Guest post by Philip Grant
“Altamira”, through the trees of the Community
Garden, December 2020. (Photo by Irina Porter)
It’s a couple of months since I wrote my previous guest
blog about “Altamira”, the locally listed Victorian villa in Stonebridge which
Brent Council wants to demolish. This beautiful heritage asset was restored in
1994, and is home to the Brent Start adult education college.
In August, I asked ‘when (if ever) will Brent’s redevelopment
happen?’ This followed a
previous guest blog in June, when I revealed how the Council’s failure to take
action, over a risk they had been warned about in December 2018, meant that
their 1 Morland Gardens project would be delayed.
As mentioned in comments under those blogs, I sent
copies of those articles to the Stonebridge Ward councillors, pointing out the
knock-on effect the delays were having on another (and better) Brent Council
housing project at Twybridge Way, further down Hillside. They forwarded my
emails and articles to Council Officers for a response. This was finally
received in mid-October, and I would like to thank Councillors Ernest Ezeajughi
and Promise Knight for their efforts to get that response.
I believe that, as well as letting councillors and
Council Officers know what we think about matters that are important to us, we should
also consider their views. Here is the full text of the Council’s response:-
RE: Proposed development at 1 Morland
Gardens, NW10
Thank you for your email of 30
September 2021 regarding the proposed development at 1 Morland Gardens, NW10. I
am responding to yourself in the first instance so that you may share this with
the resident and I have copied in the other Ward Councillors to this response.
As per the January 2020 Cabinet
report, the former Stonebridge School Annexe site (“the Annexe”) was identified
as temporary site for Brent Start whilst the development at 1 Morland Gardens
proceeds. In order to deliver the full benefits of the 1 Morland Gardens
development, the site requires vacant possession and so during the initial
tender for the development, the Council needed to start works on the
Annexe site so that Brent Start have their temporary location
in place prior to any demolition works at Morland Gardens.
Whilst the delays to the development
at 1 Morland Gardens means that the Annexe will be used for longer than first
proposed and beyond that of its current planning permission, this will not
change the Council’s intentions for the Annexe site. Furthermore, not using the
site for Brent Start would mean a significant reduction to the service which
provides a vital service to Brent residents. Therefore, once the Morland
Gardens moves forward under its current proposed trajectory, the Council will
recommence project delivery on the Annexe site to deliver the required homes
and NAIL accommodation as soon as it is practical to do so.
The Council continues to deliver its
new Council Homes Programme across a number of sites in the borough. The Council
shares the frustration that the original tender process did not yield the
desired outcome which has caused some of time difference between the programme
submitted to Cabinet in January 2020 and the current programme as per the
report in August 2021. Nevertheless, officers are working to deliver the scheme
and its benefits for the local community, this includes working on the planning
strategy.
Kind regards
Operational Director – Property and
Assets
The ‘former Stonebridge School Annexe site’ is properly known in Brent
Council’s new homes programme as Twybridge Way. It is meant to provide 14
family-sized houses (with gardens), 13 smaller flats for people on the
Council's waiting list, and 40 1-bedroom flats for supported living. This is
what it would look like:-
Site plan
for the Twybridge Way development (This and image below from planning
application documents)
Though I am ready to consider the Council’s position, I have to consider it
critically (that’s what scrutiny is meant to be about!). Having done so, this
is the reply I have sent to the Stonebridge Ward councillors, with copy to the
Lead Members and Council Officers involved:-
1 Morland Gardens
and Twybridge Way - my answer to the Council's response
Thank you for your email of 15 October, and for
obtaining and forwarding a response from Brent’s Property and Assets section
about the Council’s proposed development at 1 Morland Gardens.
The letter you received on 12 October, in
response to the points I raised with you on 14 August, concentrates on the need
to use “the Annexe” as a temporary home for Brent Start while the site at 1
Morland Gardens is being redeveloped. It sidesteps the two main issues:
1. The catalogue of mistakes over the 1
Morland Gardens scheme, which has resulted in ever-increasing delays to that
ill-conceived project.
2. The effect this is having on the
Council’s plans for the Twybridge Way site (originally the Stonebridge Health
Centre, now known as the former Stonebridge School Annexe, or “the Annexe”).
I will deal with the second point first.
The plans for affordable housing at
the Twybridge Way site are Phase 2 of Brent Council’s Stonebridge Redevelopment
project. This was meant to be completed by 2021, and if work had got underway
promptly after the revised scheme for this site had received full planning
permission in May 2020 (three months before the flawed 1
Morland Gardens application), completion would only be a few months later than
that.
As it is, the Twybridge Way scheme,
including its 40 “NAIL” independent living flats, cannot even begin before the
summer of 2024 at the earliest, IF the Annexe has to be tied
up for use as a decant site for Brent Start.
The 1 Morland Gardens project got off
to a good start, in the summer of 2018, when CLTH architects submitted a
winning tender for the design work. Their outline scheme would have retained
the locally listed Victorian villa, and provided a new college and some housing
on the site, without the need for Brent Start to be decanted.
Things started to go wrong towards
the end of 2018, when the architects were pressed to maximise the number of new
homes that 1 Morland Gardens (together with the community garden in front of
it) could deliver.
The delays have got worse ever since then.
·
The
architect’s January 2019 Stage 1 report said that 89 homes could be delivered,
as well as the new adult education college on the ground floor and some
affordable workspace. At that stage, construction was anticipated to begin
around September 2019, but it would need Brent Start to vacate the site.
·
That was
the prospect which was given to a group of Cabinet members (the Leader, Deputy
Leader and Lead Members for Housing and Education) in February 2019.
·
However,
when the project was put to a full Cabinet meeting in January 2020 for
approval, the number of new homes had reduced to 65, and they were told
that work was likely to begin on site in September 2020, and should be
completed by July 2022.
·
By August
2021, when proposals to re-tender for the project were approved, even if
everything with this process runs smoothly (and that is far from certain),
the best that the Council can hope for is that work on site will begin in July
2022, and take two years to complete.
Because the Twybridge Way scheme has been shackled to the 1 Morland Gardens
project, its delivery is being delayed by at least 3-4 years. I put it to
you, and to Council Officers, that the sooner Twybridge Way is freed from that link,
the better for new Council housing delivery in Stonebridge.
Yes, Brent Start does need more modern facilities, and Brent Council has agreed
to ring-fence £15.2m of the Strategic CIL funds which it already holds to pay
for those. They don’t need to be delivered through the current plans for 1
Morland Gardens. They could be provided at another site locally (such as the
Bridge Park / Unisys redevelopment), or as part of a revised scheme for 1
Morland Gardens, which would not require a decant to the Annexe.
I believe the reason that the present ridiculous situation is being allowed to
continue is that Council Officers are afraid to admit their mistakes over 1
Morland Gardens. The project has become a Juggernaut, which they insist must be
driven forward, even though it means sacrificing the timely delivery of the
Twybridge Way homes, and the beautiful heritage villa, under its wheels.
I hope you can understand why I feel the need to use such strong language.
Please do your best to persuade your fellow councillors, Cabinet members and
Council Officers to seek a better way over 1 Morland Gardens. Thank you. Best
wishes,
P.S. I will be putting the texts
of the Council's response letter (copy attached for ease of reference) and my
email above into the public domain. This is too important a matter to be
"swept under the carpet".
If you
have any (printable!) thoughts on this situation, or any suggestions on ‘a
better way over 1 Morland Gardens’, please add a comment below.
Philip Grant.
