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| The site (Chetan Patel) |
The school is due to be part of a large redevelopment LINK.
In a letter to Annabel Bates, the Ark Elvin Headteacher, Chetan Patel said:
With respect to ARK's planning application (ref 15/3161) for the school redevelopment, I believe your proposal breaches the community's 'Public Right Of Way' onto the existing fields in accordance to Highways Act 1980 Section 130A.Annabel Bates replied:
The community has had access to the existing park without any objections from ARK or from the previous management of Copland Community School for many decades now. The law assumes that if the public uses a path without interference for some period of time – set by statute at 20 years - then the owner (ARK) had intended to dedicate it as a right of way.
ARK's proposed development of the school can only be described as 'land-grab' with no consideration for the community users and the Law.
I ask ARK to respectfully withdraw its poorly conceived planning application before a decision is made by Brent Council.
If ARK still wishes to pursue the development, which displaces community access to the existing parks (see Appendix A), I will be forced to pursuing legal advice on this matter, at further expense to the tax payer.
I believe the general public has right to know how many hundreds of thousands pounds if not millions have been wastefully spent to date on this poorly conceived project. Under the Freedom of information Act can you please confirm how much money has been spent in relation to the proposed re-development works of the school.
I had hoped to communicate the aforementioned to you at the recent 'exhibition' meeting held at the school on the 15th July 2015, but you had failed attend this key meeting. It's very disappointing that the school's own head teacher, a key stakeholder, could not be bothered to attend this key meeting.
Thank you for your letter, dated 22nd September 2015, about the planning permission that has been submitted by Kier Construction to rebuild our school. I was present at the consultation on 15th July so I am sorry I did not manage to speak to you in person. I am of course happy to meet with you to discuss your concerns.
The land shown in the appendix to your letter has always been occupied by Copland, and now Ark Elvin, as it is school playing fields rather than a public park.
As you may be aware, since Ark took over the school we have been making a concerted effort to keep the school playing fields secure and stop the unauthorised access to this private land. We have repaired the fence a number of times (despite it being repeatedly cut through), moved on any rough sleepers, cleared up the rubbish at the London Road end of the playing fields, engaged a landscaper to cut the grass and carried out regular litter picks so it can be used by pupils for sports. I cannot comment on how this area was managed by Copland Community School as neither I nor my senior management team worked at Copland.
Wembley Matters covered the initial plans when they were first published and the article elicited many comments LINK
I am unable to respond to your Freedom of Information Act request as we are not party to that information. This project is being funded by the Education Funding Authority so you will need to contact them with your request.
Chetan Patel is campaigning on several fronts including an official complaint about what he alleges are the failures of Brent's Planning Enforcement Team in the matter as well as a referral to the Local Government Ombudsman,
20 comments:
Which ward is this in?
Wembley Central
Would it be worth Chetan contacting his local councillors?
Maybe, but Muhammed Butt is one of the Ark Elvin governors! http://arkelvinacademy.org/governance
Yes, but if Stopp spots a bandwagon, he will surely jump on it?
He's certainly jumped on the Corbyn bandwagon now.
Muhammad Butt was 'cc' into the message. He replied:
I will look into and find out what is happening.
If the application is not valid, the planning officers will respond appropriately.
As he is a governor of ARK and from the tone of his message, I don't think he will be supportive of the residents against the re-development.
Chetan.
How so?
This was always listed on Brent Councils website as Public Land until the re-development of Copland came about. An FOI was submitted to find out the details of when the ownership was transferred to the then Copland Community School, and how much had been paid for it. We were told that if we wanted that information we would need to pay for it approx £400+ and a community campaign group we did not have the money and therefore it was never pursued. As the last remaining free open space fields left in Wembley which has been been used by the community for the past 40 years. It will be a tragedy of epic proportions if this land was to be excessively built on without securing continued use by the community of the playing fields and any other sporting facilities they will seek to provide. This area of Brent is already 50% below the requirements in providing sporting facilities on green open land for use by local residents as stated by Natural England and Central Government.
Hm. I think the head is wrong about the legal position on this. When we fought off William Gladstone school from trying to build on Gladstone Park, one of the issues was indeed a historical one of status and access. The land the school was trying to use had, at one point, been playing fields for the school, but had always had public access. It's ine reason the EFA backed off hard. The land would also have been and presumably still is owned by Brent not by Ark. So it isn't private land at all. The right of way thing would indeed apply for the period Copland was there and isn't negated by Ark taking over.
Brent Council need to stop trying to run rough shod over the residents as they have done in the past become clear and transparent with all the historic covenants and use of the fields.
No-one disputes that a new school is needed, but at what cost to the thousands of local residents who under the present planning application will be denied use of a FREE GREEN OPEN SPACE!
Did you try the Land Registry? Much cheaper way of getting ownership and transfer costs.
Quite seriously, I think it would be worth engaging Cllr Stopp on this. He was quite effective with the London Welsh School madness.
Thank you for your valued input Alison
The question is not that I am not capable of obtaining this, but why should I?
In that ' for the people by the people scenario' the elected Councillor's of Wembley Central Ward
i.e Sam Stopp, Krupa Sheth, and Wilhelmina Mitchell Murray should be pro-active in their approach to engage with local residents and inform, support, and campaign on our behalf to secure an outcome acceptable to all - Ark Elvin Academy, St Josephs RC School, Elsley Primary,London Road Youth Club, and ALL Local Residents and users of this very valuable OPEN GREEN SPACE.
Not what the residents would report.
You're welcome. If I can help, please let me know, I'd be happy to do so.
Ark Elvin keeps up its popularity drive with the local community, it seems. Keep up the good work, Chetan, and good to see you're getting involved in community issues like this.
Mike Hine
Jaine, you shouldn't have to, but that's how it is, all too often. :(
The Welsh School were an easy target, I suspect. I doubt ARK are.
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