Working hard for Brent North

Barry has served the people of Brent North for a number of years and continues to campaign for the very best for all of his constituents. Barry has had many successes from securing better funding for schools and stations in Wembley to campaigning for an improvement in services offered by the local NHS Trust and the Council.

Education

Barry believes education to be vitally important for everyone and has backed every decision to improve schools for children in Brent North. He has worked to deliver double the amount of funding for every child in Brent, Sure Start centres, free nursery school places for three and four year olds, over £10 million to improve Preston Manor, Wembley High Technology College and Kingsbury Green Primary School. Barry also fought forWembleyPrimary Schoolto be built, which now teaches over 600 pupils a year.

Barry secured an £ 80 million grant from the last Labour Government for the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme in Brent. Under this scheme Alperton Community School and Copland Community School would have been rebuilt and expanded. The programme has now been scrapped by the Lib Dem and Tory coalition. Barry, alongside the local community, is fighting to force the Government to restore the funds for this much needed interventions.

Breast Cancer Prevention and Care

Barry has always supported the essential work breast cancer charities do and he has helped to promote awareness of breast cancer in Brent. He was awarded a special award for his tireless campaigning with the NHS by Breakthrough Breast Cancer, who recognised the importance of the role he has played.

In June 2010 Barry has delivered his first election pledge: bring Breast Digital Screening to women in Brent. The introduction of this state-of-the-art technology is the realisation of years of work in Parliament and in Brent. Digital Screening it is now available at Edgware Community Hospital.

Transport Links

Barry supported the rebuilding of Wembley Central andWembleyParkstations which required a large amount of investment from the Government. The result meant that residents of Brent have a more pleasant commute to and from work, which makes daily life a little bit easier. Local businesses have benefited from the increase in human traffic going through the stations, which in turn has provided more jobs in Brent and more money going back into the community.

Barry never stops keeping under scrutiny Transport for London (TfL) and lobbying the Department for Transport (DfT) in order to make sure that improvements at Wembley Central, South Kenton and other Tube and Railway stations in Brent are delivered on schedule.

Road Gritting

Barry has represented his constituents to Brent Council on a number of occasions over the problem of icy roads and pavements during the cold weather snap. When the snow falls in Brent North during the winter months Barry receives many letters and phone calls from distressed elderly constituents who find it difficult to leave the house for fear they might fall and hurt themselves. He has campaigned on the issue in the hope Brent Council will deal with the problem and help those who are vulnerable in the extremely cold weather.

Stop and Search

Barry feels strongly about the misuse of the Terrorism Act by the Police in Brent andHarrow. He thinks it is important that the Police use their designated power to stop and search people suspected of potential criminal activity but not to target a specific ethnic group. He welcomed the judgement by the European Court of Human Rights that ruled that Section 44 was a violation of the right to a private and family life. Barry wants to see stop and search powers have proper safe guarantees in order that the public can be assured that the police are carrying out their duties within the guidelines laid down by Parliament.