Comments on the application regarding the Gaudiya Mission in suburban Cranhurst Road, Willesden Green, increased from 16 to 26 over the weekend as today's Neighbourhood Consultation Expiry Date neared.
A planning application for a basement, rear extension and single storey outbuilding in the garden, was refused by Brent Council and an Appeal against the refusal dismissed. Now the Mission has come back claiming to have addressed the issues cited by the Planning Inspectorate (see Design and Access Statement below).
In practice comments are accepted up to the day before the Planning Committee hearing (if an application goes to the Committee and is not delegated to officers) so there is a possibility of submissions after today's date.
Comment HERE
A resident has kindly provided Wembley Matters with a version of their comment on the application:
Since the mid-1980s we have suffered from regular noise pollution and disruption as a result of the activities of the Gaudiya Mission. This was particularly problematic while the centre had consent to act as a Hindu information centre and prayer hall and consent was withdrawn on 2nd February 2004 appeal decision T/APP/T5150/AV01/1073609.
The extensive works proposed in the resubmitted planning application indicate a vast increase in volume of visitors to number 27 Cranhurst Road is planned, but this is a residential area with little space between properties (a 1.8m gap between foundations), small front gardens without driveways, and no room for crowds to congregate on narrow pavements. There could be well over 500-700 people attending services on a regular basis.
In October 2024 the Gaudiya Mission trustees purchased 25 Cranhurst Road for £1.7m. This forms the other side of the semi-detached property at No. 27. It has 6 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms and includes a loft and rear extension. It is not clear why the applicants require additional accommodation space at number 27 or why they need to extend number 27 and overdevelop when they now own such a substantial estate on Cranhurst Road. Whilst number 25. does not have permission to be used as a prayer hall/place of worship, there is nothing to stop the applicant using number 25 to accommodate visitors whether they be temporary or long term.
It has been noted that Gaudiya Mission wishes to run courses at these properties, the first was run in August/September 2024 and a large number of visitors were attending number 27 over the course of several weeks. Catering and washing facilities were provided at number 27 and this caused a great deal of noise and disruption to neighbouring properties. It is planned to have more of these courses and that is one of the expected uses of this facility which is not to be used as a residence at all, but as a bed and breakfast and training centre, college of sorts. The local sewers, utilities and other facilities do not have capacity for this expansion in population and usage of these two properties. This is a residential area which is being turned into an institutional development hub without the civic infrastructure necessary to support such overdevelopment.
The proposed works indicate a minimum of a fourfold increase in the size of existing dining facilities, with a basement catering kitchen, dining room of approx 1,300 square metres and a vastly extended existing prayer hall (labelled "Community room" in the plans). The kitchen is currently being used to cater for a congregation sometimes numbering well over 100 people between a number of services which take place most weekends. Expanding the kitchen and dining area would lead to an increase in activity, noise, cooking emissions (catering for a larger groups of people) and other environmental nuisance not suitable for a residential property with such close proximity to neighbours.
Services are noisy and include drums, cymbals and a horn as well as chanting. If the prayer hall is extended this will result in a larger number of people attending services and noise will increase accordingly. The extension will adversely affect the peaceful enjoyment of our property as given its proximity to neighbours, number 27 is not suitable for this level of activity. No amount of soundproofing will help contain the noise of so many people, who cannot be controlled, frequently open doors, windows and loudly congregate in the garden during visits.
The road is residential and has parking restrictions Mon- Sat. These restrictions do not apply on Sundays when the most popular services take place and some services last all day until 10pm. Increasing the activities of the prayer hall will lead to increased parking congestion on the road from visitors to the Gaudiya Mission on Sundays which will adversely affect residents, particularly those who have mobility issues and need to park close to their property (this affects one of us in particular). It is not true that visitors arrive by public transport. There is a constant flow of traffic and cars with Sunday visitors to number 27, blocking up the road and creating congestion and parking issues for neighbouring properties.
There is nothing in the plans to indicate how the existing mains sewage system will support the proposed increase in number of washing facilities and volume of visitors. The property's sewers have been badly blocked on a number of occasions in recent years.
According to the conclusions and recommendations of the biodiversity report, 61.84% of habitat units will be lost. This is an incredible loss of natural environment in a residential area of established gardens. There is a comment to say that the client has accepted this will need to be offset but that is not possible on these premises. The front of the property once had a thriving garden but was concreted over by Gaudiya Mission on acquisition of the property in the 1980s. The Mission removed as much vegetation as possible from the rear garden. The applicants have also acquired number 25 in October 2024 and have also been removing the established vegetation from the garden of number 25 since gaining possession. There is no commitment to biodiversity at either property. But in the confines of the planning application, there is no scope to offset biodiversity at 27 Cranhurst Road as so much of the garden habitat is planned to be destroyed by this development.
The residential parts of this property should have HMO status along with appropriate health and safety features. There are unrelated people living in the property. For example, the property was also hosting a family for some time. It has been acting as a hostel of sorts for some members of the congregation. The additional bedrooms indicate an expansion of this service. This is turning a residential property into an informal hotel without any regard for rules, regulations and planning / safety requirements for these types of buildings.
There is no information on the occupancy load factor in the plans. Given the nature of the use of this building and the number of members of the public regularly attending services, why has this been left out of the planning details?
There was no Disabled access evacuation assessment in the plans. Given the nature of the use of this building and the large numbers of members of the public regularly attending services, why has this been left out of the planning details?
Security of neighbouring properties due to a vast increase in numbers of attendees has not been addressed in the planning applications.
There will be pollution and ground damage caused by the proposed excavation work. It is not clear from drawings where exactly the outbuilding will be sited or how large it will be
The proposed construction work at the property can be classified as unprecedented specifically on Cranhurst Road and would involve the following.
o a. The excavation of a basement across the full width of the property extending from the front wall , for the full length of the existing property then the new rear extension, then some 3 m past that and then for the stairs. Allowing for hardcore and blinding it is estimated that about 500cu.m some 800 to 900 t of soil will need to be removed. Putting this in visual terms, this would involve some 70 of 80 medium size tipper lorry. The lorries will need to filled in some way. Possibly a crane or excavators would need to be used for this. With the narrowness of the road and access to the property this would be unbearable suffering to the local community living in the neighbouring properties.
o b. The proposals would require some 25cu.m of hardcore, that’s about 50t, about 5 tipper trucks .
o c. There is likely to a need for about 450t of concrete to construct the basement retaining wall and the ground floor, that’s about 20 concrete lorries, plus a couple of lorry loads of reinforcement.
o d. There will be a substantial need for temporary propping to create this basement so more trucks to bring this in and take it out.
o e. It is clear from the plans of the ground floor the first floor and the proposed loft that all the internal load bearing walls within the building as well as the real and rear side walls at ground floor are to be removed. Again, this will require more lorry movements to bring in significant temporary works to accomplish this. Followed by the installation of appropriate permanent to support the upper floor and walls allowing the ground floor and basement to have no load bearing element internally and then the removal of all the temporary works. This will create yet more heavy vehicular movements on the narrow road.
o f. This does not include the transportation required for the finishes and garden works.
o g. All the transports including the delivery of plant, removal of spoil and bringing in new construction materials, will need to empty, filled, loaded or unloaded in some way. Possibly a crane or excavators would need to be used for this or significant amount of labour. Whichever way this would be noisy and disruptive to the local residents.
o With the narrow street and access to the property limited, the amount of work proposed, the noise and can considerably increased heavy traffic movement on the street, would cause unbearable suffering to the local community living in the neighbouring properties.
The design and access statement is very short and does not advise on the frequency of events, the numbers of people attending each event, the street parking which will be required. Currently on Sunday if is difficult to find a parking space on Cranhurst Road in the area of this property due to the volume of people attending worship. These proposals appear to vastly increase the space available for attendance of the at the mission. It is not possible for the local roads sustain any increase in the number of worshipers at this property. These proposals are likely to hinder rather than help the local community.
Conclusion
It is very important to note that the main objective of Gaudiya Mission’s planning proposal is to significantly increase the volume of visitors to 27 Cranhurst road, from the usual 100 to over 500 to 700. It will also put great pressure on utilities, waste disposal, traffic and parking. As well as the pollution, noise, major disruption of such radical construction works, the planned vastly expanded congregation will further disturb the peace of a residential area with no planned mitigating developments being put into place by public services to manage this increase in footfall. This expanded usage has not been highlighted in the planning application, which is incomplete and light on detail.
In addition to this the purchase of number 25 should form a part of the planning decision-making process. The two buildings cannot be seen as separate for the purposes of this planning application. They are owned by and will be used by the same organisation for the same purposes of attracting large crowds of visitors to the destroy the residential nature of Cranhurst road.
Rather than continuing to seek to adapt 27 Cranhurst Road from a residential property to a public building closely proximate to residential properties, we would strongly encourage Gaudiya Mission to seek more suitable (non-residential) purpose-built accommodation for the expansion of its activities such as renting a local hall or function room.
