'Remarkable' PR desperately resort to anonymous quotes to undermine Keep Willesden Green campaigners

In their account of the 'community involvement' process they undertook for developers Galliford Try, Remarkable PR make a rather remarkable attack on Keep Willesden Green via an anonymous quote from one resident about what s/he claims a 'few friends' have said. LINK (p24) Public relations has never had a fantastic reputation but this does seem to take the biscuit. The comment is certainly not one that Brent Planning Committee should endow with any credibility.

The quote from Remarkable PR's document

Kate Spence, Joint Chair of the Keep Willesden Green campaign said:

Like most attendees of the Library Lab Consultation, I only attended one meeting.

KWG are a large group of local residents united by their desire to ensure that Willesden Green is regenerated in a way that will benefit the local community. We are the Public who live and use the land at the library site. We want to make sure that the right thing is done and the interests of ALL our community are served. 

Remarkable PR who have made these comments in their consultation are being paid by Galliford Try to consult with us in order to demonstrate that it is appropriate for Brent Council to take Town Centre public land and allocate 70% of it to a property developer for the developer's own private financial gain. The KWG local residents have chosen to campaign to protect the land. It should be retained for much needed infrastructure.

In 2006 Brent Council intended to do things properly. The following can be read in the Willesden Green Conservation Area Appraisal 2006

2.1 The Local Development Framework 

The Planning Service at Brent Council will produce as part of its Local Development Framework a set of core policies for the control of development within Conservation Areas. In particular the core document will address the fundamental principle of “Preserve or Enhance” from the Planning (Listed Building and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 and Planning Policy Guidance Note 15. The core policies will deal with alterations to existing buildings, new development, the built landscape and the natural environment. Policies will also be adopted to respond to the pressures of large scale development in residential historic areas.  

From the core policies a series of guidance documents which will be supplementary to the LDF will be produced. These supplementary documents will expand upon the basic policy principles giving specific guidance regarding materials, construction details and techniques for development in the Conservation Area.  

In addition to the supplementary development guidance documents the LDF will identify and possibly initiate a number of “Area Action Plans” which may include the Conservation Area within its remit. The special requirements of designated Conservation Areas will be a principal consideration in the development of “Area Action Plans”  

2.2 The Community Involvement 

As part of the Development of the LDF the Council has produced a “Statement of Community Involvement” which outlines its strategy for consulting people who live, work and play in the London Borough of Brent. All documents produced as part of the LDF will be consulted upon using the principles and processes described in the document. Hard copies are available from the addresses shown in contact details at the back of this document, or can be viewed on the Council website. The strategies outlined in this document will guide the Councils involvement with the residents of Willesden Green.

Unfortunately none of these intentions have been put in to place.  We are told that the ratio of land allocated at the WGCC has been prescribed by developers as the only viable way of returning a new WGCC with council offices. It seems to me that the opinion of partnered property developers with deeply flawed designs have been given a greater emphasis by Brent Council than a well considered LDF.

How can Remarkable PR expect local residents to sit down and talk about activities inside a diminished library space that has been designed without any Local Development Framework, "Area Action Plan" or a publicly consulted master plan? It is outrageous that Brent residents can be handed such an ill-conceived done-deal and then be criticised when we object as a group. 

If the library is run-down then it is a result of poor maintenance on the part of the council. If Remarkable PR can only find one anonymous resident, who thinks it is wise to sell off Public Asset, then facts speak for themselves. It is time to consider the views of the local residents and to stop trying to consult on the finer details of a done deal.

Vague vagaries on Willesden Green consultation

The August 8th 'consultation' has now been belatedly advertised on the Brent Council and Linden Homes/Galliford Try websites.  Still remarkably vague (are Remarkable PR still involved?)about content, future events and even end date....

It looks as if we will have to visit the Library Lab to find out timings for the 8th and what is organised for September.

From Brent Council website:

Willesden Green Cultural Centre

Who is consulting?

Regeneration and Major Projects

Why are we consulting?

The planning application for the proposed new Willesden Green Cultural Centre was withdrawn by Galliford Try at the beginning of July.

The Council and Galliford Try are now proposing some further engagement activities with local people and other stakeholders to explore the design for the Cultural Centre including what the building will look like and also what activities will take place in and around the building.

How can you take part?

An open day will be held on 8 August 2012 at the Willesden Green Library Centre in the Library Lab to update all stakeholders. You are welcome to drop in at any  time during the day and we will be available to answer questions. There will be presentations at set times during the day and further information on this will be available at the Library Lab.

Thursday 8 August

11am to 8pm at the Library Lab at the WGLC

Please note we will be holding further events in September, more details on these will be available at the Library Lab over the next few weeks.

When is the consultation taking place?

Start:     August 2012                    End:     September 2012

Who is being consulted?

Target Group:                    All residents and local stakeholders and businesses in Brent and all users of the Willesden Green Library Centre

Geographic:                       Willesden Green

Remarkable result: Brent's own consultation shows majority reject Willesden Green proposals

The outcome of the Galliford Try-Brent Council consultation on the Willesden Green Library Regeneration plans are now available and reinforce Keep Willesden Green Campaign's demand that the Council 'Stop, Listen and Reflect':

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

As a result a revised proposal is being worked on and Remarkable are planning to contact the original 50 people with whom they had 1:1 consultations to ask them to return to review the changes. However it is not expected that these will include the retention of the historic  Old Willesden Library building.

The dates of this second one-to-one consultations will be on April 17th..

Remarkable PR will also be sending out a revised flyer - to a similar number of resident regarding the updated plans.

Willesden Green Consultation: a shambolic sham?

We are gathering feedback from the individual consultation sessions that were held this week on the Willesden Green Regeneration. Individuals and small groups met with Brent Regeneration, Galliford Try, the project architect and Remarkable Public Relations.

It became clear that the Consultation Team acknowledged that the communications.consultation strategy thus far has been poor. However, they appeared confident about their ability to bring residents on side in a scheme which they felt was strong because of the zero cost to the council and the fact that, in their eyes, there was no alternative.

They said that the demolition of the Old Library was required in order to build the 90 plus flats behind the new building. They justified the lack of play space in the development by their expectation that as they would be one or two bedroomed flats there would be few children and thus no impact on local schools. There is of course no justification for such an assumption and many local families live in extremely over-crowded conditions.  None of the team lived in Willesden which is a real weakness in terms of local sensitivities.

Brent Regeneration appeared to give some ground on possibly bookshop space, according to some who attended, but this could not automatically be allocated the the Willesden Bookshop. It would have to be offered on the open market.

When the Team said that this was the beginning of the 'real consultation' a KWG supporter retorted that this was like discussing what kind of lock to put on a stable door long after the horse has bolted. When they were asked if the two day consultation had thrown up a single person who actually supported the plans, the ensuing silence said it all.

Consultees were assured that the trees would stay and there would be an application to move the bus stop. The Team were more confident that residents that the Planning Committees decision would be impartial and independent. One resident felt that the project architect was less than proud of the plans for the development and he suggested this was due to the constraints imposed on the developer.

Residents felt that often the Team were unable or unwilling to answer detailed questions on the scheme, including how the building would be managed and maintained on completion. Despite the loss of the car park, which will be built on, they confirmed that there will be NO public parking for the Cultural Centre - just 2  'mother and baby spaces' and 6 for the disabled. There would be no extra Pay and Display in the surrounding streets.

They were challenged that their plans amounted to a net loss to the neighbourhood of a landmark building and valued bookshop and a net gain of offices for Brent Council.

Asked about the status of this part of the consultation Remarkable PR replied that it would feed into the Community Involvement section of the planning application.

Following the controversies over Equality Impact Assessments in the legal proceedings and the need under the Equalities Act to ensure that no section of the community was discriminated against, it was surprising that the Teams recording of the age, ethnicity etc of consultees was haphazard with some residents reporting that there was little consistency in documenting demographic details. Some were asked to fill in a form and others were not.

One resident concluded, "Overall, I think the experience confirmed my suspicion that the consultation is a sham and I let them know that."