Wembley Park planning application to build 31 storey and 18 storey building on Olympic Way college site to be heard at Planning Committee next week

 

The new buildings from Bobby Moore Bridge (Bridge Road opposite station)

The College of North West London building that will be demolished

 

 In 2017 I predicted that the merger of the College of North West London and City of Westminster College as United  Colleges would lead to deals involving their property portfolio but I rather underestimated the extent of change that this would involve. Will property deals follow CNWL and CWC merger?

In Brent the plan involve the sale of both College of North West London College sites (Wembley Park's Crescent House and Dudden Hill's College Park) for housing development with  the profit funding a new college building on Olympic Way/Fulton Road. This was  given planning permission in July 2023 on the site of the Olympic Office Centre, formerly the HQ of Network Housing.

 

New Wembley Park Campus building

Brent Council was involved via a loan given to United Colleges to help set up the deal. CNWL has already sold its Kilburn site and sold its other Wembley Park building to the Education Funding Agency to provide accommodation for Michaela School.

If your head is spinning perhaps this explanation from Brent Planning Officers will help:

Officers have carefully weighed up the conclusions drawn by the viability assessment and the policy requirement for the delivery the new college facility in order to enable the release these two sites for development. Officers also have attached weight to the benefits associated with the delivery of the new college. Officers consider that the inter-relationship between these two schemes and the delivery of the new college facility is material to the consideration of this application, and a Section 106 obligation will prevent the implementation of these two applications unless the construction of the new College building is going ahead.

 

It is therefore considered reasonable and appropriate for the Council to place weight on the financial contribution that the sale of these two sites will make towards the delivery of the new college building and officers have also evaluated the scheme on this basis. However, it is for the decision maker to determine what weight should be applied to the facilitating role that the sale of these sites play in the delivery of the new college facility.

 

Officers consider that this should be given substantial weight given that the new college facility cannot be delivered without the sale of these sites to the College, not only for financial reasons (as the sale is required to fund the college) but also for planning policy and legal reasons (as Section 106 obligations will prevent the implementation of these two applications, if approved, unless the new college facility is going ahead).

This is rather a lot of pressure on Planning Committee to agree the application, particularly as Brent Council helped facilitate the deal.

The impact of the 18 and 31 storey building on the views from Wembley Park Station and Bridge Road is enormous. It will loom in front of the more distant views along Olympic Way to the stadium as well as from vehicles travelling between Wembley Central and Wembley Park.

 

 The problem will the piecemeal approval of the various Wembley Park applications is that the wider context is not always evident. For example the view below doesn't show the tower blocks under construction at Wembley Park station  along Brook Road, opposite the proposed buildings. In the illustration you can barely see the station itself.

 

The pink buildings in the illustrations are buildings in the pipeline for the approved Fulton Quarter. This the area behind the college building made up of the Stadium Retail Park, McDonalds and the Troubadour Theatre. LINK

The Fulton Quarter will provide 995 homes.

I have tried to show the overall impact by roughly placing the two towers in context below. The numbers refer to the number of storeys in each block.

 

 The viability assessment referred to in the officers' remarks is about how much affordable housing can be supplied and still give the developer a return. The officers make the figures at Wembley Park more palatable by combining the two ex-college sites:

The affordable units classed as intermediate by officers are shared ownership. Not affordable for most Brent residents and the Council itself is aware of the product's shortcomings. See LINK.
 

It is surprising given the magnitude of this application that the Brent Planning Portal LINK states only 6 comments have been received. The only comment actually shown is from Ilford:

I object to this planning application for these two buildings of 18 and 31 storeys in height for various social, environmental, public health and fire safety reasons. For example Wembley has now seen more than enough high density housing schemes in recent years that has put an overall strain on local social infrastructure. Also the townscape has been greatly changed which has had an inevitable effect upon local heritage around here too. This particular housing scheme is also being funded by a private building firm so therefore these flats are highly unlikely to be genuinely affordable to local residents. Fire safety has to be another major consideration in planning terms especially with the tower block fires that we have seen across Greater London in recent years as well.

The application for the Dudden Hill College Green CNWL site will also be heard at the Planning Committee next week, December 11th. I will review that later. LINK

 

Grunwick performance at CNWL April 19th - 'We are the Lions, Mr Manager'

           "Powerful story, powerfully told" 🌟🌟🌟🌟 ️️(The Observer)

There will be a performance of "We are the lions, Mr Manager", the critically acclaimed Townsend Productions play about the Grunwick strike, on Thurs 19 April at the College of North West London in Willesden.

If you want to be sure of a place please book your ticket asap as it will probably sell out

https://lineupnow.com/event/we-are-the-lions-mr-manager-4

Before the play begins there will be a guided viewing of the murals - meet at 6.30pm at Dollis Hill station (Chapter Road exit).

There are other tour dates here 

http://www.townsendproductions.org.uk

Support CNWL strikes to defend sacked UCU rep Indro Sen

From UCU London Region

Please support the London Region UCU Day of Action *this Wednesday 28th June*  to show solidarity with all those branches in the region who are in dispute.

Ø Support College of North West London – on strike *THIS WEDNESDAY* to Defend sacked UCU Rep Indro Sen!

Ø Support Lewisham and Southwark College – lunchtime protest *THIS WEDNESDAY* against massive job cuts!

Ø Support Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College - on strike *THIS THURSDAY* against redundancies!

What you can do:

·      Visit picket lines, send delegations and banners to branch protests

·      Send messages of support to CNWL: Colin.Purkey@cnwl.ac.uk,
 Lewisham & Southwark: Pascale.Herreman@lscollege.ac.uk and Ruth Fishman
Ruth.Fishman@lscollege.ac.uk, EHWLC:  Matthew Cookson m.cookson@wlc.ac.uk

College of North West London

  - You will recall Sen addressed the UCU congress and informed you then  that the Branch was then in the middle of an ERS ballot. We are happy to inform you that following a favourable ballot with 83% prepared to take strike action under the new draconian law, union has called our branch for two days strike action in support of Sen. This is despite our member  having to face uncertainties over their jobs due to the impending merger planned to take place on 1 August 2017, subject to ministerial approval.


  - We will be striking on Wednesday 28th  June 2017 and Saturday (enrolment day) 1 July 2017. The addresses for picket lines on the 28 June are College of North West London, Brent NW10 2XD ( nearest tube Dollis Hill  ( main campus) and at Wembley Park , HA9 8HP. For 1 July picket will only be at Willesden Campus.

  - This will be the third and fourth day of strike action that members  have been called on to take strike action in support of Sen. Members remain  resolute despite receiving threatening and intimidating letter from our Principal Andy Cole.

  - Following Sen's address to Congress, we would like to thank all those  Congress delegates who has supported our campaign by signing our petition and making donations at the conference which was over £500.

You can support us further by:

·        Signing the petition, which is now 1238  strong at : https://www.
change.org/p/college-of-north-west-london

·        Sending messages of Support to our branch Chair Colin Purkey, at:
Colin.Purkey@cnwl.ac.uk

·        Donations from your branches can be made at :
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/isabelle-rah-1

·        Sending messages of Protest to : the Principal,  Andy.Cole@cnwl.ac.uk and copying it to Sen at senkingsland@hotmail.com and Colin at Colin.Purkey@cnwl.ac.uk You may find some of the comments put down
by the petitioners useful in deciding what to write.

·        Hold lunch time demonstration in support of our fight and send us pictures that we can then pass on to our members.

·        Send delegates to our picket lines on the strike days to College of North West London Brent NW10 2XD and let Colin Purkey know if you can send a delegate on either of the days.

College fraud a test case for mergers scrutiny

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The Guardian in its recent editorial LINK on the Government's newly introduced Apprentice Levy stated:

The biggest flaw is that, like so many other government initiatives, this latest attempt to boost the number of apprenticeships could have been designed to be gamed. Experience has surely shown by now that setting a target, generating the cash, and launching the scheme before systems of monitoring and assessment are up and running is an open invitation for employers to cheat.

I can reveal that a KMPG report into the College fraud has exposed serious deficiencies in the so called tightened monitoring system LINK in place, and in my view, provided sufficient evidence backing up the Guardian Opinion of 17 April April 2017 

The KPMG report which focused on the apprenticeship training provided (or rather, it appears, not provided) by Keyrail LINK was limited in scope and provided 'for information purposes only', however, beneath the bland account's language, KPMG reveal some pretty devastating deficiencies: 

•   Despite assurances that due diligence had been performed and a contract given to Keyrail Training Solutions for signing KPMG had been unable to find the majority of due diligence paper work or a signed contract

•   An increase in approved apprentice numbers from 20 to 90  was not underpinned by documentation or risk assessment

•   Learner evidence was requested from Keyrail but was delayed or not completed meaning the the College failed to comply with Skills Funding Agency's funding rules regarding ongoing monitoring

•   The College did not have a formal policy regarding monitoring of subcontractors prior to July 2015.

•   Out of a total of learner 40 files reviewed KPMG considered all were ineligible for funding as there were multiple compliance issues, including no achievement evidence

•   Of the 79 apprentices for whom funding was claimed, only 7 were recognised by the employer with whom they were supposed to be placed, Specialised Engineering Services Limited (SES)

KPMG summarise by stating they did not see sufficient evidence to demonstrate that valid learning took place in relation to the Keyrail apprentices
 
The Report went on to observe the following risks:

The College’s current subcontractor procedures are insufficient to demonstrate            compliance with the SFA overall subcontracting requirements.

The College is unable to demonstrate compliance with the SFA overall subcontracting requirements.

The College is unable to demonstrate it complies with the SFA Selection and Procurement and Entering into a subcontract rules and requirements

The College has reduced assurance over the completeness and accuracy of enrolment documentation relating to subcontracted provision. This increases the potential for errors within the subcontracted population on the ILR not being identified. In turn, this could detrimentally affect the College’s funding claim should enrolment issues be identified by any external audit of the College’s ILR

The College is unable to demonstrate sufficient controls over the monitoring of apprenticeship subcontracted provision. The inability to determine the level of outstanding review/contact evidence for all apprenticeship subcontracted learners increases the risk of ‘gaps’ in a learners on-programme activity and therefore the risk of an incomplete and inaccurate ILR, resulting in a misstatement of the College’s funding claim. This will directly impact on the College’s decision making process over the determination of monthly payments to its subcontractors. 

 If a learner is not registered or incorrect registered, then the College is at risk of not being able to substantiate a learner achievement. This will impact on any achievement funding claimed, as well as success rates.

The College is unable to demonstrate it complies with the SFA Monitoring of Subcontractors rules and requirements, and has increased risk of data completeness and accuracy issues relating to subcontracted provision

The College is unable to demonstrate it complies with the SFA Fees and Charges rules and requirements

The College is unable to demonstrate it complies with the SFA Monitoring of Subcontractors rules and requirements.

In addition, as KMPG only had available documentation going back to March 2015, it made further comments as to the implication of what it found having looked at the available documentation. However, because of the lack of documentation it was unable make recommendations:

During the course of the substantive testing, a number of observations have been identified which are recorded below. No recommendations are made to the College as Keyrail ceased trading in May 2016. The documentation retained by the College in relation to Keyrail is considered as final as there is no scope for additional evidence to be provided.

1.     Where learners are enrolled onto apprenticeship programmes that do not meet the funding eligible rules and criteria, all funding claimed is deemed ineligible

2.     There is a risk that funding claimed and/or data held in the ILR cannot be substantiated to underlying records

3.    There is a risk that where no underlying records are retained, funding claimed is deemed ineligible

4.    Where underlying records are incomplete or potentially contradictory, there is a risk that the learners English and maths enrolments on the ILR cannot be substantiated

5.    There is a risk that the funding claimed is not supported by documentation signed by the learner.

6.    There is a risk that the funding claimed is not supported by underlying records

CNWL made total payments to Keyrail for what appears to be non existent apprenticeship training of £214,572. The College discovered in early summer 2016 that the company had been dissolved.

One learner in a College telephone interview in April 2016 put it succinctly:

The course no longer going on and this was all a scam. The staff forced to go in and do the course; if not they were sacked (sic). 

In a further twist, highlighting the growing concern over apprenticeship, UCU at its annual congress adopted a resolution calling for an apprenticeship charter LINK

The TES quoted Peter Monaghan, regional secretary of the UCU Eastern and Home Counties Committee:

Certainly I would support the fact that apprenticeships shouldn’t be at the expense of a wider, broader curriculum, most definitely...and also I would say the key to the success of apprenticeships in the future is our involvement, not employers’ involvement, our involvement as unionists and educators. 

In my view, the UCU Congress motion on Apprentice charter as well as Guardian leader comment, lends strong support to the UCU branch at the College who are calling for an independent public enquiry into the admitted subcontractor fraud LINK

Backing the unanimous decision of his branch members for an independent inquiry, Indro Sen, suspended Branch Secretary at CNWL, said.
 

When students are 10 minutes late, managers instruct the class teachers to monitor their attendance. When teachers do not cross the "t) and  dot the"i" in their marked work, they are monitored by their managers and some end up under capability procedures, but when a fraud as large as £356K can take place under the very nose of SFA auditors, borough police chief, Governors and senior management teams, who monitors their performance?

Only an independent public enquiry can get to the bottom of this. Can any students' life chances be said to be in safe hands unless each and every sub-contractor is thoroughly checked out on the Government declared Sub contractor list and those checks are made public for students to see what they are getting into. Until such time, Mr. Boles should consider putting the levy scheme into abeyance.

It is not known how SFA and the college have reacted  to this call for an independent public inquiry, however, it is clear the KMPG report itself is not such an inquiry.  It is to be hoped that CWC undertook due diligence prior to the merger decision.

Greening would be wise to delve a little deeper into the merger between College of North West London and City of Westminster, before rubber stamping it. LINK   If she did so, she would only be carrying out her boss, May's manifesto promise of greater scrutiny over mergers, a bit earlier and proactively. This related to commercial mergers but should also apply to corporations as they move closer to commercial models.