change. Agreed that Richard and Judy, with the help of Martin, would draft a letter from BRAT to the leader of the Council, Muhammed Butt, and the MP, Tulip Siddiq, asking what process had been followed to bring about the name change.
- Planning: minute 3 of 6th March 2018
Noted that the porch of 9 Calcott Road had recently been filled in. Agreed to object to this as being against the principles of the conservation area.
- Street trees
Noted that residents had planted flowers around the trees in Fordwych Road and that BRAT residents could also do this.
Noted that tree roots had damaged a wall, the pavement and road in Dunster Gardens. Brent Council had said in March that the trees would be looked at this year, but that work on them might not start until next year.
Agreed that Clare Fox would be contacted about the trees. Richard Kates was interested in being involved with street trees and Clare would be informed of this.
- 9. Date of next meeting
Noted that the next meeting would be on Tuesday 3rdJuly at a venue to be decided as the ICMP would be closed for refurbishment. Paul would be Chair.