Brent Council by-election candidates announced

Following the closure of nominations at 4pm this afternoon Brent Council has published the  statement of persons nominated:

The candidates are:

ALPERTON WARD (ONE VACANCY)
Anton Georgiou (Liberal Democrats)
Chetan Harpale (Labour Party)
Andrew Linnie (Green Party)
Harmit Vyas (Conservative Party)

BARNHILL WARD (TWO VACANCIES)
Mansoor Akram (Labour Party)
Michael Brooke (Liberal Democrats)
Martin Francis (Green Party)
Gaynor Lloyd (Labour Party)
Kanta Mistry (Conservative Party)
Peter Murry (Green Party)
Larry Ngan (Liberal Democrats)
Stefan Voloseniuc (Conservative Party)

WEMBLEY CENTRAL WARD (ONE VACANCY)
Sai Karthik Madabhushi (Conservative Party)
Jyotshna Patel (Liberal Democrats)
William Relton (Green Party)
Sonia Shah (Labour Party)

Polling Day os January 23rd 2020

Current Council:

LABOUR 56
CONSERVATIVES 3
GREEN  0
LIBEREL DEMOCRATS 0

Third Brent councillor resigns - now a Wembley Central by-election

Former Brent Labour Councillor James Powney has revealed on his blog that Cllr Luke Patterson has resigned.  This brings to three the number of Labour councillors who have resigned.

Brent Council has now posted this statement:

Councillor Luke Patterson, a local Councillor for the Wembley Central ward in the London Borough of Brent, has resigned today.

Councillor Patterson notified Carolyn Downs, Returning Officer and Chief Executive of Brent Council, of his decision to stand down with immediate effect. His resignation creates a vacancy for the office of Councillor for the Wembley Central ward. Two electors have contacted the Chief Executive to request a by-election which will take place on 23 January 2020.

The Notice of Election will be published on our website on 13 December 2019 and nominations will be accepted from 16 December to 24 December 2019.

Further information will be available after the General Election on 12 December 2019.
In the meantime, if you have any questions, please contact our Electoral Services team.

Wembley Central & Alperton Residents' Meeting October 15th at Ark Elvin

Planning Committee to decide whether to build on designated open space in Wembley Central

At the end of the long London Road, off Wembley High Road, there is a little known open space adjacent to the playing fields behind Ark Elvin Academy and Elsley Primary School. The open space is designated as such in Brent's Core Strategy Policy CP18 but planning officers argue in their report going to Planning Committee on Wednesday 19th June that it should be built on, partly because part of it has been covered in tarmac:

Officers do not consider that the site has the character or usability of conventional open space despite its designation as such. Officers therefore consider that the space could appropriately be developed for residential uses without materially detracting from the value of the playing fields open space designation.

The site is close to a Grade 1 Site In Nature Conservation (SINC) which is close to the brook to the south and is also designated as a woldlife corridor.

When I visited the site much of it was fenced off but these photographs show the nature of the site.

It is planned to remove 29 of the 43 trees on the site, including all those that have a tree preservation order.  I am not sure if it is proposed to fell the very handsome mature oak on the site that can be seen in the satellite view. Officers argue that there will be a net gain as 85 new trees will be planted as pat of the development.

Overall they argue that the loss of the open space is outweighed by the gain in terms of housing. The plan for the site can be seen below. Click bottom right corner for full page view.

As well as new housing there will be a replacement community centre slightly smaller than the present one but no new youth centre:

NAIL (New Accommodation for Independent Living) Residential Units (25 total)

     17x studio flats 
 8 x 1 bedroom flats 


Residential Units providing temporary accommodation (53 total) 


32x 1 bedroom flats (which are adaptable to a 2 bedroom layout) 


21x 2 bedroom flats (which are adaptable to a 3 bedroom layout)

General Purpose Residential Units for Affordable Rent (92 total) 


10x 1 bedroom flats 


61x 2 bedroom flats 


13x 3 bedroom flats 


8x 3 bedroom houses

 


Community Centre (293sqm indoor space + 168sqm outdoor space) 


There have been four letters of objection to the development and a 57 signature petition of objection from nearby households. Elsley Primart School supported the development on the basis of local housing need.

Wembley & Alperton Residents' Meeting March 18th

St Modwen sells Wembley Central Shopping Centre

St Modwen Properties today announced it had sold its 118,000 sq ft Wembley  Central Shopping Centre along with the 86 bed Travel lodge to an unnamed buyer at an undisclosed price.

The company also sold its Longbridge Shopping Park and together the sales represented 27% of their retail portfolio.

The sale occurs at a time of retail sales decline as a result of the current ecnomic situation  and consumers' switch to on-line sales.

Major companies shedding retail property raises questions about Brent Council's  strategy of creating a retail corridor from Wembley High Road to the LDO at Wembley Park. Brent planners often stipulate retail units on the ground floor of new medium and high rise developments. The new build on the High Road frontage of the old Copland High School is expected to include retail LINK.

In Wembley Park, the site of the current Stadium Retail Park that include Currys and McDonalds is ear-marked for redevelopment. LINK

Clearly the buyers of Wembley Central Square must see some prospect of an adequate return on their investment but it will be worth keeping a wary eye on the pattern of development in the future.

Wembley & Alperton Residents' Meeting Monday March 19th 7pm

This is the rearranged date for the meeting that was cancelled due to the 'Beast from the East'. Better luck this time!

Cabinet approves Wembley Park-Harrow Weald Cycling Quietway

Click bottom right square to enlarge

The Brent Cabinet has approved the Wembley Park to Harrow Weald Quietway (purple on map) for cyclists to go forward for detailed design and consultation.

The plans also contains possible spurs to Wembley Central and along Churchill  Road to Kenton Road. The Council claims that the route will contain improvements for pedestrians as well as cyclists.

A spokesperson for Brent Cyclists said:

This could be a good thing for cycling, depending very much on the detailed design, which we expect to be given input into. 

Cycle routes on narrow, heavily parked, residential roads, as proposed here, can only attract new cyclists if they are really low-traffic, and this can only be achieved with 'mode filtering', whereby only cyclists, pedestrians and emergency vehicles can use the road from end to end (while still allowing motor vehicle access to all properties). 

In the case of the route suggested here, certainly Brook Avenue and Draycott Avenue, which are quite busy roads, and possibly others, would need mode filtering for a satisfactory Quietway route to be achieved.

Double Whammy Wembley Works

With road works now taking place outside Wembley Central station as well as on Wembley High Road outside the Brent House building site, residents are getting increasingly frustrated as tailbacks develop. Things were not looking great for this evening with wet roads, two sets of works and Spurs playing Brighton!

Brent Council has responded to a resident by setting out the latest position regarding the works:

The works near Wembley Central Station are been undertaken by UK Power Networks (UKPN), these works are urgent because there has been an intermittent power failure which has affected up to seventy five shops along the High Road.

Originally, the footway opposite Wembley Central Station was closed and two new temporary pedestrian crossings were placed either side of the excavation so that pedestrians could safely navigate their way around the closed footway. Unfortunately, pedestrians were not using this facility, instead, pedestrians were walking in live traffic lanes which is clearly unacceptable. The only safe option was provide a safe pedestrian walkway in the carriageway and control traffic with two way temporary signals, the carriageway at this location was not considered wide enough to accommodate two way traffic and a pedestrian walkway.

I have been to site this morning and we have instructed UKPN to back fill and open the footway and open the carriageway to normal two way traffic, this should be in place for the evening rush hour.

There is still a fault on the cable and UKPN will need to undertake more works at this location, where possible these works will be planned to occur in non-traffic sensitive times only.

I can assure you that all planned works have been postponed until after the sewer works are complete but emergency works cannot be postponed.

Raised Voices for Palestine at Wembley Central station

Raised Voices at Wembley Central Station

Guest blog by Raised Voices

On Thursday evening commuters at Wembley Central station were greeted with some lively songs in support of justice for Palestine. Raised Voices choir couldn’t have chosen a better day to gather at the station entrance to highlight the Palestinian cause. For simultaneously, out there in the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinians themselves were raising three days of rage and rampage in response to Donald Trump’s controversial announcement that he would move the US Embassy to Jerusalem.

Raised Voices LINK choir had obtained permission under Transport for London’s charities scheme to sing in this busy station for their pre-Christmas busking event to raise funds for the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians LINK. MAP is an energetic organization founded more than thirty years ago, with offices in Ramallah, Gaza and Lebanon as well as Islington, north London. It reaches out to the most vulnerable Palestinian communities with the aim of achieving the highest attainable standard of healthcare in those hostile circumstances. ‘Health and dignity for Palestinians’ is their motto.

Maternal and child health is a strong focus for MAP, including advice, support and training for neo-natal doctors and nurses, and treatment for malnourished youngsters. In the West Bank, MAP run a mobile clinic serving 31 Bedouin communities in the Jordan Valley with primary health care, including ante- and post-natal services. In East Jerusalem the charity is supporting psychosocial activities for children mentally damaged by the tensions of that contested city.

To the Gaza Strip MAP send teams of orthopaedic and plastic surgeons to operate on individuals with the most serious and complex injuries, deliver essential equipment and train specialist Palestinian surgeons who are prevented from obtaining advanced training overseas. MAP procured and delivered a stunning half a million pounds-worth of surgical equipment for limb reconstruction surgery after Israel’s attacks on Gaza in 2014. 

For their part, Raised Voices singers are a member of a lively UK-wide movement of ‘campaigning choirs’, that come together annually in a ‘street choirs festival’. They meet every Thursday evening at the Doreen Bazell Community Centre in Chenies Street, St.Pancras, to develop and practise an impressive repertoire of songs that range across a number of urgent themes including opposition to militarism, war and the arms trade; welcome to refugees; and responsibility for the environment. 

Raised Voices are actively seeking new members, so if your New Year’s Resolution this time around is ‘getting active for change’ and if you love to sing but draw the line at Christmas carols, here’s your chance: roll up at the Doreen Bazell Centre at 7.30 one Thursday evening and give it a try.

Further information:  
info@raised-voices.co.uk     info@map.org.uk

Concrete blocking Wembley High Road's main sewer will add to residents' woes

Wembley Central residents, already suffering from  dust and air pollution as a result of building works in the High Road are now faced with works on the main sewer that runs beneath the busy road.

Thames Water confirmed today that there is concrete in the sewer ands they are having to use tankers to pump out the sewage which would normally flow through the blocked pipe.

A spokesperson for Thames Water said, 'We are investigating the source of the concrete and hope to start work to remove if from the sewer next week. Sadly this is an all too common problem that we face.'

The works are likely to cause more chaos with Wembley Stadium having a full programme of events over the next few weeks. 

Saturday July 22nd Heart of Wembley Fesival, Wembley High Road

From 'Wembley Futures'

On Saturday, 22 July 2017 Wembley Futures will be hosting the second annual Heart of Wembley Festival. This exciting community event will take place from 1pm-6pm on Wembley High Road, from the Park Lane junction with the High Road towards the Wembley Triangle.

The Festival is one of the activities by Wembley Futures, one of 150 recipient groups across the UK to be awarded funding by The Big Local. A long-term innovative programme that aims to achieve lasting change, The Big Local provides a mixture of funding, finance and support. The Big Local is an opportunity for residents in Wembley Central to make a massive and lasting positive difference to their area. In addition to celebrating the Big Local success, the Festival aims to enthuse residents, businesses and partner organisations about the possibilities that Wembley Futures and Wembley Central present.

The Heart of Wembley Festival will celebrate the communities in Wembley Central through a mix of both local and professional music and dance. Among the musicians playing onstage will be Dhol2Dhol, outstanding performers and instructors of the vibrant Dhol drum, who have played major events such as the closing of the 2012 Paralympic Games and the London Marathon 2017; The London Belles, a chic vintage music trio playing favourites from the 1940s and beyond; rock band Harripaul, and singer-songwriter Doriane Woo. Move and sway to the headline act, Marta and Emiliano jazz band with a Latin American feel. The stage will also showcase the DJ talents of MC Nino, sounds of Ebony steel band, and a spoken word performance by festival MC, Bries. Dance groups representing the art form from across the world include street dancers from Elan Arts, South Asian Kathak dancers from the Encee Academy, Nepalese dancers from the British Gurka Nepalese Association, and Salsa dance from Wembley-based, Mambo City.

Shaun Wallace, one of the ‘chasers’ on the ITV quiz show The Chase, will be attending the Heart of Wembley Festival as the celebrity guest. The quiz show pits four contestants against the Chaser, a ruthless quiz genius determined to stop them winning the cash prize. Wallace, who won Mastermind in 2004, is a barrister and also known by the names ‘The Legal Eagle’ and ‘The Dark Destroyer’.

The Heart of Wembley Festival is a free event and will be a family-friendly environment, with children’s rides, a fascinating bubble show from bubbleologist Graham Maxwell, street theatre, community and information stalls, and stalls offering tantalising world food, fashion, gifts and jewellery.

Francis Henry, Chair of Wembley Futures, said: “I hope to see both new and familiar faces at the Festival in July. We are building on the success of last year’s Festival and look forward to a great day out with friends and neighbours, making the most of our local community.”

For more information please contact Osita Udenson on 07875 588 107 or udenson@btinternet.com.

Rugby World Cup disruption in Wembley on Sunday

New Zealand play Argentina in the Rugby World Cup on Sunday afternoon (k.o 16.45) and there will be some road closures in the Wembley Park area,  Full transport details HERE

Now Wembley Central development up for sale

St Modwen has announced that it is putting its Wembley Central development up for sale. This follows Quintain's £700m sale of Wembley Park to US private finance firm Lone Star.

The Wembley Central sale is much smaller with an  expected price in excess of £37.5m for a project with 118,000 square feet of retail space, a 24 hr car park and Travel Lodge hotel. 273 new housing units have been built at Wembley Central.

The sale is being handled by Kitchen LaFrenais Morgan LINK

Councillor Sam Stopp Appeals to Wembley Matters on Affairs of the Heart

Well, have to have a headline that will make you read this message from Councillor Sam Stopp! Putting aside political differences it is for a good cause.

You may have heard through the grapevine that I'm running the London Marathon for the British Heart Foundation, with the aim of raising £1500 for the charity.

You probably know that Wembley Central, and indeed Brent at large, has a very high rate of cardiovascular-related diseases. But the British Heart Foundation commissions life-saving research to fight this blight on our lives.

I would therefore be grateful if you could share this tongue-in-cheek video I've made promoting the charity. Would be delighted if you could mention it on your blog :)

 

The video is HERE

Cheers,

Sam

Cllr Sam Stopp

Last chance to have a say on the Welsh School plans in King Edward VII's Park

The Planning Application by the Welsh School to take over the Bowling Green Pavilion in King Edward VII Park, Wembley as a school and to build an additional classroom, lay a playground and remove 4 category B trees (a Monterey Cypress and 3 Irish Yew Trees) was deferred at the Planning Committee to allow for wider consultation and to consider alternative sites within the park for a land-swap. That consultation is now taking place. This  Guest Blog from Denise Cheong addresses some of the issues involved.

Dear Wembley Matters Readers

Re-consultation has begun for planning application no. 14/4208 for the London Welsh School in  King Eddie’s Park.

The London Welsh School has submitted 3 additional supporting documents.

The document titled “Additional Statement” uploaded on 26/1/2015 states in the introduction that:

”This additional statement was produced by the Welsh School in conjunction with Brent’s Property and Projects, and Sports and Parks Service.”

Point 2) refers to the Brent wards the park is located within and borders.

The additional statement incorrectly states that:

”This park is located in Preston ward but its boundaries border Wembley Central and Tokyngton Ward.”

A Brent borough ward map shows that King Eddie’s park is actually located in both Wembley Central and Preston Wards, bordering Tokyngton Ward.

Annotated London Borough of Brent Ward Boundary Map Showing Locations of Bowls Pavilion and Bowls Greens, Wembley Central, Preston and Tokynton Wards © Crown copyright and database rights 2013 Ordnance Survey 100025260

- The bowls pavilion and both bowls greens are located in Wembley Central Ward.

- Collin’s Lodge (the mock tutor house beside Park Lane), the derelict yard (assigned to Veolia as a depot) and the steep bank proposed for the land swap are within Preston Ward.

Wembley Central Ward Councillors are: Cllr Sam Stopp, Cllr Krupa Sheth, Cllr Wilhemina Mitchell-Murray

Preston Ward Councillors are: Cllr Matthew Bradley, Cllr Patricia Harrison, Cllr Jean Hossain

Tokyngton Ward Councillors are: Cllr Muhammed Butt, Cllr Orleen Hylton, Cllr Ketan Sheth

(as listed on Brent Council website on 04/2/2015)

The case officer has said that she will accept comments up to and including Wednesday 18^th February 2015.

With Martin’s extensive coverage of this planning application you will all be aware of the background to this proposal by now.

We urge all Wembley Matters readers, if you have any thoughts whatsoever on this scheme, to make formal comment either via the council website or via written correspondence with the case officer, Victoria McDonagh, planning application no. 14/4208  LINK

Now is the time for your voices to be heard.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Denise Cheong

Your Wembley Central Resident Neighbour

Member, Princes Court & Keswick Garden Residents Association

Chair & Blog Editor, Friends of King Eddie's Park: Friendsofkingeddies.blogspot.com

Blog Editor, Wembley Champions: Wembleychampions.blogspot.com

Steering Group Volunteer Member & Communications Editor, Big Local Wembley Central: http://www.biglocalwembleycentral.org/

Team Member, Wembley Crime Prevention: http://www.wembleycrimeprevention.org/

Breakfast time queues of Romanians at Brent Civic Centre to vote in Presidential election

There were queues from 8am this morning as Romanians now resident locally queued to vote in the second round of the Romanian presidential elections.

Traffic slowed to a crawl between Wembley Park and Wembley Central during the morning as the election queue coincided with the new Wembley Market and the opening of the ice rink.

Turnout was reported to be up to twice as high as in the first round of the election.

If only Brent residents were so keen on voting!

BrentARC steps up rights campaign over Operation Skybreaker

Brent is one of five London boroughs to be chosen as the target for Operation Skybreaker. This follows targeting of the borough by racist organisations such as the BNP, Britain First and the South East Alliance and by the UK Border Agency and Home Office through the racist van and raids on tube stations.

Today the Brent Against Racism Campaign (BrentARC) will be in Wembley Central  distributing the leaflets below informing the public and businesses about their rights regarding Operation Skybreaker.

The leaflet below is particularly aimed at small business owners:

Operation Skybreaker likely to create fear, suspicion and division in Wembley Central

 

https://network23.org/antiraids/

Operation Skybreaker is an attempt at engagement within local communities to force people who are here without permission to go back. Operation Skybreaker, a pilot project, will run for about another five months and target five London boroughs, Brent, Ealing, Greenwich,  Newham, and Tower Hamlets. It will focus on businesses that employ people illegally, registry offices, and housing services. In Brent it will focus on Wembley Central ward.

Here Brent Anti Racism Campaign explore the issue.

Operation Skybreaker the latest government crackdown on illegal immigrants has been painted in a misleadingly positive light (Home Office to target bosses who employ illegal immigrants in Wembley, kilburntimes.co.uk, 22 August). Operation Skybreaker will be rolled out across five London boroughs, of which Brent is one. It will target businesses, registry offices and housing services. But in Brent it seems that the focus will mainly be on business premises in Wembley Central.   

The Home Office has delivered reassurances that the objective of Operation Skybreaker is to enforce compliance, but given the number of different types of legal paperwork relating to one’s immigration status, this is really difficult. Although it is true that undocumented workers are extremely vulnerable to exploitation, let’s not pretend that the latest government endeavour is part of some sort of compassion led agenda to end exploitative labour practices.

If this government cared about exploitation, the minimum wage would have been raised significantly, there would have been no bedroom tax and public sector employees would not have been subject to pay freezes. One of the evident motivating factors behind Operation Skybreaker is to develop marketing propaganda for the Conservative party against the UKIP threat. The three major UK political parties are in a race to create an image of being tough on immigrants, whether they are here legally or not. Anti migrant sentiment is rampant across the UK and Europe, and this is exactly what the government is pandering to ahead of the General Election.

Additionally, as we saw with Operation Centurion, people working here legally who may not “look right” are very likely to be targets.  There was a significant element of racial profiling in this last operation. The Home Office has stressed that there will not be a heavy handed approach, but the department has a far from rosy track record.  Following the “go home” vans, the racial profiling by UKBA officials in Brent last year and the deaths and poor treatment of asylum seekers in custody, there is a real lack of trust. This will be further weakened in the very diverse but cohesive London communities which will be subject to raids in the coming months.  

A vital question to ask is how effective are these actions? Are the results really worth the community tension caused by racial profiling and wrongful arrests? Also let’s not forget that “weeding out” rogue employers also means low paid workers will lose the little income and security they and their families have. There is a risk they will be deported into some potentially quite dangerous circumstances. These are not nameless, faceless people we are talking about.  These are people living in our communities.  The term “illegal immigrant” is toxic, and incredibly dehumanising. We simply do not hear enough of the human side of the story in the media that would contextualises a person’s life choices.  It is highly unlikely you choose to enter a country illegally and take on quite a difficult existence, unless there are some dire circumstances driving you to take such decisions. We really need a more open and compassionate discussion at a national and international level on how we treat undocumented workers.

As it stands the Skybreaker operation is likely to create suspicion, fear and division in our community and should be opposed.

Background LINK

Brent Anti Racism is organising opposition to Operation Skybreaker and ensuring people affected have access to independent advice. If you want to get involved in this or any of our other activities please contact brentantiracismcmapign@gmail.com

Navin Shah calls for Crossrail branch to Wembley Central and Harrow and Wealdstone

From Navin Shah's Office

 

Navin Shah AM today used his appearance at the planning inquiry into London Plan alterations to argue for a new branch of Crossrail 1 linking from Old Oak Common to Wembley, Harrow & Wealdstone, and beyond. Mr Shah argued that providing this important piece of transport infrastructure would unlock the expected development of these town centres.

The comments came at today’s session of the Examination in Public at City Hall, where the Mayor’s further alterations to the London Plan are being examined by an independent inspector.

Mr Shah also argued that the proposal to designate Harrow & Wealdstone as an Opportunity Area must not become an excuse to allow high-rise development that is inappropriate for the area. He said there must upfront funding for key infrastructure as well as genuine community involvement so that decisions about development reflect the concerns and hope of local people.

After attending the Examination in Public today, local London Assembly member Navin Shah said:

The new branch of Crossrail 1 extending from Old Oak must include stops at Wembley and at Harrow & Wealdstone, and the London Plan must be amended to reflect this. Connecting these important Opportunity Areas with the necessary transport infrastructure is vital to ensure that development is done in a way that benefits the local community, and reflects their concerns and their hopes for the area.

If Harrow & Wealdstone is going to be designated as an Opportunity Area, it must have upfront funding provision for key infrastructure works like step free access for Harrow On the Hill Station and Redevelopment of Bus Station.

The Examination in Public presents a significant opportunity to shape the London Plan, the Mayor’s strategic planning framework for London. I participated in order to stand up for the future of Brent and Harrow on key issues of concern like our need for homes and jobs, town centres, community facilities, and regeneration.