Scrutiny refer Carlton-Granville plans back to Cabinet for action on key points

There were a record 15 speakers at tonight's call-in of the redevelopment proposals for the Carlton-Granville site in South Kilburn.

Kilburn councillors Faduma Hassan and Rita Conneely presented the reasons why they and fellow councillors had called-in the Cabinet decision. 13 of the 15 public speakers said why they opposed the Cabinet's plans.

After very thorough questioning the Committee agreed to refer the decision back to the Cabinet with a number of issues to be addressed before the project goes ahead. These included:

•  a firm commitment to the 23 housing units proposed for the site to be social housing ('council' was actually stipulated by some councillors)
•  a larger proportion of the units to be for family hosing (this would reduce the total number of units) 
• potential conflict over noise between the new residents and late opening community facilities to be addressed and mitigated 
• the enterprise space to be for projects of social value
• going forward a widened and more representative management structure for the community facilities to be explored.

Most of the speakers favoured the option that would have built no housing on the site with community space, which has already been cut back by structural changes, to be increased instead. They refuted suggestions that this meant they were against providing housing for needy groups - they felt that there was sufficient space elsewhere on council owned land in the massive development to build council homes. One speaker claimed that the council was giving land to developers without ensuring social/council housing was built as part of the deal. They pressed the need for community space on an estate where the population was rapidly increasing through development and where many local projects provided essential services to needy residents to the benefit of the Council.

This report will be updated with further details and a video of some of the proceedings on Thursday.