“Being Green” – a new Brent video, with a message for its Council.

The River Brent below the Welsh Harp dam (an image from “Being Green”)

 

 

Guest post by Philip Grant 

Brent Museum and Archives is currently running a project called “Being Brent”. One of the products of this is a new video film which has just been issued, called “Being Green”.

 

 

 

 

The video features various community groups, and green spaces such as Fryent Country Park, Gladstone Park and the Welsh Harp reservoir, and people whose efforts there help to benefit the wider community, as well as the benefits of our green spaces to the wellbeing of Brent’s residents. This struck a chord with me, and I have sent the following email to all of Brent’s councillors, with a “link” to the video:-

Dear Brent Councillors,

 

I am writing to commend to you a short video film produced for Brent Museum and Archives. “Being Green” is part of Being Brent, a community project which aims to improve the wellbeing of local residents by connecting them to the borough’s rich heritage. 

 

I hope you will enjoy the video (just over 8 minutes long), which you can view here, and that you will share the “link” with residents in your Wards, so that they can enjoy it too: https://t.co/WxYSKbJ12N?amp=1

 

Brent’s green spaces are so important for the wellbeing of our borough’s residents. That is why the Council (you and your elected colleagues) have adopted planning policies whose purpose is to protect them. 

 

This is the promise in Core Policy CP18, which the Council adopted in 2010:

 

‘Protection and Enhancement of Open Space, Sports and Biodiversity

 

Open space (including waterways) of local value will be protected from inappropriate development and will be preserved for the benefit, enjoyment, health and well-being of Brent's residents, visitors and wildlife. Support will be given to the enhancement and management of open space for recreational, sporting and amenity use and the improvement of both open space and the built environment for biodiversity and nature conservation.’

 

The Development Management Policies which you adopted in November 2016 reinforced this, saying:

 

‘The provision of open space is important for sustainable communities, contributing to health and well-being.

 

Core Strategy policy CP18 protects all open space from inappropriate development. It also seeks improved provision in areas of deficiency and where additional pressure will be placed on open space.’

 

You may wish to reflect on why it is that Brent Council, in developing some of its own projects in recent years, has chosen to ignore this key planning promise.

 

These are just three examples of proposals (inappropriate developments that there is still time to change, if you have the will to do so) which would deprive Brent’s residents of “protected” green space which is important for their health and wellbeing:

·      

 The community garden in front of 1 Morland Gardens, due to be built over as part of the Brent Start redevelopment;

 

·      Areas of Brent River Park, which the proposals for the St Raphael’s Estate propose to build on;

 

·      The open space and mature trees which would be destroyed and built over, if the Council’s plans for Kilburn Square go ahead.

 

Enjoy the video about Brent’s green spaces, and the benefits to the health and wellbeing of our community that they provide. 

 

But please also think again about the Council’s own plans to destroy some of those green spaces, in breach of its own planning policies. 

 

Thank you. Best wishes,

 

Philip Grant.