Brent Planning Officers recommend approval of Harlesden Adult Gaming Centre despite opposition from police and local councillors

 

Tonight's Planning Committee is full of controversial planning applications with Mumbai Junction and Kilburn Square returning to the Agenda (there is a Supplementary Report on Kilburn Square HERE) and are expected to have speakers making the case for refusal of planning permission.

You can watch the meeting live online HERE

Also returning to the Agenda is an application to turn two neglected shops on Park Parade, Harlesden into an Adult Gaming Centre (AGC) and reduced size betting shop.  Objectors cite anti-social behaviour and the presence of other AGC's in the area as reasons for objection. There is the additional moral and public health case against the exploitative nature of gambling joints in poor areas.

The application is unusual in that it is being opposed by local councillors, community organisations and the police:

60 objections were received in total inclusive of objections from Councillors, Harlesden Neighbourhood Forum and Harlesden Area Action Group, the Police Safer Neighbourhood Team and the Salvation Army.

 

The following Councillors objected:

 

Cllr Mili Patel –Harlesden and Kensal Green Ward

Cllr Jumbo Chan – Harlesden and Kensal Green Ward

Cllr Jake Rubin – Roundwood Ward

Cllr Elliot Chappell – Roundwood Ward

Cllr Fleur Donnelly – Jackson – Roundwood Ward

The Police objections are raised in a Supplementary Report that you can read HERE and I post an extract below:

An objection was received from the Met Police Designing Out Crime Officer, noting the following matters:

 

· That the close proximity of the public house (opposite) and off-licences either side and the nearby pawn shop can create a nurturing habitat for street drinking which in turn can increase the risk of antisocial behaviour (ASB);

· That the alleyway to the rear is not well observed and has poor natural surveillance;

· That the main entrance is recessed and provide a concealment opportunity and could be used as a toilet or to take drugs;

· That there is no mention of security in the proposal or a management plan;

· That the proposal indicates that the AGC won’t be staffed and could therefore be exploited by drug dealers or users. They consider that persons should be vetted prior to entry to ensure they are of suitable age and have not been barred;

· That the windows onto the street need to allow for surveillance into and out from the centre.

 

They also highlight that the local policing team raised the following concerns:

 

· That Park Parade has the second highest figures for recorded ASB in the town centre and is a known area where robbery often occurs, and for drug offences (both possession and supply);

· That there are organised gangs of drug dealers in Park Parade taking over and using premises to conduct their activities, and that an unsupervised venue will allow this to happen out of police view;

· That last year, an operation was conducted in the High Street where a betting shop was used by a 20 strong gang to drug deal out of sight;

· That there is a nearby college and school and that their pupils frequent Park Parade on their way to and from the education facility and could be influenced by the venue and its cliental;

· That there is a nightclub and public house opposite;

· That the town centre already has a street drinking problem contributing to ASB , and that the betting shop venues attract street drinkers;

· That there have been 6 Closure Orders in Park Parade relating to premises causing ASB or allowing criminality.

 

The Met Police advise that they have a number of recommendations should the application be granted, including:

· Security rated entrance doors;

· Video and auto intercom at entrance to ensure potential guests are vetted prior to entry;

· Glazing to main façade meets BSEN standards, with a roller shutter fixed to the exterior;

· That the recessed entrances are removed or have shutters or grills to eliminate this overnight;

· That the rear escape doors are alarmed and that they have a sufficient security rating;

· That the walls and doors of any cash room are security rated;

· That any external mailbox meets specific certification levels;

· That CCTV (with complementary lighting) is provided to specific standards and maintained by certified companies;

· That intruder alarms are installed

· That the applicant liaises with the MPS North West Licensing team.

 

Officers' comment:

The matters raised by the Met Police are acknowledged.

You might think the evidence supplied by the police is pretty daming but nevertheless planning officers recommend approval:

Recommendation: That planning permission is granted subject to the conditions set out in the report  and an additional condition requiring formal Secured by Design accreditation prior to first occupation of the units.

 

The premises shall not be used expect between the hours of 0800 hours and 2230 hours Sundays to Thursdays and between 0800 hours and 2300 hours Friday and Saturdays without the written consent of the Local Planning Authority.

 

Reason: To ensure that the proposed development does not prejudice the enjoyment by neighbouring occupiers of their properties.’

Black Women Then and Now: Chalkhill Community Centre Saturday October 28th

 

Free 3-Day Community Carpentry Workshop Oct 25th - Oct 27th

 

Email billie@sufra-nwlondon.org.uk for more info

New replacement 'Super GP Surgery' to open in Wembley Park providing space for 16 GPs from March 2024

 

Quintain yesterday announced a new GP ‘super surgery’ to open at the heart of Wembley Park. When operational, it will be the largest NHS GP practice in the borough of Brent, serving up to 25,000 patients.

Quintain said:

The 11,000 sq. ft space will be operated by Wembley Park Medical Centre, relocating from Wembley Park Drive to Humphry Repton Lane close to Olympic Way and Boxpark Wembley, a 10-minute walk from their old premises.

The build will create state-of-the-art general practice medical spaces including two clinical suites, 14 consult exam rooms, four treatment rooms, and an e-consult room. It has been designed with a double height reception and waiting area into the ground floor of the Repton Gardens residential development at the heart of Wembley Park.

The announcement of the NHS super surgery is a significant milestone in the delivery of the Wembley Park neighbourhood, which has been planned from the start to provide all the community facilities everyone needs within easy reach. 

The surgery will be delivered by Quintain as part of the Repton Gardens development, designed by architects The Manser Practice, a team with award-winning experience in the healthcare sector. The surgery will provide enough space for 16 GPs and is set to open to the public from March 2024.

London boroughs' budgets on a knife edge due to £500m budget shortfall

 From London Councils

Boroughs in the capital will need to make over £500m of savings next year to balance their budgets, new analysis from London Councils reveals.

Based on its latest survey of council finances, the cross-party group warns that nine in ten London boroughs expect to overspend on their budgets this year – estimated at over £400m in total across the capital.  

London Councils says boroughs face a perfect storm of prolonged high inflation, fast-increasing demand for services, and insufficient government funding – leading to a growing risk of financial and service failures.

Growing pressures on adult and children’s social care, as well as the capital’s worsening homelessness crisis, are the biggest drivers of boroughs’ overspends. London Councils estimates that almost 170,000 Londoners – equivalent to one in 50 residents of the capital – are currently homeless and living in temporary accommodation arranged by their local authority. Boroughs expect to overspend on temporary accommodation by £90m this year.

Ahead of the government’s Autumn Statement in November, where the Chancellor will set out his future spending plans, boroughs are calling for urgent action to boost support for local services and stabilise council finances.

London Councils has launched its key priorities for the Autumn Statement, which include:

• An overall funding increase of at least 9% (in line with what was received last year).
• Investment to reduce homelessness, including through uplifting the Local Housing Allowance and Homelessness Prevent Grant.
• Reforms to the broken local government finance system, such as giving councils longer-term funding settlements and more devolved powers.

Cllr Claire Holland, Acting Chair of London Councils, said:

“Borough finances are on a knife edge – with grim implications for the future of local services in the capital.

“The combination of higher costs due to spiralling inflation, skyrocketing demand for services, and insufficient levels of government funding leaves boroughs in an extremely precarious position. The pressure is relentless – we face a £400m shortfall this year, which rises to £500m next year unless the government provides more support.

“Councils play a vital role in their communities providing essential services and in tackling so many major challenges, such as addressing homelessness, unlocking economic growth, and making faster progress towards net zero.

“The government must use the Autumn Statement to bolster council finances. This will be crucial for helping boroughs stabilise budgets and sustain London’s local services.”

London boroughs’ resources remain almost a fifth (18%) lower than in 2010, despite there now being almost 800,000 more Londoners – broadly equivalent to a city the size of Leeds). This has been exacerbated by over £1bn in unfunded and underfunded new burdens over that period, such as the government transferring responsibility to local authorities for financing Council Tax Support and a host of other measures.

London Councils also highlights a recent report from the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies think-tank that found London local government funding is 17% lower than its estimated relative need – by far the largest gap of any region in England.

Brent Finance Chief issues grim warning on Council finances

 The Brent Corporate Director of Finance and Resources has issued a grim warning on the Council's financial situation following a significant over-spend on the housing service caused by a high level of demand due to increased homelessness, reduced supply of suitable temporary accommodation and subsequent higher costs. The forecast spend of £16.3m is nearly five times the original budget.

The Director informs the Cabinet that the 'seriousness of the Council's financial position cannot be understated' and stresses the need for more measures than had been planned in order to control expenditure to address the underlying issue that 'the  Council's net expenditure is significanty greater than the available sources of in-year funding'. 

Extracts from the report (Full Report that is available HERE)

The Council’s revised General Fund revenue budget for 2023/24 is £291.2m. The revised budget includes planned revenue savings in-year of £13.5m and the status of these are set out in Appendix A. There is a forecast overspend of £13.4m against the revised revenue budget at Quarter 2. If sustained until the year end, this would require a transfer from unallocated reserves.

 

Equally, any overspending not dealt with in 2023/24 would, potentially, carry over into 2024/25 thereby increasing the requirement for further savings in that year whilst at the same time providing reduced scope to draw on the Council’s reserves.

 

The seriousness of the Council’s financial position cannot be understated.

 

The scale of the financial challenge for 2023/24 and 2024/25 is such that, in addition to work currently underway to implement savings in 2023/24 and to identify new savings proposals for 2024/25 and 2025/26, the Council will need to implement further measures to control expenditure in order to address the underlying issue that the Council’s net expenditure is significantly greater than available sources of in year funding. Further details on these measures are set out below.

 

Local government is facing the most challenging financial environment for many decades. Many councils are overspending and depleting their reserves; most are experiencing the adverse effects of high inflation, high interest rates and significant increases in demand due to demographic changes. Some are even declaring bankruptcy by issuing s114 notices. Concerns about future levels of government funding are widespread. Against this backdrop, Brent has maintained a strong position in terms of financial resilience and sustainability with a good track record of delivering savings and balancing the overall budget. However, the position for 2023/24 has worsened significantly and the current forecast will require the Council to take urgent actions in the short and medium term to maintain financial control.

 

The main cause of the forecast overspend is within the Housing Service, where high levels of demand due to a rise in homelessness and reduction in supply of suitable accommodation are expected to result in an overspend of over £13m. Section 3.8 of this reports sets out the Council’s strategy in dealing with the  significant increase in costs of providing temporary accommodation for those homeless people to whom the Council owe a legal duty. While Brent is not in the financial situation of those Council’s that have recently issued, or threatened to issue, a Section 114 notice (legally required when the council cannot balance its budget, unlike the NHS and other parts of the public sector councils are not allowed to carry a deficit) all efforts must be focussed on positively changing the financial position.

 

In addition to these actions and the additional oversight provided by the Budget Assurance Panel, further measures are considered necessary to prevent the situation worsening. These will include, but are not limited to, controls on new spending decisions, limits on new recruitment, reduction in the use of agency workers, bringing forward in year savings and other mitigations to reduce expenditure. These sensible, proactive and prudent measures will provide more assurance over the Council’s spending decisions and reduce the risk that the budget position deteriorates further. These measures will remain in place until the end of the financial year, and updates provided to the Cabinet in future forecast reports and budget reports.

 

The report also includes updates on the viability of two major projects:

 

The Wembley Housing Zones project is expected to experience a viability pressure when updating the project plans to meet potential fire safety regulations. Work is already underway with the contractor, Wates, to reduce the impact of any changes required. The Morland Garden project is experiencing significant viability challenges whilst also being subject to a significant delay in the project delivery timescales dependent on the outcome of the public inquiry in relation to the stopping up order.

 

Link to 3.8 on action on Temporary Accommodation

Statement from Brent Multi-Faith Forum on current events

 Frank Dabba Smith, Mustafa Field and Danny Maher from the Brent Multi-Faith Forum, said:

We are aware that the trauma of the horrific violence of the last few days will be felt by innocent people in the Middle East region for generations to come. We are aware, too, that there are many people living in the London Borough of Brent who will be mourning the loss of family members, friends, and colleagues. We deplore all forms of violence and find any rejoicing at the suffering of others to be abhorrent.

We understand that this enduring and terrible conflict is deeply complex and embedded in historical trauma occurring to both sides. However the real suffering and pain must feel in a group’s narrative, cycles of abuse and violence must be ended. If not, committing hateful acts including violence, hostage-taking and a myriad forms of discrimination will only result in perpetuating more of the same.

We hold that the root of all faith / no faith must consist of the safeguarding of all life through the exercise of kindness, compassion and love. We support those of all faiths / no faith who are engaged in the struggle for peaceful dialogue, cooperation, conciliation and the equitable sharing of precious resources in the Middle East.

We are deeply committed to the safety and welfare of those of all faiths / no faith in Brent. There is no excuse for antisemitism, Islamophobia or any other hate crime. Exacerbating communal tensions will not be tolerated. We stand with the Metropolitan Police and Brent Council in urging the immediate reporting of any threatening behaviours.

Leopold Primary School, Brentfield Road site, earmarked for eventual closure. A potential site for Islamia Primary?

 

Leopold Primary School, Brentfield Road

Falling school  pupil numbers and subsequent school closures and amalgamations were a feature of my early years in teaching in the 1970s and the issue has returned post-Brexit as pupil numbers fall. 

Camden has already been hit and  there was a local warning when the Strathcona site closed. Now Brent Council is wrestling with managing pupil numbers and school provision. in the borough.  A review of primary provision was promised last year and focused on Planning Area 4:

The above table shows how the actual admissions compared with the PAN (Planned Admissions Number).  30 is one form admitted at reception, 60 two forms and 90 three forms, 45 is a class and a half and results in either two small single age classes or mixed age classes.

The only two oversubscribed schools were Donnington (single form entry - one class per year) and St Joseph's a Roman Catholic school.  There are parents who prefer a small school such as Donnington where vulnerable children feel less threatened than they would in a school with  large numbers of pupils and a big site.  Our Lady of Lourdes is also one form entry.

Single form entry schools are becoming much less common in London but this may change in time. Brentfield, Furness, John Keble, Newfield, St Mary's C of E and Stonebridge are all around or well below one form of entry. They tend to have higher per pupil costs than larger schools.

The two sites of Leopold Primary have a combined form of entry of 4 classes.

 

Brent Council explains the background to their proposal to close the Brentfield Road site of Leopold Primary in phases from September 2025. The site was previously the Brent Teachers Centre andPupil Referral Unit.

Leopold Primary School currently has capacity for 120 places in each year group with 60 on the school’s main site on Hawkshead Road and 60 on the Gwenneth Rickus site (Brentfield Road). Leopold Primary School achieves good outcomes for pupils across both sites and was rated by Ofsted as ‘Good’ in June 2022.

 

Leopold operates as a split-site school with one leadership team and staff who work across both the main school site on Hawkshead Road and the Gwenneth Rickus site.

 

On national offer day in 2023 for Reception places in 2023, 60 places were offered and there remained 60 spare places across the two school sites. As with other schools across the borough, the actual Reception cohort now on roll is higher due to late applications, which would have been diverted to other schools had Leopold’s capacity only been 60. Demand for Leopold Primary School has been falling since 2018 and the Gwenneth Rickus site operates as one form of entry in some year groups, including Reception and Year 1.

 

The Leopold Gwenneth Rickus site was opened in September 2013 as annexed provision in response to increasing demand for primary school places. The site was previously used by the borough as a school improvement centre, running courses for education professionals. Now that demand has reduced, there is no longer a need for this additional site to be retained as there are sufficient spare places on both the Leopold Primary School main site and in other local schools to accommodate future demand for primary provision in the area.

 

In January 2023, there were 628 pupils at Leopold Primary School compared to 767 in January 2019, with 282 pupils educated on the Gwenneth Rickus site.

 

The proposal is for the status of Leopold Primary School to return to that of prior to 2015 when the school operated with two forms of entry from one site only (Hawkshead Road). A phased closure of the Gwenneth Rickus site is recommended to avoid disruption to as many pupils and their families as possible. As the Hawkshead Road site has a central location within the planning area, it is anticipated that over time pupils from the Gwenneth Rickus site would move to the main Leopold Primary School site. Other local schools will be able to accommodate any pupils who wished to move school.

 

Parents of future Reception children would continue to have a range of schools to choose from. Only two schools in the area (Donnington Primary and St Joseph’s RC Primary School) were oversubscribed on national offer day for the September 2023 intake. There are several schools with spare capacity close to the Gwenneth Rickus site.

 

There were built-in problems with operating on two sites that are some distance apart including staff movement and travel time and the difficulty of shaping the two sites into one school with a shared ethos.  Despite the difficulties the  school has been very successful.

Many felt that it would have better if they operated as two separate schools but Government rules did not allow it. School expansion was allowed but not the opening of new community schools - any new school had to be an academy or free school.

The proposal is for a phased closure, as in the Strathcona case. The site would be used for other educational purposes so that it would be available for any recovery in pupil numbers. Several alternative uses are mentioned in the Cabinet paper but not the possibility of it being used by Islamia Primary School.  There is likely be a reduction in staffing as the school shrinks.

Also included in the proposals is a reduction in the size of Mitchell Brook Primary so that it takes 60 pupils a year rather than 90. This proposal is supported by the school:

 

The proposed reduction of the Pupil Admisison Number at Mitchell Brook Primary School from 90 to 60 would help to reduce spare places in other schools in the planning area. Mitchell Brook Primary Schools is rated as ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted (September 2021). It is anticipated that Mitchell Brook Primary School will remain a popular school. However, any children who are unable to secure a place at the school would be able to access places at other local schools in the immediate area.

 

The school is in support of a reduction of the school’s PAN and has raised concerns about the constraints of continuing to operate as three forms of entry due to the school’s confined site. Although forecasts indicate low demand in Planning Area 4 in the short and medium term, the spare building capacity created by reducing the school’s PAN could be brought back into use in the future at a time when demand rises again

 

The proposals would have to go through a consultation process. An indicative timeline is included in the paper.