Brent CEO asked to raise the Cricklewood dump with her Barnet counterpart tomorrow

Alison Hopkins has written the following letter today:

Dear Ms Downs

I understand that you are meeting with the chief executive of Barnet Council tomorrow.

I would like to ask that, as a matter of the greatest urgency, you raise the planning application submitted to Barnet for a waste transfer facility on the A5.

I and other residents have been fighting these plans for well over a decade. Indeed, we formed a cross party and all party alliance to oppose the dump and the disastrous road layouts associated with the Brent Cross Regeneration. It is a matter of huge disappointment to local people that Brent now support the road changes: we would urge you NOT to do the same with regard to the WTF.

The current WTF is on the eastern side of the railway lines. Barnet wish to move it to facilitate the building of expensive apartments as part of the “regeneration” plans. Originally, the North London Waste Alliance opposed the move on the grounds of proximity to houses and schools, environmental aspects and the fact that they could not guarantee that HGVs would not rat run in Dollis Hill and the rest of Brent. I attach a copy of their objections: these were withdrawn at the last moment, despite all the comments still being valid. Their reasons for doing so are the subject of an FOI request which has not, as yet, been answered. The NLWA also stated that the proposed site was too small.

The current WTF causes huge nuisance from smells and emissions. It’s only saving grace is that in traffic terms it is in an industrial area although the stink carries to most of Cricklewood. The proposed WTF is RIGHT opposite thousands  of Dollis Hill homes, and an infants school which is already suffering from traffic emissions and air pollution.

The Brent Cross road layout changes, as supported by Brent Council, including those to Geron Way, Oxgate Gardens, Dollis Hill Lane and Humber Road will only encourage more rat running by the thousands of HGVs which are forecast to use the WTF each week.

I urge you to support the best interests of your council tax paying residents in Dollis Hill and Brent. These proposals are in no way in our best interests and must be opposed.

best regards

Alison Hopkins

Hopkins lambasts Cricklewood Freight Hub Horror

 Ex-councillor Alison Hopkins has lambasted the plans for a rail freight superhub next to the A5 in Cricklewood.  Today is deadline day for submissions to Barnet Council - go to LINK to make a comment. Please make sure you include your email address on the online form.

Hopkins wrote:

This is a truly appalling plan which will blight the lives of tens of thousands across Barnet and Brent. It is, of course, not planned for the leafy glades where the wealthy live in Barnet, but right on the border with Brent, where the less well off, the ordinary and the down right disadvantaged live, work and go to school. 

As well as the dump already planned on the doorsteps of Dollis Hill, with hundreds of lorries a day, Barnet now plan to impose a polluting miasma of choking dust on us. A few hundred yards from an infants school, NEXT to a college, and behind a supermarket? The A5 is already the most polluted road in London: this adds yet more muck, with more ill health and more early deaths. 

It’s about time Barnet listened not only to its residents, but also to its neighbours.Brent is as badly affected by the mess you are creating all along the A5 - and yet, you do not reply to emails, you spread misinformation at so called consultation meetings and give the nod to appallingly damaging plans like this. 

In summary: this proposal is wholly unacceptable on the grounds of pollution, massive traffic increases and the utterly adverse effect on real people with real lives.