Fairgate House today
The building that will replace it
EXHIBITION SATURDAY APRIL 9th 10AM-1PM
4TH FLOOR, UJIMA HOUSE
388 HIGH ROAD, HA9 6AR
A handful of locals attended the first exhibition of the proposals for the redevelopment of Fairgate House and Pitman House in High Road, Wembley . In the unlikely surroundings of Stonebridge Boxing Club (punchbags may come in handy) in Ujima House, a few easels displayed panels outlining the proposals that are still at an early stage.
There have been pre-application meetings between the developer Regal and Brent planners but the PR agency insisted that there was still much to play for.
They encountered a sceptical audience who had seen their area transformed by concrete blocks with little benefit to long-term residents. Residents were particularly concerned that early promise of community facilities at the 'Twin Towers' on the Chesterfield House site, now marketed as 'Uncle' did not come to fruition and the Bowling Club pavilion in King Eddie's park is not available to the community. 'How can you build a community when there is nowhere for the community to meet?'
The agency said that this was a need that they could convery to Regal but there were doubts over the potential for shared student-community. The company that took managment of the building of the building may not be sympathetic even if the developer was.
Roof terrace
Other developers' promises of accessible outdoor space had come to nothing with the spaces provided scrappy, litter strewn and inaccessible to the public. Would the roof garden survive into the final stages of planning?
Clearly the current Fairgate House has little or no architectural merit but will it's replacement really make most of the opportunity offered by its demolition?
Distribution of student accommodation
Residents also questioned the building's function as student accommodation asking what the area offered to students compared with the Quintain development in Wembley Park. The agency was unable to provide evidence there and then of the demand for such accommodation in Wembley Central but said that the developer must have done some research to establish the viability of the proposal. There was scepticism over the ease of student travel into central London given the poor quality of service and frequency of the ageing Bakerloo line compared with the Jubilee.
The context of the development is important as it is part of an 'intensification corridor 'and close to the the 'tall building zones' designated in Brent's new Local Plan. There is a continuous ribbon of new development starting at the massive Quintain, Wembley Park, site reaching down to Wembley Stadium station and along High Road to the Twin Towers with additional buildings further along around Wembley Central station. Then Ealing Road leads to the very dense high rise developments in Alperton.
Any opposition gains are likely to be limited to tweaks in plans rather than outright rejection.
The large bulky yellow building in the above image is to be built on the former Copland school site and will face the proposed Fairgate House development. Together the two sides of the High Road will present a sort of concrete canyon with less distance between the two sides of the road than you find on a European boulevard.
I pointed out at the exhibition the 3 storey buildings that line the High Road on the left side of the picture and wondered how long they would survive. As you can see the blue high rises being built next to the Chiltern railway line tower over the low rise on that side of the road.
This image would make more sense if you could also see the heights of the buildings on the west side of the High Road.
What was obvious from our vantage on the 4th Floor of Ujima House was the loss of vegetation on the High Road side of the Chiltern Line compared with the suburban side. The High Road side has lost much of what was a 'green corridor' and more is likely to go with the developments in the pipeline despite promises of a 'linear park'.
Between the railway and High Road
The view across to the other side of the railway line, trees and shrubs still intact on the bank
Opposite Ujima and Fairgate House is the huge ex-Copland School site where the yellow building in the above 'Emerging Context' illustration will be built - a prime example of densification along with the nearby Brent House development.
The ex-Copland School site
On leaving the area I was struck by two of the children's paintings that adorn the green hoarding around the Copland site.
They rather neatly sum up the different views of Wembley's future.
7 comments:
Turning Wembley into the set of Blade Runner II
Likely the student accomodation does not count towards the boroughs housing targets and they provides no Council Tax income but will consume Brent Council's resourses.
Sad times in Brent and its residents.
Sadly neither Brent Council nor the multi billion pound developers will listen to residents - that's why so few residents bother to waste their time objecting - Labour keep banging on about the local housing waiting list but who will this
development help? It won't provide homes for local families but it will add to the pressures we already see on local services like doctors, hospitals, transport etc.
Labour pretend to care about hard working local people but they clearly do not - they allow the greedy developers to build everywhere.
Interesting to see your photograph of the former Copland School site, Martin.
Owned by Brent Council, it is a "brownfield" site which has had full planning permission for building 250 homes since February 2021. And yet no sign of work beginning on building those much needed homes!
And when Brent Council do get round to building them, the Cabinet's proposal is to allow a developer to buy 152 of them (including 20 family-sized homes) to sell privately for profit.
Only 37 of the 250 would be Council homes for London Affordable Rents (the other 61 so-called "affordable" homes would be for shared ownership or "intermediate rents", which would be unaffordable for most people on Brent's housing waiting list).
None of the 250 homes would be for social rents, which is what the 2020 Brent Poverty Commission Report recommended (and Brent's Cabinet accepted) should be a priority.
I have been trying to challenge Brent Council and its Labour Cabinet about their woeful proposals for this Cecil Avenue development since August last year. They have ignored or side-stepped every attempt I have made, and there is a string of "guest blogs" which provide the evidence.
Most recently, I included a challenge in a deputation to the Resources & Public Realm Scrutiny Committee meeting on 9 March 2022, about "progress" on the Poverty Commission recommendations. Because of a poor internet connection, I had to send a document version of my deputation.
I was promised a written response to my deputation from Cllr. Eleanor Southwood (Lead Member for Housing). Despite reminders (two and four weeks after the Scrutiny Committee meeting), I am still waiting for that response!
Student accommodation will not provide much-needed homes for local families, but the Cecil Avenue (Copland School site) development could be providing many of them. Why isn't Brent Council building them, NOW!
None of the 250 homes would be for social rents, which is what the 2020 Brent Poverty Commission Report recommended (and Brent's Cabinet accepted) should be a priority.
I wonder what Brent Councillors expect to get from this very strange arrangement, utilising Brent owned land for the benefit of developers, why?
Dear Anonymous (10 April at 19:08),
Why indeed!
I have been trying to get an answer for the past 8 months, and trying to get the Cabinet, and Council, to rethink this bizarre decision, but without success.
It underlines the need for a change from the present virtual "one party state" which Brent Council has increasingly become over the past ten years under Councillor Butt's leadership. All the decisions are made by a small number of Cabinet members and Senior Council Officers, with the majority of (mainly Labour) backbench councillors either unwilling or unable to hold them to account.
The local Council elections on 5 May give the opportunity for change (which only comes round once in every four years), and Brent residents need to seize that opportunity.
Far more than the 37% of the electoral who voted in 2018 need to vote this time round. We need to vote for candidates who will stand up strongly for the residents they are meant to represent. For a healthy democracy, we need councillors with a range of viewpoints, who can provide a strong opposition to the ruling majority.
I will exercise my right to vote, and I urge all of you to do the same. But I won't tell you who to vote for. If you want to vote Labour or Conservative, that's your choice.
But remember that there are also Liberal Democrats standing (including a number who have had experience as councillors in the past). In many wards there is a Green Party candidate standing, and a number of wards also have a local independent candidate, who is likely to offer a strong voice to the Council on local matters.
Depending on which ward you live in, you will either have two or three votes. You don't have to vote for just one political group, it is up to you which candidate(s) you give your votes to.
So please, VOTE!
Time for Wembley mega city giant scale Plan to get a high quality visual drawing of it all in 2022 to show Brent consumers what the market/government holistic 'offer' really is and allow residents to compare its qualities/fails with other comparable global mega cities?
Wembley big city housing....
But Does Brent yet have a view on Transport for London's cost cutter threat to close the Bakerloo Underground Line?
Westminster has a 'Save the Bakerloo' campaign organised by councillors up and running.
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