Brent Cyclists call on Brent Council to work with them to address road danger at Furness Road/Harrow Road junction after death of cyclist Michael Stapleton - Police appeal for help

 

Michael Stapleton, aged 62

Following the death of Michael Stapleton, aged 62, in collision with a lorry on Tuesday, Brent cyclists have issued the following statement. The driver of the lorry failed to stop but has since been contacted by police. LINK:

 

We are deeply saddened to hear about the fatal collision between a lorry driver and a cyclist, that occurred on Tuesday afternoon at the junction of Furness Road and Harrow Road, in Harlesden. Our heartfelt condolences go out to the family and friends of the cyclist who died at the scene.

 

This precise junction between Harrow Road and Furness Road was twice consulted on in the past two and a half years, in July 2018 and in January 2019. Brent Council’s proposals were presented as measures to reduce road danger. This was indeed a location identified by the council as having a “high number of accidents” and “high levels of recorded personal injuries”. This latest collision will be added to the grim tally of 9 traffic collisions already recorded at the junction in the past five years. 3 involved a pedestrian, 2 involved a pedal cyclist and 2 involved a motorcyclist.

 

In both our responses, we warned the council the measures fell far short of a comprehensive package to reduce road danger for road users who are the most at risk. Both times, we pointed out:

• 70% of serious injury or fatal collisions happen at or near junctions,

• This precise area has been identified by Transport for London as one of the top potential connection routes in the Strategic Cycle Analysis

• The proposed road layout would not eliminate left hooks which are a critical issue for people cycling and needed addressing.

• Nothing in the proposals to limit the risks of being cut when turning right, especially since Furness Road is on a slight incline, people cycling will be a bit slower to start off at a green light, whilst motorists accelerate.

• The Advanced Stop Line, even with improvements, would continue to offer next to no protection with regards to conflicts between cyclists and motor vehicles at the junction.
•  

We made several recommendations ranging from:

• Keeping enough of the central island to provide some physical separation on the junction and bypass it altogether.

• A short, shared space section on the mostly unfrequented pavement on Harrow Road.

• Introducing a phased traffic light to give cyclists a head start and limit mixing at the junction with moving motor traffic.
•  

None of these suggestions were acted upon. We know we cannot fully design out collisions but there is always scope to limit the consequences. This starts with designing a forgiving infrastructure that would act as a buffer to protect pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists from people driving dangerously, too fast and without due care.  

 

We now urge Brent Council to work with us and competently address road danger at this location as soon as possible and in full compliance with the latest regulatory guidance.

POLICE APPEAL

 

Police are appealing for information relating to a fatal hit and run in north London.

 

Police were called by the London Ambulance Service (LAS) at 16:07hrs on Tuesday, 16 March to reports of a lorry in collision with a cyclist on High Street at the junction with Furness Road, NW10.

 

Officers attended. Despite the efforts of the emergency services, the man was pronounced dead at the scene.

 

The man has been identified as 62-year-old Michael Stapleton of NW2. His next of kin have been informed.

 

The driver failed to stop. Officers have since made contact with the driver. No arrests have been made.

 

If anyone has any dashcam or CCTV footage, or witnessed the collision please contact police via 101 quoting reference Cad 4977/16Mar or the Serious Collision Investigation Unit witness line at Alperton on 020 8246 9820.

 

You can also email

 

Mutual Aid network in Kilburn comes to the aid of a tree scheduled for removal - and saves it!

Guest post by Dan Judelson

Local councils removing trees agains the wishes of residents is a hot button issue. Sheffield has doubtlessly been the worst example of this  LINK  but here in Brent plans to remove trees saw produced a well organised and eloquent defence of mature trees and opposition to their removal in Furness Road. The result was a commitment from the council to fashion a new approach with removal being a last resort LINK .

So when notices appeared last Friday (24th) on trees at either end of Algernon Road, Kilburn, warning that one was scheduled for removal the following Monday, it became a small scale test of this new policy. The good news is that thanks to local residents quickly raising the alarm, along with fast responses from local Brent councillors and officers alike, the decision has been reversed and the tree saved. How it happened is at least as important as the fact that it did happen.

(Photo courtesy Sophie Capel)

Like many other areas, Kilburn has set up a number of mutual aid groups, at both ward and hyper local street level. While the intention was to support neighbours in need during the lockdown to counter the Covid pandemic, it has of necessity meant that people not necessarily in direct contact with one another before now have the ability to communicate quickly when issues come up.

This is exactly what happened in this case. WhatsApp messages and tweets went out on Friday evening. Emails were sent to local councillors and officers that evening and over the weekend, protesting that the tree was not "dead” as the signs claimed. One councillor, Faduma Hassan, asked for her email address to be circulated so that residents could contact her and she could show the strength of opposition to the plans and contacted the lead member for environment. Others contacted residents in nearby streets - put in touch via the street level groups - who had some experience of dealing with the council over tree preservation. 

Monday morning rolled around and when one of the residents went to talk to the contractors who had arrived, they discovered that the council had indeed changed the work order. The trees at one end were to be pruned and a stay of execution of two weeks place on the tree scheduled for removal. Further good news came the following day, with an email from the council tree officer. Gary Rimmer said they now thought that the tree could be saved and would be pollarded, not removed. He included a welcome apology for the lack of notice too.

So this was a great result, with Brent being pushed to re-examine their plans and change them, in less than 48 hours. 

It would not have happened but for the ability to circulate information so fast, without excellent and timely responses from Councillor Hassan and Gary Rimmer, taking residents concerns seriously - and perhaps being aware of the pressure from previous incidents, thank you Furness Road campaigners and Harlesden Area Action for acting so fast back in November 2019. It’s also worth noting that in that instance too, the local councillor, Jumbo Chan was quick to back residents concerns LINK .

There are two concerns remaining, however. A new housing development, at the other end of Algernon Road is nearing completion. These photos show how many trees were removed to make way for it:

 

(Photos courtesy Stuart Fry)

When the building is completed, Brent needs to be held to its commitment to replace the lost trees with ones on the same spot or, in this case, nearby. Brent needs to acknowledge that replacing a mature tree, wide canopy and all, with a young sapling, is not really replacing anything at all. See LINK . 

Brent declared, rightly, a climate emergency. We need to make sure their actions on this are as serious as their warm words. It may well be that local mutual aid groups, set up to support isolated neighbours needing shopping and having prescriptions filled have a longer term role in the maintenance of local democracy, too.

Cllr Butt confirms his attendance at Brent Street Trees meeting on Wednesday January 15th

Cllr Butt, leader of Brent Council, has confirmed his attendance at the forthcoming meeting on Brent policy on trees. Since Furness Road LINK residents kicked off the campaign to save street trees from unnecessary removal requesting clearer information on criteria for removal, discussion on alternatives to removal, and early notice of the intention to fell, Groups and individuals from other areas of the borough have also been raising the issue including areas as distant from each other as Alperton, Kenton and Queens Park.

The meeting of residents, councillors and council officers will be held at Newman Catholic College, Harlesden Road, Willesden, NW10 3RN from 7pm - 8pm on Wednesday January 15th.

The recently formed group Brent Trees said:

Councillors and senior council officers have agreed to meet with local residents to discuss their policy on tree removal and pavement renewal. The recent campaign to save eleven condemned trees in Furness Road has been extremely successful and has resulted in the council reducing the number of condemned trees to just three. The purpose of the chaired and curated January meeting is to push for a fundamental change in the council's current policy on trees and pavement renewal (replacement of flagstones with asphalt across the borough) so that it complies with the climate change emergency that Brent council has itself declared.
 

Public meeting on Brent trees policy: January 15th Newman Catholic College

After the passion and rage of the recent outdoor meeting LINK about the Furness Road trees the community is coming together for a public meeting with Brent councillors and officers on the 15th January 2020 to discuss tree policy.

The meeting will be held at Newman Catholic College, Harlesden Road, Willesden, NW10 3RN from 7pm - 8pm.

Concerns about the felling of street trees is not an issue confined to Furness Road or even to Brent. These documents from Sheffield that emerged from mediation between the City Council, the contractor Amey and the Sheffield trees Action Group (STAG) may be of interest to those seeking a balanced solution.

Click bottom right corner for full page.

Furious residents confront Brent Council officials over tree removal and win some concessions

Chris Whtye, representing Brent Council, confessed that tonight's meeting outside Furness Primary School in Furness Road about the removal of 11 trees, was much bigger than he had anticipated. He was given the unenviable task of both giving the Council's case and responding to questions. Brent Council leader Cllr Muhammed Butt and Lead member for the Environment, stayed silent for the first part of the meeting, leaving Officers to take the brunt of the crowd's passionate criticism of Council policy on removing trees and asphalting of walkways.

Eleven trees were to be removed from Furness Road and Chris told the crowd that five would now stay after review, three would be removed because they were diseased, dead or dying and three would be removed because contractors could find no way of laying the new footway around them.

This did not satisfy the protesters and nor did a further concession that the trees would be replaced by semi-mature plantings rather than saplings. They pointed out the widely different contribution to reducing air pollution made by different sizes of trees and the carbon cost of fossil fuel based asphalt compared with replacing cracked paving. Officers pointed out their duty to protect pedestrians from tripping hazards and falling branches.

The Council were reminded of the battle over asphalting in Chandos Road and the removing of very old specimen trees in Old Paddington Cemetery.

 Cllr Butt, Leader of Brent Council, responds

The meeting did not so much conclude as tail off in a series of arguments with Muhammed Butt furious in certain exchanges. However a cool intervention by Cllr Jumbo Chan won a promise of a properly chaired meeting of residents and the Council in early-January.

It was hard to be absolutely certain in the chaos but I believe the Council undertook to carry out no work in Furness Road until the meeting has taken place.

Brent Council accused of mendacity over trees/paving policy

Salmon Street, NW9 - August 2019

 From an email sent to Brent Council:

RE: Brent Council Announces Climate Emergency And Then Chops Down All The Trees

Are you still insisting we hold a meeting outside in the dark today, at rush hour, before most residents have got home ?

I am unsure exactly what you propose to convey to us with your "brief discussion" in these conditions; we obviously will not be able to see the trees you mention.

Is it your intension to try to confine this discussion only to these remaining eleven trees on Furness Road ?

As you know the systematic destruction of Brent’s wonderful & varied stock of mature trees has been ongoing for a decade. 

Many of us have correspondence with the council going back several years regarding the tragic culling of mature and healthy trees outside our homes.

Amid repeated broken promises of them being replaced, line upon line have been erased from our streets. Furness Road has suffered terribly. And it continues.

We would like them back.

Who is sending these chainsaw gangs around the borough and why?

Similar action by another council in a recent case was described by Michael Gove (then Minister for the Environment) as “Ecological Vandalism’.

At an impromptu gathering outside Furness Rd School last Monday, a council representative claimed that it is Brent Council’s intention to replace ALL paving stones throughout the whole borough with asphalt.

Can you confirm if this is true ?

If so, what volume of asphalt in tonnage is likely to be purchased by the council ? 

I’m sure rough estimates by quantity-surveyors were calculated before such a decision was made.

What calculations regarding carbon offsetting, to cancel-out the use of such a large quantity of petroleum-based bitumen/asphalt have been completed ?

And, how does the felling of thousands, of mature trees help in this offsetting?

Clearly, in spite of recent claims by Brent Council, that they are in some way concerned with the environment, their actions (historic & ongoing), and recent decisions regarding pavements and canopy cover (without consultation) demonstrate the opposite. Indeed, it shows utter contempt.

This amounts to a public relations disaster for Brent Council & current MP, and yet further anger & frustration for the borough’s long-suffering residents.

Finally, I understand Krupa Seth will be attending today.

I do look forward to Counciller Sheth's answers to our previously unanswered questions and outstanding FOI requests sent to her under separate cover.

And a response to the above email from a resident with whom it was shared:

Thank you for an intelligent and insightful email which rightly centres on Brent Councils casual disregard for its tree stock and the profligate waste of money caused by this approach to pavement works, that is compounded by the damaging use of the extensive amounts of a fossil fuel derivative.

Brent Council has a corporate responsibility to reduce the amount of fossil fuel use in the borough – not increase it steadily.

This is for obvious reasons – obvious to everyone else, except the officers of Brent Council.

Brent is fortunate in that it appears to have many intelligent, engaged people who really do care about their borough and the way it is managed – it is deeply shameful that Brent Council continues with its ruinous pursuit of degrading the public realm facilitated by a Council that views its environmental responsibilities as a minor inconvenience.

I see again, the mendacious line trotted out again that a replacement sapling is in anywhere near a reasonable replacement of a mature tree as regards the large environmental benefits provided by a mature tree.

It will take decades for the replacement sapling to reach the same amounts of carbon sequestration, the production of oxygen, reduction in solar gain and the ecological benefits for wildlife.

Anyone with common sense can see the lunacy and ignorance of that statement – any honest arborist would tell you exactly the same thing. 

You would think it should be incumbent for the officers of Brent Council to be aware of this basic fact – this is not a difficult of overly complicated concept.

If not, they are either ignorant or incompetent or just plain dishonest.

This is a borough wide issue regardless of Brent Council's opinion and residents will continue to fight this environmental degradation everywhere in the borough.

Brave the rain to save the trees - Furness Road, 5pm tonight

Rainy Day With Umbrellas Painting by Natalja Picugina

It is not the best time for an outdoor meeting but residents are expected to gather outside Furness Primary School in Furness Road NW10 at 5pm tonight to meet Brent officers and councillors to try and find a solution to the issue of 11 trees in the street which the Council has scheduled for felling.

The trees on Furness Road from above

As word has got around the community people from elsewhere in Brent have also expressed concern about the fate of trees in their local area.  Pedestrian safety and insurance claims are set against concerns that healthy mature trees that contribute to combating pollution and enrich the urban scene are being lost.

Street meeting on Furness Road street tree removal Tuesday 26th November

After the uproar that arose when residents found out that Brent Council was about to remove 11 mature trees in Furness Road, five of which were outside the Furness Primary School playground, Brent Council has arranged a street meeting outside the school for 5pm on Tuesday 26th November.

The tree removal was postponed while the council reconsidered the issue.

The meeting will include local residents, Brent officers, ward councillors and the lead member for the environment Cllr Krupa Sheth.

People intending to attend should email chris.whyte@brent.gov.uk to confirm their attendance.

It is possible that the venue may be moved to somewhere more conducive to a discussion so please watch this space,

Council pauses work in Furness Road to re-assess the situation

A spokesperson for  Brent Council told Wembley Matters this afternoon that the Council had paused the work in Furness Road 'for now so that we can re-assess the situation.'

Earlier in answer to a request from Wembley Matters they gave the background to the issue:

“When a footway is selected for renewal based on a condition survey, we make an assessment of all the trees in that street to identify those that are either dead, diseased or dying, and so which can sensibly be replaced by a new tree as part of the work.

“It’s actually a means of taking advantage of the work in order to be proactive in the management and replacement of poor quality trees.

“There are also other factors that may need to be taken into account regarding these trees, not least if their roots are presenting a significant trip hazard that cannot be overcome or if their health is likely to be impacted negatively by the new footway work so that they perish soon after.

“Of those considered a safety risk, a further site assessment is carried out specifically to see if there may be a workaround so that we don’t take them out unnecessarily.   

“Whenever we decide we must remove a tree as part of these works, it’s always a case of one out and a new one. There is no net loss. We are very mindful of air quality and climate change considerations and the council is committed to a much wider programme of planting new trees all over Brent.

“There’s a balance to be struck. As the local highways authority, we do have a duty to provide safe footways for our residents, particularly for the elderly and for those with mobility issues.”

Brent Council defends removal of Furness Road trees

A spokesperson for Brent Council asked to comment on the proposed removal of eight mature trees in Furness Road , five of which are outside Furness Primary School, said this morning:

"These trees have been identified by our tree experts as poor quality that would need to be removed in the near future and so it makes sense to take advantage of the footway works and replace them at the same time. 

"It's our responsibility to maintain a healthy and safe tree stock across the borough and we replace every tree that is cut down so that there is no net loss."

Cllr Claudia Hector tweeted:

 The trees in Furness Road are going to be replaced. Brent has been planting more trees every year.

A different view was given by a resident who along with others had an impromptu meeting with a council officer at the site this morning:

Brent’s response is completely incorrect. I have just spent the last 2.5 hours with an officer of Brent looking at each of eleven trees that have been selected by Brent’s so-called experts for removal. All but one are healthy. The trees are removed either to make paving around them less difficult/costly, to avoid future subsidence claims, or because they are deemed to costly to maintain. This is a budget issue. Unfortunately environmental costs don’t feature in their cost: benefit analysis. Makes a mockery of their Climate Emergency Declaration. I do appreciate the officer having taken the time to explain his position today and reconsider which trees they will remove. He seems to be between a rock and a hard place.

Consternation over Brent Council's removal of 8 mature trees in Furness Road

Brent Council's consultation on climate change actions closes today (make a last minute submission HERE) and unfortunately it coincides with what appears to be an act of environmental vandalism by the Council.

Residents report that the Council is to remove 8 mature trees on Furness Road, Harlesden, 5 of which are outside Furness Primary School.

Apparently the removal is due to a 'pavement renewal project'  which suggests confusion over priorities when the Council recently declared a Climate Emergency.

Elsewhere local authorities are recognising the importance of trees in combatting air pollution and climate change and some are encouraging schools to plant trees in their grounds and on the playground perimeter.

This is the response one resident got from Cllr Krupa Sheth, lead member for the environment:

 I nor the council want to remove trees unless they absolutely need to be removed. Yes if there are issues where we would be liable for insurance claims then we do have to remove the trees as the insurance pay outs worth thousand of pounds from the council’s already diminishing budget would not be the wisest choice for the residents nor the council.

We do our best to look after and preserve our trees and are constantly looking for funding including Brent’s CIL funding to plant more trees as well.

Cllr Sheth said that she would get back to the resident but nothing further has been heard. Meanwhile the removal signs have gone up.

The removal of the trees is due to start tomorrow - is there time for a last minute attempt at saving them?