South Kilburn Masterplan (The Guardian)
Guest post by a South Kilburn resident
Report of South Kilburn Regeneration meeting held on the 18th September 2024.
The council announced that they have not appointed a sole developer yet for all the remaining sites of the South Kilburn Regeneration programne.
Currently there are 3 sites being developed with:
(1) 46 social homes for rent out of a total of 328 homes at The Peel site
(2) 72 social homes for rent out of a total of 209 at the NWCC`sit
(3) 18 homes for social rent at the Granville/Carton site but I do not know the total number of remaining homes.
(NWCC is Neville, Winstanley, the Carlton Centre and some of Carlton House).
The South Kilburn Promise was to provide a 50\50 ratio of social homes to other tenures but at these 3 sites the numbers of social homes has fallen way below the 50% ratio. Also the overall aim of the South Kilburn regeneration is to increase the number of social homes in South Kilburn by 800 by the end of the programm but this target may not be achieved either.
The next site to be developed will be The Hereford & Exeter site but not until 2026 as the council are still discussing with the GLA over funding issues and it would also need the sole developer to be appointed to develop the site.`
All the remaining sites are waiting to go to planning with the next one being The CCZ site being submitted in 2025. (CCZ is Craik, Crone & Zangwill House.)
Finally, there are still 284 tenants waiting for a new home in South Kilburn.
The council also reported on anti- social behaviour issues at Unity Place which only opened in 2019. They have appointed two Block Champions to monitor Unity Place, which has over 300 tenants and leaseholders living there.
Before the first Masterplan was published in 2004 the council said that developing the South Kilburn estate would eradicate all the anti-social behavour elements living there at the time. Something seems to have gone wrong as antisocial behaviour issues are rampant across the estate.
Appointing unpaid tenants as Block Champions to deal with all the issues affecting South Kilburn blocks will not solve the problem and what we need is more police to visit the estate, along with council safety teams on a regular basis.
11 comments:
This shows the South Kilburn regeneration really is falling apart. The promises made about new social housing etc were always inadequate, but Brent looks extremely unlikely to fulfil even them. The `Block Champions' scheme is not only incapable of dealing with the problems (substituting for proper action by police and Council), as the writer says, but is also the latest in a long line of actions taken by Council Officers to undermine the role of elected Tenants and Residents Associations, by handpicking who they want.
What was the reason given for the reduction in the social offering? Financial viability? The surprising thing is that the GLA oversee funding to these schemes as the council are reliant on this to stack up the numbers, however there appears to be an extremely poor level of scrutiny when looking at options to increase social units and acceptance that homes are homes regardless whether local people can afford them. A labour party who allegedly want more homes, are extremely political for it to mean what you want it to mean. But in reality it's as few social homes as possible to get the scheme over the line.
When dealing with ASB a multi- pronged approach needs to be taken. Ruling out the importance of block champions would be foolish, the other services need eyes and ears on the ground. It is an uphill task and 2 is not enough; this helps with the identification of issue; however the issues then have a domino effect where the reporting mechanism, recording, ownership, and response times are weak and this is where failure sets in. There needs to be an collective and collaborative approach and this starts with interaction with the local community safer neighborhoods team, who need to have a visible presence as well as the regular police patrols, ward panel membership should be encouraged and ward members can help identify areas to increase lighting, signage and visible surveillance like doorbells and cameras in hotspots, as well as closing off areas that are extremely problematic. The councils ASB team needs to work closer with residents with solutions.
The masterplan visual here is the community-led NDC masterplan of 2004 which in 2016 was by full council revoked and put in the bin. Even then by 2016, the 2010 Brent Local Plan (at higher planning tier) had re-designated South Kilburn a Growth Area with site allocation of 1/3rd of its 2ha park (shown on this visual as being fully protected). So, the visual as shown here was by council developer respected for maybe 6 years max.
Since 2019 South Kilburn re-re-designated by Brent Local Plan a 51 metre tall building zone with no tall building zone masterplan put in place as yet in 2024 by Brent. There is a newly built Vistry 17 storey one staircase tower north side of the 2ha park which on this 2004 masterplan visual is shown as being a one storey building!
I think there is zero need to worry about developer greed, sorry growth of South Kilburn zoned, it will be massive population growth at UK densities unseen piled-up population zoned-in and it floods too - AMAZING.
Intensive austerity, simply global developer tenant tower over all existing social, health, community and green infrastructure in growth/ greed area 'whatever's' zoned.
Intensive socialism for depopulation conservation areas of freehold family houses, not only conserving buildings but conserving families health, wellbeing and futures zoned.
Labour Party Conference
Its Block Champions as handpicked by the Council that I regard a problem. I agree we need eyes and ears on the ground to tackle ASB. But TRAs are best placed (and have residents confidence) to do this, either TRA committee members or in conjunction with other residents. Council handpicking their chosen representatives over the heads of TRAs is not an answer, either to anti-social behaviour or involving residents. Brent has a long history of undermining tenants and residents organisation, this is yet another example of the same.
Which building is unity place
Unity Place - this is the development that Brent bought back from the developer
I walk by it every day - there is no maintenance and the place is falling into ruin
The gardens are overgrown, the trees are dying, and there is rubbish and graffiti everywhere
Doors are broken and left open, balconies are used for storage and are a fire hazard, and the estate lighting is broken
The developers made a profit and Brent made their housing target number - the fact that it’s becoming a slum is besides the point
People who complain are just ungrateful - don’t they know there’s a housing crisis
Brent treats tenants as an annoyance to be managed
This is downloading responsibility on to the tenants without any support or agency
It also is an attempt to absolve the council of their responsibility as a landlord to provide safe and secure housing where tenants have the quiet enjoyment of their home
The council took over Brent Housing Partnership because of systemic failures but instead of cleaning house they kept the same people and the culture never changed
South Kilburn is far away from Wembley - out of site and out of mind
Unity Place has the Victorian culverted 'lost' River Westbourne running next to it, so its riverside with high flood risk if you believe the London Flood Review, an underground car park rental spaces business there too.
The neglect of all its planting is because its sited on the borough boundary with Westminster and Brent is required to signal a different regime, 'look' and attitude, another England, an other England. Brent is expert at that 'look' all along its southern boundary with Inner London wealth and opportunity zone/ the Inner boroughs of course also very happy with this current arrangement.
Change, it never did yet whichever colour was in power?
Comment received by email: In the first instance Unity Place was being developed by Telford's.
Halfway through the building work Telford pulled out, citing that they no longer wished to develop mixed tenure sites.
The council tried to find a replacement developer but were unable to do so, leaving them with no alternative but to take over the building work themselves.
So all the homes on the scheme are council homes and were never transferred to a HA.
So all the homes at Unity Place are managed by the council and they are responsible for the upkeep and the welfare of everyone living there.
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