This was first published on the Save Our Welsh Harp' blog LINK
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| Shahrar Ali, Muhammed Butt, Roxanne Mishari and Navin Shah |
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| The audience |
A meeting held at short notice about the regeneration
of the West Hendon Estate on the banks of the Welsh Harp was well
attended this afternoon.
Cllr Roxanne Mishari, Labour
councillor for Welsh Harp, introducing the meeting, outlined the main
aspects of the scheme, its height, high density, its closeness to the
wildfowl reserve, lack of infrastructure and impact on Brent.
Navin
Shah,Labour London Assembly member for Brent and Harrow spoke about the
planning aspects and the role of the Major of London. He said he had
arranged a delegation to the Barnet Planning Committee which would
consider the application which breached the Council's own planning
guidelines. He described the plans as 'no more than vandalism of a
critical site. Only 20 of the 2,000 homes would be 3 or 4 bedrooms when
the need was for family housing. Only 25% would be social housing.
Shahrar
Ali of Brent Green Party and a local resident showed a video taken this
morning at Barratt's marketing office for the 'Hendon Waterside'
development. The sales team clearly expected the development to go ahead
and described it as a partnership with Barnet Council. The remaining
8th floor two bedroom property in the recently completed 12 storey
development was offered at £340,000 plus £1,700 service charge and an
agreement with the water and energy supplier of Barratt's choice. It was
clear that the private flats were on the waterfront and the social
housing behind close to the A5.
Cllr Muhammed Butt,
Labour leader of Brent Council, said that he was 100% behind the
campaign which he described as 'over-excessive'. He read out the main
objections submitted by the Brent Council planners and said these would
be made available on this site. The proposed 2 form entry primary school
would not be big enough and Barnet Council was riding rough-shod over
its own planning policies which stated that buildings should be no more
than between 8 and 20 storeys high.. School provision, wildlife and
transport would all be affected with repercussions for Brent residents.
Cllr
Alison Hopkins and her fellow Lib Dem councillor Javaid Ashraf sent the
message which Martin Francis conveyed to the meeting, which appears on the Welsh Harp blog in full.
LINK They particularly drew attention to the social housing
tenants being placed alongside the traffic pollution of the A5. They had
opposed the development in their roles on the Welsh Harp Joint
Consultative Committee which includes Barnet representatives. Attempts
to arrange a site visit had not been successful.
There were many contributions from the floor and among the issues raised were:
1,
Why does Barnet keep developing on the borders with Brent which affects
our own infrastructure (while they collect the Council Tax from the
developments)
2. A youth officer from the West Hendon Estate said
they had collected 500residents' signatures on a petition against the
development and the loss of their green space andwere going to protest
at the planning meeting.
3. Barnet Council should declare their relationship with Barratt Homes.
4. We should see if Euoropean legislation can be used to oppose the development.
5. We should examine the public health repercussions for people, and particularly children, in the area.
6.
The high-cost luxury flats gained a beautiful view across the Welsh
Harp to the opposite bank but people on that bank would see a hideous
new high-rise development.
7. The West Hendon Estate had been run
down for years but the tenants would be unlikely to be able to afford
the rents in the new development.
8. We should get someone like Bill Oddie to champion our cause for the bird life, the waterfowl refuge and the SSSI.
