1 Morland Gardens – an open letter to two key Cabinet members

 Guest post by local historian, Philip Grant, in a personal capacity 

 

Altamira, the beautiful Victorian villa at 1 Morland Gardens in Stonebridge.

 

Last month, I wrote a guest post asking you to sign the Willesden Local History Society petition, calling on Brent Council and its Cabinet to retain Altamira, the 150-year old Italianate-style Victorian villa in Stonebridge, as part of its forthcoming plans for redevelopment of the former Brent Start college site at 1 Morland Gardens. That petition is still open, until 26 May, and if you haven’t signed it yet I would encourage you to do so, please. You can do that HERE.

 

The Local Democracy Reporter for our area wrote an article about the petition, which was published online on MyLondon, but for some reason has not been published by the Brent & Kilburn Times (nor was a letter sent in by the Society’s Secretary published – strange when that is the local newspaper for Brent!). As part of his research, he asked Brent Council whether they still planned to demolish the locally-listed heritage building, as they originally proposed in 2020. The answer he received was ‘we don’t know yet.’

 

That seems very odd, as Brent has been carrying out a review of its future plans for the Morland Gardens site since November 2023! Were they just covering themselves, as no formal decision has yet been made by Brent’s Cabinet? Or do they think that it should be retained, but are not sure whether those in power at the Civic Centre will still insist that it should be demolished, as that would allow more homes to be built on the site?

 

I’ve been told that the Cabinet’s decision will be made on 16 June, although there is no mention of this in the Council’s Forward Plan. It will apparently be part of the report on “The Future of the Bridge Park Community Leisure Centre” (which comes under Public Health and Leisure). The history society should be able to present its petition to the Cabinet meeting, but my experience from May last year, on another heritage matter, suggests that decisions are taken before petitioners have a chance to have their say!

 

I wanted to make sure that two key Cabinet members had the facts about the heritage building, and Brent’s official heritage policies, before that decision is made, so I sent them the open letter below (the email sending it was also copied to the Cabinet member for Public Health and Leisure, and the three Stonebridge Ward councillors). I hope that good sense prevails, but unfortunately that is not always the case in Brent!

 

 

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.

 

 

Join the Harlesden People’s Community Council for the national launch of their campaign to get Bridge Park added to the National Heritage List for England.

 

From Harlesden People's Community Council

Join the Harlesden People’s Community Council for the national launch of their campaign to get Bridge Park added to the National Heritage List for England.

HPCC's transformation of Stonebridge Bus Garage into Europe’s largest Black-led community enterprise is an extraordinary story of community action and resilience.

The trailblazing initiative saw an underserved community harness local craftsmanship and creativity to transform an old industrial building into a pioneering centre for Black excellence and self-empowerment. 

This exciting event will bring together founding members of the Harlesden People's Community Council, along with experts from UCL's Bartlett School of Architecture and Sarah Parker Remond Centre, to discuss the significance of Bridge Park, its role in expanding the way we think about heritage, and the current threat of demolition by Brent Council.

You’ll also hear from celebrated actor and Bridge Park alumnus Ray Fearon, who will reflect on how the centre helped shape his career. 

Event Details:

• Date: Thursday, 23rd January 2025
• Time: 6:00 – 8:00 PM
• Location: Harrie Massey Lecture Theatre, University College London, 25 Gordon Street, WC1H 0AY
• RSVP: https://savebridgepark.eventbrite.co.uk 

Please RSVP through our Eventbrite link to confirm your attendance. The venue is wheelchair accessible and is just a short walk from Euston Station. 

We strongly encourage Harlesden residents and Bridge Park users to attend and show their support for this important cause. The Overground and the 18 bus both go directly to Euston.

Campaign to list Bridge Park as a 'site of national architectural and historic interest' to be launched in the new year

Wembley Matters has covered the long struggle by the Stonebridge and Harlesden community over Bridge Park and it is not over yet.  (Type in 'Bridge Park' in the search box). Many locals were sceptical of the plans revealed recently at the public exhibition  LINK on Brent Council's proposals, and in conversation stressed the contribution Bridge Park had made to local black history. At the very least a panel about its history was suggested for the new building.

Harlesden People's Community Council has gone further and launched a campaign for the original building to be listed and have won the backing of Lord Boateng, former MP for Brent East.

HPPC explain:

Bridge Park was the brainchild of the Harlesden People’s Community Council, a cooperative formed in 1981 against the backdrop of the Brixton uprising by a group of young Black residents of Stonebridge Estate. Between 1982 and 1988, the group spearheaded the transformation of Stonebridge Bus Garage into a dynamic community complex that championed Black excellence and self-empowerment.

 

Alongside state-of-the-art sports and entertainment facilities, Bridge Park housed Brent's first Information Technology Centre, a creche for working mothers, start-up units for local businesses, and a 24-track recording studio. The centre played an integral role in preventing a race uprising in Harlesden throughout the turbulent 1980s and remains an outstanding, early example of community-led adaptive reuse in England. 

 

“Bridge Park is one of the most important developments I have seen in this country for a long time. [...] It is the most remarkable example of a community getting together and being determined with an inspired leadership to work against what must have been impossible odds to create this kind of centre for the community.”

King Charles III

 

“The Bridge Park Complex is a profoundly significant building because of its provenance in local government transportation and community use. There could be no finer tribute to Leonard Johnson and Brent community activism than it being granted listed status.”

The Rt Hon Lord Boateng

 

In 2017, Bridge Park was sold by Brent Council to a developer. Local campaigners fought back, but in 2020 they lost their High Court challenge against the sale of the site, leaving Bridge Park and its cultural legacy at risk of erasure. Listed status would help safeguard the centre for future generations and mark its importance as site of national architectural and historic interest. 

 

HPCC's aims:

1. To honour the remarkable achievements of Leonard Johnson and the Harlesden People's Community Council.

2. To recognise a more representative and diverse heritage through the National Heritage List for England.

3. To open up the possibility of an alternative redevelopment proposal that focuses on reactivating Bridge Park's existing fabric and re-establishing a community-led approach to its governance.

4. To foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of Stonebridge/Harlesden'scultural identity and in doing so, act as a catalyst for inclusive, sustainable, and culture-led regeneration in the area.

 

HPPC held a public meeting on Sunday 24th November 2024 at Brent Hub Community Enterprise Centre to discuss their campaign to get Bridge Park Community Centre added to the National Heritage List for England (NHLE). The meeting was attended by local residents and a number of Brent councillors, including Kathleen Fraser, Tony Ethapemi, Abdi Aden, and council leader Muhammed Butt. 

 

During the meeting, HPCC members Mike Wilson and Lawrence Fearon presented an overview of Bridge Park’s history, highlighting the site's cultural significance and impact. The presentation was followed by a video message (extract below) from award-winning British actor Ray Fearon, who shared how Bridge Park had played a pivotal role in his journey to stardom and voiced his strong support for the listing campaign.

 

.

 

Rebecca Markus, a recent graduate of the Bartlett School of Architecture (BSA) at University College London, who helped initiate the campaign, then provided insight into the listing process. She was joined by Edward Denison, Professor of Architecture and Global Modernities at the BSA, who shared his expertise and told local residents that if they decide to move forward with listing they have the BSA’s full support.

 

The meeting concluded with a Q&A session giving attendees the opportunity to voice their opinions and provide feedback. A verbal vote was then taken to determine whether residents wanted to proceed with the listing application.

 

“We're thrilled to hear a resounding ‘yes’ from the local community to move forward with the campaign,” said Mike Wilson. “The public meeting was a key moment to introduce residents to the idea of listing Bridge Park, assess community interest, and engage in meaningful discussion with local councillors about how listing could be integrated with current redevelopment plans. The strong community support voiced here today underscores the importance of safeguarding a place that holds deep social, cultural, and historical significance for the Black community.”

 

A number of questions were directed to Brent Council’s leader, Muhammed Butt, challenging the rationale behind the proposed demolition of Bridge Park. Attendees questioned the argument that the building is no longer fit for purpose, suggesting instead that retrofitting Bridge Park would not only preserve the structure but also accelerate the delivery of essential community facilities while being more environmentally sustainable.

 

Several residents also voiced concerns about not being properly consulted on the council's new plans, emphasizing that this was not in line with the recommendations of Judge Michael Green QC in London Borough of Brent v Johnson [2020], where he stated in his concluding remarks: “Now that the legal issues have been resolved in my judgment, I would again urge the parties to move on and seek to achieve, by mutual co-operation and agreement, the best outcome for Bridge Park and the local community.”

 

The Harlesden People’s Community Council invites local residents and interested members of the public to join them for a national launch hosted by the BSA on Thursday 23rd January 2025 from 6 to 8pm at the Harrie Massey Lecture Theatre, 25 Gordon Street, London, WC1H 0AY. 

 

BIG UP HARLESDEN Saturday 12 noon - 4pm, Tavistock Hall, Harlesden

 

A 'One Love' community event.

EVENTBRITE BOOKING

Hyde tenants on Stonebridge, hit by huge faulty energy bills, put forward their demands

Some of the residents faced with massive bills

Residents of the Hyde Housing Company's development in Stonebridge are in despair over huge gas bills that have put many tenants in arrears with no hope of being able to pay.

Hyde boasted of the energy efficiency of the district heating network that supplies the homes but this appears not to be reflected in residents' bills.

The situation has left residents accumulating arrears of between £1,500 and £3,000 plus.

 

The energy network is supplied by Switch2 and supplies heating and hot water to more than 50 homes. Tenants reported erratic billing and Switch2 admitted that 22 homes had been given estimated bills because their meters were not working properly. Tenants think it is many more homes than this.

As reported before on Wembley Matters heating networks are classed as commercial when they have a shared system, rather than domestic when the flat or house has its own boiler. This means that residents  served by a heating network do not benefit from the energy price cap that applies only to domestic customers.

Residents told me that their complaints about erratic and inaccurate billing have been passed backwards and forwards between Hyde Housing and Switch2, leaving them with nowhere to go to resolve the problem.

The energy supplier is procured by Hyde and tenants have no say regarding the supplier and were not consulted when Hyde recently renewed the contract, despite high levels of of dissatisfaction.  Residents are able to seek the best deal for their electricity supplier.

Some residents stopped heating their social housing properties because of the high bills, putting their own health and that of their children at risk.

Some of the Hyde social housing

Hyde told residents in an email:

Hyde only passes on the unit cost of the heat per kw/hr (plus 5% VAT), the utility provider's standing charge) plus 5% VAT and Switch 2's metering and billing costs (plus 20% VAT). Hyde's energy costs went up significantly in 2022 due to the conflict in Ukraine when both electricity and gas cost increased due to shortage of supply and other market forces. Hyde does not make any surplus on these costs and there are no 'hidden' charges.

The last sentence appears to refer to the practice of some housing providers that get a percentage of bills back from energy providers that they procure - thus having a motivation to support higher bills.

The Standing Charge on the bills shown to me by one tenant was £8.87 a month previously and reduced to £7.37 via the new contract from  July. That is an annual standing charge of £88.44 for heating and hot water before any metering charge.  In contrast OVO energy's gas standing charge for domestic customers is £5.82 per month, £69.84 annually.

Some residents said their standing charge had been much higher and said that Hyde failed to give them full information about the heating system at the beginning of their let. 

I turned to Trust Pilot to see how Switch 2 fared in terms of customer experience.

 

 The reviews are mixed but this very recent review seems to reflect the experience of Hyde tenants:

This company needs to be honest and take the comments and complaints of the customers seriously. Switch2 company is the most ineffective and expensive energy provider in the UK. They are ripping off and send brutally high charges to customers. In terms of customer services and dealing with inquiries of the customers they are the worst.

Date of experience: 05 August 2023

And this:

They have increased standard unit price by 350% and increased a standing charge from 40p to around 1 pound a day meaning that in average I would have to pay 700£ just for standing charge a year that's no gas usage included. Not even given the fact that the current unit price at 31p is three times bigger than current average of around 7-10p per kWh

Date of experience: 31 July 2023

 

The Hyde tenants have decided to put a number of demands to the Hyde and Switch2:

1. Switch 2 to check ALL meters (not just those identified by Switch2) and replace where necessary, providing Smart Meters to be provided for all residents.

2. Because of the unreliability of billing, faulty meters and administrative errors Switch2 to write off accumulated customers' debt and start the new contract with a clean slate.

3. Hyde to consider changing the heating network supplier in consulation with residents.

Morland Gardens – an alternative solution (open email to Brent Council Leader)

 A guest post by Philip Grant in a personal capacity

 

1 Morland Gardens and the community garden across the Hillside junction, September 2022.

 

Martin has already highlighted the £18m in cuts/savings which is the main item for next Monday’s Brent Cabinet meeting, but another report, which was added to the agenda on Tuesday afternoon, may be just as important. 

 

The “Update on the supply of New Affordable Homes” is far more than its bland title suggests. I hope to write a separate post about that, but first I would like to share with you an open email which I sent on Wednesday afternoon to the Council Leader and Lead Member for Housing. It offers an alternative solution to that proposed in the report by Council Officers for the Council’s controversial, hugely delayed and badly flawed Morland Gardens project. I have added some relevant illustrations, to break up the email’s text:-

 

Dear Councillor Butt and Councillor Knight,

 

The report to next Monday’s Cabinet meeting, Update on the supply of New Affordable Homes, shows that there are problems with a number of the Council’s schemes, including Morland Gardens at para. 4.26. The problems with that project are even worse than admitted in the report. I am writing to suggest an alternative solution, which I hope that you, and Council Officers, will seriously consider.

 

The Morland Gardens paragraph from the Update Report to Cabinet.
[ SO = Shared Ownership.  OMS = Open Market Sale.]

 

The report admits that the current scheme is not viable, and offers ‘to value engineer the scheme during the PCSA process’ as a possible solution. What it does not admit is that the scheme is likely to lose the £6.5m GLA funding, which was part of the original basis for Cabinet approving it in January 2020. It will lose that funding because it will not be possible for the project to “start on site” by 31 March 2023. 

 

At the moment, the Council does not have a “site” there. 1 Morland Gardens and its grounds are legally occupied, until at least January 2023, by Live-in Guardians. The Public Realm outside the property, including the Harlesden City Challenge Community Garden, which would form part of the site, has not been appropriated for planning purposes. It cannot be appropriated unless a section of highway crossing it can be stopped-up, and the proposed Order for that is the subject of objections which will not be resolved until after 31 March 2023.

 

Alan Lunt’s email of 2 June 2021.

 

In an email of 2 June 2021, copied to you both, and which is in the public domain, the then Strategic Director for Regeneration, Alan Lunt, wrote: ‘I confirm that the demolition of “Altamira” [the locally listed heritage Victorian villa] will not take place until all of the legal pre-requisites are in place.’ No work can commence before matters such as the stopping-up are resolved, and that will be too late for the GLA funding deadline.

 

Converting some of the proposed 65 homes to shared ownership, or trying to squeeze more homes into the building, instead of affordable workspace, would both need planning consent. This would mean further delay and expense. It would be throwing good money after bad, just as Alan Lunt’s risk of awarding a two-stage Design & Build contract, which Cabinet approved last June, for a project which did not have a legal site was a waste of at least £1.2m (the estimated cost of the PCSA process).

 

This project has been flawed from its early stages. It breached the Council’s adopted heritage assets policy, which was only justified for planning purposes by the “benefit” of 65 affordable homes at London Affordable Rent. If there is any change to that “benefit”, then that justification no longer exists.

 

Councillor Knight will remember that, at the Planning Committee meeting on 12 August 2020, her colleague Cllr. Aden, on behalf of all three Stonebridge councillors, was neutral on the Morland Gardens application. Although he welcomed the prospect of 100% LAR housing, he was against the loss of the important heritage asset, the overdevelopment of the site to the detriment of local residents and the inadequate parking and servicing provision, which would cause traffic congestion at the busy Hillside / Brentfield Road junction.

 

Councillor Aden’s submission, from the Planning Committee minutes, 12 August 2020.

 

It is time to rethink this project, as I suggested even before the planning decision in 2020, in detail to Stonebridge Ward councillors in June 2021 (with copy to the Leader and then Lead Member), and again to you as Council Leader and Alan Lunt in January 2022.

 

Extract from my email to Stonebridge Ward councillors on 19 June 2021 (which Cllr. Knight replied to).

 

The main reason for the 1 Morland Gardens scheme was to provide the Brent Start college with more modern facilities than those provided in the 1990s in the sympathetically restored heritage building. That modern college facility does not have to be on the Morland Gardens site. £15m of CIL money was been set aside for it in 2020, with a further unspecified amount agreed at last month’s Cabinet meeting. 

 

By working with the developer, using Section 106 if necessary, that new college could be provided as part of the Unisys House redevelopment, still in Stonebridge and alongside the new Bridge Park community facilities. That would leave the question of what to do with Brent Start until the new college was available.

 

The college is currently in a temporary home in the Stonebridge Primary School annexe. It could stay there, but the better solution would be to move it back to the existing facilities at 1 Morland Gardens. Once the new college was ready, the Morland Gardens site could be developed for housing and/or community facilities, retaining the beautiful heritage building as part of the scheme (details of which could be worked out and agreed ahead of the college’s permanent move).

 

Moving Brent Start out of the Stonebridge Primary School annexe would allow the much-delayed Twybridge Way housing scheme to go ahead. That project, which is being blocked by the Council’s mistakes over Morland Gardens, will provide 14 family-sized houses, 13 smaller flats for rent and 40 new supported 1-bedroom homes for independent living. Sensible allocation of those “NAIL” homes could allow forty existing family-sized homes in the Stonebridge area to become available for families on Brent’s waiting list.

 

Brent’s current plans for 1 Morland Gardens have been ill-conceived since the time of poor advice from Council Officers in late 2018 / early 2019. Rather than trying to press on with a project which is badly flawed, please take this opportunity to make a sensible choice, and accept the alternative solution I have put forward. 

 

Thank you. Best wishes,

 

Philip Grant

Chalkhill, Church End & Stonebridge summer events for young people

 Events on Chalkhill, Church End and Stonebridge estates over the Summer. Some have already started:

Get involved in our summer events at Chalkhill, Church End and Stonebridge Estates!

Places for in-person activities are available on a first come first serve basis. Please take the message received at the end of completing this form as a confirmation of your place in the selected activities.

If you have any questions about these activities, please get in touch with Jada Eduvie, at jada.eduvie@youngbrentfoundation.org.uk

Click here to register!

 

Call-in hearing over Morland Gardens development takes place on Thursday June 9th at 6.30pm

 The first meeting of the new administration's Resources and Public Realm Scrutiny Committee takes place on Thursday June 9th, chaired bt Cllr Rita Conneely. 

The call-in by Opposition councillors will consider the decision of the Strategic Director for Regeneration and Environment on the  award of the Design and Build Contract for the Morland Gardens (Altamira) development in Stonebridge.

Full details of the basis of the call-in have been published HERE

The Officer's report LINK gives three possible outcomes of the Committee's deliberations:

Recommendation

2.1 That the Committee considers the call-in and agrees to one of the following outcomes:

2.1.1 The Committee does not wish to refer the matter back to the decision maker or to Council, at which point the decision is deemed to be confirmed and takes effect immediately following the meeting; or

2.1.2 The Committee decides to ask the Strategic Director – Regeneration & Environment to reconsider the decision, in light of any observations of the Committee; or

2.1.3 Having had regard to the advice of the Director of Legal and HR Services or Director of Finance, the Committee considers the decision is contrary to the Council’s Budget or Policy Framework, at which point it refers the matter to the next practicable meeting of the Council, subject to the provisions of Standing Orders.

  The meeting can be watched live HERE

How Stonebridge ward nearly got a non-Labour councillor!

 

Cllr Ezeajughi in his Mayoral robes

 

It was announced on March 21st that the Governor of Anambra State, Nigeria, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo. had appointed Stonebridge councillor and former Brent Mayor  Ernest Ezeajughi, as the Chief of Staff of his administration and that Ernest would be relocating to Nigeria. LINK

 

The news took Brent Labour by surprise, only hearing about it from a magazine article, and they spent some time trying to contact him.  With the April 5th deadline looming for signed nomination papers to be submitted to the Civic Centre, there was a flurry of activity on March 31st, three working days before the deadline, and Labour's London Region got involved. They arranged to re-interview him for the nomination that evening.

He was late for the re-interview and it took place without him.  The panel decided that following his appointment he would not be able to carry out his role as councillor if re-elected and that it was against the rules not to live in the borough he serves.

Additionally Labour was worried that when it was revealed that he was not living in the borough an embarassing by-election would result - not for the first time.

 

Fearing that they would not be able to field an alternative candidate, thus conceding the seat to another party, a new panel was hastily convened on April 1st and the current Brondesbury Park councillor,  Tony Ethapemi was selected and duly signed the nomination papers.

As a former local party agent I have to sympathise with the plight the agent and colleagues found themselves in. I hope their blood pressure is back to normal!