Sign our petition to Save Navratri here:
http://campaigns.libdems.org.uk/savenavratri
Navratri has been celebrated in Brent since the 1970s.
In the early days Brent Council supported the celebration of this important Hindu Festival by making available school halls free of charge. When local management of schools was introduced and schools started charging for the Halls the Council decided to provide an annual Grant to help the Hindu Council Brent to organise Navratri in over 30 Halls in Brent.
For quite some time now the annual Grant from the Council helped to pay for the hire and security costs of around 30 school halls and a small amount to meet Hindu Council Brent’s costs of administration.
Now the Labour Administration in control of Brent Council is proposing to scrap the Navratri Grant. Because school halls have become more expensive over the years this will have a devastating impact on many Hindu communities who do not have access to their own halls and cannot afford to hire halls without the help of the grant.
While proposing to scrap the £67,000 Grant for Navratri the Labour Administration still plans to spend large sums of money on events organised by the Council. You can view the new Festival Strategy here: http://democracy.brent.gov.uk/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=4124
Sign the petition here.
