Join thousands next week to show your support for the NHS and opposition to the Health and Care Bill

Brent campaigners for the NHS are being urged to support the above events by Brent Keep Our NHS Public
 

What can we do about the Nationality & Borders Bill? Brent TUC November 24th

 

BRENT TRADES COUNCIL ONLINE PUBLIC MEETING

THE NATIONALITY AND BORDERS BILL

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?

WEDNESDAY 24TH NOVEMBER - 7PM

SPEAKERS:

Wilf Sullivan – TUC National Race Equality Officer

Tamzin Doggart - Brent Care4Calais

 

Priti Patel and the Tories lack basic humanity. Boris Johnson's government has

taken a further step towards authoritarianism with this anti-refugee and asylum seeker legislation intended to divide

our communities, increase racist attacks and distract from the real causes of

inequality and injustice.

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83653029009?pwd=cVJuVmtXTXVQZmRkc0hEY3V1S05TUT09

Meeting ID: 836 5302 9009

Passcode: 337236

 

Thames Water and Environment Agency will attend Brent's January Scrutiny Committee to answer urgent questions on the flooding threat

 

  Recording of November 10th Public Realm and Resources Scrutiny Commitee

The recent Resources and Public Realm Scrutiny Committee heard a heart-rending story from a local resident about her experience in the recent Kilburn floods and from Brent Council officers about the authority's responsibilities regarding flooding and fluvial and surface water occurrences. 

Unfortunately the Council's main partners, the Environment Agency and Thames Water did not attend but will do so in January 2022. The officers' Report can be found HERE.

 

Ruined household items after the July floods on Westminster side of Kilburn Park Road (My London News)

The importance of hearing directly from Thames Water is highlighted by this extract from the My London News coverage of the July floods LINK:

Speaking to the subcontractors working for Thames Water attempting to lower water levels in the drains next to her property, [Aimee] asked about the chances of it happening again, to which one engineer reportedly told her: “The whole system has been compromised. Of course it will happen again.”

Aimee, who is eight months pregnant, claims an engineer employed directly by Thames Water then took the subcontractors to one side in order to speak with them alone.

The following day, she says she was visited by a Thames Water employee who 'looked more senior' and told her the subcontractors 'should not have said that'.

But, when pushed, Aimee claims the engineer couldn't say the flooding would not happen again.

Post flood 'repair' photographed recently on my visit to South Kilburn Estate

As readers will know Wembley Matters has published a number of articles recently on flooding in the area in the light of the number of increased extreme weather events as a result of climate change. I posed a question to the November 22nd Full Council on this and the question and response are below:

1. Question from Martin Francis to Councillor Krupa Sheth, Lead Member for Environment

In the light of the increased prevalence of extreme weather events as a result of climate change and recent flooding in the borough, as well as a large number of new developments and increasing numbers of paved over gardens, does Brent Council:

(1) Intend to work with partners including the Environment Agency and Thames Water to review and revise Brent Council’s

(a) Flood Risk Management Strategy
(https://www.brent.gov.uk/media/16406897/flood-risk-strategy-sept-2015.pdf)

(b) Surface Water Management Plan
(https://www.brent.gov.uk/media/3501160/W8.3%20Brent%20Surface%20Wate
r%20Management%20Plan.pdf)

(2) Advise property owners and developers on mitigation measures?

Response:

Under the Flood and Water Management Act 2010, Brent Council is responsible for reducing the risk of flooding from surface water, groundwater and ordinary watercourses as a Local Lead Flood Authority (LLFA). To continue to meet our responsibilities we:

· Develop, maintain, regularly update and apply a local Flood Risk
Management Strategy. The overarching aim of the strategy is to enable the long-term management of flooding arising from rivers, surface water and groundwater in the borough and to communicate the risks and consequences of flooding to our residents and businesses.

· Maintain a register of flood risk management assets (structures that have an effect on flood risk management). This includes all flood risk management assets such as culverts, watercourses and holding tanks. All drainage assets, including the Council maintained and maintained by Thames Water and Environment Agency are logged on Flood Station.

· Provide overall management for highway drainage (road gullies) on designated public highway. As Highway Authority, we manage the 20,700 road gullies within the borough via a cyclical cleansing regime, and also respond reactively to any defect or blockages on the network.

· Implement small scale schemes to address localised flooding problems such as broken gullies or gully pipes, or localised gully capacity problems. Larger scale capacity problems are within the remit of Thames Water who are responsible for the main drainage system.

· Respond to planning applications - As lead local flood authority, we are a statutory consultee for major developments and in accordance with the GLA plan for Sustainable drainage we ensure that a significant betterment (i.e. improved drainage arrangements) is incorporated into new developments.

This in turn reduces the risk of surface water flooding on our public highways.

· Produce and maintaining a flood risk asset register - All of our drainage assets are located on an asset register, which includes all non-tributary watercourses, culverts and attenuation tanks.

· Issue land drainage consents on ordinary watercourses and carry out enforcement - All works undertaken non-statutory main rivers must obtain consent form the council so we are able to oversee and audit all processes to ensure sustainable measure are undertaken.

· Investigate significant local flooding events - As a lead local flood authority, we investigate all major flooding incidences and record the data.

As LLFA the council works in partnership with utility companies, Environment Agency and others in order to ensure that all appropriate measures are taken to mitigate flood risk. Plans are regularly reviewed and updated as risks and other factors change.

As a Category One Responder under the Civil Contingencies Act, the council has a responsibility to warn, inform and advise the public before during and after emergencies have occurred. We publicise warnings of severe weather and provide advice and information for residents on the council website to assist them prepare for potential severe weather events such as those that may cause flooding. The information provided also outlines what assistance the council is able to offer as well as measures that people can take to protect their own homes.

 

Join a walk on Thursday to see what might be incorporated into the design for Carlton Vale Boulevard

South Kilburn residents were somewhat perpexed by the circular below inviting them to take a quick local walk and then go on to Central London as part of the Calton Vale Boulevard project.

 I assume that the central London section of the walk will be looking at existing design features that will be incorporated into the Boulevard. Holding it on a weekday will mean that although children under 18 will be welcome it would involved them truanting from school!  Other residents will be working.

It is worth looking at the website LINK by the Northern Ireland based designers GMDA but  I have reproduced some of the information below. The RIBA Stage 2 Cost Plan has priced the scheme at £6,960,000.

 

The Regeneration of South Kilburn is a fifteen year programme that is approximately half way through delivering over 2,400 new high quality homes, new and improved open spaces and public realm, retail, education and health facilities. 

 

The proposals for this project are for the revitalisation of Carlton Vale to create a vibrant Boulevard with improved transport links, lighting, street furniture and artwork. This green spine will focus on improving the health and well-being of residents and will also deliver improvements to air quality, sustainable drainage solutions and increased biodiversity.  Carlton Vale Boulevard will be bound by Queens Park station in the west and the junction of Kilburn Park Road on Carlton Vale in the east.

 

The outline timescales for the Carlton Vale Boulevard Project are as follows:

● Design Period: November 2020 - Spring 2021

  ● Consultation Events & Workshops: December 2020 - Early Summer 2021 

  ● Start on Site: Early 2022 

  ● Completion on Site: Early 2023

 Please note that these dates are indicative and subject to change

 

 

 Book the walk here: cvb@g-m-design.co.uk

 

Brent Council Estate parking consultation extended until November 30th with new drop in information sessions

 I live on a Brent Council Estate but have not received this letter.  I assume it is going to all affected residents so please let me know if your estate has not received a copy. The Solidarity House Estate is no longer included in these proposals. Residents will receive futher information 'in due course.'

I understand that there has been widespread opposition to the proposals based on the £50 annual charge. the initial ban on visitor parking and the overall loss of parking for residents.  This has resulted in the extension of the consultation until November 30th and further information meetings.

Declaration of interest: I do not have a car but believe in giving residents information and the chance to voice their views - whatever they may be.

The outsourced consultation hub: https://pclengagement-hub.co.uk/en-GB/folders/brenthousingestates

Brent’s affordable housing needs – is this “answer” acceptable?

 Guest Post by Philip Grant in  a personal capacity

Brent’s future flats at Wembley High Road, from the plans approved in February 2021.

 

On 13 August, Martin published an article I had written about Brent’s plans for Council homes in its Wembley Housing Zone. This set out why the Cabinet should question the recommendations made to them by Council Officers, particularly the lack of any social housing provision, and why it was proposed that two-thirds of the 250 flats and maisonettes in the Council’s Cecil Avenue scheme would be handed over to a developer for private sale. 

 

I sent a document copy of my article to all members of the Cabinet, for their consideration before their meeting. None of them replied, and on 16 August they accepted the Officers’ “preferred delivery option” for the developments at Cecil Avenue and Ujima House.

 

As I’d not received a reply from the Lead Member for Housing, Cllr. Eleanor Southwood (or any of her Cabinet colleagues), I raised this matter again with her when she did answer another housing matter which I’d written to her about [Brent’s “secret” Council Housing projects and the Council’s response]. I emailed her about the Council’s Cecil Avenue proposals on 19 September, with a copy to her Regeneration colleague, Cllr. Shama Tatler, and Brent’s Strategic Director for Regeneration, Alan Lunt. 

 

Cllr. Southwood responded on 23 September, writing: ‘Dear Mr Grant, just acknowledging your email, which I will respond to substantively shortly.’ Despite a reminder to her on 8 October, I did not receive any response, either from her, Cllr. Tatler, or any Council officer on their behalf.

 

As I believe this is a matter of some importance, I was not prepared to let it drop. On 16 October, I submitted a Public Question, to be answered at Brent’s Full Council meeting on Monday 22 November:-

 

Question to the Lead Member for Regeneration, Property and Planning:-

New Council Homes at Cecil Avenue, Wembley.

 

Brent Council has an urgent need for new Council homes, and has accepted the Brent Poverty Commission recommendation that more social rented housing should be a priority.

 

Brent Council owns the vacant former Copland School site at the corner of Cecil Avenue and Wembley High Road, and since February 2021 has had full planning permission to build 250 flats and maisonettes on this site.

 

Yet, at its meeting on 16 August 2021, Brent's Cabinet approved a 'preferred delivery option' that included only 39% affordable housing for this development, with less than a quarter of the total homes being rented at London Affordable rent levels (not Social rents), the balance of the affordable housing being at Intermediate rent levels or for shared ownership. Under this 'preferred delivery option', the majority of the homes at the Council's Cecil Avenue site would be sold privately by a 'developer partner'.

 

At the same meeting, Brent's Cabinet also resolved: 'To delegate to the Strategic Director of Regeneration & Environment, in consultation with the Lead Member for Regeneration, Property & Planning, the decision on alternative development scheme proposals and procurement routes, if procurement of the preferred option was unsuccessful in relation to the Sites.'

 

My questions are:

 

1) Given Brent's urgent need for social rent housing, why is Brent Council not proposing to build all 250 of the homes at Cecil Avenue as affordable rented Council housing?

 

2) As, since 16 August, the GLA has approved a grant to Brent Council of around £111m under its 2021/26 New Affordable Homes programme, to be used mainly for social rent housing, will the Lead Member, in consultation with the Strategic Director of Regeneration & Environment, now recommend that Cabinet changes its mind, and approves alternative proposals to make the Council's Cecil Avenue scheme 100% affordable housing?

The answers from Lead Members to Public Questions are published in advance of the Council meetings, as part of the agenda package. This is Cllr. Shama Tatler’s answer to the two points which I raised in my question:

 

Response:

1) Brent Council’s redevelopment of council-owned Cecil Avenue and Ujima House sites as part of the Wembley Housing Zone programme together proposes 50% affordable housing. However, because it is vitally important to ensure the long term sustainability of the Housing Revenue Account (which ultimately would be responsible for repaying loans secured to deliver new housing) it is not financially viable to deliver all 250 homes at Cecil Avenue as socially rented housing. 

 

2) Brent Council’s £111.7m GLA grant under the 2021-26 New Affordable Homes Programme is separate from the Wembley Housing Zone programme, and allocated to deliver an additional 701 socially rented homes across the Borough.

 

The response from the Lead Member is brief, and ignores much of the detail that my question was about!

 

Cllr. Tatler writes that Cecil Avenue and Ujima House together will provide 50% affordable housing. She doesn’t say that NONE of this will be Council housing at social rent levels, which is what homeless families and people on the Council’s waiting list desperately need. 

 

Ujima House is expected to provide 54 homes, all at London Affordable rent levels. Of the 250 new homes on the Cecil Avenue site, only 98 will be “affordable”, with 152 handed to a developer partner for private sale (‘to cross subsidise the affordable housing and regeneration of the area’). Of the 98 “affordable” Council homes, only 37 will be at London Affordable rent levels, with the other 61 as “intermediate housing” (‘either shared ownership or intermediate rent’).

 

 

The Wembley Housing Zone sites.

 

I realise that Council housing provided through the Housing Revenue Account must have long-term financial sustainability. The expected rental income over the period of the loan borrowed to pay for the homes (usually sixty years) must be sufficient to pay the interest on that loan, and to repay the capital sum. But with interest rates as low as they are ever likely to be, I find it difficult to understand why this Wembley Housing Zone development could not be financially “sustainable”, especially as the report to Cabinet on 16 August said that: ‘the GLA have also agreed in principle an additional £5.5m grant to deliver the scheme.’

 

It all comes down to “viability” (and we know from planning applications that the financial experts who developers employ can come up with any figure for viability that their client wants, in order to reduce the amount of affordable housing they have to include in their plans!). The viability of Brent’s Wembley Housing Zone scheme is, of course, known only to Cabinet members and the Senior Officers advising them. It is hidden away from the rest of us in a document named “Appendix 5: WHZ internal financial appraisal summary (exempt)”.

 

Cllr. Tatler writes that ‘it is not financially viable to deliver all 250 homes at Cecil Avenue as socially rented housing.’ But Brent is not delivering ANY socially rented housing at Cecil Avenue. Surely it would be financially viable to deliver at least some!

 

But, fear not, with the money from the GLA’s 2021-26 programme Brent promises ‘to deliver an additional 701 socially rented homes across the Borough.’ Around 300 of these might be provided through the “infill” of part of the open space beside the St Raphael’s Estate. More would be from the “infill” of (green!) spaces on existing Council estates, together with “airspace” developments on top of blocks in these. There is also an opportunity for ‘New Build for Rent in South Kilburn’ (Granville Park?).

 

Having asked a Public Question, I am allowed to ask a supplementary question at the Council meeting on 22 November. I’m not able to be present at that meeting myself, but hope that someone (I have asked the Mayor if she would be kind enough to do so) can ask it on my behalf. I’ve not made up my mind exactly what to ask, so if you have any (polite) suggestions, please feel free to make them as comments below, during the next couple of days.

 

Philip Grant.

 

 

Residents flock to object to Fruition Properties' Mumbai Junction development despite planning portal problems

 

By this morning 347 people had commented on proposals to develop the Mumbai Junction site into a large block of flats with support for the objections coming from neighbouring resident associations.  Last weekend 4,000 leaflets about the development had been distributed in the area.

Because of the difficulties in accessing the planning portal Brent Council have extended the consultation perioud until November 18th. The best way to respond may be to email planning.comments@brent.gov.uk stating Support, Object or Neutral and giving reasons.  Comments submitted by email are not displayed on the portal. LINK

The Mumbai Restaurant is in the process of liquidation and Fruition Properties have moved in with their own freshly formed company Mumbai Junction Developments Limited.

Mr Manish Vinod Khiroya is the CEO and is also involved in the controversial City Mission Church development via Fruition Properties (Scrubs Lane) Ltd.  LINK

A Mr Manish Vinod Khiroya was mentioned in the Panama Papers connected to an off-shore company registsred in the British Virgin Islands. No illegality is suggested. LINK

 

OPDC planning policy stands by provision of a church on City Mission site in Harlesden in any future development - as long as the church wants it.

This evening Cllr Matt Kelcher raised the issue of City Mission Church under Any Other Business at the OPDC Planning Committee held in City Hall.

Kelcher asked the Head of Planning  specifically, whether, if the owners evicted the church now, and then submitted a new planning application in perhaps a year's time,  could  they get approval for a scheme which did not require provision for a church, as a precedent would be set.  If this happened, would the OPDC maintain its current stance on the church, despite the passage of time?

He was told that OPDC planning policy specifically states that there has to be provision for a church on this site in any future development, as long as the church wants it.

Since notice of a potential eviction of the church by the land owner/Development there has been widespread support for the church and its community activities.