acknowledgements to Martin
Francis http://wembleymatters.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/kilburn-councillor-launches-blog-with.html
Kilburn councillor launches blog with
email revelations over Brent HS2 vent meeting
Cllr John Duffy, Labour, Kilburn ward
has launched a blog site this morning, Kilburn Calling, LINK which
states as its intention 'A blog that speaks out about the issues and concerns
of people who live in the Kilburn area of the London Borough of Brent'.
Cllr Duffy attempted to persuade the
Labour Group to raise Council Tax during the pre-budget consultation, arguing
that to do so could prevent some of the worse of the cuts, particulalrly the
ending of funding to Stonebridge Adventure Playground.
At the last full Council Meeting (there is another tonight) he protested that
Kilburn had become disenfranchised because none of its councillors had been
allocated places on Council committees.
In a posting today LINK he reveals what he claims to be an
attempt by a senior Brent officer to stop him informing residents about his
attendance at a key meeting on the controversial HS2 vent issue.
This is what he says:
A funny
thing happen to me over the weekend, I received a email from a senior officer
in Brent council, telling me about a meeting to discuss the HS2 train link
running under Kilburn and the placing of the vent shaft.
The email said:
“Please accept this meeting request for discussions on the HS2 Vent
Shaft issue that has arisen.
XXXX has called this meeting to ensure you all have the opportunity to
be factually briefed on the issue, especially from the South Kilburn
Regeneration perspective.
The meeting
will be held at xxxxx. xxxxx (full address below). Please ask for XXXX XXXX upon
arrival”.
I
accepted the invitation to the meeting and believed I should inform the Chair
of the local residents to highlight the fact that I was attending and therefore
assuring them that their voice was being heard. So I forwarded the email to the
Chair of the local residents a Mr F and merely added “FYI”. Believing that I
had acted as a good councilor, I then prepared to enjoy my weekend.
However on Friday night I received this letter from a Senior
Director, which he had cc the leader of the council. Saying that he noticed I
had forwarded his email stating.
Dear Councillor Duffy,
This is a private briefing for the new MP, the Leader, and relevant Lead
Members from the cabinet and ward councilors only. It isn't an open meeting for
members of the public or wider party members. I would wholly expect one outcome
of the meeting to be wider consultation and engagement on the issues and we can
discuss the approach to this at the meeting.
Can I leave you
to inform Mr F of this situation please?
Thanks - see
you next week
I was
initially taken back by what I saw of an invasion of my private correspondence
with a Constituent. However it would seem that Brent council operate a system
that traces any person to whom they have sent an invitation to and any other
person that the recipient forwards it onto. This despite the fact that the
email did not state it was private or secret.
Because
of my concern about this I then forwarded this note to two other colleagues
asking them to advise me about what I saw as intrusion into my private email
correspondence with my constituents.
To my
amazement I received another email from the Director, which was sent to all of
the three of my constituents I had emailed. Which said:
Dear Mr P, Mr G, MR K,
I understand that you have been forwarded a notification of the above
meeting by Cllr Duffy.
Regrettably this meeting is a private briefing for local politicians and
therefore attendance is restricted and I am afraid that you won't be able to
attend.
One of the purposes of the meeting is to discuss how we best engage and
consult with the many different residents and partners who have an interest in
this issue with a view to ensuring that everybody's voice is heard. I
will make sure you are all notified of the relevant consultation meetings when
they are set up.
Many apologies
for the misunderstanding.”
Summary
It is
clear the officer involved believes he alone controls the meeting; his way of
dealing with councilors is by dictating to them and believes he can instruct
councilors to obey him, because presumably he is an officer
The way
the officer has handle this situation and the tone of his emails is of great
concern to me, it reeks of “big brother ” and his interference by directly
emailing my constituents is frankly unbelievable. It is as if I had been a very
“ bad boy “ and he is telling me off. It is condescending and I believe
undermines the respect officers should show to elected representatives.
I am sure
there are many Cabinet Members and Councilors, who believe they should just
obey officers’ instructions and do what ever they say, and do not stand their
ground. This officer seems to have confused me with one of them.
I was
quite happy to attend the meeting itself. I never invited anyone else contrary
to the officer’s wild allegation. This meeting is about the vent shaft for
HS2. There are two options being discussed: one in Queens
Park (next to the station) and the other in South Kilburn next to St
Mary’s RC School in the middle of the regeneration area that has been blighted
as a building site for the last nine years.
I however do not accept the implicit
suggestion from these officers that this will be sited (as indicated in their
first e-mail) in the South Kilburn regeneration area. These residents have
lived on a building site for last 9 years and have been shafted by the Tory
government over the years by cuts in services, the bedroom tax and family
credits etc. So I will attend the meeting to do my best to ensure the residents
of South Kilburn are not literally “Shafted” again by both the Tory Government
and over zealous Officers.
