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Brent’s blooming winners The winners of Brent in Bloom 2009 have been presented with their awards by Mayor of Brent Councillor Jim O’Sullivan. The annual competition applauds gardening skills with judges awarding marks for plant colour, design, and quality. It also helps to make Brent more attractive, and this year the borough went on to win a Silver Gilt Award in the London in Bloom competition. The competition encourages community involvement in amateur gardening and horticulture. “This year we asked everyone for greater efforts to show that Brent can be the best in London. Our gardens
Group aims high for the disabled A support group has been set up especially for parents and carers of disabled children and young people. 1 voice is run by parents, for parents and works in partnership with Brent Council to give families a say on issues affecting their children. It has been founded by the Aiming High for Disabled Children programme, which aims to improve services and support. The group meets from 1012.30pm on Mondays (termtime only) at Hay Lane School, in Grove Park, Kingsbury, e-mail info@1voicebrent.com or call Kieran O’Donnell on 07985 195 939.
and green spaces, even our window boxes and hanging baskets make Brent a cleaner and greener place to live in,” said the Mayor Jim O’Sullivan. The neighbourhood category was introduced last year and was retained for this year’s competition and has been won by the NW2 Residents’ Association on both occasions. The award encourages communities of all sizes to make positive and lasting changes by ‘greening up’ local streets, gardens and open green spaces in their neighbourhood. The winners in 2009 are Neighbourhood Award: (1st prize) NW2 Residents’
Association (2nd prize) Roe Green Village Residents’ Association; Front Garden Seasonal Planting: (1st prize) Edward Murphy (joint 2nd prize) Mr Conybeare and John Quinn (3rd prize) Lena Jefferies; Front Garden Permanent Planting (1st prize) John Philippou (2nd prize) Robert Smith (3rd prize) Edward Murphy; Container Planting (1st prize) John McMahon (2nd prize) Carol Nichols (3rd prize) Patrick Rock; School Garden: (joint 1st prize) Preston Park Primary School, Leopold Primary School (2nd prize) Newfield Primary School; Outstanding Achievement
Award: John Quinn, Margaret O Sullivan, Lena Jefferies; Business and Public Premises: (1st prize) BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Neasden (2nd prize) The Corrib Rest, (3rd prize) The Ox and Gate.
Another coup for Brent’s youngsters Four youngsters met top officers at Brent Council’s children’s services to mark national Takeover Day on 6 November. The national day encourages organisations to open their doors to young people to find out how decisions are made and is run by the Children’s Commissioner for England. The four, who are members of Care in Action and Brent Youth Parliament, joined Rik Boxer, Assistant Director for Achievement and Inclusion, and Graham Genoni, Assistant Director for Social Care, over lunch to discuss the council’s support for young people.
Farrukh Chodhry, Alilyah Weekes, Amal Abdi, Kishan Parshotam, Graham Genoni and Rik Boxer (back row) Renata Chavda, Youth Participation Officer, Manveen Patwalia, Principal Youth Participation Manager and Natasha Thomson, Children in Care Participation Worker (front row).
Take a twirl at Stuart‘s classes Dance champion Stuart Barrett is leading same-sex Latin and ballroom dancing classes for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youngsters. The free beginner’s classes are organised by LGBT project
Mosaic for youngsters, 19 and under in Brent and will run every Saturday starting at 12noon until April next year. Stuart was the UK Same-Sex Showdance Trophy champion and an Outgames 2009 gold medallist. “I have been dancing
all my life. I would like to get more LGBT young people dancing and bring more gold medals back to the UK in years to come,” said Stuart. Contact Lukasz Koniecka at Mosaic on 0800 0 433 411 or text 07931 336 668.
DECEMBER 2009
THE BRENT MAGAZINE
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