My redevelopment proposal, submitted during the December 2024
consultation.
It is two years since Brent Council began an “urgent review” of its plans for the former Brent Start college site at 1 Morland
Gardens in Stonebridge, after its ill-conceived and ill-fated 2020 project for
the site failed, because its planning consent expired without construction
having commenced. I was led to believe at the time, by the Council Officer
leading the review, that new recommendations for the site’s development would
be put to Brent’s Cabinet for approval by the early summer of 2024 at the
latest.
Monday 10 November 2025 was the second anniversary of the letter sent to
me by Brent’s Director of Property and Assets, telling me about the review. As
there is still no sign of any definite proposals for the site, and its landmark
heritage Victorian villa, I thought it time to send him a reminder. This is the
text of my open email (with the personal names of Council Officers removed):
‘Dear [Director of Property and Assts]
Proposed Morland Gardens Development
Two years ago, on 10 November 2023, you wrote to me
in response to an open letter on this subject which I had sent to Brent's Chief
Executive on 31 October 2023. Brent Council's original scheme for the
redevelopment of the Brent Start college on this site, which had been given the
go ahead (as subsequently shown, without proper consideration) by Brent's
Cabinet in January 2020, had failed when its planning consent expired at the
end of October 2023, without construction having commenced.
Paragraph 2 of your letter, headed "An urgent
rethink on original proposals", stated:
'We are always reviewing and updating schemes
across the board as part of our usual governance arrangements, and we are doing
that with even more rigour given the underlying economic conditions. Following
the expiration of the planning permission, the Council is reviewing its options
for the Morland Gardens site, including the Altamira building.'
[The Head of Capital Delivery] began that urgent
review in November 2023. A year later, as part of the Bridge Park consultation,
it had concluded that the site should be used for "affordable housing and
community facilities". After further consultation, this had been refined
to "affordable housing and youth facilities", an outline for the
future redevelopment which Cabinet approved in June 2025.
Despite two years of review, there is still nothing
in the Forward Plan to say when detailed recommendations for the Morland
Gardens site will be put to Brent's Cabinet for a decision. During all that
time, an architecturally and historically important local heritage building has
been sitting empty, and the land behind it which could provide 25-30 much
needed affordable Council homes is being left unused. That is a waste of two
valuable Council-owned property assets!
Please let me know the date by which Council
Officers intend to make their detailed recommendations to Cabinet for the
redevelopment of 1 Morland Gardens.
Please also let me know (as some decision on this
point must surely have been reached after two years of review) whether those
recommendations will include retaining the heritage Victorian villa building,
Altamira, as requested in the Willesden Local History Society petition which
was presented to September's Full Council meeting, and supported then by
councillors from across all three political parties.
I look forward to receiving your clear replies on
both of those points. Thank you.’
I can’t help wondering why it should take Council Officers so long to
come up with detailed proposals. Are they deliberately allowing the empty
heritage building (which the Council restored in the 1990s to provide an
inspiring home for the borough’s adult education students) to deteriorate, so
they can claim that it can’t be saved, and must be demolished? Or could it be
that they plan to recommend demolition, but their political masters don't want
to make that unpopular decision in the run up to the local elections?
Whatever the reason, the delay is costing Brent Council (and therefore
Council taxpayers) further money (on top of an estimated £4m for the failed 2020
project!), as well as further delaying the much needed affordable homes and
youth facilities which they say they want to provide at Morland Gardens.
I’ve received an automated response to my “Service Request”, and a short
email from an unidentified Officer signing themselves as “Brent Council”, advising
that they hope to provide a reply by 21 November, so I will let you know what
they say!
Philip Grant.
