1 Morland Gardens – yet another twist!

Guest post by Philip Grant in a personal capacity

 

“Altamira”, 1 Morland Gardens, with community garden in the foreground. (Photo by Irina Porter)

 

When Martin reported, just a week ago, that a call-in meeting of Brent’s Resources and Public Realm Scrutiny Committee had given the go-ahead for the contract for the Council’s Morland Gardens redevelopment scheme to be awarded, you might have thought that the fate of the heritage Victorian villa there was sealed.

 

The only thing that could scupper Brent’s controversial plans to demolish the locally-listed building might be the objections to the proposed Stopping-up Order for an area of highway between the restored garden wall of the villa and the community garden. Council Officers, with the encouragement of several Cabinet members, had decided in early 2019 that they could use this extra piece of Council-owned land, in order to build more homes as part of the development. They had failed to consider the consequences of that decision, or to take the necessary action to obtain the Order, which led to the call-in.

 

The “award-winning” building which Brent wants to replace “Altamira” with.

 

Alan Lunt, Brent’s Strategic Director (Regeneration and Environment), won his right to award the two-stage Design & Build Contract for Morland Gardens to Hill Partnerships Ltd on the evening of Thursday 9 June. But when the agenda for the Cabinet meeting on 20 June was published the following day, this was item 12:

 

‘12. Authority to Tender for the Design & Build Contract at 1 Morland Gardens, Stonebridge.

Following on from a call-in relating to the original contract award, this report requests approval to invite tenders by way of a direct award under the Network Homes Contractor Framework and approve the pre tender considerations as required by Contract Standing Orders 88 and 89.’

 

The Report for this item was “to follow”, and that was not published on the Council’s website until the afternoon of Thursday 16 June. What had gone wrong? This is the explanation given at para. 3.3 of the Report:

 

‘The council also sought to procure a contractor for the scheme in May 2021 and May 2022 but both tender opportunities were unsuccessful. The first tender opportunity did not elicit any bids. The second tender opportunity elicited three bids and the council recommended the award of the contract as detailed in the Key Officer Decision report of 20 May 2022. This decision was subject to “call in”, during which period the Framework under which the contract was awarded, expired and so the council is required to procure a contractor again under a further procurement process.’

 

It appears that Mr Lunt may be trying to blame the call-in for the missed opportunity to award a contract for the scheme, and the need for a third attempt ‘to procure a contractor’. In fact, he was given a second chance to find a contractor in August 2021, and the three bids under that procurement process were received in November 2021. The fact that Brent took until 20 May 2022 to decide which of the three contractors they wished to award the contract to is no fault of the councillors who called-in his decision. They did so because of the risk of awarding a contract for a project which involves land that Brent does not have the legal right to build on!

 

Brent’s Cabinet are being asked to make a big decision at short notice. Not only that, they are being asked to approve the finding and appointing of a new contractor in a very rushed process, set out in this table from the Report:

 

Extract from table at para. 3.6 of Cabinet Report.

 

The Report says that ‘the estimated contract value of the procurement is £38m.’ The bid the Strategic Director wanted to accept in May was £37,933,491, but that had been made in November 2021. There was another item on the Cabinet agenda (Watling Gardens) where the Report was also not available, and a Council Officer has explained to me the reason for that:

 

‘Item 16 was not available on that date because the need for the report has arisen unexpectedly because of the escalation in the costs of the project due to the current inflation situation.  You may recall the challenges this situation is causing for the council were mentioned by the Chief Executive at the recent call-in meeting.’

 

That “escalation in costs” will surely affect the amount that any contractor submitting a tender for the Morland Gardens project is willing to offer. And if they offer an amount within the Council’s “budget” for this scheme, what corners will they cut in order to build it and still make a profit? This could easily become another Granville New Homes, where what was on paper an award-winning design was so poorly built, in order to keep “within budget”, that it is now costing more than the original contract to remedy the defects.

 

Brent Council has made so many mistakes and bad decisions over 1 Morland Gardens, which is why they are in the mess they are now over it. Will they plough on, digging a deeper hole for themselves, or will they finally see sense and go “back to the drawing board”?

Philip Grant

 

Barn Hill Conservation Group: We Need Your Help - YOU DECIDE - Vote on 25th June, 2022., from 1:00 pm - 3:30 pm to secure funding for repairs to Roe Green Walled Garden

 

From Barn Hill Conservation Group

The volunteers of the Barn Hill Conservation Group need your vote to secure funding for urgent repairs to the infrastructure at Roe Green Walled Garden.

 

The garden has existed since Victorian times and serves as the headquarters of the conservation group. It was restored by volunteers of the Barn Hill Conservation Group nearly four decades ago and has been maintained by them ever since.

 

The Roe Green Walled Garden is a community garden with fruit trees, a herbaceous border, a wildlife pond, vegetable beds, and a toddlers' play area. It is a welcoming place for young families and older people alike. The Barn Hill Conservation Group volunteers continued to maintain Fryent Country Park and Roe Green Walled Garden throughout the pandemic. The mental health benefits of time spent in a natural environment are well documented and our green spaces have provided our residents much needed respite throughout the pandemic. Last year Fryent Country Park was voted best country park in Brent.

 

Please cast your vote for the Infrastructure Repairs that are urgently required at Roe Green Walled Garden. Carrying out this much needed work will enable us to continue our work maintaining Fryent Country Park and Roe Green Walled Garden so future generations can enjoy these spaces and carry the baton to continue efforts to preserve our green spaces and the natural environment.

 

You can book a place at the event You Decide at Kingsbury High School on Saturday, June 25th, between 1:00 and 3:30 pm, by following the button.

 

Saturday, 25th June, 2022

From 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm

 

Kingsbury High School,

Tyler's Hall,

Bacon Lane, NW9 9AT

This is for residents who live in the Kingsbury and Kenton Brent Connects area.

Click Here to Register to Vote

A tale of 'Towerblock Tatler' and 'Taylor's Towers' as Shama Tatler makes bid to become Labour parliamentary candidate for Watford

 

As mentioned by Wembley Matters on May 1st LINK Shama Tatler has her eyes on becoming Labour's parliamentary candidate for Watford and so did not stand for the deputy leader of Brent Council's Labour Group.

Today she launched her campaign for the nomination  on twitter with links to a pretty slick campaign website LINK and announced backers including David Lammy MP.

She will find herself in the strange situation where she will be standing for a local Labour Party that has campaigned against the Liberal Democrat Watford Mayor on the basis of the building of tower blocks in the area. They even call them 'Taylor's Towers'.  In Brent of course in her role as Lead Member for Regeneration Shama Tatler has strongly supported the building of tower blocks in Alperton, Wembley, Stonebridge and South Kilburn earning herself the nickname  'Towerblock Tatler.' 

These are examples of the Labour campaign in Watford:

 The image is hard to read so this is it says:

• The Liberal Democrats have taken their eyes off the ball here in Watford and have spectacularly failed to reduce the housing targets for our town.
• They shamelessly blame everyone else for their disastrous decisions which are all of their own making. They've allowed these towers
• UNLIKE neighbouring Three Rivers Council, the Lib Dems here have failed to bring in policies that prevent high developments, but we get more and more Taylor's Towers springing up here, there and everywhere.
• The Liberal Democrat's biggest failure yet is a 24 storey tower block. That's just the start if they get in again. They'll be yet more and more ever higher and higher 'Taylor's Towers.

IS THAT WHAT YOU REALLY WANT?

  You can have some fun substituting Labour for Liberal Democrats, and Brent for Watford and Tatler's Towers for Taylor's Towers and see if it makes sense.

 It will be an interesting selection meeting.  Perhaps they should invite Peter Taylor to be a guest panellist?

On her website Cllr Tatler highlights her 6 years' experience as Cabinet member for Regeneration, Property and Planning and includes an image of South Kilburn but not any tower blocks...

 

 

30 Brondesbury Park: 'Incremental intensification' is the name of the game

 

30 Brondesbury Park, NW6

The border wall on Aylestone Avenue

The proposed new building and terraced housing

Brent's Local Plan was formally adopted with barely a murmer of opposition in February and along with other guidelines with influence the work of Brent Council's Planning Committee henceforth.

 

We are familiar with 'intensification corridors', 'town centre density', and 'tall building zones', all destined to change the face of Brent and increase its population.

 

Small residential sites are also ear-marked for development via 'incremental intensification' and the planning proposal for 30 Brondesbury Park, NW6, is an early example of what we are likely to see in the future. 

 

The proposal is to demolish the existing building and construct a three-storey building containing six flats in its place (three x 2-bedroom and three x 3-bedroom), together with a terrace of three x 3-bedroom houses addressing the Aylestone Avenue frontage.

 

Planning officers support the application as contributing to increasing the stock of housing in the borough and especially welcome the family sized accommodation. They accept the viability assessment that says the arithmetic means that the developer cannot make a contribution towards affordable housing.

 

The application has some elements in common with that in Queens Walk, Kingsbury  LINK where a block of flats replaced a family sized house on the corner with Salmon Street. Wembley Matters has since found evidence that rather than residential flats the development operates as holiday lets.

 

30 Brondesbury Park, like Queens Walk, is a corner site with garden space, and similar arguments are marshalled to support the development.

 

Planners state that Brent Policy BH4 supports development within the curtilage of a dwelling and that Policy H2 and the Local Plan recognises that the 'use of  small residential sites can make a valuable contribution to the delivery of new housing and some incremental change to local character could be acceptable on this basis.'

 

In short building a larger development utilising garden space is acceptable and sits alongside the 'fill-in' housing that is taking place on Brent's council estates.

 

Furthermore, 'the intensification of smaller sites is expected to form an important part of the delivery of housing to meet Brent's housing need during the [Local] plan period' and this is supported by the NPPF that expects the planning system, to meet the need for homes.

 

As we know corner houses such as 30 Brondesbury Park with a garden often has a long garden wall or fence along the adjacent road. Brent planners seemingly see that as dead space:

 

Neighbours have also raised concerns that the proposal would result in development of garden land, or ‘garden grabbing’. However, corner sites are considered to offer some scope for infilling in this way, in comparison to development of rear gardens that are enclosed by other rear gardens. In this case the extent of 2m high boundary wall along Aylestone Avenue creates an extensive dead frontage that adds nothing positive to the street scene. The proposal would break up this frontage by providing a building which would have a clear visual relationship to the main building but would remain clearly subservient to it. This would activate the street scene more effectively than the existing blank wall.

 

The London Plan is quoted by officers in support of the application: 

London Plan Policy D3 sets out a design-led approach to new development that responds positively to local context and optimises the site’s capacity for growth by seeking development of the most appropriate form and land use. It encourages incremental densification in areas that are not considered suitable for higher density development.

 

We have become familiar with claims that what neighbours often see as out of character developments are justified by Brent planners as 'landmark' or 'destination' buildings; in this case:

 

The site layout and building lines are considered appropriate for this prominent corner site, and to act as a gateway signalling the transition to the more domestic scale of the side street. [Aylestone Avenue]

 

There is little comfort for those concerned about the environmental impact of building on gardens, already suffering from the paving over of front, and increasingly, back gardens:

 

Residential gardens are generally considered to have low ecological value due to their small size, the nature of the use and, in this case in particular, proximity to disturbance from road traffic.

 

Officers note the 21 objections 'raising concerns regarding over-development and the impact on the character of the area, including the overall scale and mass of the proposal, front building line on Aylestone Avenue and loss of trees and green space, impacts on neighbouring properties in terms of daylight and privacy, increased pressure on on-street parking' and these are dealt with in the officers' report LINK with the Planning Committee recommended to approve the application. 

 

 

Person in police custody after hammer attack on ground floor windows of Brent Civic Centre. No injuries reported. Glass declared safe pending repair.

 

Front window panes of Brent Civic Centre were damaged on Friday morning after being hit with a hammer.

A Brent Council spokesperson told Wembley Matters:

An individual was taken into Police custody on Friday morning after breaking the front window panes of Brent Civic Centre with a hammer. We can confirm no one was hurt, however any further detail would be a matter for the Police.

We are working to book in repairs to the front of the Civic Centre and expect to be able to claim costs back through our insurer. The glass has been surveyed and is safe to remain in the meantime.

UK-Rwanda Asylum Partnership MoU to be investigated by Lords committee

 The House of Lords International Agreements Committee has today launched an inquiry into the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the UK and Rwanda on an Asylum Partnership and is issuing a call for evidence.  

The committee is particularly interested in the implications of using an MoU as a vehicle for relocating asylum seekers to Rwanda and whether the MoU is consistent with the UK’s obligations under both domestic and international law.  

Questions the committee is seeking evidence on include:  

• Is an MoU the appropriate vehicle for this Agreement?

• What are the implications of an agreement that asserts that it is not binding on either Party in international law?  

• Is the MoU consistent with current UK domestic law, or does UK legislation require any amendment to implement the MoU? 

• Is the MoU consistent with the UK’s obligations under international law, including  the 1951 Refugee Convention, the European Convention on Human Rights, and the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings?  

The deadline to submit evidence is Wednesday 20 July 2022, with the full call for evidence available on the committee’s website.  

Baroness Hayter, Chair of the International Agreements Committee said:  

The UK-Rwanda Asylum Partnership was agreed as an MoU, rather than as a treaty, and is therefore not covered by the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010, meaning it doesn’t have to be laid in Parliament for scrutiny or debate. While it is not classed as a treaty and may not be legally binding on the Parties, it has significant human rights implications, and there are questions over its compatibility with the UK's obligations, particularly under international law. 

Although the MoU has not been formally presented to Parliament for scrutiny, it is nevertheless my committee’s duty to scrutinise such an important international agreement. We are therefore launching our inquiry today, calling on witnesses to submit written evidence.

UEFA Women’s Euros football tournament is coming to Wembley in July - OFFSIDE and more Women’s Football events from Brent Culture Service

 Many thanks to Philip Grant for this guest post

 

 

This July, the UEFA Women’s Euros football tournament is coming to Wembley, and Brent Culture Service is celebrating this with a number of special events. The season kicks off with a performance of the acclaimed drama “OFFSIDE”, at Willesden Green Library on Friday 17 June at 7.30pm. Tickets are £5 to £7, and can be booked here.

 

It’s a story about the struggle for women’s right to play football, and the challenges still faced by female players today. Futures Theatre, who are touring the play around the country ahead of the Euros, give this information about it:

 

‘It is 1892. It is 1921. It is 2017. Four women from across the centuries live, breathe, and play football.

 

Whilst each of them face very different obstacles, the possibility that the beautiful game will change their futures – and the world – is tantalisingly close.

 

Offside is told through lyrical dialogue, poetry, and punchy prose, placing the audience on the touchline of the game of a lifetime.’

 

Scene from “Offside”, being performed in Edinburgh. (Photo by Lidia Crissafulli)

 

If you want to see this “one night only” performance in Brent, I’d suggest that you book your tickets now! But there are plenty of other events celebrating women’s football, for all the family and most of them free, taking place over the next two months.

 

The Women’s Euros tournament begins on 6 July, with England playing their opening group match at Old Trafford in Manchester. Just over 50 years ago, that would not have been possible. The Football Association (“FA”) was run for men, by men who believed that football was not a suitable game for “the fair sex”. For decades it had banned all of its member clubs from allowing women to play football on their pitches!

 

Things began to change when 44 women’s teams from across the UK met in 1969 to set up the Women’s Football Association of Great Britain (“WFA”). By the 1970/71 season they held their first Cup competition, the Mitre Challenge Trophy. This has gone on to be the Women’s FA Cup, and Brent is celebrating with a free coffee morning talk, at Kilburn Library, on Wednesday 6 July from 11am-12noon: “A History of the Women’s FA Cup Final – 50 Years, Gone in a Flash.” (Please see details and register your interest on Eventbrite).

 

The England Women’s football team, 1972.

 

Brent could not have found a better speaker, to guide her audience through the development of the women’s game since the 1960s, than Patricia Gregory. She was Secretary of the WFA from 1972 to 1982, and saw an official England Women’s team play a first international match against Scotland in 1972 (a full century after the first men’s international between the two old rivals). The WFA carried on until 1993, when control of women’s football in England passed to the FA.

 

Wednesday 6 July also sees the start of a Brent Museum and Archives programme of talks at Wembley Stadium, which carries on until Saturday 30 July. “One two, one two” will give Brent residents the chance to hear inspirational stories about women’s football history from some of our local football heroes. Look out for more details online, or at Brent Libraries!

 

You can also see portraits of Brent’s Female Football Stars, specially commissioned from local photographer Roy Mehta, in an exhibition at Brent Civic Centre, which runs from 18 June until 6 November. The “Women of the Match” exhibition, prepared by Brent Museum and Archives, will also include vintage photographs and football memorabilia.

 

Manisha Taylor, QPR football coach. (Photo by Roy Mehta)

 

One of the football stars featured in the exhibition is Manisha Tailor MBE. She is a coach for the Academy players at Queens Park Rangers F.C., and the first South Asian woman to hold a coaching role at a men’s Football League club. One of the women who inspired her was Rachel Yankey (who I wrote about in my “Football IS Coming Home” article last summer). After having to pretend to be a boy, so she could play for a football team, while at Malorees Primary School in the 1980s, she had a long and distinguished career as a player, then went on to earn her coaching badges.

 

Rachel Yankey, in a football coaching role. (Image from the internet)

 

Wembley High Road will see events to help all the family to get into the UEFA Women’s Euros spirit, during the tournament. “Bend it Like Beckham, Be A Lioness!!” will take place on the wide section of pavement near Nando’s on a number of afternoons from 1-5pm. The fun activities will include the chance to take a penalty kick in a football shoot-out with a controlled AI simulator, watch exclusive female football freestylers and take selfies with a lioness mascot!

 

Although the 1923 FA Cup final was first played at the Stadium in 1923, Wembley hasn’t always been the home of women’s football. The “Lionesses” didn’t play their first international match here until November 2014, and the first Women’s FA Cup final at Wembley was in 2015. That attracted a crowd of around 30,000, which had risen to nearly 50,000 for the May 2022 final. It will be a “full house” at Wembley Stadium for the UEFA Women’s Euros final on 31 July, and in the build up to that Brent Culture Service is staging two big events. 

 

“A Stadium Of The Future -  If I can't dance , I don't want to be part of your revolution”, on Friday 29 July, from 2-8pm at Bridge Park Leisure Centre, promises a unique event for women combining music, dancing, activism, food and celebration. The group “Idle Women” will be collaborating with women in Brent, and say: ‘It’s about women taking up space and making visible their essential role in solving the social and environmental challenges with face locally and globally.’

 

On the eve of the final itself, Saturday 30 July from noon until 5pm, everyone is invited to Olympic Way for “Emma Smith's Supercompensation Cycle installation and dance performance”, along with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and local musicians performing the 'Brent Anthem'. This will celebrate the arrival of the 2022 UEFA Women’s Euros at Wembley.

 

England Women’s manager Sarina Wiegman congratulating some of her players after an Arnold Clark Trophy match earlier this year. (Image from the internet)

 

The excitement will be even greater if England are one of the teams taking part in the final. England Manager Sarina Wiegman (who won the previous Women’s Euros tournament with The Netherlands) has got an excellent squad, which has been playing well and won the Arnold Clark Trophy international tournament earlier this year. Can the “Lionesses” go one better than the England Men’s “Three Lions” team at Wembley last year? 

 

We will see! And as well as following the UEFA Women’s Euros championship, I hope that you can enjoy some of the Brent Culture Service events being held along the way to 31 July.

 

Philip Grant.