Willesden Green police houses development - the mound likely to go but so is the affordable housing

The new housing development of 25 units and the retained police station

 

Brent Planning Committee last night unanimously approved the application for 25 flats on the site of police houses and police station outhouses on the Willesden High Road. The police station itself is retained for commercial purposes.

This was despite representations made by the adjacent property in Huddleston Road who in just 3 minutes was able to demonstrate the many ways in which the application did not meet the council's own guidelines or address the concerns of the Planning Inspectorate.

However, the developer, at Planning Committee for the third time, said that Brent planning officers agreed that they had met the Inspector's concerns and officers recommended that 'on balance' the benefits of the development outweighed issues such as poor amenity and lack of quality children's play space.

The  developer announced that the 'moud' in the green space, much derided by residents' comments on the planning portal, could be dropped. The developer expressed satisfaction that out of 1,000 residents contacted, 25 had attended a consultation meeting.

 The Huddlestone Road resident made it clear that they wanted to see the site redeveloped, there has been problems with squatters etc but that it should meet the guidelines set out by the council.

Theoretically the council expect 50% of developments to be 'affordable' although that term has itself become almost meaningless with the variou s different interpretations, Brent Council is willing to go down to 35% affordable but in practice at Planning Committee the proportion is much lower as the result of financial viability assessments.

 Last night Cllr Liz Dixon asked how the 7 affordable units Brent Council has claimed were possible, was somehow reduced to four (16%),  or possibly none with a £1.1m contribution from the developer instead.  It is worth asking if that amount could fund the building of 1 three bedroom dwelling and 3 two bedroom.

 Officers undertook to try and find a Registered Provider to manage the social homes but said that RPs were not usually interested in such a small number. Brent Council could also consider being the RP but failing that the contribution would be requested.

As affordability is such an issue locally and nationally, I have included a video of the planning officer's explanation below. 

As the police are part of the public sector I do wonder if when their property becomes redundant, rather than being sold off privately, it should not become part of the One Public Estate and used for council housing.

Of limited historical value only perhaps, this is a document produced I think around 2016 (like many Brent documents it is undated) that provides some explanaion regarding affordable housing. LINK