Yellow box junction to be installed at Wembley Asda crossing

Asda junction at quiet time - in morning peak the junction is blocked with traffic (Google View)

In a twitter response to posts on Friday LINK and Tuesday LINK Brent Council has promised action on the Asda crossing (above).

Initially this will be installation of a yellow box junction and further proposals are being developed. These proposals should also cover the junction of Bridge Road/Forty Lane/ Forty Avenue where multiple pedestrian crossing places used by school children present a hazard.

Forty Lane, Bridge Road, Forty Avenue, Barn Hill junction

 Videos of the Asda junction danger are available HERE and HERE.

Brent Council to act on pedestrian safety in Forty Lane traffic corridor

Bird's Eye view of the two junctions (photo taken before Asda petrol station was constructed)

Local residents,  have been in contact with Brent Council to express concern about pedestrian safety at the Bridge Road/Forty Avenue/Barnhill junction and the junction of Forty Lane/Kings Drive and the Asda petrol station and car park. LINK

Children from The Ark Aademy (Primary and Secondary), Michaela Secondary, Lycee de Londres (Primary and Secondary) and Chalkhill Primary all use these crossings.

Brent Council has now sent this response:

Thank you for contacting us with your concerns about pedestrian safety at the junction of Kings Drive and Forty Lane.

I can assure you that pedestrian safety, particularly for vulnerable pedestrians such as children, is a high priority and we are active in introducing road safety measures for the benefit of all road users. Funding has been prioritised for road safety and accessibility improvements to the Forty Lane Corridor between Bridge Road and The Paddocks through our 2016/17 Local Implementation Plan (LIP) submission. A transport study is currently in progress to develop designs to improve pedestrian accessibility and safety, and congestion along this corridor with improvements to the Forty Lane/ Forty Avenue/ Bridge Road / Barnhill signal junction envisaged to commence from Summer 2016, subject to consultation. 

I acknowledge the need for immediate action to discourage motorists contravening the traffic regulations at the junction of Kings Drive and Forty Lane. We shall therefore review the existing signage and road markings to improve compliance and this will include the introduction of camera enforcement signs along with increased enforcement during peak hours to target habitual offenders.

Regards,

Sandor Fazekas
Project Development Manager
Transportation
Community Services

Extract from LIP report to be discussed at the Brent Cabinet Meeting on Monday. Child pedestrian traffic has increased considerably since April 2012 with the opening of new schools and expansion in the immediate vicinity.

Sufra food growing, fresh veg collection and cooking opportunities

 

Work starts ar St Raphael's Edible Garden

From Sufra NW London

Today Marks & Spencer launches a national campaign called Spark Something Good, which aims to encourage people to take action for social good. Over the next 24 hours, 24 projects across the capital will be transformed – and the derelict site on St. Raphael’s Estate is one of these projects.

Across the day, M&S employees will be joined by our own volunteers, as well as volunteers from Sudbury Town Resident’s Association and Brent Housing Partnership to clean up the site, build raised beds and plant the first seeds of what will become one of the largest communal food growing spaces in North-West London. We do aim high, don’t we!

It’s going to be a manic day, with volunteers working onsite till 10pm tonight. For regular updates on what’s happening on site, make sure you follow us on Twitter.

Fruit & Vegetable Collection Pilot

On the subject of food growing, tenants at Birchen Grove and Bridge Road allotments will notice that some unusually bright yellow bins have appeared on site. Across August and September we’re piloting a new initiative, encouraging allotment-holders to donate fresh produce to the food bank.

Every year, many tenants find that a successful harvest quickly turns miserable at the sight of wasted fruit and vegetables, which are surplus to their need. To reduce food wastage, and ensure that we can help vulnerable people maintain a healthy diet, we’re offering tenants the opportunity to share their harvest with Sufra.

Collections from both allotments will be on Tuesday mornings, so it’s best to pick your harvest as close as possible to the collection day. There are separate bins for soft and hard fruits/vegetables because there is nothing more depressing than an overgrown marrow landing head-first on a pile of tomatoes.

And Fahim will not be impressed, when he has to clean out the bins. Please don’t upset Fahim.

Summer Academy

Keeping with the food growing theme, we’ve had a lot of enquiries about our Summer Academy, an intergenerational project that celebrates food growing and experimental cooking. Each session includes a visit to Sudbury Court Drive Allotment where participants harvest fresh produce (courtesy of Michael and Patrick’s frantic efforts since early February) and return to Sufra to cook a delicious meal.

What’s more, there are no chefs and no recipes! It’s truly experimental and a chance for people to learn cooking skills from one another. Or watch, and be entertained. The Summer Academy is open to young people aged 11-19 years and older people aged 60+ years... but we’re happy to slip in a few eager beavers. You can attend as many or as few sessions as you like, so why not give it a try?

The sessions run from 10am to 4pm on: Tuesday 4 August, Thursday 6 August, Tuesday 11 August and Thursday 13 August. To take part, download a Registration Form here. There are no spaces remaining on the first session (sorry, but you should have registered early!).

Food Academy for Young Carers

Sometimes experimental cooking doesn’t quite hit the mark!

We know that many young people who care for a disabled or unwell parent or sibling, often face the challenge of having to cook for the family. In partnership with Brent Carers Centre, we’re organising a special week-long Food Academy for young carers from Monday 24 August to Friday 28 August.

Across the week, young carers will learn how to cook 10 different dishes, as part of an accredited certificate in cooking. We’ve also thrown in a visit to King’s Cross Skip Garden (we’re really getting into this food growing malarkey) and a workshop on healthy eating run by a nutritionist. Participants who complete the accredited outcomes will be treated to a night out at Jimmy’s Restaurant at Wembley Outlet Centre to sample a world buffet.

If you know a young carer who would benefit from the course, get in touch or download a Registration Form here.

Wembley wakes up to the smell of coffee

A well known hairdressers in Bridge Road, Wembley Park, is to close on 29th March and a planning application LINK has been submitted to open Costa Wembley on the site. This involves a change of use from A1 to A3 (cafe and restaurant).

A French Cafe serving coffee and cakes opened a few doors down and closed due to lack of custom. A planning application to turn it into a restaurant was rejected by Brent planning committee.

The hairdressers, LAMARTINE, has a set of loyal long-term customers from the local area. It is known for its creative seasonal shop window displays and excelled itself during the 2012 Olympics and its proprietor is well known and respected in the community.  It will be sad to see a local small business make way for a multinational.

Meanwhile staff were training today ahead of the opening of another multinational coffee chain. This one is housed at Brent Civic Centre and due to open on Monday. 

Last year Starbucks paid UK corporation tax for the first time in five years LINK

Costa benefited from the row about what campaigners saw as Starbuck's tax avoidance and increased its sales LINK

North End Road reconnection controversy returns to Wembley Park

Controversial plans to reconnect North End Road in Wembley with Bridge Road at the Bobby Moore Bridge, beside Wembley Park Station, (see plan above) remain in the revised Wembley Plan which the Brent Executive will approve for consultation  this evening.

A quiet haven at present

When the original plans for reconnection were published four years ago LINK they attracted opposition from the Wembley Community Association which wanted to keep the low traffic levels of North End Road which serves the quiet residential area of  Empire Court and Danes Court.  At present the road ends in pedestrian and cyclist ramps at Olympic Way between Arena House (soon to be a secondary free school) and 1 Olympic Way. Since 2009 the Victoria Hall student accommodation has been built on North End Road.

North End Road leading to Victoria Hall

Brent Council say that 'a new road link at North End Road is a key component of the overall strategy enabling the promotion of highway access into Wembley (and beyond) from the North Circular'.  They claim that the new connection will benefit the development area during stadium events and reduce traffic along Neasden Lane and Forty Lane 'allowing prioritisation for non-car modes. The connection may also facilitate improvements to bus services, depending on results of the bus strategy'.

Henry Lancashire in his submission to Brent Council says that the proposed link will conflict with the popular bus stop opposite Wembley Park Station and increase the danger of pedestrian access to the bus stop. He states that the current access enables cyclists to take a safe route from the Brent River Park and can only increase in popularity if the proposed cycling/pedestrian bridge across the Chiltern Line from St David's Close is built. Brent Cyclists also express a preference for the link from North End Road to Bridge Road to be for cycling only. They state 'This would be far cheaper to implement than a connection for motor vehicles, and, with work and highway adoption or land-take in the Atlas Way/Fourth Way/Fifth Way area, could provide a viable, high-quality corridor for walking and cycling via the Brent River Path all the way from Stonebridge Park to Bridge Road.

Lancashire suggest that the required land acquisition for the link will be a) costly and b) damaging and in particular that the green space associated with the river opposite Victoria Hall will be lost: 'This is a valuable wildlife corridor used by species including wrens, robins, blackbirds and pipistrelle bats'.

Brent Council respond that the bus stop will be moved 'slightly to the south' and will be accessed via the Olympic Way underpass (people  dash across the road at present and I don't really see that changing).  They say negotiations are still going on for land acquisition and they are trying to keep the costs down: 'The scheme has been revised to remove the need for land from Victoria Hall'.

In their submission to the Council Quintain Estates and Developments state:

We do not consider this connection to be justified to mitigate the impacts of development and instead it appears mainly top be based on a need to provide circulation to and from the Industrial Estate on Stadium Event Days. In any event,  it is not required to mitigate the impacts of development currently consented in the regeneration areas.

 I am currently trying to find the likely cost of the proposal which in 2009 was put at £20m.

Chicken shops and betting shops - how can we diversify our shopping streets?

The Green Party supports small shops and high street diversity but clearly times are hard and many businesses are failing to thrive.

One type of business which seems to do well in recession is bookmakers, with money short and few ways to increase income, gambling becomes attractive. Anecdotally that seems clear from the increased number of people buying lottery tickets in the local newsagent.

There are about 34 shops on Bridge Road/Forty Avenue near Wembley Park station and although many are well established there are a few which frequently change hands as businesses set up optimistically only to close a few months later. A Polish shop was rapidly followed by a French cafe which is now shuttered.

On the corner of Chalkhill Road and Bridge Road the Piri Piri Sports Bar has struggled to attract custom with frequent changes of cuisine. In the past it has offered pizza and pasta and then Indian food. Now Paddy Power bookmakers are applying to open a large shop on the premises despite there being a Corals a couple of hundred yards away and a Ladbrokes on Grand Parade.

There are already quite a few takeaways in the immediate area with at least three offering fried chicken. What can we do to diversify our shopping streets?

Can this be Wembley?

The Green Party has long campaigned against clone towns and domination of  high streets by multinational chains so I give a warm welcome to the Montparnasse Cafe which has just opened in Bridge Road, opposite the Ark Academy. A Patisserie Boulangerie Francaise makes a welcome change from the ubiquitous chicken takeaways and betting shops. I was passing recently and noticed an excited huddle outside the door avidly reading the menu. A young woman with shining eyes turned to me and said. "I can't believe it. This in Wembley! The old place is looking up."

The cafe has French staff: "If you want excellent French food you have to have French people preparing it," said the proprietor. The menu has salads, rolls, paninis, galettes, quiches and omelettes as well as mouth-watering cakes. The coffee and tart I had this morning were delicious. A welcome addition to Wembley's small shops and one in the eye for the coffee chains.

The cafe takes telephone orders and will provide catering and delivery to meetings: 27 Bridge Road, Wembley Park. Tel: 020 8904 3443