Residents angry as precious green space on polluted road 'imprisoned' by hoarding ahead of development - meeting at Neasden Lane North development site Wednesday morning 10.30am (near bus stop)

Local social media burst into life over the weekend after in the space of a few days  hoarding was erected around a wooded green space next to busy Neasden Lane North. Many residents claim this was the first they knew of a planned 3 storey development of 9 flats on the green space.  They further claim that the delegated decision (ie made by officer, not sent to Planning Committee) was made when people were preoccupied with the pandemic. Brent Council claim that 57 letters were sent out to residents but only two comments were received.

The satellite view below shows the extent of the space between Aylesbury Street and West Way. Residents said that the trees screen them from pollution, noise and dust from the main road.

They have launched a petition entitled 'Stop killing trees in Brent '  LINK:

Brent Council granted permission (19/3738 July 2020) to erect a three storey block of flats in the land FULL OF MATURE TREES, next to Aylesbury Street and West Way, in Neasden Lane (A4088) by the bust stop after the flyover. Using Covid as a coverage Brent Council sold a public green space to a housing development company and pushed throug the planning permission to cut all the trees and built 9 flats next to a polluting road allowing the neighbouring streets surging with pollution too once the trees are gone.

If you care about whats happening in the area and the environment or this "development" affects you please sign this petition forcing the council to re consider the application and stop the works immediately before any of the green gets damaged in any way.

The Arboricultural Implications Assessment LINK submitted to Planning found many of the trees to be low quality (although that doesn't stop them doing their screening job) and concluded:

The proposed development would require the removal of 22 individual trees and one small group, all but one of which are BS category C. These are mainly small, short lived or poorly formed trees which should not represent a significant constraint to the proposals, according
to BS5837:2012. A further 10 trees are recommended for felling on safety/short lifespan grounds whether or not the development proceeds.

 

Three offsite Ash trees will not be affected by the proposed building and nominal potential impacts of a path are mitigated by existing trees for removal dominating the areas of near surface disturbance.

 

The retained trees will be appropriately protected by robust tree protection fencing in accordance with BS5837:2012 requirements. Only temporary foot access for hand tool construction of the proposed path will be allowed with details indicated on the Tree
Protection Plan.

 

The Tree Protection Plan can be referred to in a specifically worded condition to ensure that the retained offsite trees are appropriately protected during the construction process.

 Trees in the development including new planting (note the view through the gate above is now car parking for the flats)

 

cgi of the development - the new trees would not reach this size for a long time

The residents I spoke to this morning were not only concerned about their own exposure to pollution once the mature trees were removed but that of the residents of the new block of flats.

There is an Air Quality Report. These extracts show that it is not an ideal spot for anyone to live LINK.

Based on the assessment results, exposure of future receptors to exceedances of the annual mean AQS objective for NO2 is considered likely as a result of the proposed development. The development would be classified as APEC-C on all levels of the proposals; therefore, mitigation measures to protect future users from poor air quality are included in Section 7.

Not withstanding this the Final Delegated Report states (typos in original) LINK:

The applicant has not provide an Air Quality Assessment subject of this proposal due to the habitable windows proximity to the Neasden Lane Gyratory. Brent’s Environmental Health Team have reviewed thereport and confirmed that as the NO2 levels at the windows facing Neasden Lane arew upto 57.17μmg3.

This would require mitigation in the form of a mechanical ventilation system to ensure that the resdients are not exposed to harmful levels of NO2 concentrations. Such systemj does still enable windows to be opened and not required to be sealed shut. Environmental Health have supported the recommended subject to a condition.

 It is clear that a decision to approve the development was made more than a year ago, the erection of hoarding indicates that either work is due to start or, perhaps,  that the developer is protecting the site from possible community action to save the space!

Nevertheless residents are launching a last minute bid to halt the development and told Wembley Matters this afternoon:

A good few people in the neighbourhood are utterly shocked that this thing can happen out of the blue. Loosing a green space full of mature trees to turn into a concrete block right by a busy road looks like a good initiative for Brent Council to exercise their green policies and drive to a healthy environment for people to live in. Brent Council used lockdown to push through this outrageous plan, first of all to sell a public land to private developers for profit and then approve a planning permission to turn a green space  into a concrete jungle in an area where flooding is already an issue and done it so low profile that no one could suspect anything until the area been boarded up.

It might be too late as many of us pointed out but without fight we cannot stand and watch it. We have created a petition to present it to Brent Council officials to put pressure on them showing that it is against the public will and they have to halt the works to investigate whether any failings occurred during the process.

 

The link to the petition is HERE:

We are also having a meeting with Clr Roxanne Mashari on Wednesday, 15th of September at 10:30 am on the site of the “development”, anyone who feels strongly about the environment and Brent Council policies please come and show your support.

Harlesden sends a resounding 'ACT NOW!' message to COP26 in Glasgow

 

 

The first of Brent Friends of the Earth's actions ahead of the COP26 meeting in Glasgow gathered lots of support yesterday when residents were invited to send messages about the Glasgow to Conference partipants and the government.

The messages on bunting were strung outside the Harlesden Tesco store making a vivid display showing the extent of concern amongst locals that COP26 should take immediate and effective action.

When queues of school students formed to write their individual messages it was clear that their generation are aware of the threat to their future.

The Mayor of Brent, Cllr Lia Colacicco, joined fellow councillors Janice Long and Orlene Hylton in collecting signatures alongside Friends of the Earth activists.

FoE will be running another bunting stall  Wembley  on Saturday September 25th, 11am to 1pm.

 

Wembley Park station closed for Sunday's ParalympicGB show at the Arena

 

Organisers have warned attendees at the Paralympics Homecoming Show at the Wembley SSE Arena that public transport will be disrupted.  It is unfortunate, to say the least, that accessibility will be reduced at a paralympic event. One would expect a coordinated attempt by the organisers and TfL to ensure this did not happen.

 Public Transport - if using public transport then there are several stations and bus stops serving The SSE Arena, Wembley.  However, due to planned works, Wembley Park station will be closed on both Saturday 11^th and Sunday 12^th September and there will be no service on the Jubilee line between West Hampstead and Stanmore and on the Metropolitan line between Aldgate and Harrow-on-the-Hill.

To help you make your journey, Transport for London is providing additional advice on alternative accessible routes using the Bakerloo line and London Overground services as well as replacement bus services for the closed tube routes.  TFL Bus routes will serve Wembley Park as normal.  Click HERE to plan your TFL journey to the venue. 

Chiltern Rail will also be providing an increased service to Wembley Stadium Station before and after the event.

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

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.

Paul 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...

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!

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.