Friday 10 September 2021

Revealed: Brent Council policy designates 'potential' for high rise development In Stonebridge (Conduit Way) and Wembley Central (Dukes Way)

 

Illustration from booklet celebrating the Brentfield Housing Scheme - June 11th 2021 LINK

An obscure Brent Council document LINK on the Council's Local Plan  piublished in June reveals plans for high rise development on part of the Brentfield Estate. I declare an interest as a former teacher at Brentfield Primary School who became familiar with the estate and its families living in low density homes with gardens and a sense of community

Their homes had been built in the wake of the First World War concerns about the poor health of working class recruits stemming from poor housing conditions. In a campaign which became known as 'Homes Fit for Heroes' local councils would build homes for those living in such conditions.

Willesden District Council planned their first Council Estate of homes for heroes and celebrated the handing over of the first homes to their tenants with a grand opening and a booklet written by the Council's Engineer and Surveyor. LINK
 

 Conduit Way now (Instant Street View)

Now 100 years later, almost to the day, those same homes have been described as of 'low quality' by Brent Council and some designated as suitable for high density tall buildings - which will probably comes as a surprise to existing tenants. This comes in the wake of the redevelopment of the Stonebridge Estates on the other side of the Harrow Road which saw high rise blocks demolished.

In a sort of domino effect in reverse, Brent Council justify the building of tall buildings here because of proposed tall buildings on the Bridge Park and Unisys sites. This designation is just part of the Brentfield estate but one can see that the same justification could be deployed at a later date for other areas with the proximity of the redeveloped tall buildings used as a justification. The open space on the other side of the North Circular may also be affected with the proposed tall building at Stonebridge station setting a precedent for the area.
 
For Stonebridge Park an additional area adjacent to the site allocation BSSA7 Bridge Park and Unisys Building has been identified. This incorporates the Conduit Way estate. This extension is justified on the basis that the existing estate is of low density, lower quality homes which has the potential to be intensified to a higher density reflective of its higher public transport accessibility. This is particularly so along and in the areas adjacent to the Brentfield frontage. This will complement the taller buildings proposed on the Unisys and Bridge Park site and reinforce the gateway role from the North Circular of those entering the borough from further afield
 
An accompanying map shows the proposed change to the 'tall building' area:
 


Satellite image (Google Earth)
 
 
 

The proximity to other tall buildings is also used to redraw the tall building zones for Wembley Central and Kilburn Square.

 

At Wembley Central the 'Twin Towers' on the site of Chesterfield House provides the justification for the extension of the tall building zone as well as an existing building. In this case the proposal is for additional floors to be added to the existing buildings:

For Wembley Central Area B, an additional area north of Duke’s Way has been included. This is a council housing block. This area has already been developed for a tall building at King Edward Court (11 storeys plus lower ground floor). As such its inclusion is justified in part on this basis to correctly reflect the current situation of a tall building being there. In addition, this block has also been identified as potentially being able to accommodate additional upper floors, in part taking account of the opportunity afforded by the adjacent taller Uncle building.



The new Kilburn Square Zone

The Kilburn Square controversy has already been covered on Wembley Matters LINK but it is worth recording Brent Council's justification here:

Subsequent to the submission of the draft Local Plan more work has been undertaken by the Council as the owner of the estate in testing delivery options. As a result of this a tall building is being proposed adjacent to the Kilburn Square open space. The tenants of the estate have been consulted as have the local neighbourhood forum. As the existing building is not occupied by residents, the scheme will not need a tenants’ ballot to proceed. The initial scheme has been subject to Design Council design review. Recognising the surrounding character, the Design Council regarded the principle of an additional tall building as acceptable in this location, principally due to the existence of a tower on the estate

Thursday 9 September 2021

Wembley Matters readers make clear the Barham Park battle is not over yet


 The houses that could still be redeveloped

Sometimes comments are received on Wembley Matters stories some time after they have been published and I thought these two were worh publishing in their own right. They are reactions to the news that the Brent Cabinet, in the guise of their sole membership of the Barham Park Trust Committee, agreed to  a proposal to investigate the removal of the covenant on  776/778 Harrow Road so that development could take place LINK.

Anonymous wrote

I have found that there is a recording of the  Barham Park Trust Committee meeting on Brent's "livestreaming", which you can watch HERE:

I have watched it, and one of the most sensible things I heard said was a brief suggestion from Cllr Harbi Farah, asking if arrangements could be made for the committee members to visit Barham Park, and be shown round, and have the issues explained to them. [My observation: so that they might have some idea of what they were talking about!]

The main point that the members seemed to pick up on over the restrictive covenant was that their decision to let Officers negotiate over it was not a final one. Any recommendation to possibly amend it would have to come back to the Trust Committee for a decision.

Whether it was wise to even start on that road, because the restrictive covenant had been put in place to protect the park, was not considered.

The only reference to that aspect was Cllr. Butt saying that the Trust had to consider all options. This appeared to be on the basis that some money to fund the park could be raised by allowing a loosening of the restrictive covenant.

How much the process of actually trying to change the restrictive covenant would cost (whether "successful" or not), was not referred to in the Officer's Report, or by the Council Officers who advised the committee at the meeting. That question was not raised by Cllr. Butt, or any other members.

The terms of a restrictive covenant over 776/778 Harrow Road would not (legally) be a material consideration in any future planning application (although that wasn't mentioned either).

However, I can't imagine the current owner, or any other prospective developer, being willing to pay a significant sum to the Trust to get the terms of the restrictive covenant changed, if there wasn't a "side deal" over Brent Council being willing to accept a planning application that matched what the weakened covenant would allow them to build.

The Barham Park Trust Committee, now chaired by the Council Leader himself, have stepped onto a slippery slope. It could see them sliding down into conflict with the local community, and with the wishes of the benefactor who left his Sudbury Park estate for the benefit of the people of Wembley.


Delete

AnonymousPaul Lorber said...

 

From the way the Trust Meeting was conducted it is clear that there was a pre meeting where they had detailed discussions and where they made their decisions in advance - in ignorance of all the facts.

The suggestion by one Trustee that they should inspect the buildings gives a clue as to how little they know. Anyone with any common sense would recognise that the site meeting should of course have taken before the decision making Trust meeting so that they could make decisions (rather than put them off) especially as the Trustees only meet once a year.

In terms of the issue of building on the Park and the covenant the comment by one of the Sudbury Councillors (at around 39 minutes into the recording) was also revealing of what residents can expect - he suggested that the two houses were outside of the Park. This is clearly NOT true.

The Covenant was put in place by Labour Councillors in 2011 when they made the decision to complete the sale of the two houses. One obvious question which should have been asked but was not was "why did we put the Covenant in place in the first place and why are we considering changing it just 10 years later?" The answer is simple - there was a recognition at the time that the houses should not have been there in the first place and that any enlargement or expansion should NOT be considered or allowed.

The two houses were built by Brent Council without permission some 50 years ago. For years the Council treated the Park and its buildings as its own forgetting their Charity obligations.

No one bothered to ask why the buildings were allowed to get into such a poor state of disrepair. The answer might have shocked them - as in 2011 the Trust paid £2,500 for a detailed condition survey into the state of the old buildings - some of which date back to 1780s - and yet 10 years later most of the priority repairs identified have still not been carried out.

Now we are also told that ACAVA, the tenant which Brent Council itself brought into most of the building after Labour Councillors closed the Council run Barham Library in 2011, in preference to Brent based organisations, have not paid their rent for almost 2 years and owed £76,000 as at 31 March 2021 - and presumably even more some 5 months later.

Brent Council does not bother to inform or consult local people about anything. There is no information about the closed Children Centre for example. It is hardly surprising that local residents feel ignored and have no confidence or trust in the Councillors in charge.

When I challenged and raised my concerns with the Brent Council's Chief Executive about the way the Council and its appointed Trustees were handling issues relating to the Park and its neglected buildings she told me that she would not discuss the issue any further. That is how Open Government works in Brent these days.

It is clearly down to local people to keep fighting for their Park. Our thanks need to go to Philip Grant for highlighting the issue, for Martin for publishing so as not to let Brent Councillors get away with things without proper scrutiny.

Free Performance of 'Wemba's Dream' with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra & local creatives on Saturday 11am-4pm

 

 

Readers may recall from Philip Grant's local history articles that Wembley gets its name from Wemba, who founded his family's settlement here and 'lea' meaning a clearing in what was then a forest - 'Wemba Lea'  (Yes, the cry of football fans, 'Wemberley!')

The Royal Philharmonic Orhestra who are soon to moved to Wembley and local creatives are putting on live performance experience for people of all ages in different venues around Wembley Park (see map below).

 

There will be four performances featuring music, dance, carnival, spoken word, film and theatre.

 

Performances are only 15 mins long and repeated throughout the day, so you can come along and make your own timetable.

 


All the performances have been created in collaboration between Royal Philharmonic Orchestra musicians and local creatives to explore the theme of dreaming and dreams…

 

rpo.co.uk/wembasdream

 

 



Climate Emergency events in Brent start tomorrow - full details

 

Some dates for your diary...

Together Towards Zero


A reminder of some important upcoming events (starting on Friday!) which will be focusing on tackling the climate and ecological emergency in Brent.

  • Friday 10th September (5pm-7pm) - Brent Friends of the Earth will be kicking off their engagement plans for the coming months with a stall in the Harlesden Plaza car park, near Tesco. They will be making bunting full of messages about the climate and ecological emergency. All are welcome to take part - head down, chat to fellow residents, and add your voice to the climate change conversation! 
  • Saturday 18th September (11am-3pm) - join Brent’s celebration of Car Free Day on Priory Park Road, off Kilburn High Road, NW6 where we will closing this section of road and hosting a number of exciting stalls from partner organisations - all geared towards tackling the climate emergency, improving air quality and encouraging active travel. 
  • Sunday 26th September (2pm start) - Brent Friends of the Earth will be leading a walk following the course of the Wealdstone Brook and part of the River Brent from Wembley Park to St Raphael’s green space. The walk will look at natural life along the waterways, consider how the built environment interacts with nature, and the possible dangers posed by flooding over the next few years. Those taking part will pause on the bank of the River Brent, near the Monks Park/St Raphael's open space, to launch paper boats with messages about climate change, and what we all need to do about it. Come along and make your own boat to launch! (Further info on start point, contact info@brentfoe.com
  • Monday 11th October - Friday 15th October - Local Democracy Week is back! And with perfect timing, has a theme this year of 'Promoting the Environment'. Keep your eyes peeled for Brent-based climate events that will be happening during that week. 
  • Monday 1st November - Friday 12th November - is the Conference of Parties 26 (COP26) fortnight, where world leaders will convene to plot the future action required for the sustainability of our planet. Although the event will be taking place in Glasgow, we will be hosting a localised set of events in Brent during these two weeks - further information to follow in future BEN emails!

Wednesday 8 September 2021

There's something rotten in the state of Labour when they expel well-known activist and former councillor Graham Durham

 

Graham Durham with Jeremy Corbyn

As a Green Party member you may think that what is going on in the Labour Party should not concern me - let them stew in their own juice... etc.

But when our main Opposition party is being rent asunder by what appears to be an old fashioned purge, when natural justice is ignored and guilt by association deployed, and retrospectively at that,  then everyone must acknowledge the threat to democracy.

It is doubly concerning that these actions characteristic of despotic regimes are being carried out in a party  led by  a former lawyer and Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer.

Recently Wembley Matters has carried stories about the suspension of Kilburn Labour Party member  Pete Firmin for allowing discussion of a motion calling for the restoration of the whip to Jeremy Corbyn LINK, and the threatened expulsion of Harrow Councillor Pam Fitzpatrick for writing an article for a magazine that was only banned by Labour a year later  LINK

Graham Durham is a long-time Labour and trade union activist, who served decades ago as a Brent Labour councillor. He is well-known in Brent and I have often seen him in action. I do not always agree with him or his tactics but few can doubt his sincere commitment to the Labour Party and the cause of socialism.

However he has now been freed from a period of limbo - the Sword of Damocles hanging over his head for a long timehas fallen - he has been informed of his expulsion. Once again it is applied retrospectively.

This is his own account on Facebook:

The Labour bureaucrats have advised me that I am expelled from the Party for, ‘calling for a leadership challenge to Keir Starmer.’ After 51 years I am sad and angry at the witch-hunt of socialists but at least their politics is clear

 

I have received today notice from the Government and Legal Unit expelling me from the Labour Party (of which I have been a member for 51 years).

 

The Labour bureaucrats state that my defence that the Zoom meeting of Labour In Exile occurred on 27 March 2021 and so I could not know they would proscribe this organisation on 20 July 2021 is irrelevant.

 

Moreover, they have studied a tape of that meeting and claim I said, ‘We should organise a conference to plan a leadership challenge to Starmer.’

 

I did and, although I am angry and upset at this witch-hunt, at least it was for a correct political call I made.

 On a previous occasion when the Labour Party suspended Durham in the midst of NEC elections, effectively excluding him from the ballot,   Brent Central CLP's GC approved a motion which said LINK:

Removing candidates in this way smacks of totalitarian regimes who deal with "opponents" in this way rather than letting the electorate decide.

Many will find the sifting of evidence from recordings of zoom meetings ominous and on a practical level wouldn't Labour Party staff be better deployed helping organise opposition and campaigns against this dreadful government?

It remains to be seen what the reaction from the local party and prominent figures in Brent Labour will be to this turn of events.

Monday 6 September 2021

A day with the Camino Climate Justice walkers at the beginning of their 483 mile, 48 day walk to Glasgow COP

 

A welcome break in a glade at the Welsh Harp


Bringing the group together with a song

Lunch on Barn Hill

Arrival in Kenton

I joined the 'Camino to COP' walkers on the second of their 48 day climate justice pilgrimage to the COP26 in Glasgow today.

It included people from several faiths and no faith,  all committeed to do something to save our planet.

The walk started at West Hampstead and continued along Kilburn High Road towards Staples Corner, a salutary reminder of traffic and air pollution. There was much relief when we turned off to cross Cool Oak Bridge to arrive at the Welsh Harp.

At the Brent end of the Harp we walked suburban streets before entering Fryent Country park and walked through meadows and woodland to reach the top of Barn Hill.

As we walked we talked quietly, hearing about each other's lives and concerns about the climate. For many the two open spaces completely changed their image of 'Brent' and they expressed amazement that such beautiful places existed so close to urban London.  'It's as if we are in the countryside already,' one person remarked.

It was just 8 and a half of the 483 miles that the pilgrims are going to walk and it left me with a great deal of respect for their commitment and stamina.

Brent is of course no strangers to pilgrims having had Kilburn Priory as a stopping place and pilgrimages to St Mary's Church in Willesden until the Reformation. Today's pilgrims received a warm welcome and aroused much interest from St Gregory's College students who were just dispersing for home as we walked by.

Look out for climate emergency activities across Brent over the next few weeks ahead of COP26

 

 A Greek woman loses her home to wildfire on the Island of Evia (Photo:Bloomberg)

 

From Brent Friends of the Earth

 

Over the next few weeks Brent Friends of the Earth will stage a series of creative events to send the message to local residents and politicians that there is no time to waste if the threat of catastrophic climate change is to be tackled successfully. 

 

We know that climate change is already causing “freak” highly destructive weather events worldwide. That includes the flooding here in Brent.  In the longer term it threatens the very existence of humanity.

 

We have a climate emergency

 

November sees the UK hosting COP26, the UN climate change meeting. It needs to be the most important “COP” ever. 

 

Simon Erskine, from Brent Friends of the Earth, said: 

“What is really worrying is that the extreme weather events we have seen so far are just the start – and with continuing carbon dioxide emissions they are going to get worse. We are also experiencing the mass extinctions of wildlife, rising sea levels and the oceans becoming dangerously acidic.

It is easy to get disheartened but it is not yet too late to change. If we stop burning fossil fuels and change our agricultural practices we can stop the deterioration in our climate before it is too late. 

Unfortunately politicians tend to opt for business as usual, avoiding any change that might rock the boat. The only way that they will take the far-reaching actions necessary is to be convinced that that is the will of the voters.”

 

The group’s plans include running a stall in the Harlesden Plaza car park near Tesco on September 10th from 5 to 7 pm.  They will be making bunting full of messages about the climate emergency and hope people will join in. This will be displayed locally.  

 

The group is inviting local MP Dawn Butler and Mayor Councillor Lia Colacicco to contribute triangles.

 

Other activities being planned by Brent FoE:

 

·      Campaigning for the Council to support the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill,

·      A Flood and Nature Walk demonstrating how vulnerable Brent is,

·      Screening of “2040” a film setting out the potential solutions to the climate emergency

·      A climate change poster competition for school children

·      Asking climate-related questions at the September 20th Council meeting. 

Sunday 5 September 2021

Brent Cabinet response to Scrutiny call for an independent review into Council's Euro2020 role falls short

The Resources and Public Realm Scrutiny Committee recommended an independent public review into Brent Council's role in the Euro2020 Final which saw scenes of public disorder. LINK

The Cabinet's response has now been published ahead of the September 13th Cabinet, two months after the recommendation was made. It appears to fall short of in terms of being both independent and public, and an internal  'assessment' rather  than a public review. It does does not appear to address the following request made by Cllr Mashari, Chair of Scrutiny:


Euro 2020 Finals at Wembley Stadium

Scrutiny Recommendation: To hold a public review into the Council’s actions taken before, during and after the Euro 2020 Final to establish the lessons learnt.


Executive Response:


The Wembley Safety Advisory Group (SAG) that is Chaired by the Council met on the 20th July to discuss the circumstances surrounding the Euro 2020 Final. All of the stakeholders attended, representing the following organisations:


· Brent Council
· Wembley National Stadium Ltd
· Wembley Park
· Sports Ground Safety Authority
· Metropolitan Police
· British Transport Police
· London Ambulance Service
· London Fire Brigade
· Transport for London
· Chiltern Railways
· SSE Arena

 

The discussion focused on how partners should respond. The key issue to come out of the discussion is that all partners agreed to participate in the independent review being led by Baroness Casey of Blackstock. It is expected that it will take 4 months for this to be completed. This will be one single overarching independent review commissioned by the FA that will bring in the actions of all partners. Officers met with Baroness Casey on 6th August and she has asked that Brent Council and the SAG fully commit to supporting the independent review and to helping oversee the implementation of any actions and priorities for change.

It is a really positive step that all partners intend to participate in this single review. The Council will participate fully and openly with the review and will respond to any recommendations that affect the Council’s role in the process moving forward. Baroness Casey specifically asked that the Council undertake its own assessment/review of all its activities around the Final so this can inform her process.

Cabinet Decision:


That Brent Council will:

 

i). Undertake an assessment of Council activities relating to its responsibilities around safety, licensing and enforcement at Wembley Stadium as part of the Euro 2020 Finals in order to support the overarching Review led by Baroness Casey;

ii). Fully support the Baroness Casey Review throughout;

iii). Consider fully any recommendations relevant to the Council’s duties that arise from the Review and;

iv). Oversee and implement any actions and priorities for change.

Implementation by: By July 2022


Cabinet Members: Cllrs Sheth and Knight
Lead Department: Regeneration and Environment
Lead Officer: Alan Lunt –Strategic Director for Regeneration and Environment