Residents not happy with Brent Council's response to complaint about Ealing Road Library consultation process

Brent Council has responded to residents' complaints about the lack of consultation on the plans for the Ealing Road Library site. LINK

They have put up a second site notice which they claim should be more visible to passers by and a set of plans have been left in the library.

The planning application is due to go to the Planning Committee on December 14th and the Council have said that comments receievd up tp the day before the meeting will be taken int account when the decision is made.  The Council say that this gives more than 21 days for people to comment but advise that comments should be submitted as early as possible.

Furthermore they say that, within the normal rules, members iof the public can apply to speak at the Planning Committee meeting.

A resident has responded,

Thank you for confirming this though I believe Brent Council have a ‘duty of care’ to properly and fairly consult local residents so I’m afraid I do not think your response is really acceptable.

Can you please confirm that you will be altering the planning notice(s) to advise that comments can be made up until 13th December with the name and address of who residents can write to in Brent Council’s Planning Department if they do not have internet access?

Can you please confirm that you will be fully publicising this planning application to local residents by leafleting all houses in the roads surrounding Ealing Road Library (Ealing Road, Lyon Park Avenue, The Close, Union Road, Park Road, Copland Road, Station Grove, Montrose Crescent, Chaplin Road, Swinderby Road, Ranelagh Road) with the relevant information and confirming in those leaflets that residents can view plans at Ealing Road Library and that they have until 13th December to comment, again with the name and address of who they should write to in Brent Council’s Planning Department if they do not have internet access?

This is a major alteration to our area and we deserve to be properly consulted and with full details of how to respond - some properties in Park Road, Lyon Park Avenue and Union Road back onto the library/or are adjacent to the side boundary of the library and will potentially be most affected by noise pollution from a ‘performance space’ or an ‘outdoor cinema’ yet they have not received letters re the consultation for this development.

Any development of the Ealing Road Library space should have been drawn up in full conjunction with neighbouring residents before detailed planning applications were submitted.   The Brent Council planning department used to advise that you talked to your neighbours before applying for any planning permission to try and iron out any issues/disagreements beforehand yet local council tax-paying residents have heard nothing from their council re this matter.

So that we can fully consider the pros and cons of this planning application can you please advise what exact plans have been drafted by Brent Council for easing traffic congestion in Ealing Road, which is usually grid locked both ways at the weekend, and where all the extra visitors you want to attract to Ealing Road going to park?  Shoppers coming to buy in bulk, buy gold or buy expensive clothing will want to come by car, they will not want to come by bus or train, yet the larger Montrose Crescent Car Park is being closed to build flats and you plan to close the small Ealing Road library car park and also remove around 10 parking bays from the street/slip road outside the library?

Whether residents are in favour or against this plan a proper consultation needs to be carried out and further information re the traffic issues and parking problems needs to be supplied.

Residents call for wider and extended consultation on controversial Ealing Road Library plans

Ealing Road Library (centre) set back from Ealing Road

Residents around Ealing Road Library, Wembley, are calling for the consultation plans on the development of the Ealing Road Library site in Ealing Road to be extended on the grounds that few residents knew about the plans and the very limited circulation of letters asking for views on the plans.  In addition the notice of the planning  application posted near the library was obscured.

 The plans envisage bringing forward the boundary of the library to the pavement edge by building a community enterprise hub on one side and a 'tea house' cafe on the other  with a courtyard between the two that could be used for community events, a market or an outdoor cinema.

According to the application the aim is to bring more outside visitors into an area that residents advise is already congested.

As with many such developments residents feel that the application has been hidden from them and now that they have found out about it there is too little time to respond. They question whether the Council has fulfilled its statutory responsibilities in terms of consultation.

One of the application documents found on-line states:

The investment will deliver a new cafe, a new public space and a community and enterprise hub which will be used for gathering, extended library activities, performance, market days and other events that will attract local and London wide visitors.  The project is the first element in the wider series of Gem Chain projects which aim to attract visitors London-wide to Ealing Road and reinstate the place’s status as a premier high street place.

 Local residents concerns  are as follows:

The poorly promoted consultation with poorly sited planning notice dated 27th October which states deadline for comments on the application is 17th November - just three weeks?  Also the planning notice states docs would only available to view on line from 2nd November – so not even the full three weeks to study the docs and comment if you are able to access them on line, a lot of older residents are not?  Why such a short amount of time for local people to comment? When pushed the library finally had hard copies to view on from 11th November, over two weeks already into the consultation period.

Developing the library space and re-promoting Ealing Road as a major shopping destination could have a further serious impact on the environment for local residents who are concerned about the potential of even more traffic in grid locked Ealing Road, more pollution, more noise pollution and more rubbish on local streets.  Ealing Road is already gridlocked most weekends.  If shoppers are coming to buy in bulk or buy gold or buy expensive clothes they will want to come by car – they will not want to come by bus or tube!  Yet Montrose Crescent car park is being closed to build flats, so if they also close the small library car park and also loose around 10 spaces from the slip road outside the library due to the forecourt being extended what other parking provision is going to be offered – will they take away resident only parking bays and allow shoppers to use them?

These plans have clearly been drawn up and put together over a considerable period of time and considerable expense with no apparent consideration for these issues and their impact on local council tax-paying residents who believe the consultation needs to be re-promoted and the deadline for comments extended:

(a)       there are lot of local people who would not have seen the planning notice due to the poor location of the planning notice;
(b)      there are lot of local people who would not have heard anything about this development due to lack of information locally;
(c)       there are lot of local people who do not have Internet access to view the plans on line - if they do go to the library to view them on-line it is very time consuming to try and look through the 42 individual documents on your website, these should be printed out and put on display in Ealing Road Library;
(d)      there are lot of local people who are not able to get up to the Civic Centre to view the plans at all (lack of mobility, traffic problems, parking restrictions, etc);
(e)       there are lot of local people who are not able to get to the Civic Centre to view the plans between 9-5pm during weekdays (people who work, have childcare or family commitments etc);
(f)       some local residents don’t even know how to use a computer yet there is no address on the planning notice for people to write to should they wish to comment on the application.

The Planning Application(Ref 16/4527) can be found HERE

This is one of the main documents supporting the application:

Click bottom right for full view

Brent allotment holders encouraged to go green as sites with short waiting lists advertised

Birchen Grove allotments near the Welsh Harp

It is good to see Vanessa Hampton, Brent Food Growing and Allotments Officer, taking action to encourage greener gardening by allotment tenants.  This was sent to allotment holders today:

Earlier this year I ran a couple of free cultivation classes which were attended by approx. 50 people.  So back by popular demand I’ve organised another 2 classes which any tenant is welcome to come along to.  The classes are identical, so you don’t need to go to both.

We will be covering useful topics for beginners on the allotments looking at tools and how to get your plot cleared and dug over, composting and how to garden more sustainably, reducing the use of chemicals on a plot.

The classes start at 10.30am and there will be a poster on the gate showing where I am on site if you can’t see me from the entrance. The class will last for approx. 2 hours and I have enclosed a useful information sheet that covers some of the subjects we’ll go over in the class.

Saturday 29 November at Gladstone Park Gardens allotment, Dollis Hill, Broadfield Close entrance, NW2 6NR  Map and travel info   There is a car park at this allotment.

Saturday 10 January 2014 at Woodfield Avenue allotment, North Wembley, HA0 3TP  Map and travel info   The entrance to the allotment and car park is in the park: go down Sudbury Avenue, take the first turn on the right into the park and you will see a building, North Wembley pavilion and the car park opposite where the gate to allotment is. 

I will also be contacting every tenant in December to invite them to complete a short questionnaire about their gardening methods with a view to finding out how green are our plot holders, for example do you have a water butt if you have a shed and how often do you use pesticides?  We will then re-survey everyone in a year’s time to see if people are getting greener.

I am also producing a Conservation Management Plan for the allotments and the aim will be to improve the places for wildlife at every site.  This will involve some fun habitat improvement activities like making log piles and ponds, building bird boxes and managing hedgerows.  If you are interested in joining in with a habitat improvement activity on your allotment site, please let me know.

Meanwhile the Council is advertising some potential plots on its website:

If you fancy your hand at food growing, some of our allotments have short waiting lists where you can be offered a plot within a year or so.

The short waiting lists are at:

• Cecil Avenue, Wembley, HA9 7DY
• Dors Close, Kingsbury, NW9 7NT
• Kinch Grove, Kenton, HA9 9TF
• Lyon Park Avenue, Wembley, HA0 4DZ
• Sudbury Court Road, Harrow, HA1 3SD

Allotments are a great way of growing good quality and fresh fruit and vegetables for your family and friends at a low cost.

Apply online for an allotment plot or call 020 8937 5619.