Your neighbourhood turned upside down? Have your say on new Brent Local Plan

Brent Council has opened cosultation on the Brent Local Plan Preferred Options. It is a highly detailed document detailing possible developments  in Brent divided into stages of 0-5 years, 5-10 years and more than 10 years.

The borough is divided into 7 'places' (Central, North, North West, South, South East, South West). The main growth areas with far-reaching proposals are in Central (Wembley Central and Wembley Park). South East (Cricklewood, Willesden Green, Kilburn, South Kilburn) and North West (Kenton, Preston and Northwick Park).

Wherever you live in Brent you may be surprised that redevelopment of familiar buildings or areas is on the agenda. For example in Central (Wembley) ASDA, Kwikfit and The Torch pub on the corner of Forty Lane and Bridhe Road are included. Both sites of the College of North West London in Wembley Park and Dudden Hill will be freed up by a move to a new building in Wembley. Along with the college in Wembley Park the shopping centre next door (Curry's etc) and McDonalds are due for redevelopment. In South Kilburn the sites of Carlton Vale Primary and Kilburn Park Primary will be up for development if the schools move to a new site as well as all the planned redevelopment of the remaining blocks on the estate.

The document gives a list of developments that are on stream as well as possibilities. This is a list of residential developments in Wembley Park already given planning permission.


Northwick Park (above) is the main development site in North West Place:

There is potential for some tall buildings, subject to being a high quality design. These should respond to the height of the existing hospital buildings, stepping down towards the MOL (Metropolitan Open Land) and areas to the north. The appropriate height, extent and location of buildings will be identified within a masterplan for the site. Consideration will need to be given to the site’s location next to MOL to ensure that there is no inappropriate impact on its setting. Part of the site also falls within the Ministry of Defence (MOD) safeguarding zone for RAF Northolt, in which the MOD will need to be consulted if development is over a certain height
– 15.2m for development that occurs within the boundaries of the University of Westminster Campus and the majority of the hospital campus, and 45.7m for the hospitals eastern car parks and residential accommodation.

Furthermore, there is an area of green space located to the rear of the student accommodation, which has an open space designation. Whilst it might be appropriate through the masterplanning and development process to relocate or disaggregate this open space, overall no net loss will be acceptable. This will be in addition to satisfying the urban greening requirements and providing sufficient children’s play space, in line with London Plan policies G5 and S4. Running adjacent to the site’s southern boundary is the Capital Ring. Development should not impact upon the functionality of the Capital Ring, and should seek its enhancement wherever possible.