Guest post by
Philip Grant in a personal capacity
The Morland Gardens site, from Google streetview.
On 17 May, Martin kindly published an open email I
had sent to Alan Lunt, Strategic Director, Regeneration and Environment,
setting out why Brent should not go ahead with the award
of a contract for its proposed development at Morland Gardens in Stonebridge. Despite my advice, the Strategic
Director made his Key Decision to award the contract (to Hill Partnerships Ltd,
for a total sum of £37,933,491) on 20 May 2022.
The main reason why this c.£38 million contract
would be a big financial risk for the Council to enter into is that they don’t
have the legal right to build over an area of land at the eastern end of the
development site. This is currently public highway and the Harlesden City
Challenge Community Garden.
Although they could have dealt with the stopping-up
of the highway at any time after planning consent was given for the development
in October 2020, the Council only gave notice of the proposed Stopping-up Order
in April this year. The period for objections to the proposed order ran out on
26 May, and I explained the reasons for my own objection (there have been
others) in a guest blog on 28 April. It may take many months before this matter is
resolved, and there is no certainty that an order will be approved.
Luckily, it appears that some Brent councillors are
“Wembley Matters” readers! I’ve been sent a copy of an email received by the
three Lib Dem members and two Conservative councillors, from a senior
Governance Officer at Brent Council. This is the main part of that email:
‘Hi Councillors Lorber,
Georgiou, Matin, Maurice & Hirani
I [am] emailing with an update on the
call-in request you’ve submitted regarding the decision taken by the Strategic
Director, Regeneration & Environment to award a design and build contract
for Morland Gardens.
Following my email yesterday I can
now confirm that we’ve received the required number of requests for the call-in
to be submitted. As required under the call-in protocol, the reasons and
outline of alternative action being sought under the call-in have been
considered by the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Director of Legal,
HR, Audit & Investigations and Head of Strategy & Partnerships, and as
a result have been confirmed as meeting the requirements within the protocol
and therefore accepted (on the basis of the attached form) to proceed for consideration
as a call-in by the Resources & Public Realm Scrutiny Committee.
Having consulted with the Chair of
the Resources & Public Realm Scrutiny Committee, I’m able to confirm that
the scrutiny meeting to consider this call-in has been scheduled for 6:30pm
on Thursday 9th June 22 with the meeting to take place
in person in the Conference Hall, Brent Civic Centre. As usual the
meeting will also be lived streamed for members of the public to follow online.’
I will ask Martin to include a copy of the ‘attached form’ at the end of this
blog, so that readers who are interested can see what is involved in requesting
a call-in.
Morland Gardens site plan, from the call-in form
I think it is encouraging that councillors in the
two opposition parties, including several who were newly elected on 5 May, are
willing to work together to ensure that potentially questionable decisions are
given close scrutiny. I understand that Councillor Paul Lorber is taking the
lead on this call-in.
Call-in by itself will not mean any change in this
Key Decision, but it will give Scrutiny Committee members the chance to
consider reasons for and against the decision, and to question the Lead Member
and Council Officers responsible for it. At the end of the meeting on 9 June,
they will either decide to refer the matter back to the decision maker, with
recommendations, or that they do not object to the decision, so that it can go
ahead.
It will be interesting to see how the new Chair of
this Scrutiny Committee, and the majority Labour councillors, deal with the
call-in. You can watch the meeting yourself, either in person or online, to see
how our “new” Council operates in practice. Hopefully, this important piece of
scrutiny will be dealt with on its merits, and not on party political lines!
Philip Grant
