BXC planning application C/17559/09 Brent Cross Cricklewood
WE write further to our earlier correspondence, and in the absence of any detailed response from the Council and/or the North London Waste Authority (NLWA) which provides a definitive view on the nature of waste requirements at the [Bestway] Geron Way, Brent Cross site.
You will, no doubt, have been made aware of the developments which have taken place in the last 24 hours, namely the withdrawal of the PFI funds, which the NLWA were relying on to deliver a replacement waste facility. The withdrawal of this funding begs the question whether there was such a compelling need for the NLWA’s waste proposals.
The loss of this funding is hugely significant to the BXC proposals. It now poses even greater questions over the deliverability of the whole scheme, not just the waste element.
In addition to the funding issue, we remind the Council that, despite the early assurances it gave Bestway, that the developers would undertake their own separate assessment of alternative waste sites (Bestway has correspondence from officers confirming this), no such assessment was conducted.
Instead, officers (and developers) have solely relied on the findings of the North London Waste Plan, a document published some 18 months after the BXC application was submitted. Bestway has provided the Council (and NLWA) with details of the serious inaccuracies and flaws with the NLWP, and in particular the scoring of sites, which erroneously elevated the Geron Way site.
For the avoidance of any doubt, Bestway, supported by a team of waste experts, has advised the Council, on several occasions previously, that its Geron Way site is neither available nor suitable for a waste facility.
Expert technical work undertaken for Bestway supports this view, and Bestway’s team has found several alternative sites which would be more suitable for a waste facility, rather than at Geron Way. This comprehensive research includes sites which have previously been assessed in the NLWP and which score higher than the Geron Way site, when scoring errors for the latter are corrected.
Bestway has offered to share this information with the Council, as part of an open dialogue to resolve the waste issue. Regrettably, the Council has not responded to Bestway’s offer on this. Notwithstanding, we would suggest that the Council considers the appropriateness of the following sites:
- Leeside Trading Estate, Haringey
- Former Gas Holders, Edmonton
- Garrick Industrial Estate, Barnet
- G Park, Enfield
Even though neither Barnet Council, nor the BXC Development Partners, carried out independent research, Bestway has done so, and now has detailed information relating to a number of potential sites. This research will form the basis of Bestway’s case to protect its position, if the Council continues its fruitless pursuit of the Geron Way site.
In the light of the Council’s failure to properly assess the waste suitability of the Geron Way site, the existence of sites which are clearly more suitable for the proposed development, and the removal of funds to finance the development of a new waste facility, we consider it would be entirely inappropriate to issue planning permission which seeks to develop a waste use at Geron Way.
The Council must surely now understand that, not only is there no public support or need for the waste facility (the latter illustrated by the NLWA’s constantly changing position on the matter), there is now no funding to make it work.
In conclusion, the Council cannot issue planning permission when there is so much uncertainty about the nature, scale and deliverability of a crucial element of the scheme.
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