New shop on Bridge Road
Secondary school students returning to school next week will find two new chicken shops within a the few hunded yards of Ark Academy and the bus stops that are used by pupils from Preston Manor, Michaela and the Lycee, bringing the total to 6.
The new shop above is particularly problematic because it is at the bus stop that was moved at the time of the reconnection of Bridge Road and North End Road. The pavement there is narrow and the single bus stop serves the 83, 182, 206, 223 and 297 bus routes resulting in large crowds. Imagine the chicken licking crowds of school children mixing with the public at peak times while local families with push chairs and several childre try to get home from primary school. Not very Covid secure... I have asked Brent Council and TfL to move the bus stop to its old position on a wider pavement away from shops.
Another chicken shop serves the 245 bus route.
Clearly issues are raised about Brent Council's attempts to tackle teenage obesity and its policy to limit fast food outlets near schools.
A Brent JSNA report (2019-20) stated that for the last 5 years Brent had a higher proportion of obese children leaving primary school than the London and National average. These statistics (note 4 years old) are stark. What would have been the impact of lockdown, I wonder?:
The report notes as an action:
Grand Parade, Forty Avenue
Sam's on the corner of Forty Avenue and Bridge Road
A new outlet on Bridge Road on the site previously occupied by Nat West Bank
One of the earlier Bridge Road chicken shops
Wok 'n Roe on Bridge Road predates Ark Academy by decades but has a line in spicy and non-spicy chicken and chips as well as other dishes
The latest Bridge Road chicken shop - opened just this week
A little further away but heavily frequented by school children at the end of the school day is McDonalds at ASDA. McDonalds controversially replaced the ordinary restaurant some years ago. It is clearly marketed at children.
Note: I have asked Brent Planning and Brent Public Health officers for clarification.
11 comments:
Love where you live? Come on Brent Council (sorry lead member responsible for planning LOL - what a joke), sort this out, or perhaps our GLA representative can preach platitudes and do nothing.
One bright spot? With all these supply chain problems - KFC and Nandos - there may not be enough chicken for them!!!
Why on earth does anyone think that Brent Council care about the young people of this borough? They rarely pay attention to their own Planning Guidance let alone directives from the Government irrespective of which party is in power. It is no surprise that Brent Council has rid the borough of most of it's Youth Clubs, green open spaces, adventure playgrounds etc whilst at the same time encouraged fast food outlets on every high street. The answer is simple £££££££s in their coffers by any means necessary.
The weight profile is incorrect:
It says 28.6% obese however only 14 people are coloured red. IT should be 29 people coloured red.
The Over weight as well. There should be 15 people in pink, not 14.
The healthy weight should have a lot less green people. It currently shows 70 people in green while it should be 54 or 55.
When looking at the picture, you can see that the coloured have been manually amended (copy/paste) a poor job !.
Please can this be removed or fixed? otherwise it is completely misleading
Thank you for the informative article Martin. I live on Barnhill and I would love to have a nice chat with someone on the council about this. Who would you say is the best person to get in touch with about this?
Surely the pupils of Michaela are not permitted to soil their fingers with FRIED (!) chicken by prospective new Social Mobility Commission Tsarina Katy Birbalsingh*, are they?
*'Each new morn new widows howl, new orphans cry, and new sorrows slap heaven in the face'
Unknown of Barnhill.(12.40)
Your ward councillors are your best bet. Details below. Cllr Lloyd is on the Scrutiny Committee that looks at health provision. The others may take up the planning issue.
Email: cllr.mansoor.akram@brent.gov.uk
Mobile: 07436704480
Bus. email: cllr.shafique.choudhary@brent.gov.uk
Bus. mobile: 07962 356 570
Email: Cllr.gaynor.lloyd@brent.gov.uk
Mobile: 07436704476
Dear Unknown (30 August at 12:40),
I would suggest that you email Brent's Head of Planning, Gerry Ansell at:
gerry.ansell@brent.gov.uk
with a copy to your Ward councillors (for their information).
You could refer to the information about the fried chicken shops in Martin's article, especially the new shops, and ask whether they have planning or "change of use" consent to operate A5 takeaway businesses, in accordance with Brent's planning policies DMP3 and WEM26. If they do not have the necessary consents, what enforcement action is Brent taking against them?
Policy WEM26 (in my "old friend", the Wembley Area Action Plan, which was adopted by Brent Council in 2015) is headed "Hot Food Takeaways (A5 Uses)", and includes the following promises:
'There will be a limit of 7% on the proportion of units in A5 use in any single length of primary or secondary frontage of Wembley / Wembley Park town centres. No further A5 uses will be permitted within 400 metres of a school
entrance/exit point.'
As all of the chicken shops Martin has referred to are within 400 metres of a school entrance/exit point, any which have opened since 2015 in premises which were not existing hot food takeaways with consent for A5 use, may be operating without the necessary consent.
Good luck!
Let people earn a living man Jesus. I hope they open more sams chicken in Wembley they chicken is amazing 🤤
Food snobs.
1. Poverty causes obesity.
2. BMI was designed for whites and does not take into account different body mass of women or ethnic minorities.
What about how the chicken for these fast food businesses is produced? Factory style battery farms? Shipped over from places like Thailand which have poor animal welfare standards?
We all need to start thinking about where out food comes from and what examples we are setting young people.
Please don't use money as an excuse for treating animals with disrespect - cooking food at home will always be cheaper, better and more healthy than getting it from fast food shops and it stops the littering too!
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