Here you can find information about
my current campaigns and also join them by downloading the relevant
petition, filling it in and sending it to: Freepost Dawn Butler MP
Please encourage your friends and
family to sign too - the most signatures we have the stronger the
message we can send.
Post Office
Closures
Read my proposal to Post Office Ltd here: 
News today that the Post Office is to
consult on the closure of three post offices in Brent
South appears to have been ill thought out by Post Office
bosses. The proposal to close two post offices
in (Stonebridge precinct & Brentfield Estate) has overlooked
the high dependence that local, elderly and vulnerable people in
the Stonebridge area have for post office services such as; income
support cheques, housing benefit and pensions.
Indeed Stonebridge Precinct post office has already been rejected
in a previous consultation on closures and nothing has changed for
the Post Office to make a u-turn now on that previous
decision.
It has also emerged that
the Lib Dem/Tory led Brent Council have been aware of these
proposals for some time as the Post Office held pre-consultations
with all affected councils before they made public their
proposals. Therefore, answers are needed from
the Council leadership to find out what correspondence and/or
discussions were held and what response, if any, they gave to the
Post Office.
Please sign my petitions to send
a strong message to the Post Office and the Lib Dem and Tory run
Council to keep our Post Offices open.
Stonebridge Post Offices
Harrow Road Post Office
Anti-gun crime
campaign
Following Brent Council's refusal to secure
funding for the Not Another Drop organisation in Brent,
Dawn Butler MP has begun a campaign for Brent Council to protect
funding for anti-gun crime projects in Brent.
The Government recently announced that £2
billion will be available for neighbourhood renewal projects like
Not Another Drop.
Brent Council must now apply to secure
adequate resources from this funding for Brent. Dawn has already
written to the Government lobbying them to ensure that extra
funding for anti-gun crime projects in Brent to ensure that extra
funding for gun crime projects in Brent comes out of these extra
funds.
It's shocking that the Lib Dems on
Brent Council have failed to recognise how important it is that we
tackle gun crime in Brent. Those who support Dawn's campaign can
sign her petition by clicking on the '.doc' icon below and send it
back to Dawn at butlerd@parliament.uk so we can ensure
that Brent Council finally listens to Brent
residents.
Council Tax
The Lib Dems promised Brent residents
at the last election a 0% Council Tax rise. Now they run Brent
Council, they have just decided to raise it by the maximum the
Government allows before it caps it - 4.9%.
Local residents are understandably
angry about being misled. The new Council administration has also
made it harder for people to pay they tax by collecting the tax in
10 monthly payments rather than 12, increasing the amount people
have to pay each month.
I've been contacted by hundreds of
hardworking Brent residents struggling to pay for the increase,
particularly the elderly and single parents. I do not believe it is
fair to raise tax after promising not to, which is why I am
campaigning against the decision - please sign my petition so we
can show the strength of local feeling.
Environment
I am campaigning against the 'Dumpers
Charter' that the Lib Dems running Brent Council have recently
introduced. They are now charging for the collection of bulky items
- at £25 a go where previously it was a free service from the
Council to Brent residents. Not only are Brent residents having to
pay twice now, once in Council Tax and again in charges, but the
Council have also admitted that this will encourage fly-tipping and
result in less recycling! We all know that areas of Brent's
environment need to be improved and this is making the situation
worse.
The Lib Dems on Brent Council are
also making no progress on improving recycling rates. Every house
in Brent should have a green recycling box - this was a measure
introduced when Labour ran the Council. Yet there are still too
many houses going without. Around 40,000 or 40% of people in Brent,
have no doorstep recycling service for cardboard and there is no
recycling for organic waste at all. This is not good enough. Brent
needs to improve its recycling record and I am campaigning to see
that this happens. Please contact my Office on 020 7219 4385 if you
are having difficulties receiving your green box.
Please sign my petition for Brent
Council to improve its environmental record.
Elderly
The Lib Dems on Brent Council have also
decided to triple care charges for the most vulnerable Brent
residents.
Since being elected in 2006, they have
raised home help charges for the elderly by a massive three times
the cost before they took over. The cost of home help care has now
shot up from just over £5 to over £16 an hour.
Brent Council has also put in place a new
meals on wheels contract where frozen meals are cooked in the vans
on the way to their destination - and reports have been coming in
that food is arriving either too hot or too cold and meals have
burst open. The meals now come with just a driver and not a driver
and an escort which means that there is not sufficient time to
check on the welfare of the elderly residents. As if this wasn't
enough for Brent's elderly residents to deal with, they are now
being forced to pay more for this shoddy service!
I believe that Brent Council's first
duty is to the most vulnerable here in Brent, including the
disabled and elderly. They have neglected this duty by increasing
charges for elderly services. Please support my campaign by signing
the petition.
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