Speakers against the Mumbai Junction planning application
Last night's Planning Committee was a funny old meeting. The Chair had to send for a bucket because water was leaking through the roof of the Civic Centre (c£100m) and evetually the meeting was abandoned when the water got into the audio system and made participants sound like fish. Cllr Maurice raised a concern about noise coming from the floor below - it turned out not to be a riot but Navratri celebrations. Eventually the meeting had to be abandoned because of the water seepage and the Kilburn Square application hearing was not completed.
Matt Kelcher vacated the chair for the first item because he had, prior to becoming chair spoken out against the application, (not because his Cabinet member wife Mili Patel was one of the main speakers against the Adult Gaming Centre in Harlesden).
A strong squad of ward councillors opposed the application and quoted police evidence on the damaging impact of yet another gambling joint in Harlesden. Acting Chair Cllr Saqib Butt (whose brother is leader of the council) did his best to sway the committee but four members voted against and only Butt and two others for the application. A senior officer intervened to suggest deferment but that was a gamble too far and the refusal decision stood.
The long-running Mumbai Junction application was another matter. This had been first refused and then deferred at the August Planning Committee (after an officer intervention) so that defensible reasons for rejection could be compiled. These were included in the officers' report but despite representations by three ex-councillors (Mitchell-Murry, Lloyd and Perrin) and one current councillor (Lorber) the Committee, rather unconvincingly, over-turned their previous decision. I couldn't possibly comment on post-meeting suggestions that they had been got at.
In answer to a question in comments, the final vote on Mumbai Junction was 5 for, 1 against (Cllr Maurice) and 1 abstention (Cllr Mahmood).
What was the voting on the Mumbai Junction decision?
ReplyDeleteFive for. I against (Cllr Maurice) amd 1 abstention (Cllr Mahmood)
ReplyDeleteSerious questions have to be asked when Committee members (Labour councillors), who voted to refuse the application first time round, are given good planning reasons to support that refusal, by both Planning Officers and objectors, but then change their minds and vote to approve it!
ReplyDeleteInteresting that ex Cllr Mitchell Murray spoke out against this development as a resident - she did very little to stop all the huge developments in Wembley Central when she was our Councilor 😞
ReplyDeleteAs if they care about the area. It’s all about money. Mumbai Junction is a thriving restaurant yet hasn’t had a penny spent on it for the last 20 years?
ReplyDeleteNever understand why councillors in the planning committee are allowed to abstain??? You either approve or you don’t approve!
ReplyDeleteIf you can’t make a decision based on the evidence presented to you then you shouldn’t sit on the planning committee taking your extra councillors allowance for being on the planning committee ☹️
Interesting quote in a "Kilburn Times" report, from the Chair of Brent's Planning Committee (who stepped aside, and did not take part in the Committee's consideration of the Gaming Centre application):
ReplyDelete'Cllr Kelcher told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “We are delighted that the Planning Committee listened to the local community and rejected these plans which would have led to an over concentration of high street casinos in Harlesden and undermined the huge progress our local police have made in tackling antisocial behaviour in the area.”
The local community would be delighted if the Planning Committee listened to them on other applications, and rejected other plans which are strongly opposed by residents on good planning grounds!
However, most applications recommended for approval by Planning Officers are "rubber stamped" by the majority of Planning Committee members, with Cllr. Kelcher taking the lead in approving them.
The hypocrisy of Cllr Kelcher who spends most of his time as chair of the planning committee ignoring local communities. Later in the meeting he voted to ignore the local community at the Mumbai junction restaurant. Like the rest of the committee he doesn't want to listen to local communities if his leader will take away his £10k planning committee allowance!
ReplyDeleteThe objectors to Mumbai junction at the meeting are no better. Ex Cllr. Lloyd and current Cllr Lorber are opposed to overdevelopment at Mumbai junction but both Lloyd and Lorber are very much in favour of overdevelopment at Preston Library.
Overdevelopment fine if its not where they live - same hypocrisy as Kelcher.
See previous comment re ex Cllr Mitchell Murray!
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