New secondary school for Willesden

Chancel House

Gail Tolley, Director of Children and Young People's Service in Brent, confirmed yesterday that a new 6 forms of entry secondary school will be built on the site of Chancel House, Neasden Lane. It will be a free school with Wembley High Technology College, an academy, as its sponsor.

Originally it was intended to refurbish the redundant DWP building, Chancel House (above) to accommodate the school but the Education Funding Agency (EFA) decided demolition and new build was preferable.

A new secondary school south of the North Circular Road has long been a demand from  residents in Willesden, Harlesden and Church End following the closure of Sladebrook High School. Neasden High School,also closed, was just on the other side of the North Circular, on that section of Neasden Lane.  Parents made the case for a school which will be at the heart of the local community. Brent Council decided not to go ahead with a possible secondary school on the Bridge Park-Unisys site as part of the regeneration. The school has the project name of North Brent School LINK but this will obviously be revised.

Interestingly Gail Tolley said that the site had been considered by the EFA for the ill-fated (and expensive to the public) Gladstone Free School. LINK

Neasden Lane suffers from poor air quality some quite heavy truck truck movements. LINK

As the primary 'bulge' moves through into secondary schools more places will be needed and the local authority is working with  academies regarding expansion. As academies they are independent of the local authority and cannot be forced to expand.

There is of course some uncertainty over the future of Brent's European families regarding Brexit and this will need to be taken into account in school places planning.

The EFA has also approved a Free Special School to be set up by the Brent Special Academy Trust on a site in the Avenue and has again opted for demolition of the existing building and building of a new school.  At present many children are transported outside the borough due to the lack of special provision in Brent.

Responding to the plateau in reception primary school applications and vacancies in some school the Ark Somerville Primary, which will be built on the car park of York House, has been reduced to 2 forms of entry. LINK

Your neighbourhood turned upside down? Have your say on new Brent Local Plan

Brent Council has opened cosultation on the Brent Local Plan Preferred Options. It is a highly detailed document detailing possible developments  in Brent divided into stages of 0-5 years, 5-10 years and more than 10 years.

The borough is divided into 7 'places' (Central, North, North West, South, South East, South West). The main growth areas with far-reaching proposals are in Central (Wembley Central and Wembley Park). South East (Cricklewood, Willesden Green, Kilburn, South Kilburn) and North West (Kenton, Preston and Northwick Park).

Wherever you live in Brent you may be surprised that redevelopment of familiar buildings or areas is on the agenda. For example in Central (Wembley) ASDA, Kwikfit and The Torch pub on the corner of Forty Lane and Bridhe Road are included. Both sites of the College of North West London in Wembley Park and Dudden Hill will be freed up by a move to a new building in Wembley. Along with the college in Wembley Park the shopping centre next door (Curry's etc) and McDonalds are due for redevelopment. In South Kilburn the sites of Carlton Vale Primary and Kilburn Park Primary will be up for development if the schools move to a new site as well as all the planned redevelopment of the remaining blocks on the estate.

The document gives a list of developments that are on stream as well as possibilities. This is a list of residential developments in Wembley Park already given planning permission.

Northwick Park (above) is the main development site in North West Place:

There is potential for some tall buildings, subject to being a high quality design. These should respond to the height of the existing hospital buildings, stepping down towards the MOL (Metropolitan Open Land) and areas to the north. The appropriate height, extent and location of buildings will be identified within a masterplan for the site. Consideration will need to be given to the site’s location next to MOL to ensure that there is no inappropriate impact on its setting. Part of the site also falls within the Ministry of Defence (MOD) safeguarding zone for RAF Northolt, in which the MOD will need to be consulted if development is over a certain height
– 15.2m for development that occurs within the boundaries of the University of Westminster Campus and the majority of the hospital campus, and 45.7m for the hospitals eastern car parks and residential accommodation.

Furthermore, there is an area of green space located to the rear of the student accommodation, which has an open space designation. Whilst it might be appropriate through the masterplanning and development process to relocate or disaggregate this open space, overall no net loss will be acceptable. This will be in addition to satisfying the urban greening requirements and providing sufficient children’s play space, in line with London Plan policies G5 and S4. Running adjacent to the site’s southern boundary is the Capital Ring. Development should not impact upon the functionality of the Capital Ring, and should seek its enhancement wherever possible.

Interestingly Chancel House, the former DWP building in Neasden Lane, is ear-marked for a 6 form entry secondary school and college.  As the local authority is not allowed to provide new schools this will be a free school unless a Labour government, committed to not creating any new academies or free schools (policy is not absolutely clear), is elected.

I do urge readers to look at the document in full because it is impossible to cover all the details in this article. These are proposals that will transform your neighbourhood over the next 10 years.

Consultation events (Booking required unless drop-in)
 

Venue	Date
Brent Civic Centre, Engineer’s Way, Wembley, HA9 0FJ	Tuesday 20 November, 7pm-9pm
Bridge Park Leisure Centre, Harrow Road, NW10 0RG	Thursday 29 November, 6.30pm-8.30pm
Kingsbury School, Princes Avenue, NW9 9JR	Wednesday 5 December, 6.30pm-8.30pm
Willesden Green Library, 95 High Road, Willesden Green, NW10 2SF	Thursday 13 December, 6.30pm-8.30pm

Drop-in Session

Venue	Date
Granville Centre, 140 Carlton Vale, , NW6 5HE	Monday 26 November 2018, 12noon-4pm
Brent Civic Centre, Engineer’s Way, Wembley, HA9 0FJ	Tuesday 4 December, 11am-3pm
Ealing Road Library, Coronet Parade, Ealing Road, Wembley, HA0 4BA	Monday 17 December, 4pm-8pm
Kingsbury Temple, Kingsbury Road, London, NW9 8AQ	Wednesday 19 December, 4pm-8pm

The quickest way of giving your comments is by completing the online survey. HERE
Alternatively you can email us or send Brent Council your comments by post by using the addresses below. When responding by e-mail or post, please use the Local Plan Consultation Response Form (.docx, 19.4kB) and set out clearly the page number, paragraph, policy, figure or image your comment relates to.

Email: planningstrategy@brent.gov.uk

Post: Paul Lewin, Team Leader Planning Policy, Brent Council, Engineers’ Way, Wembley, HA9 0FJ
The deadline for responses is 5pm on Thursday 3 January 2019.

 Full Option document. Click on bottom right corner for full size version.