Willesden Green Client Design Brief emerges from the shadows

Following our public meeting on Thursday I have found the Willesden Green Client Design Brief  on Brent Council's website. Follow this LINK to the 114 page document.

There is no direct reference to incorporating the 1894 Old Willesden Library into the project or of providing space for the Willesden Bookshop.

There is however, the statement:

Proposals could add additional value by:

i Providing spaces within the wider development that accommodate community-led organisations, or services/business/organisations of direct social or economic benefit to the local community.

ii Providing active ground-floor frontages wherever possible.

We had been told by councillors and officers that incorporation of the Victorian Building and provision of bookshop space had been ruled out by developers but  the possibility does not  appear  in this initial design brief that was written by the Council in June 2011.

Any tears for the Willesden Bookshop, Ann?

Leader of Brent Council, Ann John, told the Executive on Monday that she had wept when the Borders Bookshop at Brent Cross closed. She and her Labour colleagues then went on to approve the redevelopment of Willesden Green Library which will displace the Willesden Bookshop and lead to its possible closure.

There are just three days left to sign the epetition calling for Brent Council to allocate this well-loved and respected LOCAL bookshop in the proposed Willesden Cultural Centre.

Queens Park Community School have submitted several pages of a paper version of the epetition.

If you have not signed the petition please do so now HERE and if you have signed please e-mail the link to friends and neighbours and urge them to sign.

Brent Council's lack of planning brief for Cultural Centre exposed

This is the speech that Kate made at Thursday's public meeting:

The proposed development of the Willesden Green Cultural Centre is being greeted with mixed feelings locally. There seems to be a mistrust in the Council’s intention to do the right thing.  

The 6 library closures has cast doubt over the Council’s commitment to provision of much needed study space and library facilities and the plans for the new WGCC leave further questions.

In a search for information about what we, as residents, should expect from our Council, I have turned to the London Plan 2011.

The following grabbed my attention:

Boroughs should work with local communities ensuring that they are engaged in shaping and delivering local development strategies.

In the context of the built environment these development strategies are also known as Planning Briefs. 

So what is a Planning Brief?

A Planning Brief is a document, which summarises the planning authority's guidelines and requirements for the development of a site such as Willesden library. The Planning Brief sets out the context, the preferred land uses and key urban design principles for the site. It also addresses a number of important issues relating to the delivery of development proposals such as the partnering with a developer.

A Planning Brief can also perform a number of functions such as promoting a site for development, interpreting and supplementing development plan policies, or addressing a particular site constraint or opportunity.

All Planning briefs should undergo full Public Consultation and the results of this should be fully considered before the brief is formally adopted as council policy. Once adopted, the brief becomes a material consideration in the determination of any future planning application relating to all or part of the site.

I have recently asked the regeneration team if I could read the planning brief for the Willesden Green Cultural Centre and local regeneration programme. The answer is no. There has been no Planning brief for this project.

So why was this essential part of the Planning process skipped? Why was there no robust Consultation based on a Planning brief? If there is no Planning brief, how can a future planning application for the site be determined?

The London Plan also states:

Boroughs in Consultation with English Heritage should include appropriate policies for identifying, enhancing and improving access to the historic environment and heritage assets and their settings.

The Old 1894 Library is a distinctive feature of the High Road Conservation Area. It is recognised as a well-crafted building of it’s period. Designed by Newman and Newman, it is well documented as a unique building of quality. Despite a history of alteration, the frontage of the building remains intact and defines the local townscape.

The London Plan goes on to say that:

“People should have access to a built environment that reinforces a strong, unique local history and character.” And later it states that:

“Development should reinforce the connection between public spaces and existing features of heritage significance.”

The Old Library makes a positive contribution to the character of Willesden Green. It is a landmark building and a monument to the determination of the local 1894 poll tax payers who raised funds in times of terrible poverty to provide books, a library and ensure literacy. Surely it is these historic values that should be celebrated and influence the future character of the area. The development should be informed by The Old library, not facilitated by it’s demolition. It reinforces meaning and civility and its presence should enhance our relationship with the new building. It is an inherent and unique part of the Willesden Cultural heritage and should be recognised as a catalyst for regeneration. It should be valued, conserved, restored and put to a suitable and viable use in the new Library Centre. 

It is for this reason that we have requested that English Heritage designate the Old Library as a listed building and await their response.

Community rallies to the Keep Willesden Green cause

The campaign hits the front page of the Brent and Kilburn Times this week

There was standing room only at the Kings Hall, Willesden last night at the inaugural meeting of the Keep Willesden Green campaign. The meeting heard from local residents concerned at various aspects of the development and had a chance to see details of the proposed Cultural Centre and associated new housing for the first time.

Andy Donald, Brent Council's Director of Regeneration and Major Projects put the case for the new Centre and why it had not been deemed feasible to refurbish the current building. He told the meeting that the agreement with developer Galliford Try had been signed on Wednesday and that it did not include any options for the incorporation of bookshop space or the historic old Willesden Library building. He explained the minimal consultation and lack of detail on the original proposal as due to the constraints of 'testing the market' with developers for the new building.

He showed the audience the 'indicative' images below of the proposed Cultural Centre as well as some plans of the surrounding 94 units of new housing which would be up to 4 or 5 storeys high. He confirmed that the units would not be affordable housing but for sale at market rates. The new Centre would front the High Road and a public space would be provided behind the new Centre between that and the housing that will be built on the present library car park.

High Road frontage

From Brondesbury Park showing the open space

The aim of the meeting was to make local voices heard  the main messages repeatedly coming from the audience was that their voices had not been heard at the commencement of the project and that now consultation was happening they were merely being asked to comment on a 'done deal'.

One speaker brandishing the Newsletter that will be circulated to residents asked if the same sort of glossy image had been circulated 20 or so years ago when the present building had been planned with another council officer speaking persuasively about its merits.

She asked if history would be repeated with the new 'plastic' building being denounced in subsequent years as poorly built and unsustainable. Brent Council were accused of deliberately letting the present building run down and doubts were raised about the future of the Cultural Centre if management was as poor as that for the Willesden Library Centre.

Another speaker expressed doubts about the planning consultation process as Brent Council were the proposers of the private partnership development and Brent councillors would make the decision on the planning application.

There were many contributions extolling the importance for the community of the Willesden Bookshop and its particular role in providing multicultural books and study materials to local schools. The audience treated with derision Andy Donald's statement that in the end it was just another commercial enterprise. The proposals for a revenue earning cafe in the Centre also received short shrift and reinforced the audience's suspicion that the developer was dictating the project rather than the needs of local people.

Cllr Barry Cheese (Lib Dem, Brondesbury Park) and Cllr Lesley Jones (Labour, Willesden Green, and Lead Member for Customers and Citizens) both spoke in favour of the new development saying that it would bring the High Road into the 21st century and improve the area. Cllr Claudia Hector (Labour, Kensal Green) on the other hand sent a message to the meeting calling for the old Victorian Willesden Library building to be saved. She said that she had informed the Labour leadership of her views. The meeting heard that an application had been lodged by campaigners with English Heritage to have the building listed.

Martin Redmond challenged the view that the Old Willesden Library could not be incorporated into the redevelopment and circulated the image below.

The meeting concluded with residents volunteering to form a Keep Willesden Green committee to carry on the work of the campaign and others enthusiastically signing up to work on specific aspects including the Willesden Bookshop, Old Willesden library, the consultation process,  the planning application, and the community's vision for the new building.

If you would like to take part e-mail keepwillesdengreen@hotmail.co.uk

Further information will be posted on this blog as the campaign develops. Your comments are welcomed.

Make your voice heard on Willesden Green Regeneration - this Thursday

Kings Hall

'Keep Willesden Green, a group of concerned residents, will be holding a public meeting about the proposed regeneration of Willesden Green Library Centre on Thursday 16th February, 7pm, Kings Hall, Harlesden Road, NW10 2BS (corner of Kings Road). The meeting will bring people together to share concerns and will hear from Andy Donald, Director of Major Projects and Regeneration as well as campaigners on the bookshop and preservation of the Old Willesden Library.

We hope this will be the start of a dialogue in which residents can have a voice and help shape the future of the area.

MAP

Powerful presentations on Willesden Green at Brent Executive

Brent Executive tonight approved the report on Willesden Green Regeneration and will go ahead and sign the agreement with the developer. Cllr Crane assured the public that there will be developer consultation over the next 3  or 4 months and further consultation when the plans go to Planning Committee.However it appears that this consultation does not include finding space for Willesden Bookshop in the new Cultural Centre or saving the Victorian Old Willesden Library building.

Powerful presentations were made by the public and two of them are reproduced below:

One of the key weaknesses in the consultation process thus far has been the absence of, to quote Council’s own web pages ‘information materials written clearly and simply’ on the substance of the redevelopment project. ‘The Vision in Detail’ document produced by the Council offers nothing but platitudes and fluffy, uncontroversial aspirations. I think, for instance, we can all agree that a public building requires, again, I quote, ‘a clear and fully accessible entrance’. But that is plainly not what’s at stake in this redevelopment. Instead, the public needs a much more detailed and substantive account of the plans and how they were arrived at.

Looking at the plans, it seems like the new cultural centre will cover less space than that the current complex. The plans state that the new complex will consist of 4,000 square metres. What does the current space measure? The Brent Museum has to be allocated the same space it currently occupies. How much of the space will be allocated to Council offices? Is the new Children’s Library being housed within the General ‘improved’ library or is it separate? How will the size of the space allocated to the new library compare with that of the current library? And once these areas are added up, how much space is actually left over for ‘flexible spaces in a range of sizes’? Will these be able to accommodate public meeting spaces as they do now, so  important for local democracy? And what criteria have been used for the allocation of indoor space other than the Library and Museum?

All these questions raise my fundamental concern about the process thus far: the fate of our Community amenity has been decided by the opinions of Brent’s three chosen Property developers. The publicly- elected authority of the Council is being trumped by the private commercial interests of the developers who, logically enough, are presenting plans that will maximise their profits, not the requirements of the local community.   In sum, there is  a woeful dearth  of facts and figures publicly available on a whole range of critical issues relating to this re-development project:

There is no evidence of feasibility studies with impartial input from a Quantity Surveyor and property valuation.

We are simply expected to accept that, for financial reasons, agreed behind closed doors, there are no alternatives short of the wholesale demolition of the new and old libraries in order to rehabilitate our flawed but highly- valued Library centre.

I, together with over a thousand other local residents who have thus far signed  relevant epetitions, do not believe this to be the case, and expect a democratic Council to extend and publicise more effectively the consultation process, and fill in the huge gaps in the detail of these proposals before it steam rolls ahead with the redevelopment agreement without the backing of local residents. 

Dr Ishani Salpadoru

Another unseemly aspect of the process thus far is the haste under which it’s being undertaken. The client design brief was issued in June 2011  and the council documentation from January this year claims that ‘officers  have spent the last 12 months successfully firming up the proposal ensuring the project is feasible’. Yet the public has only been given a couple of weeks to see and digest the first (vague) details of the actual redevelopment plans  before the deal is signed with Galliford Try. Why the haste? And how exactly are any of the substantial concerns raised by local residents – over the 1894 Library, over the bookshop, over parking, over the internal distribution of space – going to be seriously considered before the Library closure in July and its demolition in September?    

These are not merely technical issues requiring a click of the mouse here or there to change the layout.. The design and content of the Library Centre touches on many critical aspects of our neighbourhood, from literacy and diversity promoted by our bookshop, to questions of high street  retailing tied, as Mary Portas has recently pointed out, to availability of parking space. These are issues that need substantive, qualitative public consultation and a time-frame that allows not only widespread deliberation and deeper assimilation of what is being proposed but, crucially, reasonable lead-times to the enact changes issuing from the consultation. In other words, not a mere public engagement exercise geared to fobbing us off with minor changes but a consultation with detailed outcomes and the potential to alter existing design.

The Council and its partners rightly took their time when delivering their project. Now they owe Willesden Green residents the democratic courtesy of letting us  mull over, debate and disagree on what is being proposed to us. I would therefore  Why delay the signing of the final agreement with Galliford Try and extend the early stages (A and B-) of the consultation process, so residents can arrive at a calm and considered view on the plans for a building , it is hoped, will, like the Old Library this time survive a bit longer than thirty years before it’s demolished?

Alejandro Colas

First can I say thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to you about this redevelopment of Willesden Green, and about the future of Willesden Bookshop in particular. I would also like to thank Councillor John for taking time out of her weekend to contact me at my home. We agreed that there has been some misreporting of aspects of this development, and I hope that this evening we will finally get some clarity from all sides and for us to deal only in facts, particularly from Councillor Crane.

Cllr John told me that “an exception can’t be made for one business” in the cultural centre – but for a business with such obvious benefit to the community, why not? It’s worked up to now – and in fact, they are the only tenants who have stayed the course in that development.  Moreover, the very little detail available for these plans already specifies retail space for a café, which surely contradicts the Council’s argument.

Their survival up to this point has been helped by this relatively reasonable rent. Commercial rents for the smaller premises in the High Road are almost twice the rent that the bookshop currently pays, and unless the Council can agree a similar rent for them with one of the landlords in the High Road, its survival prospects are bleak, given the current financial climate.

Has the manager of the bookshop been asked whether he would consider relocating temporarily for 18 months while the rebuild takes place if space can be made for them within the new centre?

Today the bookshop received an email from the council’s property services with a list of possible properties, all of which the manager had previously seen and rejected for either being too small or too expensive. Although Councillor John told me this weekend that they are being helped to relocate, this is the FIRST such email of its kind he has received. The Council’s Head of Property Management has said that he has not been instructed to help the bookshop relocate, so who has?

Councillors have suggested to the manager that The New Windows on Willesden Green Project may be of some help. On enquiring he discovered it is designed to provide a safe space for entrepreneurs to try out fledgling business ideas for three to six months with a view to extension should their enterprise be successful.  Hardly appropriate for an established business with a proven track record of more than 20 years.

Has the contract already been signed by the Executive for this development to go ahead, or is there still time for a proper consultation to take place with Brent residents who will be using this space? As the clients to this development, isn’t it for the Council and Brent residents to specify the remit for the rebuild?

As things stand, we are losing a building of historical interest, a bookshop with obvious benefits, the only open space on the High Road for markets and other events and much needed car parking space and gaining office space and a café that we don’t want. How exactly will this development enhance the provision we currently have, and how much of a profit will the developers make on this?

Thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing your responses to these and other questions.

Gill Wood

 A fuller report on the Executive meeting can be found on Wembley Matters

Useful Handbook for campaigning

This Handbook on library campaigns has a lot of useful information that may be of interest. Follow this LINK