Brent Council gives more Willesden land away to developers

Martin Redston writes:

Brent Council have made a last minute decision to give away yet further Conservation Area High Road space to facilitate private housing development and assist Galliford Try in maximising profit. 

We should object to the inadequate children's play area, cycle parking/ cycle route, outreach/ library lorry parking (and reversing) and parent and child parking bay, all of which are to be squeezed in together in the Grange Road strip. This is not a well considered plan. There will also be a considerable impact on privacy of residents in Grange Road, houses 1-15.

The area agreed by Brent Council in Jan 2012, as developable land, has been the subject of recent campaigns as residents believe, amongst other concerns, that the Town Square Conservation area in front of the 1980's library should not be used at all to facilitate private housing development. Yet again, this is a cynical 'land grab' by the developer in collusion with Brent Council who have fiddled development guidelines in order to generate funds.

 The Planning Application shows development in the area at the High Road end of Grange Road but these proposals were outside the agreed boundary of the Application. The brief was for the scheme to include good play space and cycle parking within the hatched area defined in Jan '12. Instead of requesting that the plans are revised by Galliford Try, the Council has simply revised the boundary and given away the last scrap of Town Square to the private property developer.