Residents issue plea to Preston Ward councillors on Stadium planning application

Dear Cllrs Jean (Hossain), Matthew (Bradley) and Patricia (Harrison)

Please may we ask that you help us Preston ward residents (and residents and business friends across Brent). We really need your help.

You helped us in 2015 when we were faced with the London Welsh School's planning application to occupy the Bowls Pavilion in King Eddie's Park. (Very pleased to be able to inform you that we are in negotiations with Brent Council to finally finalise lease of this for much needed community space).

We have read the 44pg planning committee report and there is nothing to safeguard us Brent residents and local businesses. The document states "atmosphere" as being a key reason why Tottenham Hotspurs do not want less than 90,000 seats. This is not a material planning consideration. The works to the stadium access corridor have only partially been completed and we've been informed that the Council has spent all the £18million originally assigned to that. The report notes there will be no improvements to our road network during the period of this proposed temporary variation of condition. The Environmental Statement is far from robust.

We understand that works will commence at the Chesterfield House site likely end of this month. This 26 storey development will put added strain on an already congested Park Lane and High Road for the next few years. Without supporting infrastructure improvements, the high rise high density developments being granted permission are already and will further affect our road network; Impeding on our quality of life.

Cllr Jean - you and Cllr Sam attended the planning committee for the Chesterfield House site last year. The applicant sought to assign a huge portion of s106 monies to our King Eddie's Park, yet half our park was fenced off for over a year. A recent site visit showed the grass to be water logged. Quite simply we are not seeing the monies being spent on our Wembley resident needs. Friends of King Eddies Park  sent a series of emails to Parks and Regen, over many months, which I will forward on to you. Parks and Regen were very helpful, but it is alarming that it took such a lengthy period of time to complete the parks works. Whilst site visits to Barn Hill Park, Fryent Park, Gladstone Park and Woodcock Park show beautifully maintained public green spaces. Why is our King Eddie's park not in an equal state of kemptness?

Granting permission of this planning application would impede the quality of life of a wide reaching radius of Brent residents and local businesses. Our friends on Preston Road as well as Wembley High Road Business Association note that they also lose trade on Event Days.

There are known issues of anti-social behaviour, litter, alcohol consumption despite the whole of Wembley being a no alcohol zone. Our petition notes that "there were proven irregularities towards the implementation of effective control of traffic leaving the stadium by appointed CSP personnel causing heavier flows of vehicles within the vicinity, causing increased pollution and lessening quality of life. Observed drinking, urinating and defecating on residential streets, not only within Wembley but broader location."

Whilst we appreciate the many benefits our National Stadium affords us, Brent Council has a responsibility and duty of care to it's residents which it needs to safeguard. The committee report simply does not do this.

We, the little people, need your support. Please can you help us?

With kind regards
Denise
on behalf of Wembley Champions

Denise Cheong
Wembley Champions

Discovering local democracy on-line, the Brent Council way

Guest blog by Philip Grant
 

Although Martin has shared his experience of Monday evening’s Brent Council meeting with you in his blog on “The death of Brent Council”, I am writing to share some personal thoughts, and images, of following part of the same meeting on-line.

At 6.50pm that evening I went onto Brent Council's website to watch the Full Council meeting, so that I could see and hear what (if anything) Cllr. Butt had to say about the Employment Appeal Tribunal's decision to reject the Council's appeal in the Rosemarie Clarke case, and hoping that he would finally make a public apology to Rosemarie, on behalf of Brent, for the harm she had suffered at the hands of Cara Davani and other senior Council officers. I was in for a disappointment, as the “Live Streaming” web page showed:

I have never followed social media before, but it seemed that #BrentLive was my only option, so I spent the next half-hour or more watching a column at the right hand side of the screen. The first tweet to appear was from Cllr. Matthew Kelcher (one of the new Labour intake in May 2014), just before the meeting began, to say that he might be making his maiden speech. Thereafter a slow succession of #BrentLive tweets, all apparently from people at the meeting, began to scroll down the column. 

The on screen details said that councillors would ‘be able to reply to tweets’, but it appeared that Cllr. Kelcher had a whole list of tweets ready to issue, each one praising a positive story announced by the successive Cabinet Lead Members who presented their reports to Council. Cllr. Roxanne Mashari even re-tweeted his comment on her positive story! 

One “tweeter” at the meeting commented that although many councillors appeared to be busy on their tablet ‘phones, very few of them seemed to be involved in posting tweets on #BrentLive. An exchange of tweets with another “tweeter” wondered whether they were sending DM’s to each other (perhaps someone will add a comment to let me know what a DM is!). The other replied that they might be playing Candy Crush, which I think is probably a reference to the actions of a Westminster MP, but again I am ignorant of such social media or on-line games terms.

 

Not all “tweeters” were convinced by the views put out on social media by Cllr. Kelcher, especially when it came to the report by the Leader, Cllr. Muhammed Butt. With all of the # and @ references in Matthew Kelcher’s tweets, I got the impression that he must have prepared them in advance, but perhaps he really is a social media whizz-kid (as opposed to my social media dinosaur), and can compose them far more quickly than I can write emails. 

 

Pukkah Punjabi showed that she is not just an anti-Labour “tweeter”, with her comments about the response from the opposition Conservatives. I seem to remember something about a cure for insomnia.

By this time I was finding #BrentLive a bit slow, without the live pictures and sound from the Council Chamber to let me hear exactly what my elected representatives were saying about important issues. Perhaps it would have been better if I had made the effort to be there in person. But then again, perhaps not, if the final tweet I read was a fair reflection of proceedings.

And I never did find out if Cllr. Kelcher made his maiden speech.

Philip Grant

DM equals Direct Message. Tweeters who follow each other can send each other private direct messages.