Work will start on Monday on improvements to Wembley High Road and is organised in four phases. The first 3 phases are expected to be completed in April 2022 but depending on delivery of materials:
Phase 1 – From Ark Elvin Academy to Park Lane (both sides of the road)
Phase 2 – From Park Lane to Wembley Central Square (both sides of the road)
Phase 3 – From Wembley Central Square to Ealing Road (both sides of the road)
Phase 4 – From Wembley Triangle to the Ark Elvin Academy (both sides of the road) and from Ealing Road to Napier Road (both sides of the road)
This is the document sent to local residents and businesses:
In an email update sent yesterday, Brent Council said:
We do understand there is some concern and confusion around these works so hopefully the following information can help clear up any confusion
The purpose of these works is to improve the look and feel of the Wembley High Road area to help encourage more shoppers into the locale and thereby help businesses. Please click on the following link to learn more - Brent Council - Revitalising our high streets
As with any town centre improvement works, there will be some disruption however, we can confirm that steps will be taken to ensure any disruption is kept to a minimum and that your business can continue to operate in a ‘Business As Usual’ manner. FM Conway, the contractors conducting these works on our behalf will ensure that:
Loading bays
Although some loading bays may need to be suspended during the works in that specific location, the site team will ensure that you will still be able to receive deliveries so your business remains unaffected. Any loading bay closure will be kept to a minimum and be re-opened once the work in that specific location has been completed. FM Conway have a Business/Residents Liaison Officer employed on the scheme. She will keep you updated on the works and work with you regarding any specific delivery requirements. Her contact details are:
Cate Green Catherine.Green@fmconway.co.uk telephone number 07443 077444.
Should you have any further questions relating to this information or the scheme in general please do not hesitate to contact her.
Business As Usual
All customers will continue to access your business during the works. The site teams will NOT block entrances to business premises during opening hours. Direct access into properties might not always be possible, however. This is to enable larger sections of sett laying/paving to be completed, without too much stone cutting, but more importantly, to provide a safe width of footpath for pedestrians.
In addition, where premises have larger entrances, half the access may be worked on during working hours. For those businesses that have more than one entrance it may only be possible to retain one point of access or egress during opening hours.
Fencing will be erected to ensure any dust and debris from the works is kept to a minimum. We will attach boards onto the fencing so anyone passing through the area will know your business is still open during the works.
Businesses With Private Forecourts
We are aware that some businesses have a private forecourt. If you do have a Private Forecourt and you would like your forecourt upgraded in keeping with the wider works this can be done free of charge. There is a twelve month defect period during which time, any issues relating to the surface will be repaired by Brent Council, however after this period, any future maintenance will revert back to the landowner. This is standard practise and is currently the case for Wembley and other town centres across Brent and London.
Will junctions be closed?
All junctions will remain open, however St Johns Road will be closed so materials and equipment needed for the works can be stored, however it will remain open for emergency vehicles to have access and for delivery vehicles that use this location to make deliveries to businesses in this location.
As mentioned previously, FM Conway have a Business/Residents Liaison Officer employed on this scheme. Please do not hesitate to contact Cate Green via email on Catherine.Green@fmconway.co.uk or by phone on 07443 077444 should you have any further questions relating to this information or the scheme in general.
10 comments:
brent Counil are a joke
Do Brent Council know what they are doing with regards to biodiversity and climate change? They certainly don't looking at their plans for the High Road.
Installing up lighters whether they be under trees or not will be a waste of electricity (a vanity project?). That is unless you think lighting the sky and the canopy of trees is a worthwhile use of our precious electricity, the generation of which is causing a climate emergency (in Brent's own words).
Then there is the misapprehension that the new trees will help with biodiversity. Lighting the trees at night will deter some wildlife and create an imbalance in the very biodiversity they claim to be enhancing. Removing the current trees and therefore the removing the habitat needed to sustain the current wildlife from the area will without doubt cull the present wildlife in the area. When the new trees arrive, where will the new wildlife come from when you've wiped out the current populations?
Removing mature trees that have been playing their part in cleaning the local air will require at least 20 new small trees per large tree to come anywhere near the current air purifying capability.
We appear to be wondering blindly into dystopia (reference the year of culture) in Brent, or put plainly, thoughtlessly turning Brent into a concrete jungle.
So private forecourts will be done free of charge??? All us residents have heard for years is that there is no money for essential pavement repairs yet they will offer this service to traders for free? Why will businesses benefit like this? Will Brent Council redo our front gardens for free next time they re-do the pavements in our road?
Hope Brent Council will take urgent action to clear the clutter such as piles of goods, advertising signs, stalls with large golf umbrellas etc encroaching onto and obstructing the pavements in Wembley High Road and Ealing Road - these are a danger to pedestrians trying to navigate along these narrow and busy pavements, particulalry close to the bus stops and the imposing telephone boxes - this is of particular concern for blind for partially sighted people, the elderly, people in wheelchairs and parents with prams or pushchairs. It’s also creating a great place for pickpockets.
If a shop has a private forecourt everything being sold in their premises should be completely within their forecourt boundary and displayed so that their customers are also shopping within the shops private forecourt. If they do not have a private forecourt they should not have anything at all on the pavement.
Pedestrians should be able to walk safely on our streets.
The pavements in Wembley High Road were last rebuilt when Ken Livingstone was Mayor of London. Needless to say the work cost a lot of money. A decision was made to use steel finish lamp columns and rubbish bins rather than the usual type of columns. Needless to say once damaged these were difficult to find replacements for.
As part of the works the Council decided to de-clutter the road. This means that bollards or barriers along the edge of the pavement were removed. This has the disadvantage that cars and vans are free to mount the pavements - which has happened often and caused damage to pavements. Bre4nt Council has not been very good to carry out regular repairs when required - and instead of repairing and replacing the odd damaged slabs they have used asphalt. As a result there are numerous areas of pavements which are lose, uneven and the raised parts quite dangerous.
I have been pointing this out to the Council for many years asking for regular and effective repairs - which if done properly would have extended the life of the pavements longer.
Work on repairing the pavements was originally considered some two years ago but then the Mayor of London run out of money and the promised work was cancelled.
While there are many areas which are badly damaged and in some cases dangerous there are also large areas that are still perfectly fine. I therefore asked for clarification if all the existing pavements will be ripped up or whether some will be retained and repaired by using existing slabs lifted from other areas. I was told that reuse will be the policy wherever possible - we shall see.
Having failed to get the work done 2 years ago (during lock down when shops were closed and there were fewer people around would have been the ideal time) Labour Councillors are now in a mad rush to get the work done before the local elections in May. After all for some (and you all know who I mean) a photo opportunity is very important.
The clarification and update Martin provided explains the Council desire to create as little disruption as possible. We are of course entering a crucial shopping period before Christmas where most shopkeepers in Wembley High Road will wish to have a stress free sales period so they can recoup some of the losses they suffered during lockdowns.
Disruption is inevitable during these type of works so the obvious question arises as to whether Brent Council (having failed to get the work done over the past 2 years) is wise to now push for this work to be carried out in the run up to Christmas 2021.
I also hope that the work on Phase 1 is not wasted as this is the area due to have large tower blocks built in the near future (Ujima House etc & the site next to Ark Elvin Academy)and that parts of the new pavements are then not dug up when the work on the Tower Blocks starts.
Lets hope this will encourage all the Take-Away Delivery Drivers from riding and parking on the pavements outside Nandos/McDonalds etc to park in the loading bays as requested.
And hope Brent Council will clear all the illegal stalls, signs and goods from the pavements, these are dangerous and make it a misery for pedestrians trying to walk on our main roads - shops with private forecourts need to keep these items and their customers within their own forecourt boundaries so pavements are clear.
Agree with Paul Lorber that a lot of the current pavements are fine - from the Wembley Triangle down to London Road, there are just a few places that need attention - replacing all of the paving here would seem a waste of money and bad for the environment if transportation of goods and road closures are needed to carry out the work.
Blocking the pavement:
Can the advertising hoarding that pretends it is there because it doubles as a phone box be removed near the front of Wembley Central?
all the clutter needs to be removed from pavements - shops over hanging stalls and large golf umbrellas, piles of goods, advertising signs etc - pavements should please be clear for pedestrians
Agree most of the pavements from Wembley Triangle to London Road are in good state with just some minor repairs needed - funds could be spent on other things instead of replacing pavements which are okay - hope unnecessary work won't cause too much disruption and extra pollution due to traffic delays and delivering/unloading goods for the work - traffic is already grid locked every day trying to turn from Ealing Road into Wembley High Road
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