Guest post by Philip Grant in a personal capacity
Earlier
this month I wrote “Morland
Gardens – Report recommends Council does not proceed, but …”. The
‘but’ was because, although Brent cannot go ahead with its proposed
redevelopment (as its
planning consent has expired), it still has an outstanding
“first stage” contract with Hill Group which includes the demolition of the
Victorian villa “Altamira” (above).
At the
end of my previous guest post I included the text of an open email I had sent
to Brent’s Chief Executive, and other senior figures at the Civic Centre,
seeking an assurance that this locally listed heritage asset would not be
demolished, unless or until there was a legal requirement allowing for its
demolition (which does not currently exist).
There
was no mention of this at the Cabinet meeting on 11 December, when the
Affordable Housing Supply update report (which recommended a review to come up
with ‘an alternative site strategy’ for Morland Gardens) was dealt with. Last
Friday afternoon I received this written response to my open email:
‘Dear
Mr Grant
RE:
Morland Gardens and the Affordable Housing Supply (2023) Update Report
Thank
you for your open email dated 4th December 2023 addressed to Cllr Knight, the
Council’s Chief Executive and the Council’s Corporate Director for Resident
Services. Your enquiry has been forwarded to me to respond on their behalf.
The
Council is unable to make any commitments or assurances either verbally or in
writing on whether there will be demolition of the Altamira building or not,
until such time the Council has considered its options for the site. As
provided in previous correspondence, the Council will be reviewing the site
options including the Altamira building, and will present these to Cabinet for
consideration in due course.
Further
information about the Councils procedures can be found on the Council's
website: https://www.brent.gov.uk/your-council
Kind
regards
Head
of Capital Programmes’
My
concern, and that of other “Friends of Altamira”, is that someone at the Civic
Centre will instruct Hill Group to carry out the demolition of the buildings on
the site, under their existing contract, while the Council is still considering
‘its options for the site’. That is a risk, which could occur either by
mistake, or deliberately out of vindictiveness (against the campaign which took
advantage of the Council’s mistakes, in its fight to save this important
heritage building).
There
should not be any reason why Brent can’t give the assurance I’d requested. A
similar one was given in June 2021, when the then Strategic Director for Regeneration
and Environment wrote to me (in response to me pointing out that Brent did not
have the Stopping-up Order required before its proposed Morland Gardens
development could take place):
‘I
confirm that the demolition of “Altamira” will not take place until all
necessary legal pre-requisites are in place.’
The
Strategic Director had been made aware that there would be objections to any
proposed Order, and the reasons for it. Yet it was not until 28 April 2022 that
valid notice of the proposed Stopping-up Order was given. That was just before
Brent was finally ready to award a contract for the development.
Given
the uncertainty over whether the Council would obtain the legal right to build
over the land outside 1 Morland Gardens, a group of Liberal Democrat and
Conservative councillors called-in his Key Decision to award the two-stage “Design
and Build” contract. The minutes of the 9 June 2022 call-in meeting set out how
he answered the reasons given by Cllr. Lorber and two members of the public
about why the contract should not be awarded:
Mr
Lunt’s argument was that “only” £1.1m was at risk (the estimated cost of stage
one) if the contract was awarded, whereas the Council stood to lose £6.5m in
GLA funding if the project did not go ahead. He gave the impression that the
Stopping-up Order process would be over by the end of 2022. The minutes record his
answer to a question from a Committee member:
‘It
was confirmed that any objections to the stopping up order which were not
withdrawn would be considered by the Mayor of London. Mr Lunt noted that in his
experience, all stopping up orders had been confirmed.’
In
fact, it was February 2023 before Brent supplied the GLA with all the
information needed for the Mayor of London’s decision. When that decision came
on 20 March, it did not confirm the Stopping-up Order. Instead, it said that
the objections would need to be considered by a Public Inquiry, and Brent
Council had still not arranged for that Inquiry to be held when its planning
consent for the Morland Gardens development expired at the end of October!
The
June 2022 call-in meeting of Resources and Public Realm Scrutiny Committee did
agree that the contract should be awarded (although Mr Lunt had failed to tell them
that he could not award it, as the “Contractor Framework” under which it was
offered had expired at the end of May 2022!). A contract was actually awarded a
couple of months later, under a different Framework, after a
rushed decision by Brent’s Cabinet.
It
is that contract which still poses a risk to the survival of the 150-year old
beautiful and historic landmark building at 1 Morland Gardens. The Council has
only to look at its own published words to know that it should not allow the
unnecessary demolition of this heritage asset:
From
Brent’s May 2019 “Historic Environment Place-making Strategy”
I
believe that Brent can and should make a commitment over “Altamira”, so I sent
the following open email in reply to the response I’d received on 15 December:
‘Dear
Mr Martin and Ms Wright,
Thank
you for your email this afternoon, in response to my open email of 4 December.
I have to say that I am disappointed by it.
I
realise that the Council is carrying out a review to consider its options for
the site at 1 Morland Gardens, and that recommendations will then be made to
Brent's Cabinet.
The
assurance I requested does not need to wait for the outcome of those
considerations, as it does not seek any commitment that there are no
circumstances in which Brent Council would demolish the heritage building.
The
assurance I am seeking is not an unreasonable one (given the Council's heritage
assets policies and the fact that the flawed original consent, allowing the
demolition of Altamira, has now expired). I will set out its terms again:
that
there will be no demolition of the locally listed Victorian villa at 1 Morland
Gardens, unless or until there are new plans in place for the site
which would require the demolition of this heritage asset, and those plans have
been properly consulted on, considered and given planning consent, and there
are no outstanding legal requirements which need to be met before those new
proposed development plans can go ahead.
I
hope that, having reconsidered my request on a fair reading of the assurance I
am seeking, Ms Wright can now give that assurance on behalf of Brent Council.
Thank you. Best wishes,
Philip
Grant.’
