stop the tower!

Today sees the addition of an email newsletter to the site. To be kept up-to-date with the proposed development at Premier Corner, please sign up to the newsletter. When signing up to the newsletter you are asked to provide your name, address and postcode. You do not have to provide personal information if you do not want to so the name and address fields are optional. However we do ask that you provide your postcode - we will use this information to generate a map (using google maps) that show where interest in the proposed development is coming from in the local area.

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This weblog is rapidly becoming a major info point for the proposed development at Premier Corner.

I’ve published the website visitor stats that have been gathered today. In the first 16 days of October this site has had as much traffic as September and August combined. This is probably due to the posters and leaflets distributed locally by concerned residents. The increase in traffic shows that local residents are genuinely interested in finding out what information they can about the proposed Genesis development.

The StatCounter.com utility on the left hand side of the page records the number of visitors to this site. It counts ‘page loads’ (in green on the graph above) which is a measure of the number of times the site has been visited. It also counts unique visitors (blue) and returning visitors (yellow) using a cookie stored by the web browser of the visitor to this site.

no, not this website, but a major public consultation event about the Premier Corner site.

Date:Thursday 3rd November
Time:19.00hrs
Location:Queens Park Community School

Cllr Neil Nerva writes:

Further information about this meeting will follow. Brent Council will be circulating invitation letters next week to residents in Queens Park, and surrounding areas. In addition information will be available on the Brent website.

I have discussed with Brent Planning Service suggestions made at the Area Forum as to how consultation about the future use of this site might be improved.

I hope that following the Area Forum held on 27th September, Genesis will reconsider their proposal and will agree to withdraw the current planning application. The planning brief mentioned a 10 to 20 storey building the current proposal from Genesis exceeds this. This will enable proper informed debate to take place about how the site might be developed.

In advance of the meeting on 3rd November Cllr Nerva has asked Brent Planning to discuss with Genesis and the Mayor of London the following issues:

• Public Transport
  • It would be a scandal if Queens Park Station is not rebuilt at the same time as the car park is developed

  • More information is needed about the bus, pedestrian and cycling facilities
• Phasing
  • How can the development of the car park be properly linked to developments on the site of the British Legion and Albert Road Day Centre?
• Community benefit
  • What new community resources will be provided?
• Design
  • It is imperative that the architect appointed does not assume that the design is a fait accompli

  • How can quality be assured for the design and final build?
  • Local residents expect and want to be involved in the design if the building – how can this be achieved ?
  • Can the architect provide more than one design for consultation with local residents ?

Labour Councillor for Queen’s Park ward Neil Nerva left a comment on this post to the blog.

Following the ACF held at Queen’s Park Community School last week, he has now established that a major public consultation event is to be run by the Brent Planning Service and is likely to be held in the week commencing 31/10/05. As soon as we know the exact date and have further information we will post it here.

Neil also advises us of a weblink to the South Kilburn Regeneration Project Homepage.

In an email to us, Councillor Nerva writes

I along with other local councillors want to facilitate informed debate and ensure that both Brent Council Planning and Genesis are aware of and listen to the views and concerns raised by local residents. I do not regard the proposed development as put forward by Genesis to be a done deal.

Postal address:
London Borough of Brent
Planning Service Brent House
349-357 High Road
Wembley HA9 6BZ

Case Officer: Meghji Hirani
T: 020 8937 5231, F: 020 8937 5207
Email: meghji.hirani@brent.gov.uk

Planning application reference: 05/1317

‘Area Consultative Forums were set up to give local people a say about the issues which matter to them. At each meeting, residents, traders and community representatives are able to raise questions about services provided by the council and other agencies in Brent. Chaired by a councillor, each area forum meeting is open to the public and is held during a weekday evening in an accessible venue’ - From ‘About ACF’, Brent Council website

At the Kensal and Kilburn ACF on Tuesday 27th September 2005 the proposed Queen’s Park Development will be discussed.

Refreshments provided.

Recently we posted a question about the decision making process for the proposed development in Queen’s Park. We are interested to know whether this development is considered a minor development and as such the planning decision would be made by Brent Planner OR whether the decision would be made by a meeting of the Brent Council Planning Committee.

We wrote to Meghji Hirani at Brent who advises us that:

This application will be decided at planning committee. There is not yet a date set for when this may be but all those that wrote in and provided their address will be notified of the date and time of the committee.

We will of course advise all readers of this blog with the date and time of the planning committee meeting.

We received our 900th hit yeaterday - not bad for a website devoted to a single local issue. Perhaps this interest will be taken into consideration when the planning decision is taken.

Here you can see the stats for this website over July and August. In total this website has been viewed by 373 peple (at the time of posting) and has been access 902 times.

August 11th, Wembley Observer. Alex Stephens reports on the efforts of the local community to raise awareness of the development and to facilitate the participation of residents in the planning process.

Here’s a scan of the article for you to read.

We’ve received a copy of a letter written to Brent Council regarding the development at Salusbury Road Car Park and Claremont Road. People who write letters to the planning department either in support of or against the proposed development can be assured that their “views will be taken into account in assessing the application and when a recommendation or when a decision is made”.

The Planning Department advise that planning decisions are made in one of two ways in Brent:

1. Most types of applications, provided they follow the Council’s planning policies, will normally be decided by the Director of Planning in consultation with senior officers. This system is known as ‘Officer’s Delegated Authority’ and follows specific criteria laid down by the Council. N.B. Applications to which we have received written objections may be refused in this way: or
2. More significant applications, will be decided by Councillors at a meeting of the Planning Committee. Additionally, applications which are recommended for approval but two or more written objections have been received, or applications requested by two or more Councillors, will be reported to the Planning Committee.

But the Council’s letter does not say whether this development is a significant application and will be decided by Councillors or whether this development decision will be made by the Director of Planning. Which would you prefer? For the decision to be made by your elected representives or by the Director of Planning. Write to the Council now!