New Cultural Centre - Parking review

Have just been informed of Transportation's forward planning for the CPZ areas around the Cultural Centre:

"The review is planned to be undertaken approximately six months after the Centre opens, to give it time to bed in and start hosting regular events.  This will ensure that when we consult with residents and businesses, their responses will be based upon a true picture of the parking impact of the Centre, thus avoiding the scenario whereby a review is undertaken on a partly operational Centre, that would then have to be repeated at a future date as the Centre becomes more fully utilised.

The review is likely to focus on the operational hours of the CPZ in nearby streets in zones GC, GH, GS, KS and the High Road itself, particularly with regard to evenings and weekends, to provide greater protection for residents at those times if required.  If hours are altered, existing parking permits would continue to be valid over the revised operational times, but residents of the new flats within the development will not be eligible to apply for such permits as this is a permit free development with on-site parking."

Registering landlords

Casework can include visiting residents at home. I am often appalled at the awful places where some families live in small and often sub-standard accommodation. Where I can, I have reported these poor conditions. Developers and landlords are often greedy, packing in extra tenants and charging excessive rents. It seems that developers and landlords are kings in the current housing market, but there are ways to stop the worst offenders. At Harrow Court, for example, a landlord was ordered to pay more than £160,000 after being convicted of illegally converting the property into flats. She was told to pay a confiscation order of just under £159,000 - a slice of the amount she received in rent payments - for the unlawful renovation of the site into 10 separate dwellings and had a fine of £3,500. In Willesden, I have found and reported a 6-flat building converted to eleven flats. = Brent council wants to ensure the quality of accommodation in the borough, so a pilot scheme to register landlords is being undertaken in parts of Brent including Willesden. Licensing schemes for landlords of "Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO's)" are already in place. The pilot scheme will register other properties, properly converted and managed. The other side of the pilot is enforcing action against the landlords providing sub-standard accommodation.