The view across Bridge Road yesterday. The 8 storey CNWL buidling is obscured by a tree
As the proposed buildings will look if approved
Plans have been published for the development of the site of the College of North West London's Wembley Park site. The development is part of a three phase project which will see Wembley Park and Dudden Hill campuses moving into a new college building further down Olympic Way on the site of the building that was previously the head office of Network Housing. The extensive Dudden Hill (College Green) site will be redeveloped for housing some of which will also be highrise. See those proposals HERE.
The land is owned by United Colleges Group, the result of a merger between CNWL and City Westminster College and property rationalisation has been a strategy from the start. The decision on the Wembley Park and College Green development swill be made by Brent Council Planning Committee. In 2019 Brent Council granted a £50m bridging loan to United Colleges to facilitate the move to a new Wembley Park campus. LINK
The Hill Group who are managing both applications calim that the Wembley Park site will provide 307 homes in two towers (18 storey and 31 storey) and College Green 1,627 homes. Together comprising 84% of the London Plan requirement of Brent Council. LINK
On the Wembley Park site they state 30% of the 'habitable rooms' will be at social rent and 100% affordable. However, the habitable room measure is a slippery concept and not the same as affordable homes as a percentage of the total. I have asked for clarification as elsewhere there is a reference to shared ownership as affordable - which we know it is not.
As the illustration shows there is a big impact on the view along Olympic Way although the proposal claims it does not interrupt the view of the stadium arch. It is certainly the first thing that will hit you looking from Wembley Park station towards the stadium and much more signicant than the 8 storey CNWL building.
The Wealdstone Brook flows through the site. The present building is raised from ground level (as is Michaela on the other side of Olympic Way) as flood protection, so it is surprising to find that basements are planned for the new buildings. Retail, cafe or community uses are planned at ground level.
The present college building and Wealdstone Brook
The Wealdstone Brook flows through the site and beneath Olympic Way
The one storey temporary Black Sheep Coffee shop on Olympic Way has recently been granted an extension to 2026 but the plans retain flexibility with the possibility of opening up the site where it faces Olympic Way if the Black Sheep goes.
The Black Sheep now and after
Vehicle access to the site will be via Wembley Park Drive as at present but the development itself will be car free given its proximity to the station. Readers will note the Wembley Stadium Retail Park buildings on the right of the picture. The Retail Park, McDonalds and Troubadour Theatre (Fountain Studios) are another development site which will comprise 995 housing units in several towers.
On the image, below taken from the 2019 planning application, the CNWL building is bottom left corner. Now substitute an eighteen storey and a 31 storey block to see the scope of that development and the overall context on Bridge Road/Wembley Hill Road.
Finally it is good to see that the application includes a Whole Life Cycle Carbon Assessment (albeit incomplete) and includes some mitigations to reduce carbon impact. LINK.
So far there have been no public comments on the proposal on the Brent Council Planning Portal Reference 24/1841 LINK
12 comments:
Wealdstone brook looks idyllic in the photo but when i worked at CNWL, it usually had a dead fox in it
Huge blocks won't look out of place anymore
I have submitted my objection to this planning application for various social and environmental reasons.
https://glaplanningapps.commonplace.is/planningapps/24-1841
The Applicant is:
Dollis Hill Wembley LLP and United Colleges Group (c/o The Hill Group)
So it will be yet more student accommodation that Brent don't need and will give no benefit besides rubbish, drink, drugs and full tube trains and buses, they don't even pay towards the Borough they live in, their NHS funds go to their home boroughs and therefore rob Brent residents of their limited NHS budget. Brent Council seem to hate their residents don't they?
Did you read the article? It's housing not sudden accommodation!
Brent has a Housing Crisis. According to the Labour Leader over 1,000 families are now in expensive & inadequate temporary accommodation and the Council Budget is overspent by around £15 million pounds as a result. The Wembley Hospital is owned by the NHS. The NHS is owned by the Government. Would it not be nice if the Labour Government ensured that good quality social housing was built on the Wembley Hospital site to help house Brent families rather than the site being sold off and developed by another tax haven investor purely for profit?
Another site in the Great Western tenanted car-free 'fast' housing towers no public services facilities ghost city building from Wembley to Westfield, from Brent Cross to Hounslow.
In Shanghai if you look from the Bund across river this authoritarian dream is already completed.
The Great Western City (of car-free tenanted tower hundreds) being national project declared by Labour in power (as per Tory Docklands), would start to get what is Europe's biggest re-development covering 1,000's of hectares of rail lands, industrial lands, social estate lands and unchosen suburb lands, the social, community, services and movement new infrastructure investments that it so badly population growth zoned needs if it is to be humanised and included in UK social democratic life quality (as are conservation areas).
C18, C19 protected and loved with lives by state joined-up policy conserved and needs nurtured, but can C21 giant Great Western City also nurture such human health and well being growth. Maybe car-free housing and existing green spaces protection are quality improvement clues in? Good urbanism may even lead to these tower hundreds being less 'fast fashion' built to remediate extra profits from?
I don't think current no overall plan Great Western City could be high quality social, health, community and movement infrastructure remediated as afterthought in 2050 as there would be no land left not monetised and extracting.
Entire towers freehold owned, but no flat within them is owned in the Great Western car-free 'fast' housing tenanted Mega City.
Residents just pay for the built-in remediation fails.... At this particular towers site the added risk for exponential service charges being imposed to pay the owners tower money making free enterprise is flooding.
https://glaplanningapps.commonplace.is/planningapps/24-1841?utm_campaign=planning_app_status_change&utm_source=cp-email&utm_medium=email
I understand that what I'm about to express may be somewhat off-topic, but I feel compelled to share my thoughts on not "loving where I rent," and I believe my reasons are valid.
The apartment I live in is small, poorly designed, and has led to significant feelings of torment, frustration, and anxiety for me throughout the 23 years since I signed the agreement to live here.
Ironically, this flat is part of a redevelopment project that arose from a former estate owned by Brent Council, which was also characterized by low quality and poor design—similar to the estate now managed by Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing (MTVH).
In fact, after twenty-three years since its reconstruction, Chalk Hill Estate seems to be deteriorating, all while Brent Council continues to be governed by a Labour administration.
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