Brent Council to continue Covid19 precautions in its public buildings

 Brent Council Announcement:

As of today, most COVID-19 legal restrictions will be lifted and it will be up to individuals to assess the risks and act accordingly. However in light of rising COVID case numbers in Brent and for the safety of both our staff and community, we will continue to take precautions in our public buildings.

We ask that you continue to wear a face covering in all public spaces in Brent including libraries, the gallery and museum, as will our staff. We will be leaving sanitisation stations in place and ask you to continue to scan the Test and Trace QR code on entering our buildings. 

Library opening hours

We are extending opening hours at Wembley and Willesden Green libraries from today – Monday 19th July – so they will now be open until 8pm on weekdays. We will also slowly be beginning to reintroduce our full range of services over the next few weeks and months.

We also ask that you continue to book PCs and study spaces in advance of your visit and respect others space when browsing.

We look forward to continuing to welcome you back to all our sites and will also be continuing virtual events. Thank you all in advance for helping us all keep safe and look after one another.

Council to extend consultations on Kilburn Square development over the summer

Cllr Southwood speaking on the development proposals for Watling Gardens, Windmill Court and Kilburn Square at this morning's Cabinet said that she was aware of Kilburn Square residents' concerns.  Some of these would be dealt with at the Planning Committee stage but she recognised that Covid restrictions had meant that the Council had not been able to engage with residents as much as they would lik,e so consultation would be extended over the summer. She emphasised that no final decisions would be made and she would come back to Cabinet when team had heard from 'more people, in greater depth.' She said that the main point of the agenda items was to put the necessary legal requirements in place.

 She said that they were working to improve the stability of the Tenant Management Organisation and finding ways to working towards a constructive environment in which the inevitable concerns could be addressed.

Cabinet to approve 'last resort' compulsory purchase orders on Watling Gardens, Windmill Court and Kilburn Square this morning ahead of demolition to make way for new housing

 Brent Council will be asked to approve an approach to 'in-fill' plans for Watling Gardens, Windmill Court and Kilburn Square this morning: 

To delegate authority for the Strategic Director Community Wellbeing to make an application to seek the Secretary of State’s consent under section 19 of the Housing Act 1985 to appropriate any part of Watling Gardens, Windmill Court or Kilburn Square including any part consisting of a house or part of a house so that parts of these sites are no longer held for the purposes of Part ll of the Housing Act 1985.

The estates are part of the Council's scheme to increase the number of Council homes by demolishing 59 properties at Watling Gardens and Windmill Court and the appropriation of council owned land for housing.  125 additional homes are planned for Watling Gardens, 60 for Windmill Court and 178 for Kilburn Square.

The Officers' report states that the demolition of 59 homes is not sufficient to trigger a residents' ballot under London Mayoral powers.

Compulsory purchase will only be used if negotiations with leaseholders over their loss of rights fail, the report states.

Regarding Council tenants the report says:

The project team will be basing early engagement offers of alternative accommodation and decant options for secure residents on the current Allocation Policy and the statutory consultation required in connection with the use of Ground 10A of the Housing Act 1985 4

 

The current Allocation Policy will apply to secure residents to be decanted from 1-11 Watling Gardens, 1-30 Claire Court and 1-18 Windmill Court. Under the current allocation policy secure residents affected by the infill developments will be placed into Band A on a phased basis to bid for an alternative home. Early engagement with residents and leaseholders has started with a view to obtain vacant possession of the required blocks as soon as possible

The report justifies the choice of Watling and Windmill:

Watling Gardens and Windmill Court were chosen due to the relatively low density of housing on the sites compared to modern developments in London and the fact that the land is wholly owned by the Council and thus avoids land acquisition costs. Furthermore the development provides the opportunity to carry out extensive long term soft and hard landscape improvement works. The infill programme on each of the sites will deliver new play facilities, activity areas, revised parking arrangements, improvements to a community hall, improved environmental and wellbeing spaces and solve the current problems of anti-social behaviour in the undercroft. It is possible to omit some or all of these improvements however this will reduce the positive impact of the development.

 

 There is a separate report tabled for the controversial Kilburn Square development. Keith Anderson from the local campaign against the council's plans said:

 

As far as we can see this is mainly an enabling report to allow them to do pretty much what they want on the entire area including both the clinic and mental health buildings, where the new tower and extra care facility are due to go, and all the rest of the Co-op estate site, including the trees and green space that Buildings C and D would remove.

 

We also spotted in the modifications to the Local Plan that they want to slip in a clause allowing tall buildings on the KS site – so they don’t contravene the Plan if they press ahead with another 17 storey tower. Not that any of this project, Plan A or a smaller Plan B, is covered by the Local Plan in the 0-5 year frame!

 

They’ve had strong pushback from local neighbours (and some estate residents) on the Zooms two weeks ago. And the petition is up to 740 signatures. 

 

Cllr Southwood keeps saying the designs are not finalised (and there’s a brief statement to that effect in today’s report) – but we have limited faith in that; the report also has language about the overriding need for more social housing, which they seem to think means they can ride roughshod over any counter arguments about the wellbeing of the current estate residents or the interests of our local community.

 

 The meeting takes place at 10am this morning AGENDA

You can watch the webcast of the meeting HERE

 

 

Kilburn Square  petition http://chng.it/xwxLyYcDhP

 

New Council Homes is welcoming feedback from anyone in Kilburn Brent, Kilburn Camden or Queen’s Park Wards. Details from streetgroups@mistral.co.uk 

Two men arrested over Euro2020 Final theft

 From Metropolitan Police

Two men have been arrested on suspicion of theft following allegations that they took items and shared them, for the purpose of allowing people to have unauthorised access to Wembley stadium during the Euro 2020 final.

An 18-year-old man from Ilford, London and an 18-year-old man from Newham, London have both been released under police investigation while enquiries continue.

The action comes following a commitment by the Met to investigate offences during the Euro 2020 final, which resulted in a breach of security at Wembley stadium.

Shams Court residents in revolt as yet another development on their doorstep removes their right to light

 

Shams Court, Fulton Road

A four storey block of flats, Shams Court is tucked away between Olympic Way, North End Road and Fulton Road. Gradually it has been encircled by high rise buildings and now more are on their way.

Yesterday comments closed for the existing 6 storey building facing Olympic Way (3 Olympic Way below) to be replaced by a 6 storey hotel extension, an 8 storey building and 22 storey and 25 storey towers.

3 Olympic Way (today)

Proposed

This is the description of the plans on the Brent Council Planning Portal:

21/2130 | Demolition of existing building at 3 Olympic Way and erection of 3 buildings of basement, ground and 8, 22 and 25 storeys (excluding rooftop plant) to provide 178 residential units (Use Class C3), new hotel accommodation comprising 260 rooms (Use Class C1) and a retail food store (Use Class E). 6-storey extension to existing hotel at 5 Olympic Way to provide 95 additional hotel rooms (Use Class C1) and amenities, extension of ground floor to create new colonnade and public realm improvements to Olympic Way. Other works associated with development include new access from North End Road, disabled car parking, cycle parking, private and communal amenity spaces, public realm works and other associated works | Olympic House, 3 and Novotel, 5 Olympic Way, Wembley, HA9 

Only 22 comments are recorded on the portal and as usual Brent Council hasn't published the Consultee comments for the public to see.  All 22 comments from Shams Court, Danes Court and MacLaren Court object to the development. A resident from Shams Court claims that they only found out about the proposals by accident and were thus able to inform the other 8 flats, despite the developer admitting that Shams Court is the building most affected by the plans.

This is typical of the comments:

This planning application will have a serious, detrimental impact on the health and well-being of the homeowners of the 9 flats at Shams Court, a 4 storey block.


Shams Court flats were sold in 2014 and were a part of the development holding Pinnacle Tower flats, the Novotel Hotel and other affordable housing flats. Since then we've had non-stop construction works and high rise buildings built around us, namely the Scape Wembley (29 storeys) and Felda House (17 storeys) which tower over Shams Court (to the East of Shams Court).


The development of these towers next to Pinnacle Tower (18 Storey tower to the South of Shams Court) and the Novotel (19 storeys to the West of Shams Court) left us with very little natural light and a claustrophobic environment to live in. We are overlooked in our flats and on our roof garden, leaving us with little privacy. Noise levels, anti-social behaviour, disturbance and nuisance from overcrowding of a small area with thousands of people greatly depreciated our quality of life since we first bought our new homes at Shams Court.


To grant the application of a 25 storey block immediately at the back of Shams Court (to the South) would be shameful. We are already overcrowded and overlooked. We would be left with no natural light from every single direction and be subjected to enduring increased noise pollution, disturbance, loss of privacy and anti-social behaviour.


It is without doubt that the new norm for the majority of working professionals would be to spend most, if not all, of their time working from home, without access to offices. These proposal will be detrimental to our health and well-being as Shams Court will be the place we reside for the vast majority of our days.


I must also stress that Shams Court was sold as a means of affordable housing (shared ownership). To have yet another massive building towering over us will severely lower the value of our homes, trapping the residents of Shams Court in negative equity, within homes they cannot sell due to the poor quality environment that's been created by non-stop construction of high rise structures around us.


We put faith in Brent Council to understand the detrimental effect this proposal will have on the residents of Shams Court. We hope you will protect us from these deleterious proposals. The idea of a small 4-storey block being immediately towered over by high rise buildings on every side (in very close proximity) is ludicrous. Yet this is what is being proposed.


I would urge you to visit Shams Court, or view a satellite map of the existing towers surrounding us to see the detrimental impact that this proposal would have on Shams Court residents.


When the original development was built in 2014, it's assumed the developers were granted the permission to build our development, under a section 106 agreement. The grant of which would have relied heavily on the provision of affordable housing. They are now intending to subject the same residents of their affordable housing to awful living conditions, ruining our prospects and well-being by building yet another tower on top of us. This is nothing short of cruel and deceitful behaviour.


Within the documentation provided on this portal, I can say that there are false claims of consultation between the developers and residents. There's a mention of ongoing communication with residents Dec 2020, Jan 2021 and Feb 2021. This has simply not happened and these proposals have only recently come to our attention.


The Daylight Assessment document also fails to include Shams Court on various parts of the document, for example the '2 hours of sunlight before and after' impact assessment. I believe the developers are purposefully misleading Brent Council on the impact that these structures will have on Shams Court.


For the sake our physical and mental health I sincerely hope that these plans are refused.

Another residents says:

I am a key worker who was born, lived and worked in Brent and that's why I was able to buy within our block. We really enjoy living here and generally feel that the development in the area is for the good. However, when plans will (admitted by the developer) have a detrimental effect on our living standards (and therefore our health), it is unfair that we and our baby twins (and our lovely neighbours) are either being forced to live in a terrible environment (during building but more importantly, after) or being forced out from our homes.


The developer is the same company that owns the Novotel and the Pinnacle Tower. They, in fact, built our flats as part of the then planning agreement to have part of the requirements to have a certain proportion of the development available for keyworkers - but they themselves are now pushing us out by making living conditions uninhabitable, or proposing and writing plans that will have that effect.

 

Given what happened last Sunday at Euro202 it is important that planning officers consider the impact of another high density development of Olympic (Wembley) Way on security and crowd control.

The plans have wider repercussions regarding the protections that are supposed to be in place for protected views of Wembley Stadium and what has been described as the claustrophobic, canyon like, approach to the stadium along Olympic Way.

The 'protected' cumulative view from Barn Hill. The 3 Olympic Way towers are in green outline and those in the pipeline in pink - including plans for the Wembley Stadium Retail Park and Fountain Studios site.

 The view along Olympic Way with the green and pink outlines of the proposal and those that have preliminary agreement.

 

 Danes Court in North End Road (now opened up to through traffic) the proposed development will be on the right.

Claim that 'Wembley Variant' soaring amongst fans after Euro2020

 I have just returned from Olympic Way where there was a positive and friendly atmosphere with many families present BUT even in the most crowded outdoor spaces no masks being worn. However, masks were worn in Sainsbury's my fans stocking up with beer,

The i Newspaper has published a story claiming that Covid19 is soaring amongst groups of fans who attended the Euro2020 matches at Wembley Stadium - sufficient for it to be dubbed the 'Wembley Variant'.

Report HERE It was published yesterday and updated this morning.

The introduction to the report.

Swathes of England football fans have reported testing positive for coronavirus following the Euros final on Sunday night, as Public Health England (PHE) issued renewed calls for regular testing ahead of the lifting of restrictions on Monday.

Some fans said that “pretty much everyone” they knew who headed to the stadium had contracted the virus or was self-isolating. The large numbers of fans reporting positive Covid tests following the match has led people to dub the illness “the Wembley variant”.

The final at Wembley, which was part of a Government trial to test the safety of large events, saw 60,000 fans attend with no social distancing or masks after producing a negative test result. However, thousands more congregated outside and dozens of ticketless fans stormed the stadium.

Government Data up to July 12th LINK

 

Section 35 Dispersal Order authorised for Ace Cafe and nearby areas until 14.59 on Sunday

 The Brent Independent Advisory Group  Brent IAG) has issued the following information:

Section 35 DISPERSAL has been authorised by Insp O'Connor from 15:00 16/07/21 to 14:59 on 18/07/21 CAD 4275/15July refers. 

The areas covered are ACE Cafe and surrounding areas Harlesden, tube Station, Craven Park, Hillside, North and East of Northfields Estate due to expected Anti Social Behaviour over the next two days. Dedicated officers have been resourced to be in attendance for both nights. Thank you for your continued support by passing on this information and for helping to keep our communities safe.

Background Information on Section 35 Dispersal Orders HERE

A disturbing report that every Brent councillor and relevant officer should read about last Sunday's mayhem at Wembley Stadium

 

Newspaper commentary has focused on many  aspects of last Sunday's disturbances at the Euro2020 Final at Wembley Stadium, including how the new high density developments around the stadium may have contributed by funnelling  the crowd into a narrow space. The Independent today has a comprehensive special report that every Brent councillor should read as well as senior officers and those responsible on the day.

I asked Brent Council Press Office on Monday for a statement. Today  I was told that someone was working on it. Even a statement of sympathy for those injured or otherwise affected would have at least been an acknowledgement of the seriousnes  of what had happened - but nothing has been heard up to the time of the publication of this artcile.

The full independent article can be read HERE - I will publish just three extracts below which I think will be of interest, but do try and read the whole article. Comments welcome.

 

Several sources have told The Independent that the local council and the FA do not want strong numbers of the force around as “it’s bad for optics”.

Tim Roberts, who has lived across from Wembley for 16 years and was involved in the building of it, says the priority has been “ensuring the value of the area for retail and residential investment”.

He says that Quintain, the development and asset management team behind Wembley Park, wields massive power in the area.

“The local council, Quintain and the FA have an uncomfortably close relationship, which means there is no scrutiny. We are yet to have a comment from anyone political in Brent after what we saw on Sunday, which is shocking.

“It’s as though nothing happened when we were very lucky that there wasn’t a loss of life. All the blame has been placed on the fans, but they are not solely responsible. The management of the stadium and the area around it has been appalling. Whenever issues are pointed out, it’s brushed under the carpet.

“I have spent the last few days removing far-right insignia and even acknowledging there is a large element of that accompanying England and games here just goes ignored. It’s about pretending everything is great, Wembley is great, Wembley Park is great.”

 

 

Three employees from Wise Security, which provided stewards for the final, have approached The Independent to criticise the lack of preparation they received and care after a harrowing experience.

None of them are over 22. They have spoken anonymously to prevent being blacklisted for future jobs and confirmed that there had been fake stewards inside Wembley, that some accepted bribes because “the pay is a joke”, that there was no detailed plan of anything that could go wrong on the day or how to handle it, and that even after suffering both racist and physical abuse by ticketless fans, there’s “been more PR than caring about what we’ve just been through and asking if we need help.”

One of them, a young Asian male born in the south of England who was stationed in a stand that became overrun with ticketless fans, was racially abused. “I was told, ‘Go back to Pakistan. Don’t tell us where we can go in our own country, this is our stadium. All lives matter, but not P*** lives.’”

He says he was in fear of his own safety, but more worried that “a lot of people could die here, right in front of me”.

 

 

While the unacceptable actions of ticketless fans was deplorable and central to the dangerous scenes on Sunday, there was also a “serious failure of security and stewarding,” according to a safety officer of a Premier League club. Accountability must follow.

He was “completely staggered” by what he saw unfold at the stadium. He reached out to The Independent, but asked for his identity to be protected. His account of events tallies with a stream of testimonies from several different stakeholders.

“I can categorically tell you that the majority of stewards I directly came across or watched on Sunday had no training for the role. I would put money on it that a lot of them have never worked a big football match before, or any kind of match. They were young, out of their depth, and the ones who innocently turned up to do what must seem a fun job are also victims of what happened.

“Who was the stadium safety officer? What was the plan and protocol? Was every steward clued up on the layout and what to do in case of any and all emergency situations?

“What I saw on Sunday is a product of what we’ve seen for a long time in my line of work: cost-cutting and loss of quality control. There are very few solid, reputable security companies. Most will hit the number of stewards by any means necessary, which includes not bothering whether they have an NVQ or not.”

 

FOOTNOTE

From the Leader of Brent Council, Muhammed Butt's  Register of Interests on the Council website

11/07/2021 - 2 x tickets Final Euro's. Aprroximate value £150.00 x 2. Received from GLA
7/7/2021 - 2 x tickets England v Denmark. Approximate value £150.00 x 2. Received from GLA
13/06/2021 - 2 x tickets England v Croatia. Approximate value £150.00 x 2. Received from GLA