'Talk & Walk' urban food growing spaces with Granville Kitchen today

'Talk and Walk' event at Granville Community Kitchen Urban Food Gropwing is holding this event today as part of London National Park City Week:

28 July 2018 2pm – 3.30 pm

Meet at the Granville 140 Carlton Vale, NW6 5HE

Granville Community Kitchen invites you on a tour of three inner city growing spaces where you will be able to get involved in growing activities. Granville Community Kitchen is a community-led initiative for the South Kilburn community to access healthy, affordable and sustainable food and grow community!

Mrs Plug may get Willesden Green Library re-opened 'towards the end of next week'

The latest from Brent Council on the closure of Willesden Green library because of water supply problems:

The Library at Willesden Green is still closed. New parts are currently being fitted to repair the water tank. If all goes well the engineers say we will be able to reopen towards the end of next week. We will keep you informed as we get further updates. @Brent_Council

Butt's crocodile tears on South Kilburn

The Brent and Kilburn Times has a story about the recent public meeting on South Kilburn and the impact of regeneration and HS2. LINK  One resident has said disruption was so bad that he wanted to move away. The Kilburn Times reports:

Cllr Muhammed Butt, leader of Brent Council, felt he “had to step in” on hearing residents wanted to move away.

He said: “I’m edging on the side of residents. 

“There’s a lot of regeneration taking place for the next 15 years or more and we must do all we can to safeguard the residents. “If he’s talking about moving out the area, we need to have a serious conversation.”

However, he was later challenged on why he petitioned HS2 to move the vent shaft from its original spot in a Queen’s Park car park in Salusbury Road

Cllr Butt has absoutely no excuse for not being aware of the issues as this blog has brought it to attention several times in posts from Pete Firmin, a resident and tenants represenative and a member of Kilburn Labour Party.  This is one blog that Pete wrote on May 26th 2015  LINK about the HS2 shaft that Brent Council asked HS2 to put next to Canterbury Works and a primary school on the estate, rather than the  council owened site next to Queens Park station which at the time was away from any residences. Brent Council has now given planning permission for flats on that site. Pete Firmin's post received 53 comments which are worth reading.

Guest blog by Pete Firmin, South Kilburn resident
 
On Friday 22^nd May, pupils, parents teachers and local residents held a protest at the gates of St. Mary’s Catholic Primary School in South Kilburn against the proposal from Brent Council that the ‘ventilation shaft’ for HS2 be sited right next to the school and close to flats.

Apparently such ventilation shafts are necessary at certain distances along the line in order to get rid of the air pushed in front of the speeding trains, otherwise they would slow the trains down. Such vent shafts are not a small thing, being usually about 25 m by 25 m and 2 storeys high – the size of a small block of flats. Such an enterprise is calculated to take up to 6 years building work, involving movement of over a hundred lorries a day to and from the affected area at peak times, with the association noise, disruption and dust...

HS2’s current proposal is that this be sited close to Queen’s Park station, but Brent Council is pressing that it be on the Canterbury Works site next to St Mary’s school instead. Some studies suggest a ventilation shaft is not essential at either site.

Brent Council’s proposal ignores the pleas from local residents and school staff and users and is putting its regeneration scheme above any concern for the health and wellbeing of students and residents. They have the support of Queens Park residents in this, who feel the vent shaft would be a “blight” on their community, despite the disruption and siting being much further from their homes and schools than is proposed for South Kilburn. As so often, South Kilburn is seen as the dumping ground for things that Brent and its middle classes regard as ‘undesirable’.

The issue of Brent and HS2 has a background. The local Tenants and Residents Association has been asking Brent Council about HS2 and how it will affect us for years, ever since we discovered it is due to run underneath (or very close to) our flats. Unfortunately, unlike Camden, Brent Council didn’t seem to be looking at this at all, its only comments being that HS2 offered great ‘business opportunities’ for Old Oak Common. Even when we got letters from HS2 saying they may want to Compulsorily Purchase our properties we got no support from Brent. We’ve all had at least 2 such letters now, and, despite our urging, Brent Council appears to have done nothing to get proper answers from HS2 on this. Some people have been told verbally that this is just something that HS2 has to do and they will not be wanting to CPO our properties, but we have never had such a commitment from HS2 in writing.

Then, despite us asking for years that Brent take up our concerns and nothing happening, we discovered from a third party that a report on HS2 was due to go to Brent Council  in March last year. This was the first we knew about proposals about the siting of the vent shaft, when the report argued for its siting in South Kilburn rather than next to Queens Park station. We asked that we be allowed to address the Council when it discussed the report, but this was refused. Instead we were given a commitment that our concerns would be taken on board. Given our concerns included opposition to the Council’s push for the vent shaft site to be adjacent to the school and our flats, this was clearly not the case.

Then this year we saw by chance an email from a Council officer to one of our Councillors which said “HS2,  we continue to lobby for this to be relocated from the Council owned site at Salusbury Road car park to the rear of Canterbury Works. Various professional studies have been commissioned which support this Full Council approved stance and have been recently submitted to HS2 for their consideration.”

Around the same time the headteacher of St Mary’s school came away from a meeting with HS2 and Council officers convinced the vent shaft was going to be put next to the school. Soon after leaflets were put through our doors campaigning against the vent shaft being sited there. This came from people associated with the school, and since then they have had a meeting for all parents, produced petitions and initiated the protest outside the school. 

Local residents support the opposition from school users to the siting of the shaft here, but there is an added complication. The leaflets put through every door and the drive behind the school campaign come from a PR company employed by the property developers building luxury flats (no social housing) at Canterbury House (also next to the school and a block of flats) and property developers hoping to build a ten-storey block of flats on the Canterbury Works site (currently a vehicle repair site, and the site where Brent wants the vent shaft site to be). 

Many of us are opposed to both the siting of the vent shaft next to the school and our flats and ANY further development of the site. We think that having been living on the middle of a regeneration building site for the last 3 years (with the myriad of complaints that has involved, about which Brent has done nothing), we should have respite from any further development and the disruption, noise and dirt involved. Added to which, the Canterbury House development is luxury flats only (advertised as in Queens Park, even though in the middle of South Kilburn), and development on the Canterbury Works would probably be similar, or at the very least the low proportion of social housing we are now seeing in SK ‘regeneration’), this would only add to what we have called the ‘social cleansing’ taking place with regeneration. SK is also already one of the most densely populated parts of Brent. 

We have lost some our little green space through regeneration, we would like to get some back rather than further development. So, as well as opposing the siting of the vent shaft here, we would oppose planning permission for further flats on the site too. Some of us joined the protest outside the school with placards opposing both the HS2 vent shaft and the property developers.

Just to be clear, the PR company’s employee working with the school put on the “No to HS2 at Canterbury Works” Facebook page “We do not want to see a ventilation shaft at Canterbury Works, we are protecting the interests of Canterbury House and a ventilation shaft would be detrimental to this development and to its future residents who will be part of the South Kilburn community.” 

Protecting the interests of Canterbury House means the property developers, it couldn’t be more explicit. Future residents seem to take precedence over current ones too. When they started work on Canterbury House (the building has been empty for years, even though planning permission was obtained some time ago), they knew that HS2 was going through the area and people had been served with potential CPO orders. Our belief was that they were hoping for maximum compensation (unlike us!) and that was why they pressed ahead.

We are hoping we can have one united campaign involving both school and local residents against the siting of the vent shaft here. There does seem to be an attempt to keep us at arms length from the school campaign, given our critical stance.

As so often, Brent Council has spent years ignoring the concerns of local residents and is now intent on pressing HS2 to trample on the interests of both school pupils and residents.

This letter from Pete Firmin to Scrutiny Committee provides detail on residents’ concerns about the South Kilburn redevelopment in general as well as the shaft: LINK

Brent Council issues parks and allotments fire warning

BBQ at Barn Hill Open Space at the weekend

Scorched grass after fire at the Open Space (not caused by above BBQ)

Brent Council has now put out the following announcement:

Due to the very high temperatures we have been experiencing over the last month, the London Fire Brigade have issued a temporary ban on all BBQs in parks across London. This is due to the risk of fire if they are left unattended. 

In Brent, we already have a complete ban on BBQs in our parks, however this is an opportunity for us to remind residents about the increased risk of fire due to the hot weather.

We appreciate that residents will want to enjoy the hot weather, however please remember your safety at all times. Perhaps you may consider alternatives such as arranging a picnic instead.

We would also like to request that allotment holders do not burn any green waste during this heat wave, to reduce the possibility of fire spreading.

If we are to have regular hot summers it may be worth the Council considering installing stone/concrete 'fire places' in its parks such as those found in North America and Australia but there are issues of air pollution to consider. LINK

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Quintain offers public tour of Wembley Park's 'green heritage' Saturday July 28th

Wembley Park 1908

Wembley Park 2018

Wembley Park has certainly changed a lot in 110 years in terms of green space. Quintain has set itself the challenging task of finding some green spaces in what increasingly looks like a concrete jungle. You can judge for yourself how successful they have been by taking part in this tour  on Saturday July 28th, 11am-12.30pm.  I regret that I am not yet well enough to take part but will be interested in a report back from any reader who joins the tour.

This is the information about the tour available on the Eventbrite booking site. I have not edited out the inevitable public relations plug for Quintain:


National Park City Week presents: A Tour of Wembley Park's Green and Open Spaces

As part of National Park City Week, Quintain, the award-winning team behind the £3bn regeneration of Wembley Park, will host a special guided tour, which will allow visitors to discover Wembley Park's rich green heritage - from “Wemba lea” i.e. Wemba’s clearing in the forest to the hedged fields of “Wembly Green” - as well as the long-term environmental vision for the neighbourhood.

Join Tour Leader Julian Tollast, Head of Masterplanning and Design at Quintain and National Park City Foundation Trustee, as he takes you through this fascinating journey through the past, present and future of this 85-acre site around Wembley Stadium, which is rapidly becoming a major new destination and neighbourhood for London. Tour highlights will include: visits to the 22 newly planted trees in Olympic Way, hailing from temperate areas across the world; the new Emerald and Elvin Gardens at Tipi; the secluded landscaped gardens to the rear of Brent Civic Centre; and a stop-over by the interactive masterplan model of the new Wembley Park, where you will be able to have a glimpse of the plans for the 7-acre park and lake being planned for the area.

Tour Leader Biography

Julian Tollast is Head of Master Planning and Design at Quintain with more than 30 years’ experience, including 17 at Farrells, working on significant and varied development projects has given Julian a great breadth and depth of understanding. Leading projects from both the client and consultant side provide him with the ability to rapidly explore and realise the potential of any opportunity and at any scale, “from District to Doorknob”. Julian’s skills in advocacy and communication built consensus to help secure planning approvals for two of London’s most significant developments and many other projects around the UK. His design and development experience coupled with skills in project leadership, management and construction enable him to help create and deliver added value across the Economic, Social and Environmental spectrum; further enhancing the reputation of the projects, companies and organisations he is associated with.

Where will I meet the group?

The orange benches meeting point opposite Sainsbury's

The official meeting point is in Market Square, by the orange benches opposite Sainsbury's at Brent Civic Centre. If you experience any difficulties finding the group, please call tour supervisor 07989 558842.


BOOK  FREE TICKETS HERE - Children under 18 must be accompanied by an adult

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Brent Council to approve 'biggest financial transaction for a generation'

The Brent Audit and Standards Committee LINK will tonight consider a paper going to Cabinet in September LINK which would give the go ahead for the Council to borrow c£230,000,000 to fully meet its commitments on its already approved£800m capital investment programme.

The paper sets out detailed  borrowing options that balance risk and cost of borrowing. The amount required in 2019-20 is £62.4m and 2020/21 £166.6m.

As indicated in the diagram above the Council can only meet day to day costs from its Revenue account so the investment programme is aimed at 'invest to save' by for example buying housing and using revenue from rents to meet day to day costs of providing services.

Brent Council: Willesden Green Library unlikely to open again before next week

In case you missed yesterday's announcement. The prolonged closure has resulted in the cancellation or postponement of some events - not great for the children's school holidays and the Reading Challenge either.

Harrow Crown Court to close?

Harrow Crown Court

I understand that staff at Harrow Crown Court were told yesterday that it might close. The proposal is at the consultation stage.

Cases currently take up to a year to be heard. Closure would mean that local victims of crime would have to travel to other parts of London for their cases to be heard.

I have asked the Court for a comment.