The Bobby Moore Bridge tile murals - will Brent’s Planners let the “cover-up” continue for the next ten years?

Guest post by Philip Grant, in a personal capacity.
 

Readers may remember a “guest blog”, just over a year ago, when I wrote about an attempt to persuade Brent Council and Quintain to put the tile murals in the Bobby Moore Bridge subway at Wembley Park (which have been hidden by adverts since 2013) back on permanent public display LINK .

An update post, last November, reported on a presentation to Wembley History Society by Julian Tollast, Quintain’s Head of Masterplanning and Design, giving what he saw as the options for the future of the tile murals, which could involve some public display of part of the murals LINK .

Quintain have now submitted their applications, seeking approval of their plans for the (Brent Council owned) Bobby Moore Bridge. 

The elevation drawing for the east side of the Bobby Moore Bridge subway,
from a document submitted in support of both applications.

Application 19/1387 is for the lighting and other fixtures that they wish to install, including illuminated panels around 3.5m high by 1.2m wide on the walls of the subway (15 on the east side and 22 on the west side), surrounded by metal cladding, and large illuminated screens facing outwards from the north and south parapets of the bridge. One section of the tile murals on the eastern wall would be displayed, showing a scene of footballers, with the “twin towers” stadium in the background, and including the plaque unveiled by Bobby Moore’s widow when the subway was opened and named in his honour in 1993.

Application 19/1474 is for consent to show advertisements on those panels and screens for the next ten years.

Although I appreciate the effort put in by members of Wembley History Society over the past year, and the willingness of Quintain to at least consider some mitigation of the “cover-up” of the tile murals, I still feel strongly that it is wrong for the murals to be hidden from public view. I will continue the fight to get them put back on permanent public display, and hope that many readers of this blog will join that fight.

I only found out about these applications from careful monitoring of Brent’s planning website. I had asked the North Area team, last year, to notify me if there were any applications relating to the Bobby Moore Bridge (which is not an “address” which the planning website allows you to monitor), but received no notification. It now appears that the only person who has been consulted about the applications, made in mid-April, is a Council Officer in the Transportation Unit (‘Neighbours/Representees: 0 by email, 0 by post’).

There doesn’t appear to have been any reference to these applications in newspaper adverts about planning cases “of Public Interest”. When I visited the subway on Saturday, there were no “Planning Site Notices” about these applications displayed on any lamp post, railing or anywhere else in the vicinity. The only one I did find was a battered old notice, for a 2018 application in Brook Road, tied to a lamp post in Olympic Square.

The only Brent planning notice in the vicinity of the Bobby Moore Bridge on 11 May 2019.

    
You could easily imagine that Brent’s planners do not want the public to know about these applications! But when I contacted the case officer dealing with one of them, I was told: ‘We would welcome your comments.’ That is good to know, and the Council will certainly receive some from me, in support of my objections to both applications. If you would be interested to know some of the comments I will be making, perhaps to assist you in making your own objections, please read on.

 

At the heart of objections to both applications are the tile murals themselves. They are an important, large scale, public work of art, specially commissioned by Brent Council and its partners to decorate the walls of this subway, in a way which showcases Wembley Park's heritage as "the Venue of Legends". They depict, in bright ceramic tiles, scenes from famous sporting and entertainment events at Wembley Stadium and Arena, and give a strong "sense of place" for both residents and the millions of visitors passing through the subway every year.

Brent’s adopted planning policy covering this location is the Wembley Area Action Plan. By seeking to cover up the tile murals, both applications go against the policies in Paras. 4.51 and 4.52 of that document, which set out the importance of public art to the area. The Plan also identifies Wembley Park Station as ‘a key gateway into the area’, and emphasises the importance of ‘a sense of arrival’. The Bobby Moore Bridge subway acts as that gateway in a literal sense, so that allowing any proposal to cover up the tile murals (which help to give that ‘sense of arrival’ at Wembley Park) breaches that planning policy as well.

Although my main concern is with the tile murals, I could not help noticing that 19/1387 also includes replacing the existing banner adverts above each end of the subway with new illuminated display screens. The top of proposed screens would be level with (or even slightly above) the top of the existing parapet balustrades. I measured the height of these balustrades during my “site visit”, and the top of them is 105cm above the pavement level. This would mean that a young child, or anyone else under around 110cm in height, or anyone in a pushchair or in some wheelchairs, would no longer be able to see the Stadium from the Bobby Moore Bridge. All they would see through the open balustrades would be the rear cladding of the screens, a few centimetres away.

 

The adverts above the south end of the Bobby Moore Bridge subway, as seen last Saturday, and as shown by the “white static visual” submitted as part of the applications.

I have written before about Brent Council’s commitment in the Wembley Area Action Plan to protect views of Wembley Stadium LINK . Planning policy WEM6 lists the protected views, which include the view of the National Stadium from: ‘7. The Bobby Moore Bridge’. The proposed new screens would deny that view to children and some disabled people, which is another reason why application 19/1387 should be refused.

The key to the advertising consent application, 19/1474, is the effect that the advertisements (which would be shown on the illuminated panels in the subway) would have on the “amenity” of this location. Special regulations for advertising consent applications were set out in 2007. Regulation 3 clearly states what the Council's responsibility is:

'A local planning authority shall exercise its powers under these Regulations in the interests of amenity ....' 

The Regulation goes on to say:

'… factors relevant to amenity include the general characteristics of the locality, including the presence of any feature of historic, architectural, cultural or similar interest.’ 

One of the main characteristics of the Bobby Moore Bridge subway is the presence on its walls of a large and colourful work of public art, depicting scenes of historic and cultural interest which reflect Wembley Park’s heritage as “the Venue of Legends”. As well as the tile pictures on the east wall, showing the 1948 Olympic Games (which Olympic Way gets its name from), football at the old Wembley Stadium, ice shows at the Arena, the record-breaking Michael Jackson stadium concerts and show jumping (the “Horse of the Year Show” was held at the Arena for many years), the west wall also has a variety of different sports and entertainment events depicted in the same mural style.

The tile murals on the east wall of the Bobby Moore Bridge subway (image courtesy of Julian Tollast).

It would not be 'in the interests of amenity' to allow any part of the tile murals to be hidden by the proposed illuminated advertising panels and their metal surrounds, so that Brent, as the local planning authority, has a duty to reject this application.

You might ask why these tile murals have been covered with vinyl adverts since 2013, if the case against advertising on the walls of the Bobby Moore Bridge subway is so strong? WHY INDEED! This is why:

Quintain’s original advertising consent application, 13/2987, was made in September 2013, seeking to display advertisements on the walls of the subway from 22 October 2013 until 21 October 2018. However, the application was not dealt with by Brent’s Planning Department until August 2017.

The planning case officer’s delegated report, dated 7 August 2017, concluded that ‘the [vinyl advertising] signage would have no impact on amenity.’ This conclusion was made because the case officer had not considered the existence of the tile murals on the walls of the subway at all!

It is possible that the planning officer who prepared the report was not even aware of the existence of this feature of historic and cultural significance, because the 2013 application documents did not mention the murals on the tiled walls of the subway, and those murals had been covered over with vinyl adverts, without consent (and therefore, unlawfully), since October 2013.

On the basis of the delegated report, Brent’s Head of Planning granted advertising consent on 25 August 2017 (not for the period applied for, but for 5 years from the date of consent).

It will not come as a surprise to you, when I say that I have little confidence that these applications would be properly dealt with if they are determined under ‘officer delegated powers’. That is why, since I first discovered the applications a few days ago, I have been trying to get them referred to Planning Committee, so that they can be considered and decided together in an open and transparent way. 

There are several ways in which this could happen, including Planning Committee itself saying that it wishes to deal with the applications, or at least three councillors requesting that they are referred to that committee. I have made approaches on these, so far without a result. 

The “safest” way to avoid these applications being decided behind closed doors is if: ‘8 or more written objections or a petition containing at least 51 signatures have been received, in accordance with the criteria* set out ….’

So please, if you agree with me that the Bobby Moore Bridge tile murals should not be covered over with illuminated panels and adverts, go onto the planning searches website LINK , enter the reference numbers 19/1387 and 19/1474, have a look at the applications, and submit your own written objections.

*These “criteria” are quite strict, and include that each objection ‘raises planning considerations that are material and related to the application,’ and ‘clearly states what is being objected to and gives reason(s) which are relevant planning considerations.’ An objection is only valid ‘if, in the opinion of the Strategic Director Regeneration and Environment or the Head of Planning, all of the criteria are met.’ 

On top of that: ‘Identical, similar or pro-forma letters or emails, which also meet all of the above criteria, will each be treated as a single signature in support of a petition and not as individual objections in their own right.’ 

Although you can use the reasons for objection that I have set out in this blog as a guide, please be careful to write any objection in your own words. Thank you, and good luck!

Philip Grant.

Bobby Moore to disappear under advertising again

The tunnel today with original tiling covered

A section of the original tiling

The panels are seen by Stadium, Arena & LDO visitors using Wembley Park Station

Brent Council is to enter a new 4 year contract with Wembley City Estate Management to sell advertising space on the walls of the pedestrian underpass to Olympic Way beneath the Bobby Moore Bridge.

Wembley City Estate were the previous agent and Brent claims they submitted the best value bid that will increase Council income.  Financial details of the contract have been withheld from public scrutiny.

The historic tiling which illustrates many sports, has not been viewable for several years. The tiling is still in place but concealed beneath a dressing on which the advertising is placed. Recently this has most often been used for the London Designer Outlet or the life style luxury flats recently built in the area.

Brent says that it will be able to specify the nature of the advertising and ensure that it is line with its advertising and sponsorship code.

Green AM Condemns Racist Vans 'Divide and Rule'

Jenny Jones, Green Party London Assembly member said today that she was appalled by the anti-immigrant advertising lorries that are to be deployed in six London boroughs. She said:

It is very worrying that old fashioned racist rhetoric about 'immigrants go home' has been resurrected by a Government advertising agency and put up on the sides of vans. This divide and rule approach by the Government on immigration has no place in a strongly multi-cultural city like London. We need to say no to the people at the top who are doing their best to divide our city.

Sign of Michaela's desperation?

Wembley residents were aghast when they were confronted by this gigantic 'in your face' advertising hoarding opposite Wembley Park station this week.  The hoarding was fixed to the crumbling and possibly asbestos ridden Arena House, site of the proposed Michaela Community School.

Michaela is the free school brain child of Michael Gove acolyte, Katharine Birbalsingh.  The school failed to gain support at its recent consultation meetings and is now getting desperate for custom. Apart from the advertisiing hoarding they have managed to get on the front page of the Wembley and Willesden Observer this week with a plea for parents to get involved.

Despite being funded by tax-payers' money, to the detriment of other local schools badly needing cash for rebuilding, the school promises  'private school values' whatever that means. Krutika Pau, current Director of Children and Families, while admitting that the school was 'experimental' and had no track record, nevertheless thought it accorded with Brent schools' ethos.

The advertisement  boasts of 'private school values', 'traditional education', 'strong discipline' and 'healthy competition' as well as a long school day. The subtext merits further discussion!

The school is now seeking Year 7 applications for September 2014. Parents should be aware that they will be choosing a pig in a poke compared with other Brent secondary schools which have (with the exception of Ark whose pupils have not yet reached examination age ) examination results and Ofsted reports to back up their claims. Michaela has no evidence to back up their assertions - parents have to judge whether their 'bigging up' of their plans amounts to anything substantial or is a risk too far in terms of their children's future.

Michaela's claim of being an 'Exceptional' school (word obscured by trees on the strap line of the advertisement) is based on nothing more than assertion. What does the Advertising Standards Authority say?

Support local democracy - buy the Kilburn Times

 Regular readers of the Brent and Kilburn Times will have noticed that the paper has been a lot slimmer recently.  This is the result of cost saving measures that also include a reduction in reporting staff. The Archant Group, along with other local newspaper groups such as Trinity South who produce the Wembley and Willesden Observer, are facing economic difficulties as a result of the loss of advertising revenue in the  recession and declining leadership.

The increase in free distribution of titles is one way of boosting circulation and thus making the papers attractive to advertising. As the remaining pages have to carry the advertisiments this reduces space for news item. The Letters Page has been a casualty of this squeeze on space in the BKT recently so it is good to see it back this week - not just because a letter I wrote about Central Middlesex A&E and schools was published! There was no editorial his week, presumably to squeeze in more letters, but it would be a shame to lose this feature as in my opinion they have been very influential in the past.

Letters pages in local newspapers are part of the lifeblood of local democracy and vary a great deal. The Ham and High and Camden Journal in our neighbouring borough have particularly lively pages and are often the first pages turned to by readers.

So far the slimmed down BKT has continued its high standard of reporting and they continue to originate stories and break exclusives  rather than recycling press releases which unfortunately is the role of many local newspapers with reduced reporting staff.

Our local newspapers  are particularly important in these times when both council and government cuts mean community is losing vital health, police and fire services and many families face hunger and  homelessness. With a weak opposition in  the Council the BKT has a vital role in holding our local politicians to account.

Help keep them going: buy it and advertise in it.