Guest post by Philip Grant in a personal capacity
Pedestrians using Wembley Splay, and crossing the site of the proposed hotel.
Under a blog post on 16 June, “Wembley Park councillors call on the public to support the fight to keep the Samovar Space & Market Square in front of Wembley Stadium”, I added a comment saying ‘I will need time to study the application, and the previous consents, carefully but when I have done that I will submit my objections, and will share my thoughts with anyone who is interested.’
I submitted the first part of my comments to the Brent planning website for application 26/1351 in July, but never expected it to take so long for me to finish the task! For various personal reasons, and commitments that had to take priority, it was not until 16 October that I submitted the final part, and sent an illustrated document copy of my full objections to Brent Planning Officers. The application has yet to be referred to Brent’s Planning Committee (but could be at its next meeting on 11 November), so hopefully my delay is a case of “better late than never”.
I will ask Martin to attach my objection comments document below, so that anyone who is interested, including any objectors who may wish to speak against the application when it does come before councillors for a decision, can read the reasons I have set out as to why the application should be refused, on proper planning grounds, in the hope that this assists in the fight to keep this site as open space for the local community and visitors to enjoy.
Philip Grant.
The petition to retain the Market Square and Samovar Space is still live and available to sign HERE
The application (16/1351) is on the Brent Council Planning Portal where comments in support, opposition or neutral can be made HERE. The expiry date is November 27th 2026 but comments can be made up to the eve of the Planning Committee meeting hearing which may be sooner. It has not yet been fixed.
33 comments:
Philip a very detailed objection but at the end of the day they voluntarily provided these spaces at their own cost when they could have just left the site vacant with a fence around it until they built the hotel.
If you let someone use your house free of charge for several years and they objected when you asked them to move out because you needed it back you would be pretty annoyed, wouldn't you?
Didn't Brent Council give Quintain £17.million of our NCIL/CIL money towards their vanity project steps outside Wembley Stadium as an "incentive" not to build on this site next to the Civic Centre???? If so we want our £17.8million back with interest added on top!!!!!!!!
The question also is whether Wembley Park has a final plan (as say Queen Park conservation area definitely does) or if Wembley Park is an open plan/ no plan zone of private developer total impunity. "We can do whatever we want," with government merely acting as enablers. A great strategy for growing inequalities and for no neighbourhood exiling a vast population. The new Brent growth model.
6.33 How would your rights based approach apply to a council estate and the colonisation of its longstanding public realm, parks and green spaces by Ballymore and friends bit-by-bit, neglect-by- neglect, new plan- by- new plan?
This is from the original Cabinet decision: Cabinet were asked to:
Confirm or otherwise the contribution of up to £12.1 million +VAT towards Zone C improvements, such contribution being contingent on Quintain:
a. Not pursuing development of site NW04 (see plan above) adjacent to the Civic Centre to the extent currently permitted in the parameters plans associated with outline planning permission 10/3032
b. Working with the Council to deliver a development that better complements the role and setting of the Civic Centre, in particular creating a significant new square outside the Civic Centre Library
c. Agreeing a business plan and agreement, between Quintain and the council, for the future sharing and reinvestment of the net income generated through assets on Olympic Way in Zones A, B and C.
d. Securing up to one third funding contribution from Wembley Stadium owners.
Quintain agreed to make the building smaller and provide a new square. People should at least read the planning application if they want to comment/object!
What's your made up hypothetical situation got to do with what is happening at Wembley? Wembley isnt a council estate and isnt a longstanding area of public realm, park or green space.
Was mainly a retail park before build on exhibition land, but regardless of that Wembley Park should have a public safeguarding and social inclusion (with its surroundings quality of life) final masterplan that Quintain is required to work to. Or is Wembley Park in reality an open plan/ no plan future of Reform policies?
It took 47 years to get to the Thames Water model for South Kilburn public-to- private estate. Wembley Park it was day from 1. You either knowingly bought into private towers or private towers unknowingly bought into you.
Pack it in. I guess the Civic Centre can be demolished soon as happened to City Hall at Tower Bridge.
Space for plenty more towers. Who needs space to move around in, who needs sunlight, its tenants and transients afterall- don't want life getting in any way comfortable for them.
from day 1.
Is there a final plan for Wembley Park? I would seriously doubt that there is as every day is year zero in the 8 Brent Growth zones and re-development history and record is erased. So, open plan and in effect no final masterplan Wembley Park.
However, even for fire safety there should be protected assembly point sizable outdoor spaces, that with care could also be green spaces, public squares and places of community- like the outdoor rooms of Turin's urban design.
The Civic Centre will be demolished for another tower.
Its about when does a giant private funded urban upgrade, start to overgrow and morph into becoming a mass marginalisation, downpress and othering non neighbourhood greed-led instead. Wembley Park, the next 50 years anyone?
When does it cease to be brownfield land in the developer mind-set?
The decision to build 30 storey + tower blocks was a political decision by the Labour Party. When Ken Livingstone was Mayor of London he wanted to build a massive tower block on the frontage of the old Copland Secondary School. That opened up the door.
The Council Civic Centre is a much lower building as everyone can see. When the original Wembley Stadium master plan was being developed no one expected that the tall building allowed on the site would dwarf and hide the Stadium. All that came later when under Labour the policy of controlling the height of buildings was ditched. Most of the flats built in the Wembley area are not affordable by Brent residents who need them. That is why the Brent housing waiting list always stands at around the 30,000 mark and only goes down when the Labour Council changes the qualification rules and knocks people off the list for cosmetic propaganda purposes.
Why exactly did the Labour Council hand £17 million to Quintain - was not part of the deal the requir3ement not to build another large tower block close to the Civic Centre? What benefit did the people of Brent get for their £17 million - clearly not an open space.
Why are 30K always on the housing waiting list? If people can't afford to buy here why not move to somewhere you can afford?
There may be 30,000 on the Brent housing waiting list but think of all the non council tax paying students we are now housing in Brent even though we have no major colleges or universities here!!!
Such good planning by Labour run Brent Council, not!
24 October 2026 at 20:10 Using the bath tub analogy people are moving out (or being moved out by the council) through the open plug hole but more people are becoming homeless as rents go and they have to leave or evictions take place - the taps running. The amount of water (number of homeless) stays the same or increases if the flow increases,
My parents both had to move to get work and afford a house - they both worked hard and saved hard whilst paying rent and bringing up 3 children - there was no luxury of universal credit handouts and no council house given to them.
Because many people cannot buy and need to rent. To get on the Brent waiting list you need to be a Brent resident as defined by Government.
The proportion of income needed for a deposit on a house is much great ernow as is the price of a house compared to income. My parents were able to bring up eight children on a postman's wages - this wouldn't be possible today.
South Kilburn Tall Building Zone/ Growth Area is 51 metres (17 storey) in the current Brent Local Plan, and has a qualification clause like Wembley to tower taller.
The 'living community' and community-led NDC Neighbourhood Final Masterplan of 2004 are both Brent revoked/abolished to enabled the 2010 government re-designation of this entire estate community as brownfield contaminated land.
The great social regress. Don't panic its a zoned misery/exclusion, a contamination to be contained and sustained indefinitely, even by a Labour national government it would seem?
It would be possible today if people moved to where they can afford to buy a home.
Both my parents worked all their lives but now it's so easy to get benefits - people sit back with their rent probably paid for them by the Council waiting for a council house.
Previous Labour Governments relaxed rules on gambling and alcohol increasing the amount of money wasted each year on both. That money could go towards a home deposit instead.
Wembley National Stadium Limited have posted a support comment on the Brent Council Planning Portal as shown here: https://pa.brent.gov.uk/online-applications/centralDistribution.do?caseType=Application&keyVal=DCAPR_177599
Wembley Park, brownfield forever. What do you expect?
Why is someone who lives in Ilford concerned about Wembley?
Brownfield forever tower zones are not only a Brent urban plague.
Wembley is being dangerously overdevloped. Population density is high. Very little sky. Outside the Quintan development, in Wembley High Rd and at Wembley Triangle the area is dirty and neglected. Leave us some open spaces. Give us some pride in Wembley and space. No more tower blocks or hotels. Clean up neighbourhood's of longstanding tax paying residents. Many of whom are depressed by the degeneration of their local streets.
Yes I agree that Wembley is now over developed and more open spaces are needed for local residents. There is now a community action group called Just Space who are campaigning against these sorts of developments across Greater London as follows here: https://www.google.com/goto?url=CAESVAHrOzAVAejTciZNXvVR0bXLujxIzJ-7ort7dn36NOb7PCgmPn_guxXXzr1IEjkWWf_S3ScsjSIx6IKJ1qzeqzAkbq93qtz5Oq7NdHzJqiGtntBsxg
Tower blocks are still due to be built in Wembley High Road where Woolworths used to be, where the older shops are in London Road, where the job centre was in St John's Road and where the hotel was further down St John's Road - they all have planning permission - plus god knows where else that's been given planning permission by Labour!!!
They won't stop until there every space has a tower block 😡
See the new tower at Paddington Station, its plot/site is only two lift cores, while its floor space/ main footplate is a long bridge over another build and existing access routes. So, almost no land needed for a 19 storey tower!
Paddington Basin does have a certain urban quality to it with canal basin retained, but imagine this new towering on almost no land approach being applied in fail and fail better Brent.
And how will the fire services cope with all these huge tower blocks - a two storey house needed 40 firemen yesterday - see footage here...
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZN8yLFxKo/
Quintan gave a fortune for enhancement of the local area. What happened to this ?? Did Mr. Butt pocket it? Nothing went to the Triangle area or the junction of Neeld Parade and Oakington Manor Dve. Mr. Butt has told other councillors to ignore our petitions. We want to take pride in our area. Mr Butt doesn't care. He's just furnishing his nest with Quintan money.
Wembley Central to private estate 'devolve' soon.
What's always astonishing given all the car-free housing towers in both, is the disconnect that has been sustained between WP and WC. Development is about empires, disconnects and separations, but what about Brent consumers and how did the council go missing in action for so long on this?
Post a Comment