The new Wembley Action Plan will be discussed at the Brent Executive on Monday July 16th. The document is large and highly detailed and the key policies have been modified in the light of consultation to which Brent Green Party contributed.
The plan covers new housing, education and health facilities as well as open space. The definition of 'affordable housing' as being 80% of market rents, still puts such housing out of reach of many local people on low incomes, particularly in the light of the housing benefit cap. The plans include a new primary school and a new community swimming pool in the area and there is a cap of 20% of total housing on the provision of student accommodation.
There is a welcome section on climate change and open spaces. A possible pedestrian bridge over the railway line that would link Chalkhill with the Wembley regeneration area is an interesting proposal.
The full report is available on the Brent Council website but the preferred options are summarised below:
The following are a summary of the
key policies in the Plan by topic. There are also a
number of major site proposals which
provide further detailed guidance for developers on individual sites.
Urban Design & Placemaking
• Character & Urban Form -
Development should seek to reinforce and emphasise the distinctive character
of each locality
• A Legible Wembley - The
council will continue to focus of the three stations as the principle gateways into the
Wembley area, whilst the enhancement of nodes around key junctions will be
sought
• Public Art - Contributions
towards public art will be sought from development within the area, particularly at key
gateways or where new open spaces are proposed
• Tall Buildings - will be
acceptable only in a limited number of locations within the Wembley area. These are shown in
the Plan. A number of views to the stadium will be protected
• Olympic Way - Development
must be carefully designed and scaled to respect the predominance of Wembley Stadium
and its arch.
Business, Industry & Waste
• Strategic Industrial Locations
(SIL) - de-designation of relatively small areas of land including on South Way
(temp. Stadium car park) and the Euro Car
• Wembley Stadium Business Park -
area reduced in size with waste management limited to east of the
area
• Offices - Purpose-built
offices promoted in area close to Wembley Park station Town Centres, Shopping, Leisure And
Tourism
• Town centre boundary -
defined for area extending from Forty Lane to Ealing Road
• Sequential approach to
development - is emphasised, with large foodstore directed to High Road location,
preferably Brent House site.
• Large-scale
leisure/tourism/cultural development – is appropriate east of Olympic Way
• Hot-food takeaways - No
more within 400m of a school entrance and no morethan 7% in any stretch of primary or
secondary frontage (currently 7% in Wembley as a whole).
• Vacant sites or buildings -
promoted for occupation by temporary, creative uses.
Transport
• Improved access - for
public transport, pedestrians and cyclists, particularly along the Wembley Hill Road / Forty
Lane corridor.
• Improved highway access -
for car travel from the North Circular by improving the Stadium Access Corridor (via
Great Central Way / South Way) and the Western Access Corridor (via Fifth
Way / Fulton Way). Land take required for a number of improvements.
• Buses - incrementally
provide improved penetration of the masterplan area by buses as development is built out.
• Car parking - encourage car
parking in locations on the edge of the town centre. Parking standards to be
tighter to facilitate level of development proposed.
• Through traffic - package
of measures to discourage through traffic on Wembley High Road.
• Pedestrian access – to be
improved between the Masterplan area and High Road.
• Coach parking for stadium-
criteria based approach for locations including within 960 metres.
Housing
• Affordable Rent at up to
80% of market rent, including service charges and determined with regard to local
incomes and house prices.
• Family Housing – at least
25% of new homes in Wembley should be family sized.
• Supported Housing –
Existing supported housing protected. Extra care housing sought on sites where
development is primarily residential, where residential amenity is good and
where it is near to open space.
• Private Rented Sector –
high quality, purpose-built, private sector rented accommodation will be encouraged through
a flexible approach to the proportion of affordable housing and unit size mix.
• Student Accommodation –
will form part of major mixed use development but will be capped at 20% of the
projected increase in population
Social Infrastructure
• Primary Schools - Provision
of school land on the Wembley Industrial Park site
- identified in Site Specific
Allocation. A further (minimum) two form entry school in the vicinity of the town centre.
• Secondary Schools -
Contributions towards secondary provision will also be sought through CIL
• GP/Dentists provision -
where other local capacity (e.g. Chalkhill Health Centre) is used up-long term
provision as population grows
• Community Halls - provision
as provided in the NW Lands (i.e. smaller areas at no rent) and use this as a basis
of achieving space across the masterplan area
• Creative workspace - Cross
reference to the created in NW Lands application & intention to provide more low
cost creative workspace in mixed used developments across the area
• Sports and play infrastructure -
Cross reference to that may sit in open space and housing chapters
• Temporary uses - reference
to provision of meanwhile and temporary uses that will provide opportunities for
social interaction
Climate Change
• Decentralised Energy - major
developments will be expected to connect to, or contribute to, the Decentralised
Energy System where feasible. Developments completed before the energy centre
should be designed for future connection
• Energy from Waste - major
energy from waste facilities will be allowed only east of Fourth Way. Smaller scale
proposals to recover energy from waste generated locally will be supported
subject to impact assessments
• Greening Wembley - development
proposals must incorporate urban greening including green roofs, green walls,
trees and soft landscaping
• Flooding – proposals within
Flood Risk Zones must not reduce floodplain storage or increase maximum flood
levels. All major proposals will be required to apply Sustainable Urban Drainage
Systems
Open Space, Sports and Wildlife
• Open Space Provision - require
a new park of 1.2ha adjacent to Engineers Way, orientated E-W and 3 parks of
0.4 ha. Support enhancement and improvements e.g. a new pedestrian
bridge link across Met. /Jubilee lines to Chalkhill Open Space
• Food Growing - require
major new residential development to provide space for food growing and encourage the
use of vacant spaces for temporary food growing
• Sports Facilities - use
development contributions to improve the provision of sports facilities and the council
will make new or upgraded sports facilities available for community use out of
school hours
• River Brent and Wealdstone
Brook – adj. development sites to undertake opportunities to provide amenity
space, biodiversity improvements and semi-naturalisation of Wealdstone Brook
