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| The Green Space (Green Isle) |
The
Coalition for a Sustainable Brent Cross Development has learned that under
revised plans to go before Barnet planning committee in January 2014 the green
space outside B&Q (known as the 'Green Isle') will be built over in Phase one. Despite
Cricklewood Town Team having popular plans to plant trees and utilise part of
the space for a market in the short term, this green space has been parcelled
up and sold for high density development as part of the Brent Cross Cricklewood
development over a mile away.
The
green space on Cricklewood Lane will be covered by a five storey building,
right up to the pavement line. Phase one could begin within 3 years.
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| The view towards the bridge now |
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| The view when the green space is built on |
Lesley
Turner, Barnet resident and BXC coalition member says:
This green space was given to Cricklewood community at the end of the eighties, as compensation or section 106 planning gain, when Food Giant (now B&Q) was built on the site. The Green does not belong to Barnet but to Cricklewood and we have asked Barnet to see the original 106 agreement. We will be challenging Barnet over the legality of the disposal or change of use of this land.
Lia
Colacicco, Mapesbury resident and member of the BXC coalition added:
Cricklewood Town Team identified that Cricklewood needs a landmark at its centre, and a town square. The Green Isle is our only public space, used for the Silk Road festival and other community events and now it will be snatched from us. This piece of land is totally unrelated to the BXC development a couple of miles away, but has been wrapped up with it to gain outline planning permission. Barnet Councillors should be held to account for this stealthy disposal of green land. It is a generic piece of land to the developers, but means everything to us and needs to be unwrapped from BXC, or become the subject of a land swap. The site might not be pretty now, but look at how Mapesbury Dell has been transformed.Once excavated it would be a real asset to the community as a plaza or other open space.
Fiona
Colgan from the Groves Community Action Group said:
The Coalition group urges people to attend the public consultation this week:My neighbours and I have written to our councillors and MP to strongly oppose the plan to build on our only local green space. Cricklewood spans three boroughs - we are asking Brent and Camden councils to call Barnet to account.Accommodation in the Groves is very high density and Cricklewood Lane gets very congested and polluted so this green space is particularly important to us but it's clear that everyone in Cricklewood would benefit if this land was retained as our 'town green’ at the heart of our community. I think Barnet needs to explain why the green space in front of B&Q wasn’t included in its calculations of green space. Those of us who live in this part of the borough often feel overlooked by Barnet who do not seem to realise that we need green space as much as those who live in the wealthier, leafier parts of the borough to the North.
Consultation on Tuesday 12 and
Wednesday 13 November from 11am to 8pm at Hendon Leisure Centre, Marble
Drive, NW2 1XQ.
Comments need to be sent to nicola.capeli@barnet.gov.uk by
6th December
An on-line petition has been launched to save the Green Isle LINK
Further information on the Brent Cross Coalition website: LINK
4 comments:
Oh the irony of a a Labour Party candidate complaining about the loss of a public space which served as a town square. Willesden Green anyone?
I'm utterly appalled by this, but then, it's the latest in so many truly dreadful proposals as part of the Brent Cros "Regeneration" (!) Now, there's a misuse of English for you.
All the plans are about doubling a shopping centre, tens of thousands of extra cars, and building expensive cramped "apartments". They date back to the late 90s in concept, are outdated and totally unacceptable. It's not just the dump and the incinerator, it is indeed the loss of green space, including the Green.
I and many others have been fighting this disastrous mess for over a decade. The developers either can't or won't listen, and nor will Barnet Council.
I would like to send the support of Brent Green Party to the campaign against this misnamed "development". As a Dollis Hill resident who regularly uses Cricklewood shops, I think the removal of one of the few small green spaces in the area is a retrograde step, the space could and should be developed and kept up as people's park non built on just for profit. The people who use the area deserve to be valued as more than just consumers and workers.
Barnet Council is holding an exhibition re Brent X development plus proposals to build on B&Q green on 12 and 13 November from 11am to 8pm at Hendon Leisure Centre, Marble Drive, NW2 1XQ. This may be a good opportunity to put specific questions to planners.
Comments opposing building on B&Q green need to be sent to nicola.capeli@barnet.gov.uk by 6th December.
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