Hampstead and Kilburn CLP back Abdirazak over sacking from Planning Committee

The proposed Ark Primary School to be built on the York Hopuse car park

Last night Hampstead and Kilburn Constituency Labour Party overwhelmingly backed a motion submitted by Kilburn (Brent) branch on the sacking of Cllr Abdirazak Abdi from Brent Planning Committee.

The resolution sets out the background and concurs with an opinion voiced on this blog that the Report submitted to the Full Council Meeting stating that Cllr Abdi had resigned was untrue. The amounts to misleading councillors and the public.

This branch/CLP/LCF notes:

Abdirazak Abdi, a recently elected first-time Kilburn Brent Councillor, has voted on eleven planning applications since being on the planning committee of Brent Council since May. He voted against four of the eleven applications because of material planning considerations. As a conscientious Councillor he is doing his best to promote truly sustainable development in Brent. The four developments he voted against include:

* An application to build a 630 pupil primary school on the busy Wembley Hill Road connecting Wembley Central and Wembley Park with a rooftop playground and concerns around air pollution;

* An application for a part 21 and a part 15 storey housing block in Wembley, criticised  by local residents, and also queried by Sadiq Khan's office for containing too little `affordable' housing especially as the scheme received public funding;

On the afternoon of Monday 9th July Cllr Abdi was informed by the leader of Brent Council that he was being removed from the Planning Committee. This was transparently because he was not endorsing decisions approved by the leader.

His removal from planning committee went ahead at full Council that evening despite objections from Abdi (including at the full Council meeting) and his Labour Party branch secretary.

The Council record states that Abdi "resigned" from the planning committee, which is blatantly untrue.

We call for:

Brent Labour Group to reinstate Cllr Abdi to the planning committee as a matter of urgency;

Brent Labour Group to instigate democratic procedures for decisions on committee places and to put an end to the current patronage, which could be interpreted as political interference in planning decisions.

[Resolution to be sent to Brent Central and Brent North CLPs, Brent LCF and all members of Brent Council Labour Group]

[LCF is Local Campaign Forum, a Party body with delegates from all 3 CLPs in the borough (and from the Labour Group]

For additional information, Abdi was told he was being taken off planning to make way for one of the Councillors elected in the late Willesden Green election. Abdi was only on one committee (planning), this is the breakdown for others: 

Excluding leader, deputy leader and members on the cabinet.

5 councillors not appointed to serve on any committtee

16 councillors only serve on 1 committee
14 councillors serve on 2 committees;
11 councillors serve on 3 committees; and
5 serve on  4 or more committees;