January 2009 Archives

Three men have been arrested following a raid on a Wembley house where drugs and ammunition were found.

Police executed a drugs warrant at the address in Alexandra Court, Empire Way on Wednesday.

Police recovered a large quantity of drugs and around 18 rounds of ammunition.

The men, aged 23, 30 and 35 years, have been bailed until April 15.

Sergeant Liam Tierney from Tokyngton Safer Neighbourhoods Team, said: "We are committed to improving the lives of residents whose daily life is blighted by drugs and violent crime. I hope this action sends a positive message to the community that we will take whatever action necessary to improve their lives and tackle crime."

Anyone with information regarding criminal activity in their area should contact their local Safer Neighbourhoods Team or Crimestoppers anonymously 0800 555 111.

From battling huge blazes to attending serious road smashes firefighter Simon Gallagher has seen it all.

The 49-year-old father-of-two was just 18 when he signed up and this year celebrates 30 years with the London Fire Brigade.

Simon, who is stationed in Wembley, said: "I remember training school very well. It was disciplined and challenging, but looking back you realise this was a good thing. I remember moving to my first fire station at Heston (near Hounslow), not really knowing what to expect, but you have to jump in at the deep end. I really enjoyed my time there."

Simon then had spells at Hillingdon, Wembley, Ealing, returning to Wembley where he has spent the last 25 years.

He said: "I have attended many major emergencies in my career, ever since my first shout to a fire alarm at a hospital in Southall.

"Perhaps the most memorable was a huge fire in a video duplication company in South Way, Wembley.

"I have never seen smoke like it and there were 30 fire engines tackling the blaze. Wembley Stadium was being developed at the time and when people saw huge plumes of smoke in the distance they thought the stadium was on fire."

But a firefighting career leads to some humorous moments too. One of Simon's more unusual calls involved rescuing a swarm of bees.

He said: "We were called because a big swarm of bees had attached itself to branches overhanging a busy road. We sent a hydraulic platform and I had to go up it with a beekeeper. I was even wearing a beekeepers' outfit over my fire gear.

"The beekeeper shook the branches and it was literally raining bees. He managed to find the queen and get it into a box, and obviously all the others followed. Amazingly, I didn't get stung."

Simon said the main change to the service in 30 years was in the safety of fire crews. "Health and safety and training have increased markedly."

Passengers can quiz British Transport Police (BTP) officers next week about crime and safety on the Jubilee line.

The Jubilee Line Neighbourhood Policing Team - comprising one sergeant, two constables and two PCSOs - has been patrolling the line and stations between Stanmore and St Jonh's Wood stops since its launch in August.

They will take questions at the conference room at Wembley Park London Underground Station, Bridge Road, Wembley, on Thursday 5 February from 7pm onwards. It will the second such public Q&A the team has held.

PC Matt Dobbs said: "The neighbourhood team means we can respond to issues and needs more easily, as well as making people feel safer using the Tube.

"We are easy to contact and always welcome feedback from the community.

"These meetings give passengers the opportunity to highlight issues of concern and discuss them with us. ItÕs always very helpful to speak to people face-to-face."

Tunde Taiwo, group station manager for the London Underground's Willesden Green Group, said: "Our staff work closely with the BTP Neighbourhood Policing Teams and whilst crime remains low on our network we know it's important to talk with our passengers as well as the communities that live and work close to our Tube station.

"We are fully supportive of these meetings and hope they'll help everyone move around more confidently and safely across our network."

n Anyone who is unable to attend but would like to share comments can email the Jubilee Line NPT by email at Jubileelinenorth.npt@btp.pnn.police.uk

A survivor of the 7/7 London bombings declared the new Brent Ambulance Station officially.

Gill Hicks MBE was taken on a guided tour of the station in Neasden lane, which features an open plan mess room with kitchen and seating area, fully-equipped offices and a large training room.

She was also given the opportunity to meet some of the staff who worked on July 7, 2007, and see some of the vehicles that respond to emergency calls in the area.

At 13,500 sq ft, Brent Ambulance Station, which was opened on January 16, is now the second largest ambulance station in London and will be base for around 70 members of staff including paramedics, emergency medical technicians, A&E support, urgent care along with administration and management.

The Brent complex will respond to around 100 calls per day in an area covering Hanger Lane, to Brent Cross, Wembley and Kilburn.

Ambulance Operations Manager for Brent, Kevin Brown, said: "The ambulance station is an excellent environment for us to work and train in and I would like to thank everyone who has been involved with the project.

"The new station is ideally located and will help us to deliver a faster response to patients in the Brent area.

"We are honoured to have had Gill along to officially open the station. As a survivor of the 7/7 bombings and a tireless campaigner for peace, she is an excellent motivation for all our staff."

Libraries in Brent will be open for longer from February.

Most libraries will now open from 10am on the days they operate and some will close later. Three libraries will now be open seven days a week.

Brent Council leader Paul Lorber said: "Brent Council constantly wants to provide excellent library facilities that give our customers the best possible services.

"These new hours are a vast improvement. They will enable users to enjoy all that our libraries have to offer during longer hours every week."

The new hours run from Monday February 9.

See the new hours of your local library at www.brent.gov.uk

All but a handful of Brent's schools have improving GCSE results, according to the Government's figures released last week.

An impressive 85 per cent of secondary schools saw an increase in the number of 15-year-old pupils achieving five or more A* to C grades.

And only three of the borough's 19 educational institutes saw a slump in the number of students achieving the top grades in August last year.

John Christie, director of the children and families service, said: "We are all very proud of Brent schools, which perform exceptionally well against regional and national targets.

"Brent is in the top tier of school results despite being one of the most deprived boroughs in London and this year's improvement is a wonderful tribute to staff, pupils and parents."

Alperton Community School, in Stanley Avenue, Wembley, saw the biggest jump in results with 13 per cent more teenagers getting A* to C grades, in subjects that included English and maths.

Copland School, in Cecil Avenue, Wembley, saw a 12 per cent increase, with 51 per cent of students falling into the category in 2008, compared to 39 per cent in 2007.

Sir Alan Davies, headteacher of Copland, said: "We did very well and shot up last year so are very pleased.

"A lot of effort is put in to improve students' English and Maths results and we run a Saturday school as part of this.

"We also have appointed intervention support monitors to help students improve their grades."

On average 55 per cent of Brent students achieved the five A* to C grades which is above the national average of 47 per cent.

Islamic boys' school, Brondesbury College, saw it results fall by 11 per cent, but it did set its standards extremely high in 2007 when all its pupils managed to achieve five or more A* to C grades.

The lowest achieving school was Cardinal Hinsley College, in Harlesden Road, Harlesden, where 25 per cent of students fell into the category.

The most successful was Brent's all-Hindu Swaminarayan School, which achived a clean sweep with 100 per cent of pupils getting five or more A to Cs.

Capital City Academy in Doyle Gardens, Willesden had one of the lowest percentages of successful pupils but has seen a steady improvement in grades since it was taken out of special measures in 2005.

Principal Philip O'Hear, said: "We are pleased that our steady progress has been maintained with our GCSE results.

"We are rapidly closing the gap between our results and the national and Brent averages."

A Brent policewoman is facing jail after being accused of professional misconduct and sharing confidential information with friends.

Keiley Patton, of Raleigh Road, Hornsey, has been charged with four counts of misconduct in a public office and appeared in Southwark Crown Court, in London, last Friday.

From January until June 2008 the 26-year-old is accused of supplying a class C drug, as well as conducting unauthorised checks on confidential police computers systems and disclosing the information to others.

The police constable, who was based in Wembley, also obtained car insurance for another person through misrepresentation.

During the same period Patton ran police computer checks for people including Nathaniel Williamson, Menlik Lewis, Corey Wright, Carly Learmonth, Acer Reed and Anna and Paul Curtin.

Patton is also charged with burglary of World Airways, in Ealing Road, Wembley, on April 16, 2008, where £4580 worth of cash and calling cards were stolen.

Patton will be sentenced at a later date.

All of the borough's diverse communities are invited to come together for Brent Holocaust Memorial Day.

Brent is marking the nationally recognised event at its town hall in Forty Lane, Wembley, between 2.30pm and 4pm on Sunday.

There will be talks by representatives of the Anne Frank Trust, anti-facism magazine Searchlight and the anti-racism football campaign Kick it Out.

Brent Junior Choir will also perform throughout the afternoon along with pupils from Claremont High School, who will read poems.

Reverend Anthony Wolfson, Wembley United Synagogue, will lead a memorial prayer in Hebrew and English followed by a one minute silence to close the commemoration ceremony.

A prolific criminal who was caught burgling a house in Wembley by its shocked owner has been thrown in jail for more than a year.

Homeless Trevor Morgan, 42, was rumbled when the woman returned to her home in Oakington Avenue, Wembley, to find him filling a bag with her valuables.

The thief told the resident he was looking for someone called Michael and then left carrying the swag bag.

He was later arrested after being chased by police and was sentenced to 16 months behind bars at Harrow Crown Court on January 7.

PC Gerry Sim, from Brent Priority Crime Unit, said: "Morgan is a prolific burglar who was chased and detained minutes after committing this offence with the stolen property.

"The victim, although shaken up, was delighted to have her property restored to her hours later.

"We will continue to target offenders like Morgan with the intention of reducing the offence of burglary in the borough."

A college-owned company that ran computer training programmes has collapsed after "quality and performance concerns" with its Government contract.

The North West London Colleges Consortium (NWLCC) had provided award-winning Learndirect courses since 1999 from Crescent House at The College of North West London (CNWL) and later Dexion House, Empire Way, Wembley, but was put in administration late last year.

Founding colleges Harrow, Stanmore, St Dominic's Sixth Form and The College of North West London took their share of the firm's modest profits, and so the only financial blow to them is believed to be the absence of future income.

In a statement, NWLCC's board of directors said: "It is very regrettable that, after years of successful trading and despite the high quality of the company's training provision, NWLCC encountered recent difficulty in covering the operating costs associated with the delivery of its publicly funded programmes.

"Other similar companies have faced the same challenges. NWLCC staff worked hard to make sure that, wherever possible, students completed their qualifications before the closure of the company."

Stanmore College principal Jacqui Mace, who was chairwoman of the board, said the firm's downfall was in part due to a delay at government body University for Industry (UfI) over whether to renew the company's Learndirect contract.

She declined to go into more detail, saying only: "They held back on the number of centres there were, and changed the system from having a hub which managed a contract for a wide area.

"That caused quite a few problems. There was uncertainty about the future and the biggest issue was cash flow. NWLCC wasn't badly run - it was well run."

But a spokeswoman for the UfI said: "UfI terminated NWLCC's contract to deliver Learndirect in July 2008. NWLCC's contract was up for renewal in July 2008, therefore there was no delay in the timing of the decision.

"The decision was taken by UfI not to renew NWLCC's contract because of concerns about performance and the quality of the learning being delivered by the organisation. All providers are made fully aware of the performance and quality standards required before signing contracts."