Too many estate agent boards?

Sick of seeing an explosion of estate agent boards down your road?  Did you know they can be controlled by planning regulations? `For Sale' or `To Let' boards are limited to only one board on each road frontage and they must be on the building or land to which they relate.  It is unlawful for more than one estate agent to erect a sign on any property even if is has more than one road frontage.  Even more important is that for sale and to let notices must be removed 14 days after the sale or letting.  I am pleased to report that Brent planning service take their regulatory role seriously and do pursue offending estate agents.  Have just heard that the council has recorded 27 convictions this financial year in relation to illegal estate agents’ signage in the Willesden area and others are being investigated.  Let me know if you have any concerns in your road.

Housing stock - maintaining balance

Found the following statistics recently.  Slightly more Brent residents live in houses (54%) than in flats (46%).   The relatively high respective proportions of households living in semi or detached houses (35%) and in purpose built flats (27%) illustrates the range of Brent’s housing stock and the Borough’s diverse townscape; which ranges from suburbia in the North to very dense inner city streets of terraced houses and flatted blocks in the South.  Just over half of Brent’s households live in owner-occupier homes (54%) with most of the remainder either renting from a social landlord (25%) or privately (17%).

I am particularly interested in maintaining the balance between family housing and flat conversions. The borough has the policy to protect family-sized housing from avaricious developers.  It is therefore good to know that the planning service does sometimes refuse an application (using policy H17) that would result in the loss of “a small purpose-built family dwelling” failing to “aid in the retention of mixed and balanced communities through a variety of housing sizes.”

I am delighted therefore that some recent planning applications have been refused because of overdevelopment, loss of family housing or lack of adequate amenity. I had submitted objections to applications for properties in Kings, Meyrick and Huddlestone Roads and for Stevens Cottages and all were refused on good planning policy grounds.

Empty homes in Brent

I have been concerned that the council’s empty properties function had been scaled down. In a borough with an extreme need of more homes, this looked like a mistaken action to reduce costs. The empty property function moved into the Housing Solutions Team, resulting in a scaling down of the service.

The service has since been revived but only as a result of the council receiving external funding from the West London Housing Alliance to fund a long-term empty property officer post.  As part of the bid for this funding, 10 empty properties have been identified and the funding will be used to bring back the properties into use.  One is a well-known uninhabitable eyesore - 31 Dudden Hill Lane – where an earlier planning application in 2008 sought to convert the warehouse area into flats. However, this was refused. The hope is that this new grant will promote a new and successful application and some decent accommodation provided at the site.

Dumpers get best service?

For the first time I have to dispose of a bulky item too big to transport to the Park Royal Recycling Centre.  Being a responsible resident, I arranged for it to be picked up and paid the £25 charge.  I now discover it will be TWELVE DAYS before it is collected!  Now if I had dumped it on the pavement, it would probably be cleared within a day or two.  So dumpers appear to get a better service than responsible residents!

Plan for Learie Constantine Open Space approved

As a local councillor I have had a lot to do over the years with listening to residents' views and promoting the necessary improvements to the open space in Villiers Road. Thanks to the Labour Government's "Playbuilder" scheme, Brent has been given generous funds to improve this and other open spaces for children's play.  The Parks Service used "Groundworks" to do the independent consultation. It is good to see that work has started on the site. There are some conditions intended to address local residents' concerns. The site will not be used between dusk and 8 am and gates will be closed between these times so neighbours won’t be disturbed in the evenings.  The condition to restrict lighting is also to avoid disturbing neighbours. There is finally a limit to the height of fencing to 2.4m in height from pavement level to ensure the site has a good visual appearance.

Willesden Safer Neighbourhoods Police Panel

Attended the Willesden Green police panel this week. We are fortunate to have such a good safer neighbourhoods team who are making good progress in the targets panel members set them. Targets set have been addressing anti-social behaviour around the Library Centre, speeding vehicles and graffiti. Problems around the library have virtually stopped - helped in part by making the outside walls less attractive to sit upon!  Earlier this year around 50 street drinking incidents, there are now virtually none.  We changed this target to reducing burglaries – especially important in the Christmas period. There have been several speed testing operations around schools and some drivers found to be without insurance or using mobiles. There has certainly been a reduction in graffiti ‘tags’ around Willesden. Recording and tracking ‘tags’ is an essential element of the improvements, as is the successful court action against perpetrators.

Alcohol sales licence reviews

If you have problems with a licensed premise nearby, whether a bar, club or retail shop, you can contact Health, Safety and Licensing to investigate the complaint and to take action where possible. Breaching any of the long list of conditions Brent puts on successful licence applications can trigger a review. Problems could include noisy premises or patrons and under age sales. While residents are understandably concerned about young people drinking to excess, “binge” drinking is less prevalent in Brent - at 10% - than in London overall where the average percentage is 15.4%.

In some instances it may be better to ask for a license review if there is sufficient evidence. Grounds for a review must be connected to one of the four objectives: prevention of crime and disorder, prevention of public nuisance, protection of children from harm and public safety. You should have details of dates and times and the nature of your complaint. It also helps if there is supporting evidence such as flyers for events, other advertisements, photographs or corroborative statements from other witnesses. Licence reviews are put before the Council’s Licensing Committee and you or your representative (can be a councillor) should attend a hearing. I have been involved in presenting evidence for one review and am gathering evidence for another. They can make a difference!

Dumpers' Charter still in force!

The truth will out! The Liberal Democrat /Tory coalition running Brent Council have admitted that their introduction of a £25 charge for collecting bulky waste led to a fall in special collections. There was a decline in July 2007 (67% from June to July) and the Lead Member admitted this was down to the introduction of the charge for special collections. We see the result every day - on our streets!

Listening to traders

The Council has been consulting on improvements to the Library Centre junction. Changes to benefit pedestrians have been proposed, such as widening, repaving and "de-cluttering" footways and extending traffic islands. Also proposed are new loading bays for the shops. At last night's Willesden Partnership meeting, the proposals were discussed with traders who had concerns about the scheme. Flooding has been a real problem as local shops have been flooded. There was relief that the scheme would cure this problem permanently. It was really good to have shop keepers present to raise their concerns and to witness their concerns being listened to and their ideas being included in design changes. There was concern that work would start before the Christmas period. Am delighted to report start date is now deferred to early January so as not to interfere with the seasonal trading the shops were depending upon.

Learie Constantine Open Space

Have been waiting for news of this refurbishment after several years calling for this site to have some attention! A planning application has been submitted for the redevelopment of the Learie Constantine Open Space in Villiers Road. Funding is available thanks to a generous grant from the Labour Government's Playbuilder" scheme. In summary, the proposal is described as the creation of a public park with installation of children's play equipment, sand pit, seating, associated landscaping and installation of mesh fence, brick wall and wooden board fence to perimeter of site to ensure neighbours' privacy is protected. Having looked at the plans, the proposals are really exciting and will make a major contribution to improving the environment in the area. Now the primary school I am involved with is to contribute ideas for a mural on the hoarding while the work goes on behind. They will work with a professional artist linked to Groundworks, the organisation that managed the local consultation. Full details are now available on

http://www.brent.gov.uk/servlet/ep.ext?extId=101150&reference=98864&st=PL