Showing posts with label Willesden Green Regeneration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Willesden Green Regeneration. Show all posts

Friday 5 July 2013

NO COMMON PEOPLE! Unique selling point for Willesden Green Library development


When we were campaigning against the Willesden Green library redevelopment we high-lighted that no affordable homes were to be built on the site once owned by Brent Council (ie our land). Brent Council argued that  Galliford Try/Linden Homes had to be sure of a profit in order to be able to build the Culltural Centre for zero cost to the Council so no affordable homes were included.

Now like a slap in the face for those on the Council's housing list, the estate agent advertising in Singapore has made the lack of affordable homes/key worker homes a selling point! Presumably this ensures prospective buyers have the 'right' sort of neighbours.



EXTRACT FROM PUBLICITY LINK

THE LIBRARY @ WILLESDEN GREEN, LONDON
PRICE FROM GBP350,000 (SGD6xxK)

Willesden Green is one of North London’s liveliest and most cosmopolitan areas, whose excellent Zone 2 Jubilee Line connections really set it apart.

The Library takes a prominent position on Willesden High Road, and sets new standards in contemporary accommodation for the area. This exciting scheme comprises four buildings, offering ninety-five highly specified 1 and 2 bedroom apartments, many with balconies or terraces. The development is gated and has underground parking for residents: always a bonus in London.

SELLING POINTS:
• Prominent position on Brondesbury Road and Willesden High Road
• Next door to the forthcoming Cultural Centre
• Within 3-minutes ride to Zone 2 London tube station or 5-minute walk
• Within walking distance to Queens Park
• Willesden High Street is thronged with shops, supermarkets (Sainsbury’s Supermarket is a few minutes’ walk from The Library), cafes and restaurants and is a few minutes’ walk from Brondesbury Park
• Excellent transport links – Zone 2 Jubilee Line with direct connections to key interchanges including Baker Street, Waterloo, London Bridge and Canary Wharf
• No key worker/affordable housing (my emphasis)
• High quality fixtures, fittings and finishes
• Fully fitted kitchen by Symphony with integrated appliances and granite worktops
• Estimated Selling Price: From £350k (SGD 6xxk)

UNIT MIX:
Milne Place (Block A)
1 Bedroom: 545 sqft – 626 sqft
2 Bedroom: 759 sqft – 1005 sqft

Lewis Court (Block B)
1 Bedroom: 546 sqft – 554 sqft
2 Bedroom: 614 sqft – 862 sqft

Developer: Linden Homes and Green Urban
Address: 95 Willesden High Road, London, NW10 (Zone 2 on Jubilee Line)
Tenure: 999-years
Estd Completion: Summer / Winter 2014; 4Q 2014
Site Area: 83,958.50 sqft

CALL SALES HOTLINE: + 65 90933158 TO REGISTER YOUR INTEREST☎

Saturday 19 May 2012

Ann John joins Planning Committee shortly after being cleared of wrongdoing

A few weeks after being cleared of illegally bringing pressure on a Labour Councillor on the statutorily independent planning committee, Ann John has become a member of that committee.  This means that she will be considering the controversial Willesden Green Library Centre redevelopment for which she has publicly expressed strong support. The planning application is submitted in the sole name of the developer Galliford Try despite the project being a partnership between them and Brent Council.

The full list of the new committee is:

Attendee Role

Councillor Ketan Sheth Chair

Councillor Mary Daly Vice-Chair

Councillor Abdi Aden Committee Member

Councillor Eddie Baker Committee Member

Councillor Mark Cummins Committee Member

Councillor Sami Hashmi Committee Member

Councillor Ann John OBE Committee Member

Councillor Chandubhai J Patel Committee Member

Councillor Ramesh Patel Committee Member

Councillor Krupa Sheth Committee Member

Councillor Harbhajan Singh Committee Member



Sunday 8 April 2012

Ann John: I know best on Willesden Green Redevelopment

Keep Willesden Green activists have provided reports on their meeting with Ann John, leader of Brent Council, to discuss the proposed redevelopment of Willesden Green Library. LINK

It seems clear from the reports that Cllr John was not as well briefed as she might have been and this follows Cllr Crane's floundering on detail at the KWG hustings for the Dollis Hill by-election.

Despite being disconcerted by some of the evidence Ann John stuck to her guns and insisted that she knew better than local residents what was good for them.

Campaigners who attended the meeting concluded that local people could have a say about where shelving in the new building was positioned, but little else despite not being properly consulted in the first place.

Further one to one consultations will be held by Galliford Try and Remarkable PR on April 17th. Full details HERE

Thursday 5 April 2012

Majority reject Willesden Green plans in Remarkable Consultation

The 'Keep Willesden Green Campaign' have just released the results of the Galliford Try-Brent Council consultation on the Willesden Green Library Regeneration which was managed by Remarkable PR.

The result, coming as it does on top of Labour AM Navin Shah's support for the retention of the historic Old Willesden Green Library building is indeed 'remarkable'.

Remarkable PR had 220 responses to the public consultation (both on line and on paper). The breakdown was:

Supporters of the scheme  15
Partial supporters              24
Undecided                        10
Objections                       171

Remarkable will be contacting the people who took part in the 50 1:1 consultations with revised plans but these are not expected to include the retention of the old Willesden Green Library building.  These meetings are likely to take place the week after next. A revised flyer will also be sent to residents.

Sunday 11 March 2012

'Who put the CON into Consultation?' asks Michael Rosen

After Keep Willesden Green had a successful morning outside the Brent Council - Galliford Try Consultation I came across this on Michael Rosen's blog. LINK  Michael is the children's poet and BBC broadcaster. It may ring bells for you!
In many streets, there is a scarcely visible process going on: developers eye up land and properties with a view to convincing councils that there is a place or space which they can make a profit out of. They don't call it that. They call it 'regeneration' and proceed to line up various agencies or authorities to back them: eg the local transport people, some 'business people', some kind of 'development agency' or ngo in the area and so on. They will also try to capture some key members of the council (elected or non-elected). Sometimes this process is initiated by a council committee as part of their own 'regeneration' scheme.

In fact, more often than not, it's a con. The 'affordable' housing that is sometimes promised at the outset, starts diminishing in numbers as the developer pleads economy and 'returns  on investment'. Quite often some kind of half-hidden subsidy is engineered by either the council or one of the ngos whereby the developer gets the land cheap or received some kind of suspension in the council tax etc. And when it comes to the 'retail units', more often than not, this is in fact an effort to bring in the multinational chains.

Prior to all this, the land or properties that the developers have been eyeing may well have been deliberately run down by the public authorities eg the council or transport authority. The 'dereliction' they talk about in their glossy brochures may well have been engineered, by refusing to let tenant holders, short-term occupiers or some such stay and develop their own property. Groups (eg council subsidised self-help groups, community organisations and the like) are often told that they can be moved out at any time. Another trick is for the council to have not updated and upgraded some properties they owned so that they are in effect falling down.

At this point the developer's plan is presented as the only viable alternative. The possibility of people on the ground developing their places and spaces has been eliminated by refusing to let them (!), some deal is on the cards whereby the developer is getting some kind of subsidy from us, the council tax payers, but which may well be hidden as a non-ask eg a very low payment for a slice of property, and the council and the developer produce some great big brochure of blather saying how this is all a marvellous retail opportunity, everything is going to look smart and nice, Marks and Spencer are going to be on your doorstep etc etc.

Now to the council meeting to see if they can get it through.

At this point, I'll break off the story...with this:

Just up the road from a historic defeat for the people, places and spaces of Dalston in Hackney, comes a historic victory:

http://opendalston.blogspot.com/2012/03/dalstons-voice-is-heard-hackney-reject.html

Thursday 2 February 2012

Confused councillors cause chaos at Call In

Tonight's Call In Overview and Scrutiny Committee on the Willesden Regeneration Project descended into chaos tonight when inattentive Labour members apparently missed a vote and enabled a motion supported by two Lib Dems on the committee to be passed. Labour councillors tried to get the vote taken again when they  realised that it put in jeopardy plans to sign the Development Agreement with Galliford Try tomorrow. They tried to argue that the chair, Cllr Ashraf had been unclear when he called for votes for and against, but legal officers ruled that Ashraf had been clear.

As the councillors floundered noisily, asking each other what was happening, the public at first made fun of them and then called for the whole lot to resign.

The motion called on the Executive to reconsider their interim service plan for the period of the Willesden Green redevelopment to include the possibility of using existing closed library buildings in order to provide a comprehensive and financially viable library service.

Legal officers present appeared to say that the effect of this was to postpone any signing of an agreement until the Executive had considered the motion from Scrutiny. This will put back the timetable for the regeneration which is already running behind schedule.The anticipated signing date was only revealed after the vote.

The next Executive is on February 13th and will already have a full agenda which includes the budget. Although the Executive routinely votes down referrals from Scrutiny Committee there will be a further chance for the public to make representations.

Eleven members of the public spoke tonight and any neutral observer would be likely to agree that they spoke better, were more attentive, and made more sense than many of the councillors.

Much of what they had to say was concerned with the poor consultation over the plans.  It emerged that the 'stakeholder consultation' consisted of two evening focus group meetings attended by 5 and 7 people respectively who were unrepresentative of Brent's population. Several complained that there had been no mention of the Willesden Green closure when the Library Transformation plans were discussed and users of the closed libraries had been told that Willesden Green was their nearest alternative,

There were pleas from several different library campaigners for the closed down libraries to be reopened to provide an interim service. If Willesden Green had been near enough to be an alternative for their closed library then the reverse must also be true. A Kensal Rise campaigner argued that there was no justification for paying rent on temporary buildings when that purpose built library was available rent free and had enough space for the Brent Archives.

Nicolette McKenzie from Mapesbury Residents  made an impassioned plea for the Willesden Bookshop. She said that most cultural centres have a bookshop.  Although the bookshop was not part of the council's core service it was part of the bigger moral contract between the council and local residents. She said that the council needed to make some compromise and show goodwill towards residents.

Alison Hopkins for Dollis Hill and Neasden residents reminded the council that they had spent £300,000 on refurbishment of Neasden and were paying rent of £55,000 plus security costs on a building that could be put to use. The area was one of high deprivation and badly need the library..

Jacky Baines said that there had been no consultation over the of the old Willesden Library building and called on the council to listen to residents. She said that an epetition had been launched on the council website. (Available HERE)

Simon Hawkins, speaking for Brondesbury residents said that the first they had heard of the proposals was on January 16th. On the  focus groups he said it was wrong that so much was decided by so few. Consultation was now available only when detailed plans existed and decisions were being made by small groups behind closed doors. He said interim arrangements were incoherent and residents needed reassurance that the project was not a housing scheme with a small ill-thought out library space. He asked what justification there was for removing the cinema. Contrasting the success of the Tricycle he said that the Willesden Green Library Centre had been badly managed and needed a manager of real calibre.

Responses from Cllr Crane (leader member for regeneration and major projects) and Andy Donald, the officer concerned, reiterated that the present building was not fit for purpose and would cost too much to refurbish and anyway the council did not have the money. A developer partnership meant that the project was cost neutral with the council gaining the freehold of the new building by handing council land (the library car park and a section of Chambers Lane) over to the developer for housing.

However it emerged during exchanges that it was the developers who had said there should be no retail in the new building and that the locally listed Old Willesden Library could not be incorporated into the design. This brought calls of 'But you are the client!' from the public seats. 

Cllr Lorber asked then what was the point of people wanting to make representations on the old building and the bookshop when it was a 'done deed'. Residents had had no say in matters that clearly concerned them.

Towards the end, Cllr Ann Hunter, who had been getting more and more agitated during Cllr Lorber's contributions, jiggling around on her seat and clapping her hand to her forehead in apparent exasperation, intervened from the public seats. She berated Cllr Lorber for his caricature of a museum outreach service and praised that of the British Museum. As a Willesden Green councillor she had been to a briefing about the building and had some  input. She had seen the indicative design and thought it was wonderful but was not allowed to tell people about it.

In response to challenges over interim arrangements Jenny Isaac said that the facilities were needed in the Willesden Green area because of the 10,000 users there and because of its high levels of deprivation. In addition to Grange Road negotiations ere in progress for another building. She could not give any details until negotiations had been completed but the council would be providing a book stock, study spaces and IT and other activities normally carried out at Willesden Green would continue to take place. She said that the council hoped to match the number of study places during the revision and exam season but there might be a shortfall at other times.  She gave very high costs for the reopening of the closed libraries that were challenged by Cllr Lorber.

Andy Donald said Galliford Try had a detailed public participation strategy and there would be a chance to make representations at the pre-planning stage, when the  project went to planning committee and during implementation of the plans. He said that council officers were having detailed discussions with Brent Irish Advisory service and the Willesden Bookshop over relocation. They were in contact with landlords and there were a number of premises available from the council perspective. The head of property had begun these discussions. Cllr Crane said that it was hoped the plans  would go to Planning Committee in July 2012 with work to start in October 2012 (possibly later after tonight's vote). As a result of this the Willesden Bookshop would be offered an extension on its premises until the council needed vacant possession.