I live on a Brent Council Estate but have not received this letter. I assume it is going to all affected residents so please let me know if your estate has not received a copy. The Solidarity House Estate is no longer included in these proposals. Residents will receive futher information 'in due course.'
I understand that there has been widespread opposition to the proposals based on the £50 annual charge. the initial ban on visitor parking and the overall loss of parking for residents. This has resulted in the extension of the consultation until November 30th and further information meetings.
Declaration of interest: I do not have a car but believe in giving residents information and the chance to voice their views - whatever they may be.
The outsourced consultation hub: https://pclengagement-hub.co.uk/en-GB/folders/brenthousingestates
I was interested to see that Brent has now outsourced this consultation to a private consultancy, pclengagement. I've done a little research on the internet.
ReplyDeletePCL (or Project Centre) describes itself as a 'Multi-disciplinary design, engineering and landscape architecture consultancy.'
One of its "teams" is headed "Behaviour Change and Engagement", which states: 'We advise clients on the best way to engage with their communities on transport and infrastructure projects and achieve their policy goals.'
PCL / Project Centre is part of Marston Holdings, whose business activities, as well as consulting, include bailiffs/debt collection and parking enforcement. That suggests that there could be a conflict of interests, if the consultation being carried out on behalf of Brent Council were to recommend in favour of the parking enforcement solution that Brent is meant to be consulting with the residents of its housing estates about!
But the conflict of interests goes further. One of the case studies on the Marston Holdings website shows that Project Centre have actually been working for Brent Council since December 2019, designing the proposed new plans for parking arrangements on housing estates that they are now handling the consultation for! You can read all about their work on this project at:
https://www.marstonholdings.co.uk/group-case-studies/project-centre-case-studies/featured-project-centre-case-studies/case-study-london-borough-of-brent-housing-estate-surveys-design-consultation-and-implementation/
Well, they do admit that their business is showing their clients the best way to achieve their policy goals! Another typical Brent Council "consultation"?
How ridiculous is it that one of the drop in consultations on parking on Brent estates is being held in a community centre in Westminster?
ReplyDeleteP.S. to my comment (15 November at 19:02) above:
ReplyDeleteAlthough I'm very sceptical about Brent "consultations", I would urge any Brent Council estate resident who has views about the Estate Parking plans to submit their views, AND to email a copy of those views to all three of their Ward councillors.
Our elected councillors need to know how strongly, for or against, the people they are supposed to represent feel about this issue. They are meant to be there, to represent those views to the top Officers and Cabinet members at the Council who make the decisions.
If you let your councillors know what you think, and they fail to stick up for you, then they should not be surprised if you decide to vote for someone else next May. [But please do vote - it's the only chance you get to change things locally - if you feel they need changing - once every four years.]