An email from Irvin Leisure to Brent councillors has been seen by Wembley Matters.It is not possible to tell if the email went to ALL councillors but it does suggest that many will be at the Funfair it invites councillors to attend. It asks councillors to reply personally to George Irvin in response to an invitation to enjoy free admission to the upcoming Funfair at Roe Green for friends and family:
Hello Dear Councillor,
As I’m sure you realise, we have worked with your Borough for many generations staging the Annual Funfairs where we support many local charities including the Mayor’s charity which we are raising funds for at this year’s event.
The local community have an important day coming up soon at the local Fair, this being Eid al-Fitr on the 21st and 22nd April 2023 and regardless of your personal religion we would like to invite you along with family and friends to our Funfair free of charge as I will arrange tickets for you all.
Do confirm to George direct if you wish to attend as many other Councillors will be attending.
George Irvin's controversial application to redevelop a site in Barham Park LINK to build 4 houses is with the council and expires on Thursday April 20th.
After publication I received the following emailed comment about the Barham Park development:
Brent Council treated the Barham bequest as their own asset for a long time. They used buildings in Barham Park as offices for Parks Department and build the two cottages for parks staff in early 1970s without permission.
The park buildings and pathways have been neglected for years and rather than treating it just like any other Park, paid from the Council Tax the Council is insisting that Barham Park needs to generate its own income to fund improvements.
When the cottages became empty and needed substantial upgrading a decision was made some 14 years ago to sell them to generate money for repairs to the park.
George Irwin bought them at auction for £630,000.
The sale was subject to a covenant preventing further building. While this has nothing to do with planning - and any permission could be given or refused - the ‘restrictive’ covenant cannot be ignored.
As the Council sold the two cottages with the Covenant on basis that it was the two houses and not more. The value received was reasonable. If the houses and land were sold unrestricted than the value would have been much higher.
The Council Trustees have a fiduciary duty to maximise any income to the Trust. As the land from Titus Barham is a charitable endowment, they also have a duty to protect it. They could simply say 2 houses is enough and no more - irrespective of any decisions made by planning.
If the Trustees, following proper advice and probably clearance from the Charity Commission allowed the proposed 4 houses to be built - despite public opposition - they would have to extract a fair and substantial value for disposing of the protection given by the restrictive covenant.
George Irwin paid £630,000 for two cottages some years ago. He also incurred legal and other costs. Each of the 4 town houses, once built could be worth £700,000 each that is a total of £2,800,000. If demolition, rebuilding and other costs come to say £1,170,000 that would still leave a gain of £1 million.
The Brent property or Finance team can do this calculation for the Barham Trustees as a value needs to be placed on the covenant. An independent valuation officer from the Inland Revenue will probably need to be involved.
What is quite obvious is that George Irwin will not be allowed to go ahead without paying a very large price - even if the planning Committee caves in and allows more building inside an important Brent Park. Once Brent officers finally advise him of the price, he needs to pay he may simply give up on his plans and realise that he is wasting his time.
GEORGE IRVIN HAS SENT THIS COMMENT (00.15 APRIL 20TH)
I need to make everyone aware we have been asked to support Eid al-Fitr by many Mosque’s all over London that we do events with and because of this we have sent £10 of tokens to all the councillors that can be given to anyone including charities in Tower Hamlets, Lambeth, Brent and Southwark where funfairs are taking place over Eid as this has nothing to do with planning issues.
We support many non-political charities, like the mayors charities with our annual funfairs as we have donated more £500,000 over previous years.
So this is completely wrong to say this is connected to any planning, applications.
7 comments:
He knows he's not wasting his time, that's why he is offering Brent Councillors incentives as per the email offer and attended the wedding of at least one senior councillor's offspring. One could also ask why the STRA are so very quiet on this subject considering that they were very loud in objecting previously (publicly).
We urge everyone to object to this latest planning application in our much loved Barham Park.
Deadline for objections is Thursday 20th April
You can email planning.comments@brent.gov.uk and copy in gerry.ansell@brent.gov.uk - please quote "Application number 22/4128 - Location 776/778 Harrow Road" - you can just say I object to the proposed development in our local park.
Brent Planning has now sent out some extra consultation letters.
The revised date for submitting comments on application 22/4128 (four new homes in Barham Park) is 9 MAY 2023.
Good evening everyone
I need to make everyone aware we have been asked to support Eid al-Fitr by many Mosque’s all over London that we do events with and because of this we have sent £10 of tokens to all the councillors that can be given to anyone including charities in Tower Hamlets, Lambeth, Brent and Southwark where funfairs are taking place over Eid as this has nothing to do with planning issues.
We support many non-political charities, like the mayors charities with our annual funfairs as we have donated more £500,000 over previous years.
So this is completely wrong to say this is connected to any planning, applications.
Regards George Irvin
Thank you for your comment. I have also incorporated it into the news article.
I acknowledge the fact that George Irvin's funfairs have raised a lot of money for charities over the years. No one would argue with that activity.
However, his comment (20 April at 00:15) above is rather disingenuous.
The email sent on his behalf to Brent Councillors on 14 April did not send '£10 of tokens to all the councillors, that can be given to anyone, including charities.'
Instead, it invited Brent councillors to contact George personally, and that he would arrange funfair tickets 'free of charge' for 'you along with family and friends.' If any councillor taking up the offer has a large family, and/or friends he would like to join them at the funfair, that is quite a "freebie".
The offer might not be directly related to the Barham Park planning application, but I doubt Mr Irvin is unaware that councillors who could benefit from his offer are likely to be considering and deciding that application in the next few months.
All of the Brent councillors who received his generous offer are welcome to take it up, if they wish to. But if they do, they should declare it to Brent Council's Monitoring Officer, as 'a gift or hospitality' received, under para. 31 (c) of the Brent Members Code of Conduct.
If Irwins have been able to donate £500k how much have they made from running their very large funfairs in our vital local parks and much used recreation grounds whilst ruining the grounds, churning up the grass when the weather is bad and disturbing wildlife?
How many posters have they been allowed to plaster all over our local streets on lampposts, railings, telegraph poles etc for free advertising? No one else would get away with this.
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