Paul Lorber writes that his complaint to Brent Council alleging the waste of money and damaging environmental impact of their Wembley High Road pavement etc £3.5 million project has reached Stage 2. This is what he sent to Brent Council officers:
Anyone with the minimum of knowledge of Wembley High Road and its Paan Spitting problem would have realised that using pale grey stones is downright stupid.
I refer to my complaint about the decision to rip up perfectly good pavements in Wembley High Road - including areas of safe asphalt paving and new paving provided by the developer outside the Uncle building in Park Lane just 6 months ago.
The justification for this waste used by senior Council Officers was that the Council was following a design guide from 2016 and that High Road locations were treated differently to residential roads where use of asphalt was being imposed despite local opposition.
The photographs show the new and expensive pavements completed outside the Uncle building less than a week ago.
Of course Brent Council Officers are very well aware that Wembley High Road has a serious Paan spitting problem which the Council has failed to contain despite painting warning signs on the pavements in this very area just a few weeks ago - signs of course only dug up shortly after!
If nothing else this highlights how foolish it is to use an out of date design guide which fails to take account of local circumstances - which officers should be or were perfectly aware of.
Using pale grey brick paving in this area was clearly not wise (and I am using measured language here). In contrast black/dark grey asphalt would hide this kind of mess much better and be probably easier to clean of.
The Design Guide is clearly useless and it would be highly irresponsible to continue to use it. I appreciate that Brent Council is like a juggernaut and Councillors and Officers never admit to making a mistake until it is too late.
In this case I would urge a revision to the current work programme to both save money and not to continue to put down material which is unsuitable for this location.
There are large areas of the pavements in Wembley High Road do NOT require ripping up as they are perfectly safe. Many areas just require a proper and effective repair reusing existing materials.
Residents want safe pavements and most will not care if part of the High Road are paved with asphalt, existing car resistant slabs or new materials where required.
They will however be angry about both the waste of large sums of money (especially when repeatedly told that “there is NO money to fix dangerous pavements in the streets”) or when they see the kind of mess shown in these photographs.
The money saved can then be used to repair and upgrade pavements in streets with unsafe pavements instead.
As a local Taxpayer I strongly object to the current Council approach of ripping up perfectly good pavements for the sake of a clearly useless Design Guide and the totally inefficient and environmentally damaging approach taken by Brent Council. The Council should re focus its approach and give greater emphasis to effective repairs and maintenance rather than the current ‘rip up’ approach.
I trust that you will listen rather than continuing to pursue your dogmatic ‘we know best’ approach.
8 comments:
I feel compelled to make the point, that Paan Spitting on this part of Wembley High Road was never a problem unlike is some other area's until we went in to Lockdown in March 2020, and ordering Take Away online became the norm.
The perpetrators of this crime are primarily Take Away Delivery Drivers working for Uber Eats, Deliveroo, Just Eat etc FACT. It is prolific outside McDonalds, KFC, Nando's and Taco Bell or any restaurant where they wait around waiting for their pick-ups. I personally think that rather them handing out penalty fines if caught they should be made to get on their hands and knees and scrub it off.
I am sorry to say that interactions with Council officers (with the usual honourable exceptions) suggest that they are a gormless bunch of individuals incapable of formulating sentences that don't sound like call-centre, cut-and-paste-speak.
This is in contrast to the handling of matters at more senior level where there does appear to be some ability to deploy a degree of common-sense.
The gap can only be explained by poor management and poor Member (councillor) supervision of what is being done through the management levels.
We elect councillors to represent the public interest. In days gone by, councillors received expenses where now they are paid an allowance from the public purse. The public is entitled to know that someone is ensuring that we receive value for money and benefit from common-sense decision-making.
Why are council officers not fining the people who spit paan in the same locations everyday??????????????
They can see where they spit so must be able to catch them - during a pandemic they shouldn't be spitting at all yet alone blighting our streets with this mess!
Unfortunately I would have to respectfully disagree with Paul.
1. Using asphalt would only mask the issue occurring rather than solve the pan spitting. It would also make it harder to enforce as it would be harder to see the stain/when someone has spat.
2. Wembley High Road is a heavy traffic area, the current large slabs are more prone to breaking and snapping. The new blocks are more resistant to cracking and breaking, which is why small blocks are used on driveway entrances. This will save money in the long term.
3. It does not make sense to only repave some parts of the High Road. Wembley High Road was once the best shopping street in London, a run down look will not want to make businesses locate or invest in Wembley. Only replacing parts of the pavement would also lead to a disjointed design with no cohesiveness, which would be unattractive and cause visual separation of parts of the high road. High streets are places for the community, so the more cohesive the better. Currently, the Ealing Road side is mostly asphalt, but the Uncle side is paved, this creates an inequality within the high road itself, as to which parts are seen more cleaner and aesthetic.
As a local resident I know much of the high road is NOT in good condition. Many of the paving slabs that are intact just seem so, lots of water builds up underneath them and this splashed onto pedestrians.
Furthermore, through awarding contracts it’s much more cost efficient to repave the high road altogether, considering they would have to open up the very little parts that are stable due to the replacement of lampposts and street signs.
The pavements are also very small, some parts are being extended which will help while the Covid-19 pandemic is still about.
I think Paul’s main issue is paan spitting which I agree is a issue, but this is an issue regardless of the paving present. Trying to mask the paan spitting using asphalt is wrong as the spitting issue is present beyond the high road as well e.g Ealing Road. There needs to be a community lead approach which gets rid of the spitting altogether.
I agree with the councils approach on this occasion. Although I know the council could have consulted residents before just drawing up plans and starting work on such an important road.
Unfortunately I would have to respectfully disagree with Paul.
1. Using asphalt would only mask the issue occurring rather than solve the pan spitting. It would also make it harder to enforce as it would be harder to see the stain/when someone has spat.
2. Wembley High Road is a heavy traffic area, the current large slabs are more prone to breaking and snapping. The new blocks are more resistant to cracking and breaking, which is why small blocks are used on driveway entrances. This will save money in the long term.
3. It does not make sense to only repave some parts of the High Road. Wembley High Road was once the best shopping street in London, a run down look will not want to make businesses locate or invest in Wembley. Only replacing parts of the pavement would also lead to a disjointed design with no cohesiveness, which would be unattractive and cause visual separation of parts of the high road. High streets are places for the community, so the more cohesive the better. Currently, the Ealing Road side is mostly asphalt, but the Uncle side is paved, this creates an inequality within the high road itself, as to which parts are seen more cleaner and aesthetic.
As a local resident I know much of the high road is NOT in good condition. Many of the paving slabs that are intact just seem so, lots of water builds up underneath them and this splashed onto pedestrians.
Furthermore, through awarding contracts it’s much more cost efficient to repave the high road altogether, considering they would have to open up the very little parts that are stable due to the replacement of lampposts and street signs.
The pavements are also very small, some parts are being extended which will help while the Covid-19 pandemic is still about.
I think Paul’s main issue is paan spitting which I agree is a issue, but this is an issue regardless of the paving present. Trying to mask the paan spitting using asphalt is wrong as the spitting issue is present beyond the high road as well e.g Ealing Road. There needs to be a community lead approach which gets rid of the spitting altogether.
I agree with the councils approach on this occasion. Although I know the council could have consulted residents before just drawing up plans and starting work on such an important road.
Unfortunately I would have to respectfully disagree with Paul.
1. Using asphalt would only mask the issue occurring rather than solve the pan spitting. It would also make it harder to enforce as it would be harder to see the stain/when someone has spat.
2. Wembley High Road is a heavy traffic area, the current large slabs are more prone to breaking and snapping. The new blocks are more resistant to cracking and breaking, which is why small blocks are used on driveway entrances. This will save money in the long term.
3. It does not make sense to only repave some parts of the High Road. Wembley High Road was once the best shopping street in London, a run down look will not want to make businesses locate or invest in Wembley. Only replacing parts of the pavement would also lead to a disjointed design with no cohesiveness, which would be unattractive and cause visual separation of parts of the high road. High streets are places for the community, so the more cohesive the better. Currently, the Ealing Road side is mostly asphalt, but the Uncle side is paved, this creates an inequality within the high road itself, as to which parts are seen more cleaner and aesthetic.
As a local resident I know much of the high road is NOT in good condition. Many of the paving slabs that are intact just seem so, lots of water builds up underneath them and this splashed onto pedestrians.
Furthermore, through awarding contracts it’s much more cost efficient to repave the high road altogether, considering they would have to open up the very little parts that are stable due to the replacement of lampposts and street signs.
The pavements are also very small, some parts are being extended which will help while the Covid-19 pandemic is still about.
I think Paul’s main issue is paan spitting which I agree is a issue, but this is an issue regardless of the paving present. Trying to mask the paan spitting using asphalt is wrong as the spitting issue is present beyond the high road as well e.g Ealing Road. There needs to be a community lead approach which gets rid of the spitting altogether.
I agree with the councils approach on this occasion. Although I know the council could have consulted residents before just drawing up plans and starting work on such an important road.
Paul Lorber was once a Brent Councillor, and it appears that he still suffers from the hypocrisy virus (there’s no vaccine) which seems to infect all who enter the Brent Council Chamber.
Here he is complaining about environmental damage, yet he supported the biggest environmental disaster and climate abuse in Brent in 2021 - the demolition of Preston Library.
Indeed, he reveals that he knows nothing about the environment when he says he does not care if footways are ‘paved with asphalt’ - a fossil fuel product!?
I think that just as normalizing smoking ruins the health of those who practice it and puts the health of those who don't at risk of harm through second hand smoke, as well as causing pavements to be covered in cigarette stubs and empty boxes, similarly, the chewing of Paan raises the risk of mouth cancer and oesophageal(food pipe) cancer, and causes the appearance of pavements upon which saliva is spat, to be spoiled.
When will people learn that they always reap in accord with what they sow?
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