Granville New Homes, Merle Court, Bourne Place - an account of South Kilburn's new build disasters. Who will take responsibility?

 

A section of Higgins Partnership's Granville New Homes

I returned to South Kilburn last week in order to update Wembley Matters on the progress of this massive development.

Granville New Homes are not called that by its residents, who just use their addresses, but the occupants  have found themselves in a very fraught situation. Brent Council have so far offered no option for residents  be decanted elsewhere when the £18.5m remediation works start.  Even if they wanted to be decanted  it is unclear whether any spare capacity is available.

There is the possiblity that a much needed Tenants and Residents Association will be formed to represent their interests and one of its main tasks should be to ask Brent Council to finance independent legal advice for them.

Ironically, Higgins Partnership who built the defective homes, were chosen by Catalyst Housing to remediate defects in Merle Court (built as a 2012 partnership between Wilmott Dixon, Catalyst  and Brent Council) just around the corner.  Problems were so bad that Catalyst tenants were told that they would be rehoused. LINK I am currently seeking clarification from Catalyst whether this in fact happened. It certainly doesn't look fit to live in at present.

 

Scaffolding around Merle Court

 

Not far away Higgins pop up again at the Chippenham Gardens development (where potential flooding has been highlighted by David Walton HERE)

 

Higgins' Chippenham Gardens build

 

Lastly as far as Higgins goes (well probably not!)  but on the other side of the borough, Brent Council chose them for a £22m contract to build homes and a retail unit on the Hillside/Milton Avenue site in Stonebridge. This is Brent Council and Higgins celebrating the start of the project just under a year ago.

 

It is no wonder that Cllr Southwood, rather anxiously,  sought assurances at this week's Brent Cabinet meeting on the quality of build at the Alperton Bus Garage development where the Council are purchasing the leasehold on 155 housing units.

On to another housing association, L&Q Homes, where their Bourne Place has been a disaster area, highlighted often by campaigners on social media. This 2013 build was a partnership between L&Q and Brent Council and is beset with cladding and heating problems. When the defects emerged Brent Council and L&Q clashed over who was responsible ,with the leaseholders caught in the middle. LINK

The PR plug in the Evening Standard refers to a 'once notorious estate' - it is now becoming notorious for housing scandals!

The contrast between what I found on the ground and the image above could not be more stark:

Bourne Place - temporary heating pipes snake across the ground and above the ground

Temporary heating centre

A resident of Bourne Place told me:

Our entire system failed due to  both plant room issues and burst pipes underground. So L&Q had to hire the temporary heating centre placed in the garden and build temporary pipes into buildings. It has been like this since February. The first stage was to fix the plant room, our own boilers and pump. I believe this is now completed. The  temporary centre will be removed and pipes will need to be adjusted to lead from our plant room into the buildings. The last stage will be to dig out the grounds and replace all underground pipes to connect all 3 buildings again to the repaired plant room via underground pipes. Then these temporary pipes will be removed. It's still long way from completion due to all sorts of delays, some to do with customs and delivery issues from Europe.

 

South Kilburn residents have had to resign themselves to several decades of building works but rely on the 'Considerate Builders' to actually mean what they say.

The building of the HS2 vent next to flats and a primary school was opposed by residents but went ahead with the support of Brent Council who want to build on the initial site next to Queens Park station. A resident told me about being awoken by HS2 works  at 4am in the morning and noise at other unsocial hours.

More disruption is promised by HS2's rather belated investigation of the drainage system at the site - perhaps recognition of potential flood dangers. The HS2 track will run beneath the South Kilburn estate...

 

HS2 Works Entrance

 

Vent works

It is perhaps not surprising that some residents are now looking with an element of nostalgia at the blocks waiting to be demolished. 

The South Kilburn Skyline

Some mistake, surely? Brent Council wins planning awards while complaints about housing escalate

Chase House, South Kilburn

Guest post by Pete Firmin, South Kilburn Estate resident

Legend has it that emperor Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Brent Council leadership seem to be staging a modern re-enactment when, while receiving baubles for its planning team, it turns a blind eye to reports of the poor standard of housing being built.

The Council website proudly proclaims LINK 

Brent scoops planning award 

A UK planning industry award was handed to Brent council's planning team yesterday (24 April) in recognition of the projects and plans and commitments made by the team to borough.

The RTPI [Royal Town Planning Institute] awards for planning excellence is the longest running and most high-profile awards in the industry and celebrates the teams and projects that transform economies, environments and communities all over the UK and internationally.

Brent scooped the Local Authority Planning Team of the Year award ahead of nine other shortlisted authorities.

The judges noted how Brent's planning team excelled in all areas of work. They were impressed with their desire to continually reflect on their performance and look for ways to develop and improve their service.

Cllr Tatler, Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Highways and Planning, said:

"This is a great achievement and one that we should be proud of. We were up against some of the best nationally to win Planning Team of the Year and it just shows that we are on the right path with what we are doing here in Brent for residents, creating new homes, opportunities and building a better borough.

In stark contrast, about the same time, Catalyst Housing announced that all residents would have to leave Merle Court in Carlton Vale within 18 months. Not only has the flammable cladding on the building to be removed, but Catalyst say that the need for major internal works mean residents have to move out.

In recent months local Councillors and the MP, Tulip Siddiq, have received many complaints from residents of Argo House in Kilburn Park road of major problems, including poor ventilation, internal mould, intermittent hot water and heating, loose cables and loose cladding. Residents also say they are getting little or now support from the property managers or Home Group Housing association.

A few weeks ago, residents of Chase House in Hansel Road tweeted photos of the state of their bloc, including mould. This week the Kilburn Times picks up on that LINK but with the additional facts this concerns not just Chase House, but also Franklin House (Carlton Vale) and Hollister House on Kilburn Park Road. The common factor to all three is that they are all managed by L & Q. Their common problems are like those of Argo House.

Such problems are not new. Like Merle Court, Swift House and George House (managed by L & Q) on Albert Road, have flammable cladding and have had 24-hour firewatch since shortly after the Grenfell tragedy. L & Q is currently in the process of removing the cladding on Swift House, which means residents are surrounded by ugly scaffold for an extended period.

George House also needed a new roof after the previous one leaked. It still has flat roofs which collect water.

Kilburn Quarter (Network Homes, Cambridge Road) had to have their balconies waterproofed after it was discovered they were leaking.

These problems come on top of a myriad of lesser issues (though not to the residents…) that have been reported for years, as well as issues of rocketing service charges imposed.

What all these properties have in common is that they have been built as part of Brent Council’s regeneration of South Kilburn. All are new, and the problems are common to both “social” and market-price residents.

Before this latest award, Brent won several plaudits for its “flagship” regeneration and refused to listen to those residents and community activists, including the local Kilburn branch of the Labour Party, who tried to raise these issues.

Clearly the problems are common to several different property developers and housing associations. Despite the awards (which never seem to involve local people among their judges), builders and housing associations have been taking advantage of Brent’s enthusiasm for regeneration to build sub-standard housing.

Brent appears to want to disclaim any responsibility for these problems, referring all enquiries from journalists about Merle Court to Catalyst without comment. However, not only was Merle Court built in partnership with Brent Council, but Brent gave panning permission for all these blocks (which replace previous Council housing). They are all part of the Council’s regeneration of South Kilburn, and social tenants in them were referred on by Brent after their Council housing was demolished. Brent shares some responsibility for this situation beyond simply being the Local Authority in which poor quality housing exists.

The concern is that, with South Kilburn regeneration to continue for many years, and Brent wanting to “regenerate” St Raphaels estate, we can see further similar problems.

South Kilburn residents and community activists are, however, getting organised. As well as calling for current faults to be rectified, we must call for a halt to regeneration until Brent and the community, are satisfied that housing is build to a decent standard and housing associations and property managers take real responsibility for their buildings.

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Octavia to make 'Important and Compulsory' fire safety visits to Elizabeth House residents pending cladding removal

Elizabeth House, Wembley

Octavia Housing have written to residents of Elizabeth House, Wembley High Road,  informing them that they will make  'important and compulsory' fire visits to their properties pending the cladding being removed.  Elizabeth House, like Merle Court in South Kilburn, was built by Willmott Dixon.

Important and Compulsory Fire Safety Visits

You may remember from previous visits and correspondence that Octavia Housing is required to periodically visit every property in Elizabeth House to complete fire safety checks until the cladding has been replaced. 

The instruction from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) is that we need to repeat these visits regularly and I am writing to inform you that Octavia Housing is required to visit you again now. 

These visits will enable us to: 

•      Check balconies and flat entrance doors to ensure they are safe and free from fire hazards and flammable materials.

•      Ensure all residents know how to check their smoke and heat alarms.

Each visit takes approximately 5 -10 minutes.  As this is an instruction from Government, we have no alternative but to advise that it is a condition of your lease or tenancy agreement to provide access for the visit.

Please be reminded that the Fire Safety procedure is a stay put policy.

We will be carrying out visits on the following dates and would require you to be available on one of the dates:

·         Tuesday 23rd April 2019 from 5:00pm - 7:00pm

·         Wednesday 24^th April 2019 from 1:00pm - 6:00pm

·         Thursday 25^th April 2019 from 8:30am - 1:00pm

·         Friday 26^th April 2019 from 8:30am - 1:00pm

If you are unable to be at home when we visit or would prefer to confirm an appointment with us, you can do so by contacting our Customer Contact Team on 020 8354 5608 or by email to sylvie.haman@octavia.org.uk

I do hope you understand the importance of the visit to you and/or members of your household.