Butt: developers will deliver a better and brighter Brent

Cllr Muhammed Butt, leader of Brent Council, was questioned last night at the Town Hall meeting about the Willesden Green development. He was asked about the Council's close relationship with developers and the statement that there was a 'presumption in favour of development.'  Furthermore, wasn't Brent Council the co-developer with Galliford Try at Willesden Green?

He replied:

It's the developers who will help us deliver our vision for Brent:  a better and brighter Brent.

Fiona Ledden, director of Procurement and Legal, said that she was confident that Brent has a robust Planning Committee.

Town Square Enquiry adjourned until February 2013

Cllr Muhammed Butt addresses 100 Days Of Peace Rally in the Town Square

 The Public Enquiry into the application to register the space outside Willesden Green Library as a Town Square  has been adjourned until February 2013 on the grounds that the applicant was not given enough time to prepare the case.

A preliminary hearing will be still be held on Monday December 17th, 10am Studio 2, Willesden Green Library Centre. This will hear directions from the Inspector to the parties concerned. The meeting is open to the public.

The delay has implications for the timetable for the planning application for redevelopment of the site and the building of 95 homes as the developer's plans involves building on the Town Square.

Evidence of the use of the Town Square can therefore continue to be sent to Martin Redston mredston@compuserve.com as signed PDFs with any photographic evidence.

Comments are also still possible on the planning application and can be sent to andy.bates@brent.gov.uk (Reference 12/2924 12/2925)

"We need a mini-Civic Centre in Willesden at no cost to us" Muhammed Butt

Muhammed Butt, was asked about the Willesden Green Library at the recent public meeting organised by Brent TUC.

Cllr Butt  said that he had met with Keep Willesden Green campaigners and had passed on their concerns to Galliford Try, planners and the Regeneration Team, and their points will be taken into consideration for the new plans being presented in December.. He said that the old Willesen Library was now being retained and this meant internal redesigns. The council were still looking at 92 private units at the back of the site and this was the only way to fund it.

He was challenged with  the alternative of a small amount of building and refurbishment and the loss of the cinema,  bookshop and car park in the current plans.   The questioner said, "It's like saying I need a new boiler so I will knock my house down! I've heard it called asset stripping."  Butt responded that a lot of the 'stuff' in the 80s building had come to the end of its natural life and the building was unfinished. The cafe and cinema  had closed as a result of not being used. "We need a mini Civic Centre in Willesden so people from this area don't have to travel all the way to Wembley and we need it an no cost to us."

Council leader to meet with Keep Willesden Green

In an e-mail received today, Muhammed Butt, leader of Brent Council, has agreed to meet with Keep Willesden Green to discuss the 'on-going process'.

He stated:

    As you will be aware, following concerns raised by residents, Galliford Try are going through another consultation process before resubmitting their proposals. This consultation process will be lengthy and thorough, and comes on top of the statutory consultation process they will undertake at a later stage. The fact that they are consulting again and will be resubmitting their plans, because of residents’ concerns, demonstrates that we are thoroughly committed to open and transparent decision making, and in particular are focused on ensuring that communities get a full say on what happens in their local communities

All Souls: "Our fellows of the early 20th century never imagined (reversion) would have happened"

Keep Willesden Green supporter, Susan Clark, has received the following response from All Souls College about the situation at Kensal Rise Library following the council's dawn raid:

The College has of course been made aware of the “dawn raid” to which you refer. 

 

It is indeed very sad that the Council has closed the library.  This is something we made clear to the Council would trigger a reverter, thereby resulting in the freehold coming back to the College, something our Fellows of the early 20^th century never imagined would have happened.  We had hoped the Council might keep the library open, and encouraged them to discuss with the Friends of Kensal Rise Library that possibility.

 

At present, we have no “exact plans”.  On all property-related matters, however, we are advised by professional advisers.  Some time ago we advised the Friends of Kensal Rise Library to meet with these advisers to discuss what might happen if the site were to revert to our ownership, and I know that at least one meeting has taken place between them.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Tom Seaman

Fellow and Estates Bursar

 

Deceived, cheated and disheartened...

Following the Council's action in the early hours of this morning when they stripped Kensal Rise Library of books and murals, Kate Spence, joint chair of Keep Willesden Green, has sent the following letter to Cllr Butt, newly elected leader of Brent Council:

Dear Cllr Butt,

It has been dreadful to wake up to the news that your promises of engagement and respect for Brent residents are so shallow. Stripping Kensal Rise Library of  its history, books, plaques and all that give our community identity and reference is a barbaric act. 

 

Your words and good intentions when you became leader for Brent Council gave residents hope that you wanted to listen and engage with the electorate you serve. 

 

The furtive and underhand manner in which the Kensal Rise Library has been stripped of murals, furniture and books has left us all feeling deceived, cheated and disheartened.

 

Sincerely

Kate Spence

Michael, I just thought you may like to know...

Michael Rosen children's writer and broadcaster

From Michael Rosen's Blog  LINK

Here's a letter I received about the situation with Brent libraries. I am reprinting it in its entirety with permission from its writer, Gill Wood.

Dear Michael,

I was intrigued and frankly flabbergasted to read the email Councillor James Powney sent you about Brent's intentions to issue every child with a library card posted on your blog on 27th April.

You may be aware that Brent Council closed half of its libraries last year, and concerned residents in Willesden Green are fighting the Council's current proposals to demolish the library we have here, not even 30 years old, as well as the original Victorian Library building that has been on the site since 1894 and built by the poor ratepayers of the area at the time who recognised the importance of literacy to their population.

The plans will also evict our much loved Willesden Bookshop, which specialises in children's and multicultural books, and has supplied books at a discount to most of the schools in Brent and beyond in the twenty three years they have been on the site.

The Council plans to give a housing developer valuable public land [the library car park at the back of the building] in return for a new cultural centre building and five blocks of luxury flats. The new building will have a smaller footprint than the one we currently have, and in spite of the need for affordable housing for those on the Council's ever increasing lists, there is no affordable housing provision included in the proposed development. The Council gets a new building and the freehold of a smaller plot, and the developer ends up with a new housing scheme it can sell at market rate.

There is a huge danger that we will lose our bookshop because it will not be able to afford the commercial rates it will need to meet. I was at a Brent Executive meeting when the same Councillor Powney (who voted for this development along with the rest of the Executive without allowing those residents and stakeholders in the library a full and substantive consultation about the plans) told those present that the retail space in the new building will be "high end" commanding a high rent, which the bookshop will not be able to manage. I consequently find his comments to you outrageous and incredibly offensive.

The Council has now posted the planning applications on its website and Brent residents now have until the end of May to write to the planning officer, Andy Bates [andy.bates@brent.gov.uk] and lodge their objections. This is the last opportunity for those of us whose views have been ignored up to this point to make our voices heard before it is too late. I would like to urge every Brent resident who has concerns to write within this crucial consultation period and make their views known.

Numbers crunched by the SOS Libraries Campaign based on the Council's own figures show that in the period between October 2011 to March 2012 (6 months after the libraries closed) 152,000 fewer books were issued and Brent libraries received 148,250 fewer visits compared with the same period the previous year. 54% of borrowers from the 6 closed libraries have not subsequently used another Brent library. The statistics and the actions of the Council speak for themselves.

It is a laudable intention to issue every child with a library card. It would be even better for those children to be within easy reach of a library which will allow them to use it.
 

Here we have a Council actively terminating the life of a small business at the heart of our community and choking off opportunities for children to read, thereby reducing opportunities to raise the borough's poor literacy rates for the sake of a developer's profit margin. This is being brought about by councillors, like Lead Member Powney and the newly elected Council Leader Muhammad Butt, who are supposed to be acting in the best interests of the ratepayers who elected them.

I just thought you may like to know.

Yours sincerely,

Gill Wood

Keep Willesden Green

http://keepwillesdengreen.blogspot.co.uk