Proposed Stopping-up Order near Olympic Steps - Does Brent Council really want to embarrass itself in Court?

Guest Post by Philip Grant in a personal capacity

 

The meeting where submission of the Stopping-up Order application was approved.
(Note the date!)

 

In a guest post on 1 January I asked: Why does Brent want to Stop-up “highway” near the Olympic Steps? I have had a couple of email exchanges with Council Officers about this matter since then, the full texts of which are included as “FOR INFORMATION” comments under that article (along with several comments from WM readers).

 

In the latest response, from a mid-ranking Council Officer on 8 January, it was suggested that if I had wanted to challenge the application for Brent’s proposed Stopping-up Order, I should have sought a Judicial Review of a decision made by Brent’s General Purposes Committee nearly four years ago! That was nonsense – any member of the public has the right to be heard when the application is actually made to the Magistrates’ Court.

 

The hearing is scheduled for 2pm on Thursday 22 January. But as I’m convinced that even making the application is a mistake, and unnecessary (and I can be very persistent when I feel strongly about something), I have tried one final attempt to make Brent Council see sense. As I had failed to convince them with words, I decided to use pictures as well. This is the text of the email that I sent on the morning of Monday 12 January to Brent’s Public Realm Director, Chief Executive and Director of Law (and I have asked Martin to include the “pictures” attachment below this post):

This is an Open Email

 

Dear Mr Whyte, Ms Wright and Ms Henry,

 

I have tried, in my emails of 2 and 8 January, to persuade Council Officers in words why Brent Council need not, and should not, pursue this Section 116 Highways Act Stopping-up Order application. 

 

I realise that it must be frustrating when an ordinary resident seeks to tell Officers that they are "going down the wrong road", but when I can see that the present course is wrong, and that there is a right way, I feel I have a civic duty to draw this to your attention. 

 

If my words cannot persuade you, I hope that my pictures will, so please look at the attached document. It shows that the areas of highway, which the proposed Order seeks to remove the legal right for pedestrians and vehicles to cross over, are in everyday use by the people of our borough and visitors to it.

 

Does Brent Council really want to embarrass itself in Court, by claiming that these areas of highway are unnecessary?

 

I realise that Brent Council, and Quintain Limited, wish to resolve an outstanding problem over these areas of land as "adopted public highway", and Highways Act 1980 does provide the right way to do that. It is Section 256, not Section 116:

 

 

 

[From Highways Act 1980 on www.legislation.gov.uk ]

 

 

I sincerely hope that reason and good sense can now prevail, and that the Council will withdraw its Stopping-up application from the Willesden Magistrates' Court list for Thursday 22 January. I look forward to receiving your reply, in good time before that date. Best wishes,

 

Philip Grant.