Closure Order sought for Kilburn Job Centre building

 

 The Closure Notice fixed to the Job Centre building

 

An application for a closure order on the former Kilburn Centre at 3 Cambridge Order was being made at Willesden Magistrates Court this morning.

This follows the fire at the premises where alleged squatters had to be rescued by local people from the flames. LINK

 

 

What is a closure order/notice?

A police officer of at least the rank of Inspector (for 24 hours, Superintendent for 48 hours), or the local authority, may issue a closure notice if satisfied on reasonable grounds that the use of the particular premises has resulted or is likely soon to result in nuisance to members of the public, or that there has been or is likely soon to be disorder near those premises associated with the use of those premises, and that the notice is necessary to prevent the nuisance or disorder from continuing, recurring or occurring.

A closure notice prohibits access to the premises for a period specified in the notice and may prohibit access by all persons except those specified, at all times and in all circumstances (or those specified). A closure notice MUST be issued before a closure order can be sought.

How is an application made?

Whenever a closure notice is issued an application can be made to a magistrates’ court for a closure order. This can be done by the police or the local authority and must be heard by the magistrates’ court no later than 48 hours after service of the closure notice. A closure order can be for up to three months.

'We rescued a dozen people from the Kilburn Job Centre fire.' claim locals. Premises still wide open to intruders.

 

A gaping hole in the Job Centre wall at 4.30pm today

 

I went to  site of the fire at the disused Kilburn Job Centre this afternoon and found the Cambridge Avenue side of the building open to the elements - and any intruders. It was burnt out except for a table and the twisted metal guards that had been torn down.

A security guard hung around while I was taking photographs and I was approached by an onlooker, Jamie.

Jamie told me that he and his friends Ezra and DJ had seen the building was on fire and rushed in to get people out. He had given their names to a newspaper reporter but their account had not been published:

'We didn't stop to think we just ran ino the building. There were six people on the ground floor, four on the first floor, and two at the top.  They didn't hang around, they just scarpered, because it's arson isn't it?  By the time the para medics came they were mostly gone.

My throat hurt from the smoke. My mate told me that I should have got a wet towel and wrapped it around my face but we acted on impulse -  I wasn't going to waste time my searching for a towel and water, was I?'

The hole is just yards from the bus stop and passengers stopped to look when they alighted. It is quite a sight:

At the back of the building, in Coventry Close, it appears that work has been done to keep out intruders and squatters, although doesn't make much sense when Cambridge Avenue is wide open. Perhaps the contractor did not know about the other entrance...

 

Attempts at securing the building

Abandoned belongings indicate a hasty exit

The side of the building (above) looks less secure as does what appears to be a first floor balcony (below)

 

Having  escaped what could have been fatalities in the fire, though not responsible for the building, I understand that Brent Council is now contacting the owners with more energy than hitherto. They had been warned several times by residents over many years.

I hope the Council thanks Jamie, Ezra and DJ.

Kilburn Job Centre Fire: A stitch in time, Brent?

 

Guest post by Pete Firmin

 

On the afternoon of Friday 17^th, much of South Kilburn was in gridlock. Buses were backed up in Cambridge Avenue, without either passengers or drivers, and pedestrians were wandering around trying to work out how they could get anywhere. Kilburn High Road was blocked off from both Cambridge Avenue and Coventry Close by vehicle or foot.

 

The cause? A massive fire in the ex-Job centre on Cambridge Avenue (rear entrance Coventry Close). According to the Kilburn Times LINK 10 fire engines and 70 firefighters attended. Eye witnesses report seeing people jumping from windows to escape the fire (with one person seriously injured), and the police officer guarding the site (still, on Sunday,) telling me that there had been arrests.

 

This was not the first time the fire brigade has had to turn out to fires in that building, this was at least the 3rd time in a few months."

 

The ex-Job Centre has been closed and empty since March 2018. There have been rumours of it being taken over by a religious organisation and a failed planning application to turn it into housing, but locals haven’t seen any sign of development. A Kilburn Councillor was told that the owners ripped out all toilets when it closed to prevent occupation. Owner is Rossmore Properties, based in the City of London.

 

The building has been squatted many times since it closed, with some evicted as early as July 2018 LINK. 

 

But in the last few years the owners seem to have done little to prevent squatting – while access points have occasionally been blocked off, others have been created, to the extent that now a large part of a wall at the side of the building has been removed to create a new entrance.

 

The squatting has escalated in the last year or so, alongside a serious increase in squatting across South Kilburn, much of it in blocks that Brent Council has left semi-derelict as its regeneration stalls. It is thought that much of that is organised by criminal gangs, who then offer homes (at what price?) to the homeless. It is not just unoccupied flats with have been subject to this, and not just in blocks of flats which are part of Brent’s regeneration.

 

This writer has no objection to people squatting (truly) empty buildings at a time when homelessness is increasing and London rents are beyond many peoples reasonable scope. The problem in South Kilburn is that much of the squatting has been associated with theft and terrorising residents.

 

Rubbish accumulation

 

Neither Brent Council nor the Department for Works and Pensions (DWP) (the previous occupants of the building) have any responsibility for the ex-Job Centre. However, Brent has known about the problems there for many years, and not just the squatting. For years residents have repeatedly reported the accumulation of rubbish next to the rear entrance. While Brent -rightly – says it is not responsible for clearing that rubbish since it is on private land, it has also refused to take action to force the owners to act. We have been told that “it is too difficult”. Yet now we see where Brent’s refusal to act has led – a massive use of resources by the London Fire Brigade and disruption to local residents.

 

Brent, under pressure from residents and quite probably the Fire Brigade, must now force the owners to act.

 

 Editor's Note

A little digging reveals two companies under the Rossmore Properties title. Rossmore Properties Ltd with net total assets of £3.4m and Rossmore Properties (Kilburn) Ltd  with rather less!

Dilip Amin is the sole director of both with a resigned officer at Rossmore Properties (Kilburn) Ltd and a total of 5 resignations at the main company.

Things get more complicated with NSS Trustees acting as  a Lender to the main company, the owner of the Job Centre, 3 Cambridge Avenue, NW6 5AH

The owner continues to have obligations including keeping the property in good condition (5.5):

Perhaps now that lives have been put in danger in the property, Brent Council will bite the bullet and take action.

Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group protest over Kilburn and Neasden Job Centre closures

 Video by Shootroot LINK

The Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group (KUWG) demonstrated outside the Department of Work and Pensions on Monday against the closure of Job Centres including local ones in Kilburn and Neasden.

KUWG said:

 Our local Jobcentres, Kilburn and Neasden, serve one of the most deprived areas in the country. If they are closed then over half of the borough of Camden and around two thirds of Brent will be more than half a mile from the nearest jobcentre, i.e. more than a mile round trip. These areas contain heavily populated areas: a lot of people are going to be affected.

In amongst the people who can't use the internet are hundreds of thousands of people who have lost their disability benefit because they aren't disabled enough for the Tories. They may be able to walk just 200 metres, or sometimes panic when out and get lost, or nor be able to plan a journey to places they don’t know, or have epilepsy. They may be seriously depressed or suffering from brain fog brought on by medication or illnesses like Fibromyalgia. They may be recovering from cancer or waiting for a heart operation. They may have variable conditions that mean that they can't guarantee being able to go out at all on any particular day.