Bent Council: …while Nero fiddled

Brent's crude plans are no oil for troubled waters

29th July 2008 « Corrupt Council
Revised: 2-5-10

Empire-building

Brent Council's 'chief executive', Gareth Daniel, aspires to the dizzy heights of status and influence enjoyed by (albeit briefly) the Roman Emperor Nero all those years ago when Rome was great and everything else wasn't.
The Council employee Daniel's latest idea is to change the borough's name from the London Borough of Brent to the London Borough of Wembley. In a bid to convince a public weary of the Council's more harebrained ideas, Daniel said,

This move is a key element in Brent Council's new modernisation and service improvement programme. Furthermore, the Wembley name is an international brand and a powerful symbol in attracting jobs, world class services and much-needed investment to West London. It is important for all residents of Brent and something of which residents from all parts of the borough can be proud.

The name-change plan was revealed in Daniel's 'chief executive' newsletter in June when he suggested abandoning the old-fashioned Brent Council crest for a logo of more modern and relevant style. Included in this 'modernisation plan' is for the Council's Town Hall to up sticks and move down the road—and down the hill, literally. Eyeing the gleaming structure of the brand, spanking new Wembley Stadium from his lair on the lofty heights of Forty Lane, Daniel wants to set up shop beside the latest jewel in the borough's crown.

Calculating the cost

This name change will affect all levels of the Council and many areas of resident's lives such as;

the Council's stationery and Web sites
uniforms for the Council's employees
new signage for the Council's buildings
re-spraying of the Council's fleet of vehicles
reprinting local maps and other direction-finding devices
street and road signage —there are thousands of street signs with an average of almost £300 per sign

There are over 80 public open spaces in Brent, ranging from;

pocket parks; —such as Roundwood Park at 0.3 hectare
district parks; —such as Gladstone Park at 35 hectares
country parks; —the only country park in Brent, Fryent Country Park is 105 hectares
nature reserves; —such as Welsh Harp Reservoir at 170 hectares

Essential Local Services;

GP and dentist surgeries in the borough; —enforced re-design of essential stationery
Brent and Harrow Health Authority; —expense of extensive re-branding
charities and voluntary organisations; —expense for dozens of independent agencies whose identity intimately is linked with the Brent brand

Office Depot, the giant multi-national US-based supplier of office products and services contracted to the Council, told a local newspaper, 'A name change and new logo would cost £1m in new stationery'. This considers just the cost of designing the new identity and implementing it across the Council's array of electronic and paper-based media. Considering all the factors listed above, the total cost of this name change is likely to run into many millions of pounds.
None of this considers the extent of disruption imposed on the many hundreds of private commercial enterprises whose identity is linked inextricably to the location in which they produce the lifeblood of the Council itself.

Huge resentment

A resident told a local newspaper, 'Everyone knows that Wembley is in Brent. It's a waste of money and just another self-indulgent ego trip'. Speaking to journalists, Councillor Ann John (Labour) said,

The borough is called Brent because the River Brent was the dividing line between the former boroughs of Wembley and Willesden and people have grown used to that name.
This proposal will seem like a takeover by Wembley and it will be resented by Willesden residents. But it will also be resented throughout the borough because it is a pointless waste of taxpayers' money.

What Daniel fails to understand is that residents in the southern half of the borough see themselves as closer emotionally to Willesden and do not regard Wembley as having any connection to their lives. The Brent name unites the whole borough. By renaming it Wembley, Daniel will do nothing but divide it.

Solid no-party support

Daniel concocted this harebrained scheme without the knowledge of elected Councillors. Members across all parties have united against his proposal. Asked about the debacle, Council Leader Councillor Paul Lorber (Liberal Democrat) said, 'We have not and are not considering the idea'. Councillor Bob Blackman (Conservative) said,

It should be clear that this is very much an idea raised by the Chief Executive without political support from any party on the Council. I take the view that we have many more serious issues to consider.

Brent Council’s ‘chief executive’

The Council employee Daniel was paid far in excess of £249,000 in 2010 as 'chief executive' by the borough's taxpayers, and is one of the highest-paid local government Chief Executives in dear old Blighty.
Immediately on graduating from Oxford University, he started life as a 'social worker' in the neighbouring London Borough of Ealing. He moved to Brent Council's Social Services in 1986 as a 'planning and policy manager'. The Council's Social Services had been alerted to the danger faced by a temporary resident, Victoria Climbie, yet this child died from mistreatment and neglect by her carers. In the public enquiry into her death, Brent Council's Social Services have been criticised as a 'dysfunctional environment'. Daniel blames his staff for this tragedy who, he says, 'have been poorly managed and poorly led'. He became the Council's 'chief executive' in 1998. According to his brief biography on the Council's Website, he has no experience of life outside the protected environment of local government. Although he has an honours degree in economics, he has no experience in the commercial sector.

Hail the conkering Nero!

Our very own modern-day version of Roman Emperor Nero, Brent Council's 'chief executive', Gareth Daniel, fiddles while Brent burns. When not demonstrating his skill at the ancient British sport of conkers, Daniel attempts to delude residents of the borough by swinging the old chestnuts of 'modernisation', 'improvement', 'world-class services'. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, his employees, identified throughout Bent Council, lie to Government officials, deceive the borough's residents, and use money taken from them through taxation deliberately to disguise their wrong-doing in an orgy of corruption which would have shamed the original Nero.
Daniel would have more credibility if he restricted his 'modernisation plan' to the provision of services and to ensure these services are delivered adequately.

A brief history of the borough

In the mid-1960s, central government carried out a major re-organisation of the nation's local government. Out of this upheaval emerged the London Borough of Brent, merging the older boroughs of the Municipal Borough of Wembley and the Municipal Borough of Willesden. These two older boroughs were formed as local government districts within the county of Middlesex in the late 19th century. ^∗See note below
The newly-formed borough is named after the River Brent which runs north-northeasterly to the Welsh Harp reservoir in the north-east of the borough. This small river formed the boundary between the two older boroughs. The area of the London Borough of Brent is 44 sq. km, with a population (2001) of 261,463.
The London Borough of Brent is one of the so-called 'outer boroughs', with a diverse community of good, solid specimens of the human race from all areas of the planet. It has oodles of vast(ish) parks, some of them true, open spaces with a healthy, rural air. There are dozens of wildfowl (oh! all right then, dozens of species of wildfowl) in the larger parks, and many species of migratory wildfowl. There are vast, distinct residential areas separating many large commercial districts. These residential areas grew out of the rural character of the two older boroughs at the close of the 19th century and expanded greatly after World War I.
So, there you have it: the London Borough of Brent—a river runs through it, with its wide open spaces, its walkable stretches of dual carriageway and its molehills (we don't do mountains in Brent). Like the idyll in the film A River Runs Through It, where fish leaped to fry in the pan, Brent is every bit as idyllic a spot as that portrayed in this Hollywood cinematic blockbuster. Although there are few fish in the River Brent, however, the only person fishing is Brent Council's 'chief executive', Gareth Daniel.

^∗Note: One of the historic counties of England, Middlesex itself fell victim to this re-organisation when it formally was abolished and the rest of the county, both rural and urban areas, was subsumed with existing districts or allocated to other, newly-established districts. It exists now only in names of organisations, postal addresses and in the determination of those who seek its return to its former glory.

Battling Brent Bloody Brent Revolting Brent Incompetent Brent The 'neighbour relations team' Uncaring Brent An open letter to Brent Council Unaccountable Brent Coote and Longdon Rogue's Gallery Hell twice over Arrogant Brent Why did Dack lie? Evans is dishonest, Part 1 Capitulating Brent? Bent Brent

…while Nero fiddled