2018 May Minutes

Minutes of BRAT Committee Meeting

8^thMay 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

 

1. Minutes of meeting held on 6^thMarch 2018

The minutes of the previous meeting were approved.

 

2. 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.

 

3. 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.

5. 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.

 

6. 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.

 

7. 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.

 

8. 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. 9. Date of next meeting

            Noted that the next meeting would be on  Tuesday 3^rdJuly at a venue to be decided as                                the ICMP would be closed for refurbishment.  Paul would be Chair.