51 storey building in Neasden will be Brent's tallest yet - major transformation of the area by 2032

 

Tower panorama

 

Plans have been submitted for the section of the Neasden Stations Growth Area known as Neasden Goods Yard.

The design is by architects Allies and Morrison that were involved with projects for Kings Cross, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and the BBC Media Village. The developer is Hollybrook who were responsible for a develpment in Park Royal for Network Homes. LINK

The proposal is for tower blocks of 30, 40, 42, 43 and 51 storeys  and lower blocks of 5 and 16 storeys. 11,600 square metres of industrial space is planned along with changes to Neasden station to provide a link to the possible West London Orbital Rail station.

 

The development site

The development would provide 1,151 homes amd 640 student rooms along with a central garden, pocket park and children's playgrounds. Accommodation would start at podium level with industrial and commercial space at ground floor level.

A collonade is suggested to link the two stations along the heavily polluted ands pretty lethal Neasden Lane - also the site of the new North Brent secondary school.

There is also a potential bridge to the site which the applicant suggests could be part of a cycle route to Wembley.

 

Building would commence in early 2026 and completed by the end of 2032.

 

A recent view of the site

The statement of  Community Involvement LINK begins with a meeting with the Brent Senior Leadership team in Febrary 2022 and ends with a meeting/s  with the Council Leaders and  Brent Planning Committee on  September 14th. It is not clear whether this was two separate meetings on the same day or one meeting.

In between  there is a list of consultation offers (it is not clear how many were taken up) to ward councillors, local residents' associations, places of worship, schools and businesses as well as public exhibitions and extensive leafleting.

What emerges in terms of responses is quite slight:

To date, the Applicant has received 48 written responses from residents and local businesses. 25 were issued through the online feedback form and 23 hard copy forms with feedback were submitted at the in-person consultation events. In addition, verbal feedback was shared with the development team at the workshop and public consultation events.

 But used to demonstrate support for the scheme:

Unfortunately the Neasden Stations Growth Areas Masterplan also received little public attention although its repercussions for the area are highly significant.  The changes are not just on this site but also the College of North West London's Dudden Hill site (developer Pinnacle Investments)  and a  light industrial area  between Dudden Hill Lane and Willesden High Road.

The low-rise estate of Severn Avenue and Selbie Avenue forms an island between the towers of the Goods Yard site and the CNWL site that may be developed in the future.

 

 From the Masterplan (Neasden Goods Yard on right and CNWL on left)

There was a discussion on Wembley Matters following the conclusion of public consultation on the MasterPlan that you can read HERE.

The Neasden Goods Yard planning application is now on the Brent Council Planning Portal and comments can be submitted there. LINK

  

611 local addresses should receive a consultation letter. Addresses HERE. 

 

You can also comment on the GLA Planning 'Have Your Say' site HERE

 The format is different to Brent Council's with prompts for what counts as planning considerations:

 

 

New plan to attack Brent's air pollution problem

The Green Party tried to make air pollution an issue at the GLA election with limited success - perhaps because it is what is often called an ' invisible menace'. Its impact on health occurs at an individual level and over the long-term so it is often not seen as an urgent issue. More visibly air quality and air pollution became a worry as a result of several big fires recently in the borough that released noxious smoke.

However, Brent Council recognises the seriousness of the problem and an Air Quality Action Plan 2012-2015 is on the agenda for Monday's Executive.

The accompanying report notes that levels of nitrogen dioxide and particulates continue to exceed national air quality objectives in some areas of the borough and will not meet future targets. The aim of the new AQAP is to reduce levels of Nitrogen Dioxide and fine particulate matters (smaller than 10 microns) which are the key pollutants in Brent.

It is proposed that the Council should lobby the government over the relationship between licensing of waste sites and the achievement of air quality improvements reflecting the air pollution association with waste sites around Neasden Goods Yard. Air quality there breaches the daily mean air quality objectives and as one of the few in the country reporting such excesses could lead to sanctions from the European Union.  Brent has worked with waste operators and the Environment Agency to enclose the majority of dust generating activities on the site but they admit that a significant proportion of waste handling and transfer operations there still take place in the open air.

The Council estimate that fine particles have an impact equivalent to 133 premature deaths across the whole of Brent. They are unable to estimate the local impact around the Goods Yard as the standard estimating methods are not applicable to smaller populations.

The report notes that the most economically and socially deprived areas in the borough, the south of the borough as well as Stonebridge, Neasden and St Raphaels suffer the poorest air quality.

Worryingly DEFRA will no longer fund air quality monitoring and as a result Brent has reduced the number of its monitoring stations from six to three. The Council warn that there is a significant risk that DEFRA may not fund the costs of intensive cleaning and application of dust suppressants at Neasden Lane once the Olympic Games is over.

The 2012-15 Plan lists 15 actions and can be found HERE .  It includes integrating air quality improvements into local health plans, increasing the planting of trees in new developments, reviewing planing policies to safeguard against environmental impacts of new and existing waste facilities, reducing car use and congestion, a 10% reduction in business energy use, a 20% decrease in energy use in council housing stock and 25% in council emissions and a 10% reduction in emissions from major commercial fleet operations in the borough.

The aim is to have a holistic approach that fits with the framework of Brent's Climate Change Strategy.

I welcome these measures and hope that national and local government cuts will not prevent their effective implementation.  Air pollution apart from causing premature deaths also condemn some of the young and the vulnerable to regular occurrences of respiratory illnesses.

Children at Risk

• Children are more susceptible to the effects of air pollution for several reasons related to their physical development and behaviour.
• Children’s respiratory organs are not fully developed and thus are more vulnerable to toxic substances in the air.
• Children have narrower airways that are more severely affected by the tissue inflammation that occurs due to air pollution.
• Children have weaker immune systems that are more vulnerable to the foreign substances found in air pollution.
• Children inhale more air (and more air pollution) per pound of body weight than adults.
• Children often breathe through their mouths, rather than their noses. This route bypasses the cilia and mucous found in the nose that trap foreign particles in the air and stop them from entering the lungs.
• Children do not recognize or acknowledge the effects of air pollution as quickly as adults. This may exacerbate the effects of air pollution, because symptoms are not treated as quickly.