Altamira and the Morland Gardens delay – Brent Council’s response.

Guest post by Philip Grant in a personal capacity

 

From Brent Council’s adopted Local Plan Historic Environment Strategy.

 

Last week Martin published a guest post with the text of an open email I had sent to Brent’s Director of Property and Assets (Morland Gardens – (Happy?) Anniversary Brent! Why the delay?). I promised to let readers know what the Council said in reply, and here is the full text of the email I received on 18 November, with the names of Council Officers replaced by their job titles.

 

‘Dear Mr Grant,

 

RE: New Service Request: 1 Morland Gardens, NW10 - What are Council Officers' recommendations and when will they be published?  

 

Thank you for your open letter dated 10 November 2025, and note that [the Director of Property and Assets] has asked me to respond on the queries raised:

 

1. Please let me know the date by which Council Officers intend to make their detailed recommendations to Cabinet for the redevelopment of 1 Morland Gardens.

 

As you state in your open letter dated 10 November 2025, Cabinet approved the facility mix at Morland Gardens for affordable homes and youth facilities in June 2025. Please note that establishing the youth provisions/requirements is a crucial enabler to bringing forward a vision for the site that aligns with the Cabinet approved facility mix. The Council has therefore been liaising with a range of youth service providers to better understand what/how they would seek to use the building/site to meet the needs of young people living in Stonebridge and across the borough.

 

In relation to affordable housing, the Council is currently unable to deliver 100% social rent tenure due to the economic climate we are now operating in with regards to increased borrowing costs, construction inflation, and compliance with new/enhanced building safety standards. The Greater London Authority (GLA) has recently issued its new Social and Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP) 2026 – 2036 and the Council will be reviewing this funding prospectus to see if it can provide the Council a viable route to bring forward affordable housing schemes on sites such as Morland Gardens. The SAHP funding window opens in February 2026 and closes in April 2026, so the Council will be able to confirm after this date if a grant bid for Morland Gardens has been included.

 

With the work currently being undertaken, the Council cannot confirm a date by which officers intend to make detailed recommendations to Cabinet for the redevelopment of 1 Morland Gardens until we are able to lock in the proposed youth service provisions for the site and the affordable homes funding opportunities through the SAHP.

 

2. Please also let me know (as some decision on this point must surely have been reached after two years of review) whether those recommendations will include retaining the heritage Victorian villa building, Altamira, as requested in the Willesden Local History Society petition which was presented to September's Full Council meeting, and supported then by councillors from across all three political parties.

 

As per the response to the petition from the Willesden Local History Society, no decision has been made on the retention or not of the Altamira building. Any decision will be based on the outcome of the above (youth provision identification, housing scheme requirements) for Cabinet to make a considered decision.

 

Thank you once again for your open letter, should you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact me.

 

Regards

 

Head of Capital Delivery’

 

The response says why Brent is not currently building many new homes, and these words in the answer to point 1 are of more general interest: ‘In relation to affordable housing, the Council is currently unable to deliver 100% social rent tenure due to the economic climate we are now operating in ….’ The reference to ‘social rent tenure’ is another example of the misrepresentation of “social housing” terms frequently coming from the Council’s Officers and members.

 

The only new genuine Social Rent level homes which Brent Council provides go to existing tenants who are moved to new homes because the Council wants to demolish their existing home. If you want to understand the different types of affordable housing, please read my November 2022 guest post Brent’s Affordable Council Housing – figuring out Cllr. Butt’s reply.

 

Illustration from Brent’s March 2025 Council Tax leaflet.

 

While I’m on the subject of the Council’s misleading information about affordable housing, you may remember my guest post from last April: How many affordable homes did Brent Council deliver in 2024/25? - Was it 530, or 434, or just 26? It was in a leaflet sent to every Council Taxpayer in the borough, including a letter to residents from the Council Leader saying how well they had done. And the answer to the question of how many affordable homes Brent Council had actually delivered itself in 2024/25 was 26, not the 530 they wanted us to believe!

 

You will also notice from the response above that the proposed affordable housing at Morland Gardens may well depend on Brent getting financial help from the GLA’s Social and Affordable Homes Programme 2026-2036. But I can’t help wondering - what happened to the £107m of funding which Brent trumpeted that it had been promised from the GLA’s Affordable Homes Programme 2021-2026? 

 

From the GLA’s affordable homes website.

 

How much of that promised £107m was spent by Brent Council, and how many new affordable homes were built with that money? Wasn’t it meant to be helping to fund the regeneration of St Raphael’s Estate (see this June 2021 post: Cllr Butt addresses St Raphael's residents on the delays in fill-in/rebuild development of the estate. Is it the full story?)? How many new homes have been built so far as part of the long-promised St Raphael’s regeneration? (I don’t know – perhaps someone can give the answer in a comment below, please.)

 

Brent’s original 2020 Morland Gardens scheme was meant to use £6.5m in funding from the GLA’s Affordable Homes Programme 2016-2021 (extended to 2023, because of Covid). That money was lost, but it could have been used instead for a Council redevelopment at Twybridge Way, which received planning consent before Morland Gardens in 2020, and would have provided 67 affordable homes. That project could not go ahead because of the flawed Cabinet decision to move Brent Start to a “temporary home” in the former Stonebridge School Annexe on that site. You can read the details in my October 2021 guest post: 1 Morland Gardens and Twybridge Way – Brent’s response challenged.

 

It was hard not to get distracted by some of the contents of the Council’s response above, but I must get back to the main point of this guest post. Should I just accept what the Council Officer was saying, or should I reply? I chose the second option, and this is what I wrote:

 

‘Dear [Head of Capital Delivery},

 

Thank you for your email, in response to my open email of 10 November to [the Director of Property and Assets]. As the text of my open email was made public, both online and in the "Brent & Kilburn Times" (see below), I will seek to make the text of your reply, on behalf of Brent Council, publicly available.

 

The information given at point 1 is helpful in understanding the continuing delay, although this will mean another winter when the empty property can suffer further weather damage. That is not good stewardship of a valuable heritage building!

 

I am disappointed with the response to point 2, because it suggests that the only factors which will be taken into account in deciding whether Officers should recommend either retaining or demolishing the heritage building will be what is required for the proposed youth provision and housing scheme. That approach ignores the requirements of Brent Council's heritage planning policy BHC1, and its adopted Historic Environment Strategy, which both signal the importance of sustaining and enhancing the significance of heritage assets in proposed developments affecting them.

 

I have referred to the section on "Valuing Brent's Heritage" before, but these words from it need repeating:

 

'Once a heritage asset is demolished it cannot be replaced. Its historic value is lost forever to the community and future generations and it cannot be used for regeneration and place-making purposes.'

 

The historic value of "Altamira" is huge. This was the landmark building at the entrance to an 1870s estate named Stonebridge Park. It was in at the birth of that district of our borough, and with its distinctive belvedere tower, it was one of the few original Victorian villas left standing when most of the street called Stonebridge Park was demolished to make way for the 1970s Stonebridge Park Brent Council estate.

 

Many of those 1970s buildings were demolished after less than 30 years, but "Altamira" is now 150 years old, and still in good structural condition, as well as being a beautiful example of Italianate architecture. It will be part of the Morland Gardens regeneration site, and it can be used for place-making purposes, helping to share the story of Stonebridge Park with young people, and the wider community, now and for future generations. That is why it should be retained, and why you and other Council Officers involved should decide to recommend its retention as part of your detailed submission to Cabinet.

 

Please keep me updated on progress with your review, and let me know if you need support from me (and the wider local history community) for an SAHP funding bid which includes retaining the heritage building. Best wishes,’

 

 

Philip Grant.

 

Morland Gardens – (Happy?) Anniversary Brent! Why the delay?

My redevelopment proposal, submitted during the December 2024 consultation.

 

It is two years since Brent Council began an “urgent review” of its plans for the former Brent Start college site at 1 Morland Gardens in Stonebridge, after its ill-conceived and ill-fated 2020 project for the site failed, because its planning consent expired without construction having commenced. I was led to believe at the time, by the Council Officer leading the review, that new recommendations for the site’s development would be put to Brent’s Cabinet for approval by the early summer of 2024 at the latest.

 

Monday 10 November 2025 was the second anniversary of the letter sent to me by Brent’s Director of Property and Assets, telling me about the review. As there is still no sign of any definite proposals for the site, and its landmark heritage Victorian villa, I thought it time to send him a reminder. This is the text of my open email (with the personal names of Council Officers removed):

 

‘Dear [Director of Property and Assts]

 

Proposed Morland Gardens Development

 

Two years ago, on 10 November 2023, you wrote to me in response to an open letter on this subject which I had sent to Brent's Chief Executive on 31 October 2023. Brent Council's original scheme for the redevelopment of the Brent Start college on this site, which had been given the go ahead (as subsequently shown, without proper consideration) by Brent's Cabinet in January 2020, had failed when its planning consent expired at the end of October 2023, without construction having commenced.

 

Paragraph 2 of your letter, headed "An urgent rethink on original proposals", stated:

 

'We are always reviewing and updating schemes across the board as part of our usual governance arrangements, and we are doing that with even more rigour given the underlying economic conditions. Following the expiration of the planning permission, the Council is reviewing its options for the Morland Gardens site, including the Altamira building.'

 

[The Head of Capital Delivery] began that urgent review in November 2023. A year later, as part of the Bridge Park consultation, it had concluded that the site should be used for "affordable housing and community facilities". After further consultation, this had been refined to "affordable housing and youth facilities", an outline for the future redevelopment which Cabinet approved in June 2025. 

 

Despite two years of review, there is still nothing in the Forward Plan to say when detailed recommendations for the Morland Gardens site will be put to Brent's Cabinet for a decision. During all that time, an architecturally and historically important local heritage building has been sitting empty, and the land behind it which could provide 25-30 much needed affordable Council homes is being left unused. That is a waste of two valuable Council-owned property assets!

 

Please let me know the date by which Council Officers intend to make their detailed recommendations to Cabinet for the redevelopment of 1 Morland Gardens.

 

Please also let me know (as some decision on this point must surely have been reached after two years of review) whether those recommendations will include retaining the heritage Victorian villa building, Altamira, as requested in the Willesden Local History Society petition which was presented to September's Full Council meeting, and supported then by councillors from across all three political parties.

 

I look forward to receiving your clear replies on both of those points. Thank you.’

 

I can’t help wondering why it should take Council Officers so long to come up with detailed proposals. Are they deliberately allowing the empty heritage building (which the Council restored in the 1990s to provide an inspiring home for the borough’s adult education students) to deteriorate, so they can claim that it can’t be saved, and must be demolished? Or could it be that they plan to recommend demolition, but their political masters don't want to make that unpopular decision in the run up to the local elections?

 

Whatever the reason, the delay is costing Brent Council (and therefore Council taxpayers) further money (on top of an estimated £4m for the failed 2020 project!), as well as further delaying the much needed affordable homes and youth facilities which they say they want to provide at Morland Gardens.

 

I’ve received an automated response to my “Service Request”, and a short email from an unidentified Officer signing themselves as “Brent Council”, advising that they hope to provide a reply by 21 November, so I will let you know what they say!

 

Philip Grant.

1 Morland Gardens – Councillor Benea’s reply to my open letter – why are the Council dithering over the heritage Victorian villa?

 Guest post by Philip Grant in a personal capacity

 

The Italianate-style belvedere tower of “Altamira”, beyond the community garden.
(Photo by Margaret Pratt, May 2023)

 

Earlier this month, Martin published an open letter, “Brent’s Morland Gardens development, and the future of the heritage Victorian villa”, which I had sent to two key Cabinet members, ahead of a decision which is due to be made on 16 June. On 21 May, I received this reply from Councillor Teo Benea, the Lead Member for Regeneration:

 

‘Dear Mr Grant,

 

Thank you for your open letter to myself and Cllr Donnelly-Jackson dated 8 May 2025.

 

I have spoken to officers regarding 1 Morland Gardens and a decision on the site use options will be proposed for Cabinet’s consideration at the meeting on Monday 16 June 2025. No decision has been made on retaining the locally listed Altamira building and Cabinet will only be asked to consider the proposed site use(s) for Morland Gardens as part of developing a complementary vision for the Hillside Corridor.

 

I will ensure that officers consider your letter and content as part of ongoing work to progress the Cabinet approved site use option.

 

Thank you.

Kind regards,

Teo Benea
Cllr for Sudbury ward
Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Planning & Property’

 

It was in January 2020 that Brent’s Cabinet approved a recommendation for the redevelopment of their 1 Morland Gardens site, to provide updated facilities for the Brent Start college (which had been there since 1995) and Council homes. Planning Committee approved the plans (by five votes to two) later that year, including the demolition of the locally-listed Victorian villa at the heart of the college. But the scheme was so flawed, and so many mistakes were made in trying to implement it, that the planning consent expired at the end of October 2023, without construction having begun.

 

I was told in a letter from Brent’s Director of Property and Assets in November 2023, under the heading “An urgent rethink on original proposals”, that:

 

‘We are always reviewing and updating schemes across the board as part of our usual governance arrangements, and we are doing that with even more rigour given the underlying economic conditions. Following the expiration of the planning permission, the Council is reviewing its options for the Morland Gardens site, including the Altamira building.’

 

Despite the supposed urgency, nothing further was heard, until I sent an open letter to Brent’s Chief Executive at the end of March 2024, which I shared in a post - Is Brent Council “busy doing nothing”? In response, Brent’s Head of Capital Delivery said: ‘the Council is continuing to review its options and proposals for the Morland Gardens site. As soon as the Council has completed the review, it will place the item for decision onto the Council’s Forward Plan and seek Cabinet’s consideration of the same.’

 

This is a Council-owned site, which has been vacant since early 2022 (apart from six months when it was occupied by Live-in Guardians). At least they were providing some security for the building, but ever since they left, nearly two and a half years ago, Brent Council has been paying a security firm to guard the empty building. 

 

Notice on the security fence around 1 Morland Gardens. (Photo by Margaret Pratt, May 2023)

 

 

As part of their long-running review, Brent have been given plenty of evidence of the high historic and architectural value of the Victorian villa, and how retaining this locally-listed heritage asset as part of their redevelopment plans is both a practical proposition and in line with the Council’s adopted planning policy and historic environment strategy. How can Officers not yet recommend to Cabinet that this landmark building, part of the original estate that gave Stonebridge Park its name 150 years ago, should be retained? I expressed that view in my “open email” reply to the Lead Member for Regeneration:

 

‘Dear Councillor Benea,

 

Thank you for your email, and for updating me on what will be put to Cabinet on 16 June in respect of Morland Gardens.

 

I have to say that I am surprised that 'Cabinet will only be asked to consider the proposed site use(s) for Morland Gardens.'

 

Council Officers started to consider proposals for the future of the former Brent Start college site at 1 Morland Gardens in November 2023. I understood then that they expected to put their recommendations to Cabinet by around this time in 2024.

 

By November 2024, they had already decided to recommend that the site should be used for new Council homes and community facilities, and they put this out for consultation then, as part of the Bridge Park and Hillside Corridor exercise:

 

 

By March this year, as a result of that consultation, the proposal had been refined to be 'new Council homes and youth facilities'. I find it hard to believe that all Brent's Officers can submit to Cabinet, another three months further on, and more than eighteen months after they started their review, is a recommendation to confirm that the proposed site use should be new Council homes and youth facilities!

 

Given all of the information and views put forward since November 2023, including as part of the December 2024 consultation exercise, where there was clear support from community members for the heritage Victorian villa at 1 Morland Gardens to be retained, I would hope that Council Officers could also recommend that the future redevelopment plans for this Council-owned site should include retaining the locally-listed building.

 

A decision on such a recommendation, by Cabinet on 16 June, would give Officers clearer guidance to progress their Hillside Corridor plans as they move forward. I hope that you, as Cabinet Member for Regeneration, will ask Officers to include that in their Report. Thank you.

 

I am copying this email to Kim Wright, Chief Executive, who could also ask the relevant Officers to do that, in order to help avoid further unnecessary delay over this site. Best wishes,

 

Philip Grant.’

 

If you agree that the Victorian villa, “Altamira”, should be retained, there is still time (until 26 May 2025) to sign the Willesden Local History Society petition calling on Brent Council and its Cabinet to do that. You can add your signature, if you have not already done that, HERE. Thank you!

Philip Grant.

Please sign the petition to retain Stonebridge’s heritage Victorian villa

 Guest post by Philip Grant in a personal capacity

 

“Altamira”, 1 Morland Gardens, at the corner of Hillside and Brentfield Road.

 

Willesden Local History Society has been campaigning to save the locally-listed Victorian villa, known as “Altamira”, since Brent Council “consulted” on its original plans to demolish it as part of its Morland Gardens redevelopment plans in 2019. I joined the fight in February 2020, with a guest post on “Housing or heritage? Or both?”

 

The battle has been long and hard, but the planning consent which Brent’s Planning Committee gave in 2020 expired at the end of October 2023, without construction beginning on the project. The following month, the Council started a review of its future plans for the former Brent Start site (the college having been moved to a “temporary” home in the former Stonebridge School annexe in 2022, at a cost of around £1.5m).

 

That review was due to last a few months, with proposals then being put to Brent’s Cabinet by Spring or early Summer 2024. Instead, it eventually got tagged onto the redevelopment proposals for Bridge Park, as part of what Brent then started calling its Hillside Corridor project. At the exhibition in November 2024, which began another consultation, this was the conclusion after one year of the Council’s Morland Gardens review:

 

 

By March 2025, a new consultation was launched, asking whether residents agreed that the Morland Gardens site should comprise new Council homes and youth facilities. It did not give any indication of whether Brent intended to retain the heritage Victorian villa as part of that scheme, even though I’m aware that many people had asked for that in their comments as part of the earlier consultation (including me, with detailed proposals on how this could be done!).

 

Now we have found out that the long-awaited new proposals will be put to Brent’s Cabinet at its meeting on 16 June 2025, not as a separate item, but tucked away as part of a report about the future of Bridge Park. In response to this, Willesden Local History Society have launched a petition on the Council’s website:

 

We the undersigned petition the council and its Cabinet, when considering the regeneration of 1 Morland Gardens, as part of the Hillside Corridor proposals, to retain the beautiful and historic locally listed Victorian villa, Altamira, as part of the redevelopment of that site for affordable housing and youth facilities. The 150-year-old landmark building is part of the original estate which gave Stonebridge Park its name, and its sense of place can be an inspiration to local young people who would use it, while there is plenty of space behind the Victorian villa to build a good number of genuinely affordable homes.

SIGN THE PETITION HERE

As I write this, more than 150 people have already signed this online petition, more than enough to ensure that the Society can present its views in support of retaining this important local heritage building at the Cabinet meeting. We can hope that this view adds weight to a recommendation already made by Council Officers, but we won’t know that until the report is published about 10 days before the meeting!

 

From Brent’s Historic Environment Place-making Strategy (Part of the Council’s adopted Local Plan!)

 

At this stage, it is important that as many people as possible from the Brent community sign the petition, to show the strength of feeling that this beautiful and historic building is too valuable to be demolished. The Council’s own planning policies tell them that, but there are some people at the Civic Centre who don’t seem to care about that! If you agree with the petition’s aims, then please sign it, if you haven’t already done so. You can do that here. Thank you.

Philip Grant.

 

 

1 Morland Gardens – hoping the Victorian villa has a Happy New Year! Here's how it could be so.

 Guest post by Philip Grant in a personal capacity

 

“Altamira”, the landmark villa at the entrance to Stonebridge Park, in 1907 and 2023.

 

For 150 years the Italianate-style Victorian villa called “Altamira” has stood at the entrance to an estate which gave the name Stonebridge Park to the surrounding area. Five years ago, Brent’s Cabinet approved plans which should have seen it demolished by now, even though it is a locally listed heritage asset in good condition. But it is still standing, and has the chance for a secure future as a community facility, as part of new redevelopment plans for the site.

 

The Council’s future options for its Morland Gardens property have been under review since November 2023, but with little progress on display when the public were asked for their input at the Bridge Park / Hillside Corridor exhibition on 28 and 30 November 2024. The consultation exercise launched then is still ongoing, but ends on Monday 6 January, so you still have time to express your views.

 

The consultation questionnaire for Morland Gardens was mainly a tick-box list of possible community facilities you would like to see provided, along with new Council homes on the site. That was not enough for my comments and suggestions, and I have submitted the detailed document which I hope that Martin can include at the end of this article.

 

 

The plan above is at the heart of my proposals, showing what I believe is a sensible outline redevelopment suggestion for the site, including the retained Victorian villa as the community facility and a housing layout which would provide around 27 Council homes, 25 of them as two, three or four bedroom properties to rent for local families with children. (It wasn’t until after I had finished preparing this plan that the lyric, ‘Little boxes on a Hillside’, flashed into my mind!) You can find further details of this suggested layout in section 3 of the document.

 

As well as sending my document to the agency handling the consultation, and the Council Officer in charge of the Morland Gardens review, I sent a copy to the Stonebridge Ward councillors. I invited their support for my suggestions, if they believed they were a sensible way forward for the site. I also reminded them of what Cllr. Aden had said, on their behalf, at the August 2020 Planning Committee meeting (which was ignored by the five councillors who voted to approve the Council’s flawed, and now failed, original Morland Gardens plans).

 

Extract from the minutes of the August 2020 Planning Committee meeting for application 20/0345.

 

My December 2024 proposals are for a redevelopment that would be very much in line with the wishes of the then Stonebridge Ward councillors (two of whom are still the same). I was pleased to receive an early reply from one of the councillors, although a little surprised that he did not appear to be aware that Brent Council have been reviewing its future plans for Morland Gardens since November 2023, or that it was part of the “Bridge Park” consultation!

 

While not expressing a view either way on my suggestions, he has indicated that the Council do need to hear from local people about what they want to see provided at Morland Gardens as part of the consultation. Copying in a fellow Ward councillor, he finished with the words: ‘As representatives of the community, we are here to represent the wishes of the wider community, so I believe all options will be considered.’

 

If you want the Council to consider your wishes for the Morland Gardens site, please send them, by next Monday 6 January, by email to: bridgepark@four.agency , with a copy to: neil.martin@brent.gov.uk . If you have read the document below (or at least section 3 of it), please feel free to mention it, and say whether you agree with my suggestions.

 

Philip Grant. 

 

Morland Gardens – now there is a real chance to save the Victorian villa!

 Guest post by local historian Philip Grant in a personal capacity

The Victorian villa, “Altamira” and community garden, at the corner of Hillside and Brentfield Road.

 

My first guest post about the 1870s Italianate-style Victorian villa at 1 Morland Gardens, in February 2020 (!), asked “Housing or Heritage? Or both?” Now BOTH is a real possibility again, following the exhibition and its subsequent consultation on Bridge Park and the Hillside Corridor (see Martin’s recent post for details).

 

If you are interested in the chance to save this beautiful and historically important local landmark, and see it put to good use for future generations of local residents to enjoy, please read on. I will outline the current position, and how you can help, in this latest guest post (there will be “links” to earlier ones, if you would like more information).

 

The Council’s original plans for redeveloping 1 Morland Gardens, which had been the home of Brent’s adult education college since the 1990s, were approved by the Cabinet in January 2020, and then by five (out of eight) members of the Planning Committee later in the year. They included demolishing the locally-listed heritage building (against national and Brent planning policies) and building over the community garden outside the property, which the Council had no legal right to do, and would have breached its air quality and climate change policies.

 

The project failed, after the Council’s planning consent expired at the end of October 2023, without construction work having begun. Since November 2023, Brent Council have been carrying out a review of their future plans for the Morland Gardens site, after the Brent Start college was moved out to a “temporary” home (meant to be for just two years while the redevelopment was carried out). One year on, I would have expected the Council’s ‘outline proposals’ from this review, which were unveiled as part of the Bridge Park and Hillside Corridor exhibition on 28 November, to be more than this:

 

‘This site, formerly Brent Start’s home before they moved to Twybridge Way, is going to be redeveloped. The Council plans to build new council homes and community facilities here. We want to hear what you think is needed.’

           The entire Morland Gardens section from the exhibition.

I had a good conversation at the exhibition with Brent’s Head of Capital Delivery. One thing he made clear was that site for the new proposals, following the consultation, would only be for within the 1 Morland Gardens boundary. They no longer plan to build on the community garden land outside ('we have learned some lessons from last time').

 

The plans for Brent’s new leisure centre building at Bridge Park show that the new Brent Start college, and the affordable workspace, which were going to be at Morland Gardens under the Council’s failed 2020 scheme, will be at Bridge Park instead. This means that they do not have to be part of the future plans for the 1 Morland Gardens site.

 

A section drawing through Brent’s proposed new Bridge Park building, from the exhibition.

 

It is ironic that Brent are now proposing to rehome Brent Start on the Bridge Park site, as that is what I suggested in October 2021, before they moved the college out of Morland Gardens. That suggestion was made in correspondence with Stonebridge Ward councillors, with a copy to the Cabinet members and Council Officers involved. It would have allowed Brent to go ahead with its Stonebridge Phase 2 housing scheme at Twybridge Way, which received planning consent in May 2020.

 

I repeated that suggestion to Brent Council’s Leader in an email of 19 January 2022, sending the text of this comment I had made under Martin’s blog “Muhammed Butt hails High Court's Bridge Park Appeal ruling”, reporting the Court’s decision and Cllr. Butt’s reaction to it:

 

‘This decision means that the development of the long-blighted Unisys building can also go ahead.

 

That would give Brent the opportunity to work with the developer, to include in the redevelopment scheme the modern college facilities that Brent Start Adult College needs, paid for by the £15m of CIL money which the Council has set aside for that.

 

The new college on that site would be ideally placed, next door to 'the fantastic new leisure and employment centre that local people need and deserve' at Bridge Park.

 

Building the new college facility there would mean only one disruptive move for the college, rather than a move into temporary accommodation in the "Stonebridge Annexe" building at Twybridge Way, then back again to Morland Gardens after two or more years.

 

A decision to pursue the "Unisys" option for the college would immediately free-up the Twybridge Way site for Phase 2 of Brent's Stonebridge Housing scheme, including family houses and much-needed New Accommodation for Independent Living flats.

 

It would also mean that the locally listed Victorian villa at 1 Morland Gardens would not need to be demolished, but could be sympathetically incorporated into a new housing scheme on that site, once the college had moved to its new facilities.

 

That looks like a win/win/win situation, and should be quickly and seriously considered.’

 

The exchange of emails is recorded in full in the comments under that article (which some might find interesting reading!). The first response to my suggestion was from Cllr. Muhammed Butt: ‘Morland Gardens is not part of the work around Bridge Park and will continue to progress in its current form separately to Bridge Park.’

 

The last response was from Brent’s then Director of Regeneration on the Leader’s behalf: ‘The proposed developments at Morland Gardens and Bridge Park will continue as planned. There will be no changes to the proposed re-development at Morland Gardens as a result.’ My “final word” to the Director on 31 January 2022 was: ‘If (or when) your proposed [Morland Gardens] redevelopment comes to nothing, the Council won't be able claim that it was not warned of the mistakes it had made, and the risks it had decided to take.’

 

If only they had listened! It would have saved several wasted years and millions of pounds of Brent Council money! But, to quote the words of a song, ‘they would not listen, they did not know how, perhaps they’ll listen now.’

 

“The Starry Night” by Vincent van Gogh, which inspired the song, (Image from the internet)

 

I was assured at the exhibition that the Council still has an open mind on whether to retain the Victorian villa as part of the new redevelopment proposals. Officers will await the outcome of the consultation process before drawing up their recommendations for Morland Gardens. I am as sceptical as many of you will be about Brent Council “consultations” (‘they would not listen, they’re not listening still, perhaps they never will’), but I hope, and believe, there is a real chance that a strong show of support for retaining the Victorian villa would swing the decision that way.

 

Brent Council’s stated policy on valuing heritage assets. (From a supporting document to the Local Plan)

 

That is why I am asking for your help, please. If you agree that this important heritage asset should not be ‘lost forever to the community and future generations’, and that it should ‘be used for regeneration and place-making purposes’, please share that view as part of the consultation exercise. Please do that as soon as you can, and definitely before 6 January 2025.

 

There is an online consultation, but that is mainly about Bridge Park, with a few tick box options for possible Morland Gardens facilities at the end of the long survey form. If you are responding to the survey on the Bridge Park proposals, you could give your views on keeping the Victorian villa in the “other” box at the end of this Morland Gardens section:

 

The Morland Gardens section of the online survey form.

 

To be sure that your views reach the decision makers, I’d suggest instead that you send your views, including that the heritage building should be retained, in an email headed “Morland Gardens consultation” to: bridgepark@four.agency , with a copy to: neil.martin@brent.gov.uk  

 

Thank you!

 

Philip Grant