COALITION FOR A SUSTAINABLE BRENT CROSS CRICKLEWOOD REDEVELOPMENT

Saracens get go-ahead for Copthall, Mill Hill move

2012-02-03T17:11:00.003Z

Link to Mill Hill East web site for links
(and the map of the right-hand side there can be dragged around)

Barnet Press: "Ex-mayor backs plan for Hendon FC centre"

2012-02-02T19:30:00.002Z

Link to Barnet Press

"FORMER Mayor of London and Labour’s candidate Ken Livingstone said he was '100 per cent behind' a bid by Arts Saves Lives (ASL) which finds spaces and support for socially excluded artists, to move the ex-Hendon FC clubhouse out of the disused ground in Claremont Road, Cricklewood, and into the adjacent Clitterhouse Playing Fields.

"... The grounds, where Hendon FC played until September 2008, are due to be demolished, should the site’s leaseholders Montclare Developments Ltd be allowed to buy the freehold and build housing.ASL is due to enter discussions with Montclare over the building early next month."

Evening Standard: "What more can Lord Rogers give to London?"

2012-02-02T14:26:00.000Z

Link to Evening Standard

"Richard Rogers, star designer, member of the House of Lords, and the most influential British architect of his generation, laid out his vision for London at the Royal Institute of British Architects on Portland Place.

"... If Rogers is taking less of a leading role within his practice, he is as evangelical as ever about cities, and London in particular. ... His vision of a high-density, compact and bustling city, linked by efficient public transport, and with great public spaces, is compelling. Perhaps the only problem with it is that it's the same vision he had 15 years ago. To hear him talking about it in this new political and economic climate makes one feel nostalgic for the optimistic first term of Tony Blair. Austerity Britain might see Rogers slip behind the agenda for the first time in his career."

"... His solutions? They are the same as they have always been. Bring more people into the city, with more dense development around nodes of good public transport. Use only brownfield, ex-industrial land to preserve the Green Belt. He says the NPPF will lead to an unprecedented rise in the amount of out-of-town shopping developments, further damaging high streets that are already suffering."

PR-inside.com: Everything you wanted to know about Hammerson, but were afraid to ask

2012-02-02T13:52:00.003Z

Link to web site

"Hammerson PLC (Hammerson) invests, develops and manages real estate assets in both the UK and French markets. The company operates through two sectors, namely, Retail and Office. It operates 16 retail parks, seven office buildings and 17 shopping centres providing a total of 1.6 million m2 of retail space and more than 170,000 m2 of office accommodation.

"The company's portfolio includes five major shopping centres in the Paris region and seven of the top retail destinations in the UK. Further, Hammerson has prime properties in the Central business district (CBD) of London and Paris. The company principally operates in the European region. The company is headquartered in London, the UK.

"... The profile contains critical company information including ... SWOT Analysis - A detailed analysis of the company's strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats [boo!] ..."

Brian Coleman, Ten Years Ago

2012-01-31T19:27:00.001Z

Mayor's answers (from 2001)

BrentCross Shopping Centre

Question number	0031/2001
Meeting date	24/01/2001

Question 1by Brian Coleman

"Would theMayor accept that the proposed extension to Brent Cross Shopping Centre willbring improvements to Public transport?
Forexample:
- Asignificantly improved new bus station
- A new busroute filling a major gap in the network between Brent Cross and QueensburyUnderground Station
- Installationof Countdown signs (showing how long passengers have to wait for the next bus)at the bus station and 112 local bus stops
- £22.5million over fifteen years to contribute towards the cost of implementing asustainable transport policy for the Centre through an innovative transportforum including representatives from the Centre's owners, the Council andTransport for London.
- And thatcar journeys to Brent Cross would reduce by 3%."

Answer byKen Livingstone (1st Term)

"I fullysupport proposals to improve public transport services at Brent Cross. I urgethe shopping centre's owners to work with TfL and others to make thoseimprovements without delay. I reject the notion that such improvements dependon a massive extension to the shopping centre.
Theextension to Brent Cross would not reduce car trips by 3%. There would be amodal shift of 3% from car to public transport. This has to be seen in thecontext of an overall increase in all trips, including an increase in theactual number of car trips " albeit a reduced proportion."

Mayor answers to London

BrentCross car parking

Question number	0032/2001
Meeting date	24/01/2001

Question 2by Brian Coleman

"Would theMayor accept the proposed extension to Brent Cross would introduce a chargingpolicy for extensive areas of car parking that is currently free of charge andthat his objection to the extension is therefore contrary to his expressedviews on car usage?"

Answer byKen Livingstone (1st Term)

"Free carparking in large out of town shopping centres such as Brent Cross are clearlyattractive to car borne shoppers, rather than using other more sustainablemeans of transport. Charges at Brent Cross or any other large regional shoppingcentre would be welcomed in principle providing that these were set at anappropriate level to deter car use, whilst at the same time alternatives to thecar were improved, particularly public transport. This would also have to betaken in the context of the overall impact of the proposals, the transportpackage and the negative impact on the surrounding area and road networkarising from the increased attractiveness of an expanded shopping centre. Thecharges proposed for car parking were one of the positive elements and a stepin the right direction for improving the sustainability for out of centreshopping development in line with my views. However, on their own they were notsufficient to overcome the serious harm that would be caused by the extensionin generating increased traffic volumes. My objection is therefore to the widerstrategic impact and the conflict with strategic planning and transportpolicies."

Mayor answers to London

BrentCross multi-storey car park

Question number	0033/2001
Meeting date	24/01/2001

Question 3by Brian Coleman

"As theMayor supports the Secretary of States original decision on Brent Cross doesthis include the Secretary of States granting of Planning permission for a newmulti-storey car park?"

Answer byKen Livingstone (1st Term)

"Isupported the principle objection to the scheme to reject the retail extension.I did not support the approval of the car park. The Secretary of State'sapproval of the car park but rejection of the shopping centre extension may atfirst sight seem perverse. However, I understand the Secretary of Stateconsidered that the new car park would involve the reallocation of existing carparking spaces and improved layout and circulation, rather than any overallincrease in parking numbers. On this basis he found the car park proposalsacceptable and granted permission."

Mayor answers to London

BrentCross - jobs

Question number	0034/2001
Meeting date	24/01/2001

Question 4by Brian Coleman

"Does theMayor accept that the extension to Brent Cross will secure 1000 jobs in themost deprived part of the Borough of Barnet?"

Answer byKen Livingstone (1st Term)

"The jobsimpact of a major retail development at Brent Cross would go far beyond theimmediate area of the borough. Any significant development on this scale willobviously create jobs from construction work, although this is a temporaryemployment benefit to the area. I do not necessarily accept that 1000 new jobsin the long term would be secured for Barnet or this part of North West London.There was clear evidence pointing to a detrimental impact on other nearby towncentres including those beyond Barnet's boundary, such as Kilburn and Wembley.Real jobs in the retail trade and other areas of regeneration could be lost asshops close and businesses move out due to the improved attractiveness toshoppers relocating to Brent Cross at the expense of these other centres whichare in more need of regeneration and investment."

Mayor answers to London

BrentCross consultation

Question number	0035/2001
Meeting date	24/01/2001

Question 5by Brian Coleman

"Whatconsultation has the Mayor had with the London Borough of Barnet on hisapproach to Brent Cross Shopping Centre extension?"

Answer byKen Livingstone (1st Term)

"My officers met with Barnet Council in the autumn oflast year following comments I made to the Barnet Unitary development Plan(UDP). Discussions took place on various policies including the approach toBrent Cross. The Deputy Mayor is also meeting a Barnet delegation, includingthe Leader of the Council, this week to discuss the Barnet UDP and no doubtBrent Cross, will be on the agenda."

Answers (it's now 2002)

Preservation of the Suburbs' uniqueness

[Supplementary question]

Question number	0678/2002
Meeting date	23/10/2002

Question by Brian Coleman

"As the Mayor will be aware, up there in the London Borough of Barnet, green and pleasant land, we are trying to create a new suburb in Cricklewood. Would he accept that his attitude thus far has been less than helpful? What Barnet is aiming for is a balanced community up in Cricklewood. What many residents of Barnet and politicians have concerns on is his support for a 44-storey tower on this site, which many of us consider totally inappropriate in a borough such as Barnet. Will he assure me that Cricklewood is not going to turn into another King's Cross saga, which, I fear, will see out both his and my political careers?"

Answer by Ken Livingstone (1st Term)

"Hopefully, it will not turn into another King's Cross saga because there are not going to be any tall buildings there at all because it is almost all in the viewing corridor. On this site, which I live within spitting distance of so I know it quite well, we are talking about a major new small town, in a sense. It is important to get the balance right but there are huge problems. That new small town is bisected by the North Circular and it will need a particularly imaginative bridge over that, which is not just a bridge that kids can drop rocks onto the North Circular traffic, but will actually be a bridge with shops so that it is a living bridge; you are not even aware you are on a bridge that actually connects the expanded Brent Cross with the railway lines to the South.
I can think of very few places in London where it is more appropriate to have a 40-storey office complex than exactly at the junction of Staples Corner, where it looks down on the North Circular, the A1 and the M1. It is hardly overlooking someone's back garden. It would be a huge and dramatic landmark building as people coming from everywhere else in the country actually arrive at that Staples Corner junction. Therefore, there will be a mixture of tall buildings as well as low-rise development."

Mayor answers to London

Mayor's attitutde [sic] towards Cricklewood development

Question number	0682/2002
Meeting date	23/10/2002

Question by Brian Coleman

"Does the Mayor accept that his attitude towards the Cricklewood development has thus far been less than helpful to this major project?"

Answer by Ken Livingstone (1st Term)

"No, in fact the reverse is true. My intervention has been much more than merely helpful, it has resulted in the transformation of the original unimaginative and unacceptable proposals into an emerging masterplan that is much more in line with sustainable development in London. I continue to oppose the unacceptable stand-alone extension to the Brent Cross Shopping Centre, which was previously opposed by LPAC, Brent, Haringey and Harrow Councils. Barnet Council, which previously supported the proposal, has now joined me in opposing it and seeking a better solution. I also opposed the stand-alone proposal for a huge car-based out-of-centre retail and leisure centre by Railtrack and Pillar on former railway land at Cricklewood, and am pleased to note that this application has now been withdrawn. Instead, I have encouraged Hammerson/Standard Life (who own Brent Cross) and Railtrack/Pillar (who own Cricklewood sidings) to work together, with my own planning team, Barnet Council and TfL, to prepare a planning framework and masterplan for Cricklewood/Brent Cross. This will be based on a new railway station on the Thameslink 2000 line, new additional public transport facilities, and a mix of retail, office, housing, hotel, community and other uses to form a genuine town centre on the railway lands and Brent Cross. The private sector interests have offered to fund an international competition to design the crucial `high street" link over the North Circular Road to unite the two sides. I am delighted that Barnet Council has decided to alter its UDP to facilitate this masterplan approach, and I look forward to joining Barnet in adopting the planning framework/masterplan in the New Year. I am excited by this constructive and successful joint working, and look forward to the benefits to Barnet, North West London and London generally in terms of new jobs, homes, a new urban centre and regeneration."

Answers (it's now 2004)

LDA Funding of Suburban Areas

Question number	0805/2004
Meeting date	24/06/2004

Question by Brian Coleman

"Will the Mayor be seeking to direct LDA funds to re-generate suburban areas such as the space between B&Q and Cricklewood Lane in my constituency?"

Answer by Ken Livingstone (2nd Term)

"The LDA is responsible for furthering the economic development and regeneration of the Greater London region. Since March 2000, the LDA has invested over £1.3billion and since March 2002 it has created and safeguarded over 15,761 jobs, created over 30,201 learning opportunities, supported over 1,443 businesses and reclaimed/redeveloped over 83 hectares of derelict land. The LDA does not distribute funds in a vacuum, but is guided by its statutory framework and my Economic Development Strategy. Barnet is considered to be a comparatively affluent borough, although containing small pockets of deprivation. Barnet has received a variety of funds from the LDA to support regeneration and economic development across the Borough. Barnet has benefited from the pan regional economic planning that the LDA has led and the borough will shortly benefit from the development of a sub regional economic strategy. Such planning supports the plans in the Cricklewood/Brent Cross Opportunity area."

Now 2006, with Darren Johnson

Parking at Large Developments

[Supplementary question]

Question number	0846/2006
Meeting date	17/05/2006

Question by Darren Johnson

"... However, it is a different picture with some of these big retail developments and the large residential developments. Was it not a consideration both with Stratford and with King¿s Cross that both of these areas breach European Union (EU) air quality limits already, and was it really responsible to provide for more car-parking provision, increasing more traffic, bringing more cars into the area, when we are already breaching EU air quality limits in these two areas?"

Answer by Ken Livingstone (2nd Term)

"As I say, King's Cross is well below, Stratford is above. The Stratford shopping development is slightly larger than Bluewater and will be competing with Lakeside and with Bluewater. As there 10 rail lines going there, there will be many more people commuting to shop at Stratford than the rivals, which just are not well served by public transport, but we got to the point, after a lot of intense negotiation that the development was not going to go ahead unless the level of car parking was going to be sufficiently attractive to the people taking the retail units. It actually came down to being a deal-breaker. It was not going to happen if we did not agree that and therefore, reluctantly, we went along with it.
This problem is that these great sorts of centres that started with Brent Cross is that they have been a disaster in environmental terms because they are totally dependent on car use. The way to tackle this is not to pick on the new ones coming up, but to have an overall strategy of reducing car use in the city. We are the only city in the world that has seen a shift from car to bus, and I think you basically need London-wide measures to tackle that and we are working on some new ones to come along to encourage people to shift from car use, and particularly the more polluting cars, into public transport."

Back with Brian Coleman

Cricklewood Station

Question number	1729/2006
Meeting date	12/07/2006

Question by Brian Coleman

"What is the latest on the future of Cricklewood Station? Will it be closed permanently, and what are the transport plans for the development at Brent Cross?"

Answer by Ken Livingstone (2nd Term)

"TfL are not aware of any proposals to close Cricklewood station. Network Rail has applied to the Office of Rail Regulation for consent to dispose of railway lands to facilitate the development. Although the proposal for a new station is close to the existing station, the application explicitly states that the new facility is intended to serve the development and not as a replacement for the existing Cricklewood Station."

It's 2008, with Murad Qureshi

DLR at Brent Cross

Question number	0353/2008
Meeting date	20/02/2008

Question by Murad Qureshi

"What is the likelihood of a finalised Brent Cross Development including a DLR style Brent Cross Railway?"

Answer by Ken Livingstone (2nd Term)

"The development framework adopted by LB Barnet makes reference to a Rapid Transport System at Brent Cross and Cricklewood. It is envisaged that this will be based on an expansion of the existing bus network and there are currently no proposals to develop a DLR style of transit system at this site.
TfL does give consideration to innovative ways of providing new means of transportation and if the developer proposed funding for a DLR type system then it would be considered in terms of its value for money, affordability, and public acceptability."

Brent & Kilburn Times: "Tributes paid to Brent councillor Alec Castle"

2012-01-31T16:25:00.000Z

Link to web site

"Politicians in Brent have been paying tribute to a Dollis Hill councillor who died last week.

"Alec Castle, 66, who was suffering with cancer, spent nine-and-a-half years representing residents in two wards.

"Until his illness, he was a key member of the campaign against the Brent Cross Cricklewood development proposals."

Reuters: Bish, bash, bosh! British Land, Land Securities, Hammerson, Lend Lease and Delancey (who?) fight it out over Whitgift

2012-01-31T14:03:00.000Z

London Borough of Barnet, after Hammerson has been at work
(well actually, it's Croydon)
Link to Reuters web site

"[More] major property developers have entered the battle with Australian giant Westfield to redevelop an ageing south London shopping mall, the latest twist in a growing wrangle between the Whitgift Centre's owners.

"Westfield, which opened a mall near the London Olympic park to great fanfare last autumn, said in November the 42-year old site in Croydon would become its third large London centre, after an exclusive deal with the Whitgift Foundation, the freeholder and 25 percent leaseholder.

Link to "Hammerson's other shopping centre: Keeping Westfield out of Croydon"

"Hammerson and Westfield: It ain't over till the Fat Developer sings"

"Extra trams arrive in Croydon today: one Conservative Council that believes in public transport"

New Barnet: Where Barnet Council changed its ways (at least, so far)

2012-01-30T12:05:00.003Z

Link to PDF file of the plan

"The Vision for New Barnet"

"The Save New Barnet Campaign is not against development, just inappropriate development. In fact, there is a Save New Barnet development plan [above] for the vacant gasworks site, drawn up by local architects and based on local residents' wishes for low-rise family houses.

"The coalition government's Localism Act encourages early discussion between developers and the local community: we look forward to working positively with Barnet Council, investors and developers to improve the heart of our community.

"Read the community's Vision for New Barnet:

LINK: www.newbarnet.org.uk/issues/avisionfornewbarnet.php

and the January 2012 newsletter [below]."

Link to PDF of newsletter

Excerpt from newsletter:

Barnet Local Development Framework

"The Government requires every Local Authority to have an approved plan for the growth and regeneration of its area for the next 15 years.

"Barnet's Local Development Framework (LDF) includes the Town Centre Framework for New Barnet. The draft document was produced in 2010, consulted upon, amended, sent out to consultation again, amended again, then subject to an Examination in Public by a Government-appointed Inspector in December 2011.

"The inspector raised some issues about the Brent Cross/Cricklewood redevelopment, the need for more affordable housing, Barnet's restriction on converting houses into flats, lack of sites for travelling people and show people, and the car parking requirements being too high! The Council has addressed these matters, and sent revisions out for consultation on 25th January 2012, with a closing date of 8th March. A few of these matters could have an impact on New Barnet, and these are being considered.

"There was a discussion about the New Barnet Town Centre Framework (NBTCF) but no amendments have been made to the document adopted by the Cabinet of Barnet Council, on 29th November 2010."

LINK: www.barnet.gov.uk/index/council-democracy/unitary-authorities/statutory-development-plans/local-development-framework.htm

More acceptable "high-density"???

2012-01-29T19:27:00.003Z

Link to Enfield Council's plans
on 'Pinkham Way Incinerator' web site

"In 2006 we began work on the 'North Circular Area Action Plan' (NCAAP) to improve the living and working environment along the A406, and to identify new opportunities for housing, employment, and community facilities.

"NCAAP reached the 'Preferred Options' stage back in 2008, but was paused in 2009, while the Council progressed to adopt the Core Strategy." [More than Barnet ever bothered to do, regarding Brent Cross, Colindale, and Mill Hill East!]

Brent Cross & other Barnet areas; West Kensington & Gibbs Green: Two sides of same coin?

2012-01-29T17:48:00.000Z

Link to Shepherd's Bush Blog

"Our Council knows that the developer they want to sell the homes of people to, is at real risk of going belly-up ... But they are pressing ahead with a deal that will ensure they get the £100 million reward they stand to reap in payments from the developer ... Worse, the deal may not ever result in any improvements to the estate at all.

"... While the Agreement would grant the developer the right, for at least 20 years, [where have we heard that phrase before? Ah, Brent Cross!] to buy up parcels of the estates for demolition, it would not require the developer to deliver any new homes, and would not protect against the developer going bust or selling on."

Comment on that blog (no known connection with BX Coalition):

"Hammersmith and Fulham follows the lead of Barnet, in bouncing ideas and policy off each other. In Barnet, their residents were never given a vote, but a questionable ballot containing a rather loaded question.

"It's very simiar to the tactics used by the Borough of Barnet for their regeneration plan of the Perryfield and Marsh Estate in West Hendon, that began in 2001.

"However, 10 years on, with a new developer, following all manner of revisions to the original promise and pledge from the council, a small amount of 'shoeboxes' called homes, and mostly for sale, are being built. Most people around there call it 'Social Engineering'.

"Wish the tenants and residents of West Ken & Gibbs Green huge success in their fight for decent secure leasehold and rented council homes.

"The latest fight against a flawed project not far from Westfield is here:
http://brentcrosscoalition.blogspot.com/ and
http://barneteye.blogspot.com/2012/01/blog-post.html"

The Observer: "Exhibition Road, London – review"

2012-01-29T15:33:00.000Z

Link to web site

"The thing about public space is that it is public, which means that potentially anyone can have a say in it. It is prone to vociferous objectors: another Moylan-Rogers project – for rearranging the traffic in Sloane Square – was shot down by opponents whom Moylan, who is not shy of speaking his mind, calls 'determined and mendacious' and 'completely hysterical'.

So it is, in other words, very difficult to lay a pavement, at least one that is different from all the others, but Exhibition Road is finally there. It's a special case, in that few streets in Britain can match its cultural load, but its essential principles can be transferred to more modest places. At such time as other local authorities have the money to do work like this again, it shows how it can be done."

RBH: "Whatever [Hammerson] needs to say, we can say it in the best way possible"

2012-01-28T17:17:00.000Z

Link to RBH web site

"RBH has been tasked with above and below the line communications for The Oracle, Reading. That’s in addition to work with other shopping centres in the Hammerson group, including Highcross Leicester, and Queensgate Peterborough."

[None of the wording in the image above seems to
apply to Hammerson at Brent Cross Cricklewood.]

Brent's Lib Dem Government Minister: "Brent Residents Left in Dark on Dump - Teather Demands Action"

2012-01-28T16:01:00.004Z

Link to web site

"Following revelations that the Brent Cross Cricklewood development is likely to shrink, local Liberal Democrat MP for Brent Central Sarah Teather has written to the Brent Cross Cricklewood developers, Barnet Council, and Boris Johnson, to demand that they make their plans for the Brent Cross Cricklewood development clear.

"Local Liberal Democrat MP for Brent Central, Sarah Teather, said:

"The developer has twisted and turned so many times that local people no longer trust what they say. If there are going to be major changes to the current plans, it is vitally important that they are published, and local residents are consulted."

The Guardian: Architect Richard Rogers and partners discuss £140m penthouses, John Prescott's 'flair', and Prince Charles's strange ideas

2012-01-28T15:50:00.002Z

Link to The Guardian

Architect Richard Rogers was chairman of the Urban Taskforce from 1998-2005, championing high-density cities; brownfield not greenfield for building. The taskforce was appointed by then deputy prime minister John Prescott, about whom Rogers has nothing but good to say:

"Contrary to what everyone believed, I thought Prescott was a good minister, because he concentrated, and stuck around, and had a certain flair. It was a very important part of my life."

The question of "how one builds at the density required of a city centre, and still achieves the right feel at the street scale," as Ivan Harbour puts it, is of urgent concern, they argue.

"It's about humane scale in intensified development," adds Graham Stirk.

"It's about concentrating, rather than spreading," says Harbour. "You need good design to solve the problems of dense spaces."

matthewofford: "Matthew and Boris boost Brent Cross sales"

2012-01-28T15:21:00.003Z

Link to web site

"Mayor of London Boris Johnson accompanied Matthew on a visit to Brent Cross shopping centre. The purpose was to meet store managers and discuss how trade had performed over the Christmas holiday period, and what could be done to help keep the local economy moving.

"Matthew said:

"By working with the Mayor, small improvements can be made that will have a big impact for my constituents. Boris commented on what a productive meeting it was, and we were also fortunate enough to be able to do some shopping."

Barnet Times Reminder: The far-sightedness of Councillor Cornelius

2012-01-28T00:37:00.000Z

Barnet Times, February 2011

Western routes since modified, by light-rail in
the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham's

plan for Old Oak Common, Crossrail, and High Speed 2.
Eastern route extended to New Southgate and Arnos Grove.

freeOFFICEsearch: Hammerson's John Mulqueen triggers our "Delight-o-Meter"

2012-01-27T20:33:00.005Z

Link to freeOFFICEsearch

"Leading law firm Latham & Watkins LLP is expanding its requirement for office space in the City of London at 99 Bishopsgate, EC2.

"John Mulqueen, Hammerson Director London Group, commented:

"We are delighted to support the continuing success of Latham & Watkins, and to have secured their long-term commitment to 99 Bishopsgate.

The building has a strong appeal to occupiers, and is recognised as one of the best addresses in the City. Our investment programme will ensure that it maintains its position as a leading City of London building."

For breaking news relating to office space in Central London, [although not at Brent Cross] follow freeOFFICEsearch on http://twitter.com/officespacenews.

Talking of which:

Community consultation starts on Southbank office scheme

Trio of office lettings for Land Securities

Stewie proposes to Brian that they buy and renovate a wrecked house, and sell it to get rich. However, Brian is unable to cope with Stewie, and they are unable to get the job done. In the end, the two go broke, and the house begins to deteriorate beyond repair. Stewie intentionally destroys the house, and accidentally kills an electrician.

Hammerson's 'Principal Place' is paused at ground level

2012-01-26T18:24:00.000Z

Link to Hammerson's web site

London24: "Hammerson’s 51-storey Shoreditch tower block construction stalled"

"CMS Cameron McKenna has pulled out of talks to pre-let 200,000 square feet of the £485 million Principal Place scheme, which Anglo-French developer Hammerson was due to begin building in April.

"The development caused controversy when the original 2008 plans involved the destruction of the Light Bar, housed in a 19th century electricity substation in Shoreditch High Street.

"Hammerson’s Chief Executive David Atkins said in a statement:

“I have consistently said that in current conditions we would not expose our shareholders to excessive risk through building London offices on a speculative basis, which remains our policy."

Link to Evening Standard

Evening Standard: "Work on Pinnacle halts again as developers struggle for tenants"

"Work on the City's tallest tower has halted for a second time, because of a lack of tenants.

"Builders were ordered off the site of the 64-storey Pinnacle last week, with only seven floors completed.

"Developer Arab Investors are believed to be struggling to secure funding, because only about 10 per cent of the eventual 900,000 square feet of space has been let."

Link to web site

"Property pair are set for a bargains strike"

"London & Stamford, Ray Mould and Patrick Vaughan's third venture, after founding Arlington in the Seventies, and Pillar Properties in the Nineties, reckons the outlook for property remains uncertain in a 'stagnant' economy. With banks unlikely to be able to meet anticipated demand for loan refinancings from overborrowed investors this year, forced sales look likely."

Link to web site (to register)

"Councils take on stalled shopping centre schemes"

"Aylesbury Vale and the London Borough of Ealing step in to progress projects left in limbo by Palmer Capital and Glenkerrin..."

Link to HOME (see all posts).

Brent & Kilburn Times (rival Wembley site)

2012-01-26T16:00:00.001Z

[Reposted] Barnet has a Regeneration Strategy (No, really)

2012-01-25T22:53:00.000Z

Meeting: Business Management Overview and Scrutiny Committee

Date: 5 September 2011

Subject: Regeneration Strategy

(Picture credit: Barnet Bugle)

"This report seeks approval of the Regeneration Strategy. The Strategy provides an overview of current regeneration in the borough.

"It sets out clear strategic objectives for the successful future delivery of our regeneration schemes.It also provides the context for a Regeneration Review which will evaluate existing and planned regeneration schemes to ensure current approaches are capable of delivering cross-cutting [sic] regeneration objectives.

"The recommendations from this review will be reported to Cabinet Resources Committee later in 2011."

Officer Contributors:Andrew Travers, Deputy Chief Executive;Lucy Shomali, Assistant Director, Strategic Planning & Regeneration;Lindsey Hyde, Project Support Officer, Strategic Planning & Regeneration;Andrew Nathan, Strategic Policy Adviser.

"It is recommended that Cabinet:

Approve the Regeneration Strategy as attached in Appendix A (excerpts below)
Note that the findings of a Regeneration Review, which supports the strategy, will be reported to Cabinet Resources Committee."

(from Appendix A)

"... A Regeneration Review is ongoing, evaluating existing and planned activity against our strategic objectives. The review will make recommendations to ensure a comprehensive approach to delivering the wider benefits of regeneration."

Challenges - Managing Change, Maximising Opportunities

(These comments have been shortened)

Despite vast planned investment into the borough, we recognise that our regeneration was planned in different market conditions, meaning that there are new challenges around delivery.

To manage change and ensure we maximise opportunities, we must fully understand all of the challenges we face:

Increasing pressure on resources and different market conditions – means that some regeneration projects may face viability issues.

Creating and sustaining lifetime homes and lifetime neighbourhoods – Encouraging the private sector to take a longer term stake in developments will support the sustainability of neighbourhoods. The government’s localism agenda will enable communities themselves to play an important role in shaping and sustaining lifetime neighbourhoods. [Written on Planet Barnet]

Managing delivery of estate regeneration - Careful management of decanting from the regeneration estates will be needed, particularly where there is a loss of social housing.

Ensuring supporting infrastructure can be delivered and is in place - Almost all Infrastructure Delivery Plan projects relate to regeneration areas. Critical and necessary infrastructure includes; delivery of additional transport capacity to accommodate increases in population; reduction in road network congestion and making junction improvements.

Key questions we are asking of all our regeneration schemes

We recognise the importance of responding to the changing context around delivering our planned growth.

We are currently asking key strategic questions about the delivery of successful regeneration schemes for Barnet, and the actions necessary to ensure we deliver our strategic objectives. [We bet you are!]

What are the challenges and risks?
Viability and deliverability of regeneration schemes
Infrastructure requirements and funding and delivery plans
Project and programme management and capacity
Partnership and governance arrangements
Communications and community engagement
Is there a forward plan in place?
Individual Regeneration Scheme Delivery Plans
Actions necessary to deliver a comprehensive approach to regeneration, including community development
Action plan to align individual Regeneration Scheme Delivery Plans with the Regeneration Strategy
What are the tools to manage change and maximise opportunities?
Strategies
Structures
Funding

[Er, that's it.]

The Spectator: "The recession: four years and counting"

2012-01-25T18:37:00.000Z

Link to The Spectator

"It is now four years since recession hit the UK. It took just over three years for GDP to return to pre-recession levels in the much milder downturns of the ‘70s and the ‘90s.

"Even after the Great Depression of the 30s, the economy had fully recovered by this point."

"Talk London: The Video" (shot in the split-screen style of '24')

2012-01-25T12:55:00.002Z

Link to 'Talk London' web site

"Watch the highlights from 'Talk London' in Barnet on 17 January 2012.

"The event took place at the Peel Centre, with the Mayor, Boris Johnson joining Cllr Cornelius, Leader of Barnet Council, Gail Laser, Chair of Barnet Traders and Barnet Town Team, and Isabel Dedring, the Deputy Mayor for Transport, to discuss investing in Outer London.

"Brian Coleman, Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden, chaired the panel, which answered questions ranging from travel plans during the Olympic and Paralympic Games to parking and the importance of protecting local gardens."

Link to

"November 2010: Barnet Press Office: The Ministry of Truth breaks its silence - 'RICHARD IS DELIGHTED'!"

Barnet Eye: General moan; mention of Brent Cross

2012-01-24T13:07:00.002Z

Click on the bunny nose to link to Barnet Eye

"Overdevelopment.

"Councillors know that there are too many rabbit-hutch flats going up all over Barnet. Which of them says a dickie-bird to oppose it?

"One Tory Councillor told a resident at the weekend that he was: 'relieved Boris had canned the Brent Cross scheme'.

"[Even though] he had voted for it."

Diamond Geezer: "To think that Brent Cross was once the finest retail centre in London"

2012-01-23T23:15:00.000Z

Link to Diamond Geezer

"It was the first stand-alone mall anywhere in the UK, when it opened in 1976, but doesn't look anywhere near as alluring now, merely a giant shed alongside the North Circular Road.

"... there are 40 different places to buy clothes, which still reels the punters in, attracted too by the promise of free parking (which is not a policy the council employs elsewhere)."

"... There are major plans for redevelopment at Brent Cross. ... But, standing in the Tesco/Toys'R'Us car park on Saturday afternoon, I couldn't imagine a better eyesore to wipe from the map, and start again."

Evening Standard: "Brent Cross to charge shoppers to park, to deter car travel"

2012-01-23T23:03:00.000Z

Link to Evening Standard

"David Howard, chairman of the 'Federation of Residents’ Associations of Barnet', said one residential tower block would be almost as high as Wembley stadium’s arch, while the 140-metre chimney of a new waste incinerator would be higher. He said the development included:

"hutches for hobbits, not proper homes for families with gardens."

"As an occasional user of the shopping centre, my ears pricked up at the revelation that car parking charges will be imposed to ration the 7,600 spaces.

"Brent Cross is a miserable place, full of sad faces and stale air. It is overdue redevelopment - and its residents deserve all the help they can get, in living alongside the North Circular Road."

(Oh, this is from 2009, by the way.)

The Guardian: "Rethinking capitalism in a spivs' paradise"

2012-01-23T22:15:00.000Z

(Reaction to Mr Cameron's comments in an earlier post below.)

"Tristram Hunt is quite right to argue that is a long tradition in Britain of opposition to the excesses of the unfettered free market, and that the choice is most certainly not between Brent Cross and Soviet-style central planning."

Daily Telegraph: "America overcomes the debt crisis, as Britain sinks deeper into the swamp"

"The latest report on "Debt and Deleveraging" by the McKinsey Global Institute shows that total public and private debt in the UK is still hovering at an all-time high. It has risen from 487pc to 507pc of GDP since the crisis began.

"As the chart shows, as recently as 1990 Britain’s debts were still just 220pc of GDP. Has a rich country ever been debauched so fast in peace time?

"The ordeal of belt-tightening will be grim, dragging out for a generation if Japan is any guide. The Japanese at least began their post-bubble debacle as the world’s top creditor nation with a trade super-surplus and a savings rate of 17pc. Britain has no such buffers."

Link to Daily Telegraph

The Guardian: "Vote of no confidence has crushed Britain's economic recovery"

"...The theory [has been] that public sector spending and investment was 'crowding out' the private sector. Over the next year we will see the deep flaw in this theory. The private sector despises risk. And the solution for many businesses looking for a risk-free bonanza is an asset price crash.

"It is the time-honoured solution to every asset bubble recession. Construction and financial services are the usual engines of growth out of recession, and they rely on buying cheap assets and milking them for short-term gain. What they lose from their balance sheets, they more than make up in the resulting boom through extra profits."

Link to The Guardian

[Reposted] Hammerson's Brent-Cross-ville: The Dystopia?

2012-01-21T15:01:00.000Z

Link to the London Transport Museum

Film: Future Cities

Date: Wednesday 1 February 2012
Time: 18:30 - 20:00
An eclectic selection of short films, animations and motion graphics that present evocative visions of future city living. Juxtaposing utopian fantasies against nightmarish dystopias, Future Cities highlights the obsession today’s image makers have with the possible metropolis of tomorrow. The screening will be introduced by onedotzero and followed by a Q&A session with guest filmmakers.

Tickets: £8.00 adults, £6.00 concessions (£10.00 adults, £8.00 concessions for combined ticket for 'Future Cities' and 'Shock the System' events)
Book Online

The Guardian: David Cameron's popular capitalism speech

2012-01-21T14:13:00.000Z

Link to The Guardiian

"... For all those understandable qualms over City bonuses and bank bailouts, the neoliberal system of the past 30 years is defined as the only game in town. Or, as the Times columnist Danny Finkelstein put it on Newsnight, the choice comes down to the Soviet Union or Brent Cross shopping centre.

"...In his brilliant essay, 'The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century', EP Thompson described how the Hanoverian public could accept the market, but not an irresponsible capitalism undermining the common weal. ... Thomas Paine was also thinking about how the marketplace and commercial society could benefit all – if only it was properly regulated."

Sir,

I have noticed a startling similarity between Stalin's palatial Moscow Underground stations, and the main corridor of Brent Cross shopping centre. Are they possibly related?

Yours, etc.

Brent Cross shopping centre, outside John Lewis

Moscow Underground, on a quiet Wednesday

Link to Daily Telegraph

Daily Telegraph: "For Britain to flourish, so must capitalism"

"All three leaders of Britain’s main political parties have this week given speeches on the future of capitalism. Despite their differences, they all broadly agree that as an economic system, there is no viable alternative.

"... The recession has been deeper and more persistent than anything we have seen in the recent past. More than three years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, economic activity remains far below its pre-crisis peak. Capitalism has failed to heal itself in the normal way. What is more, this is a crisis which is seen, rightly or wrongly, to have been caused by the hubris and greed of finance. Bankers, it is widely believed, took the gains of the boom, leaving society at large to pick up the costs of the crash. The sense of social injustice this has created is understandably strong."

Reminder of Barnet Eye, June 2010

2012-01-20T20:32:00.001Z

Link to the Barnet Eye

"This is one of the pictures from the architects' prospectus for the Brent Cross redevelopment. The area within the black boundary is the area to be redeveloped. Usually architects are proud to display their work, but in this picture, it takes less than 1/4 of the picture. Odd really.

"Now ask yourself this question (I've helpfully added three potential answers). Why do you think that the developers are keen to build these monstrosities?

Because they have a deeply-held belief that people enjoy living in concrete jungles?
Because they want to live there themselves?
Because they'll make tens of millions of quid?"

The Guardian: "International Monetary Fund and 10 other economic bodies make 'call to action' to boost growth"

2012-01-20T14:35:00.001Z

Link to The Guardian

"Expressing concern about the weakness of economic activity and rising unemployment, the IMF's Christine Lagarde, the World Bank's Robert Zoellick, and the WTO's Pascal Lamy joined the heads of eight other multilateral and regional institutions in calling for policies to create jobs, tackle inequality, and green the global economy.

"While acknowledging that the global economy faced severe challenges, the action plan said momentum could be regained by increasing spending on infrastructure, and by 'beginning to realise the promise of a greener economy'.

"To do so, the world would need an open trading system, resilient cross-border finance, sustainable government finances, determined and coordinated structural reforms, and measures to address inequalities in all countries."

Link to Daily Telegraph

Daily Telegraph: "Do economists have any better ideas?"

"Capitalism has come a long way. Speaking in its defence recently, the former Tory Cabinet minister, Michael Portillo, asked:

"Is there any other system that could lift so many people out of poverty, and create societies rich enough to provide welfare, health and education services?"
When you put it like that, the anti-capitalists look like Monty Python’s 'People’s Front of Judea':
"Apart from those capitalists who made us rich and provided welfare, health and education, what have the capitalists ever done for us?"

Holding up the vote in north London

2012-01-19T23:45:00.004Z

Link to the unique selling proposition

for light-rail at Brent Cross

(Persist if necessary to load this PDF file.
If errors continue, leave us a comment!)

Evening Standard, Barnet Times, Barnet Press (x2), Brent & Kilburn Times

2012-01-19T13:58:00.004Z

Click here for Earlier Press Cuttings

(Click on images to enlarge. If still too small, right-click [or whatever] and copy image locations into new windows. A second enlargement is then often possible.

Note also the comment about a headline below.)

(The heading is rather unrelated to the content)

Estates Gazette: Woe is me, Woe is me

2012-01-18T17:55:00.000Z

Link to web site

"The lovely David Thame of EG called me to pick my brains, about his upcoming feature for the magazine on the prospects for London regeneration schemes, ... [including] Brent Cross/Cricklewood.

"... You won't be surprised to learn my prognosis was a little bleak. ... There isn't much good news around on any of the above."

Link to Estates Gazette
(subscription details)

"Hammerson is to look at extending Brent Cross shopping centre, as the first phase of the £4.5bn Brent Cross Cricklewood regeneration.

"London mayor Boris Johnson revealed this week that he will work with the shopping centre's owners, Hammerson and Standard Life Investments, on bringing forward the shopping centre plans early.

"... The shopping centre, which is Britain's oldest mall [no, it's not], is in line for a 590,000 sq ft extension."

Barnet Times: "Boris calls for Brent Cross revamp independent of Cricklewood plans"

2012-01-18T16:46:00.000Z

Click on the big red hat to
link to Barnet Times

"LONDON MAYOR Boris Johnson is considering changes to a £4.7 billion regeneration scheme for Brent Cross to speed up improvements to the shopping precinct.

"Calling for the 'de-coupling' of precinct upgrades from plans to regenerate wider Cricklewood, the Mayor said he does not want to unnecessarily delay much-needed revamp of Britain’s oldest mall."

Implementing Boris's London Plan

2012-01-18T16:21:00.001Z

Link to document

The Mayor is currently consulting on the Implementation Plan for the London Plan (until 29 February.)

"In spite of committed improvements set out in the TfL Business Plan (to 2014/15) and HLOS to 2014, crowding will remain on certain LU and NR lines and on certain radial corridors into London (Figures 1 and 2, below). Vehicle delay on the road network, particularly in Inner London and Outer London town centres, is also forecast to increase (Figure 3).

This has the potential to constrain growth and hinder delivery of the London Plan."

"... 3.28 Table 6.1 of the London Plan gives an indicative list of transport schemes that are needed to deliver growth forecasts whilst meeting the Mayor’s wider environmental, safety, quality of life and accessibility objectives."

"... 3.29 The indicative list of schemes includes those that have funding committed in the TfL Business Plan and NR HLOS. These schemes include Crossrail and Thameslink upgrade (both due for completion 2018-19) and the LU line upgrades. These form the bulk of the Mayor's Transport Strategy (MTS) ‘reference case’ and will provide a substantial increase in rail capacity that is essential to accommodate short to medium term growth in London.

3.30 Additional investment over and above committed schemes will be required. Key schemes in the medium-longer term include delivering a new north east to south west rail link, also known as Crossrail 2, along an alignment similar to the safeguarded Chelsea-Hackney line route, four tracking of the Lee Valley mainline, further train capacity increases on key NR routes, development of key Strategic Interchanges, extensions to the Bakerloo and Northern lines, potential extensions to the DLR and Tramlink networks, enhanced river crossings in east London..."

"... 3.34 The 2010 Spending Review settlement for TfL and Network Rail allows for completion of essential short to medium term schemes such as Crossrail, Tube upgrades and Thameslink upgrade. This level of investment is approximately £4.8 billion per year to 2018. The proposed package of schemes beyond this will require continuing annual investment of around £ 3.5bn to £ 4.5bn in the period to 2031.

3.35 The next spending review is due in 2014. The settlement should allow for the confirmation of the TfL Business Plan to 2020 and the NR HLOS for Control Period 5 2014 to 2019. TfL is undertaking analysis of the priority schemes for delivery between 2015 to 2020 and is seeking involvement in discussions surrounding HLOS and train operating company franchise re-letting to ensure that outcomes support the MTS."

Wembley Matters: The 1990s opposition by Brent to Brent Cross shopping centre expansion will happen again!

2012-01-18T14:51:00.000Z

Link to 'Wembley Matters' web site

Vole O'Speed: "Brent Cross Cricklewood regeneration scheme 'dead'"

2012-01-18T14:06:00.007Z

Link to Vole O'Speed (Brent)

"The Standard reports that the Brent Cross Cricklewood regeneration is very unlikely to go ahead in the form previously envisaged.

"... Cyclists were most concerned about the developers' plans to make Staples Corner even more of a cycling barrier, by creating a giant dumbbell-shaped gyratory linking the Staples corner east and west roundabouts, through the Midland railway viaduct."

Barnet Cycling Campaign

"Come and help us to help Barnet it improve provision for cycling. We hope to see you at our next meeting this Friday, 20 January, 7pm-9 pm, at Middlesex University, The Burroughs, London NW4 4BT."

Finchley & Golders Green Conservatives: "Boris opens Henlys Corner and visits Brent Cross"

2012-01-18T13:42:00.004Z

Link to web site

"The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, came to Finchley and Golders Green on Friday, to officially open the newly completed Henlys Corner junction and visit nearby Kinloss Synagogue.

"Earlier in the day, the Mayor visited Brent Cross Shopping Centre to meet with businesses and shoppers. He heard from local business leaders that the economy is proving resilient, but retailers have to work harder, and those providing value are performing well."

The Coalition speaks

2012-01-18T01:20:00.000Z

Press release from the “Coalition for a Sustainable Brent Cross Cricklewood Development”

(Extended and slightly amended.)

The Coalition welcomes the collapse of the grotesque, car-based Brent Cross scheme. However, it is totally unacceptable to still go ahead with the easy-profit shopping centre expansion, which we are told is a “possibility”. Neighbouring Brent Council fought this successfully in the late 1990s, and is likely to again.

We demand the whole plan is scrapped, and the arrogant local developers, and their ineffective PR company, are removed from the project.

Measures in the new Localism Act mean that over-bearing property companies, in alliance with the conceited Barnet Council, cannot get away with “business as usual”. This is a great day for people-power – not Hammerson plc and not Mike Freer (former Barnet leader, now MP).

We want development based on people’s aspirations for a sustainable, low-carbon, exciting regeneration of the area. This means starting from scratch, and will also obviously have to wait for improvements in the economy.

The developers have wasted many years – not ONE home has been built, not ONE transport improvement. Barnet Council has also wasted many hours of work in promoting something nobody wanted - their web site still estimates 29,000 extra cars every day in the Brent Cross area, which would cause traffic misery.

The developers have just received planning permission for a small building at Brent Cross – but have resorted to making the application from a tax haven in the Channel Islands. They have no shame, and are behaving no better than bankers.

Lia Colacicco, Co-ordinator of the Brent Cross Coalition, said:

“The regeneration was always a mirage; despite the PR spin, the developers were only ever committed to building a few hundred new housing units anyway. In return for cheaply purchasing large swathes of public land, their main return to the local population would have been gridlocked traffic. I hope the next deal is more transparent, and involves a stretch of light rail to link to local tube lines.”

Alison Hopkins, Dollis Hill resident, said:

“What we are being offered now is little different from the rejected shopping centre planning application of 13 years ago. We will still get lots of extra traffic, but no transport improvements. The developers want to 'pick the low-hanging fruit' of what pays out quick profits. The Brent Cross Waste Incinerator seems to be a dead project now, but we will continue to campaign, to make absolutely sure.”

David Howard, Chair of the Federation of Residents Associations of Barnet, said:

“The Brent Cross Cricklewood development would have had a negative impact on the infrastructure and the environment of much of North London and for generations to come. Brian Coleman cannot quote my phrase of “hobbit homes”, since he has done nothing to stop the scheme, and we have. We need the public land at Brent Cross to be kept out of the hands of the developers, and corridors across it reserved for future light railway to Brent Cross Northern Line station, and to other local areas.”

Councillor Shafique Choudhary, London Borough of Brent, said:

"Unfortunately, this probably means that the developers and Barnet council are trying to get what they wanted all along, which is the expansion of their Brent Cross 'out-of-town' shopping centre, with no other benefits. This is something that my borough, the neighbouring London Borough of Brent, fought long and hard, but successfully against, in the late 1990s. That included making a convincing case at an appeal inquiry to a Planning Inspector, who found in our favour. The Brent Cross Coalition and Brent Council may have another fight on their hands!

NOTE

The “Coalition for a Sustainable Brent Cross Cricklewood Plan” comprises twelve residents’ associations plus the Federation of Residents’ Associations in Barnet (representing the 12 largest residents’ associations in Barnet), Brent Cyclists, the North West London Light Railway (NWLLR) group, Brent Friends of the Earth (FoE), Barnet & Enfield FoE, Camden FoE, Sarah Teather (MP for Brent Central), Dawn Butler, (former MP for Brent South), Labour and LibDem Councillors from Brent and Camden, Navin Shah (London Assembly Member for Brent and Harrow), Darren Johnson (London Assembly Member), Jean Lambert (London MEP), Brent Green Party, Barnet Green Party, Alexis Rowell, (former Chair of Camden Sustainability Taskforce), Brent and Barnet Trades Union Councils, and Bestway Group.

Evening Standard: "[Hammerson's] £4.5bn Brent Cross revamp is set to shrink"

2012-01-17T13:52:00.005Z

Link to Evening Standard

"Boris Johnson is set to tear up a massive regeneration scheme in London, in a bid to spark new life into Brent Cross shopping centre. The Mayor is considering whether to 'de-couple' the plans to revamp Britain's oldest mall from the wider 20-year regeneration of Cricklewood.

"Sarah Teather, the Liberal Democrat MP for Brent Central, said:

"If there are going to be major changes to the current plans, it is vitally important that they are published, and local residents are consulted."

"The scheme - said to be the biggest in London outside the Olympics - attracted more than 500 objections, with many fearing more congestion on the North Circular."

DaveHill'sLondonBlog: "Boris woos London motorists as transport battle lines grow clearer"

2012-01-15T18:04:00.000Z

Link to DaveHill'sLondonBlog

"It is a recipe for slow but steady stagnation. London's drivers (and I'm one of them) should not be persecuted for the fun of it, but rising road congestion is bad for the city, economically and environmentally. Every prediction is that it is going to increase, and every past experience shows that the more you do to accommodate rising road use, the more road congestion you get.

"It's inevitable, yet still a shame that the debate between the two front runners for Mayor looks set to be so polarised. There is, of course, a decent case for a new road vehicle crossing in the east of London, but it needs to made in a context of a much wider and more visionary transport policy platform.

"The hard pragmatics of election campaigns mean we might not get much sight of one. You probably knew that already..."

Andy Travers Goes Up To Town

2012-01-13T14:17:00.000Z

On 9 September 2011, London Councils hosted a workshop to examine the options available to London boroughs seeking to finance economic development and regeneration. It follows on from the publication of the London Councils report 'Investing in London'.

"With central government funding for regeneration having virtually ceased, and the costs of borrowing from the Public Works and Loans board rising significantly, London boroughs face increasing difficulty in securing funding to support large scale economic development/regeneration.

"It is clear that the private sector is going to play a much wider part in financing regeneration projects. [And in some cases, like Barnet, the local authority will cede all democratic control.]

"The workshop looked to furnish borough officers with information on the various tools through which economic development can be financed, what is likely to attract investors and developers into partnerships with boroughs, and the safeguards that both borough treasurers and private investors will want in place. [Barnet wants safeguards?]

The event was chaired by Andrew Travers, Deputy Chief Executive of Barnet Council [working on a £1000-a-day contract - see Famous Five Barnet bloggers] and ppresentations [sic] were made by:

Andrew Hume, lead Director of the Regeneration team at Jones Lang LaSalle
Jon Rowney, Head of Fair Funding, London Councils
Jonathan Guthrie, lead on Investment Promotion, City of Edinburgh Council
Pierre-Emmanuel Noel, Senior Loan Officer for UK public sector lending, The European Investment Bank
David Rose, Vice President, Infrastructure Finance, RBC Capital Markets.

Andrew Travers, London Borough of Barnet, opened the workshop with a succinct statement -

"The moneyhas run out..."

"With central government funding for regeneration having virtually ceased, and the costs of borrowing fromthe Public Works and Loans Board rising significantly, London boroughs face increasing difficulty in securingfinance to support large-scale economic development/regeneration.

Link to documents
"Nor is there any indication that government funding or capitalisation will return to previous levels within the foreseeable future, and, whilst there are important programmes and policies in the pipeline (New Homes Bonus, HRA self financing proposals, Business Rate retention, TIFs, etc.), boroughs will need to take a broad view, and it is clear that the private sector is going to play a much wider part in financing regeneration projects.

"The next question to be asked is whether the government and the boroughs are up to the challenge. [Especially in Barnet!] The government needs to give local authorities the freedoms and flexibilities to be innovative, and the boroughs must be ready to explore all options, including working collaboratively with the GLA and/or with subregional partners." [Don't expect help from Brent, Harrow, Camden, ... !]

Ham & High, Barnet Press, Barnet Times, Harrow/Brent Observer, and Brent & Kilburn Times (x2)

2012-01-12T14:09:00.002Z

Click here for Later Press Cuttings

Click here for Earlier Press Cuttings


Link to 'Brent and Kilburn Times': "Residents in Kensal Triangle and Queen’s Park dealt a bitter blow over HS2 green light"

Sheffield Telegraph: "Hammerson's Sevenstone: Aren't shopping centres out of date?"

2012-01-12T14:01:00.000Z

Link to Sheffield Telegraph

"Aren’t shopping centres past their sell-by date?"

'It wouldn’t be a single covered shopping complex, similar to those that were fashionable in the Seventies, but a series of buildings with precincts and landscaping in between. The development agreement says the public spaces have to be of a similar standard to the Peace Gardens, Barkers Pool and Sheaf Square in front of the railway station.'

"How can the council afford £10m [to help the scheme] during such tough times?"

'It believes the retail quarter is so crucial to the future of the city centre that it cannot be allowed to fail. It has also secured a deal that will see the money repaid once construction starts.'

Boris meets the public: "Investing in Outer London" (Chaired by Brian Coleman)

2012-01-12T13:15:00.000Z

Link to Mayoral web site

"Talk London Barnet will take place at the Peel Centre in Hendon, NW9 5JE on Tuesday 17 January, 7pm - 8.30pm. Doors open at 6pm.

[This is immediately next to the playing fields,
that Barnet's 'Area Action Plan' wants to
concrete over with housing, by the way.]

People are encouraged to register online in advance.
Registering online doesn't guarantee a seat.
People who have registered in advance can turn up from 6pm and get a seat on a first-come, first-served basis
People who have not registered in advance will be able to turn up on the night, and try to register from 6.45pm, but there is a risk all the seats will have been taken by this time.

The panel will include:

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London
Brian Coleman, Assembly Member, Barnet and Camden (Chair)
Cllr Cornelius, Leader of Barnet Council
Gail Laser, Chair of Barnet Traders & Barnet Town Team
Isabel Dedring, Deputy Mayor for Transport.

(Link to the original announcement.)

BBC: "Anger over covenant land sell-off in Barnet"

2012-01-11T18:31:00.001Z

Link to BBC video

"Public land in north London which is protected under an historic covenant from the 1920s is due to be sold to developers by the local authority.

"Barnet Council wants to get rid of an area which used to be Hendon Football Club's ground in Cricklewood, but campaigners have said the decision to sell could threaten other protected open spaces."

Hammerson in disguise bid

2012-01-11T13:50:00.003Z

Link to 'Bostock & Pollitt' web site

"The team at Hammerson did so well with their hirsute pursuit that they outgrew their original target of £10,000, and we had to produce a second poster."

"John Lewis Brent Cross: Appy shopping"

2012-01-11T13:40:00.001Z

Link to John Lewis

"Brent Cross is one of just seven branches to welcome virtual window displays, to enable shoppers to make purchases as part of the division's online post Christmas Clearance sale.

"Customers passing John Lewis Brent Cross, Peter Jones, Oxford Street, Milton Keynes, Reading, Liverpool and Edinburgh can now scan QR (Quick Response) codes displayed in the shops' windows on their iPhones.

"Once the QR code has been scanned, customers will then be directed to johnlewis.com to finalise their purchases."

Extra trams arrive in Croydon today: one Conservative Council that believes in public transport

2012-01-10T13:33:00.000Z

Croydon Council
has developed and promoted an on-road tram system since 1986, under multiple political control.

Hammerson owns the Centrale shopping centre,

and its previous owners agreed to pay for an extra stop on the nearby tram line.

Barnet Council
largely ignores public transport. but for technical reasons, an off-road 'DLR'-type system, rather than trams, might be more appropriate in north London.

Hammerson jointly owns the Brent Cross shopping centre,

and has refused to consider light-rail at Brent Cross, unless proposers sign an undertaking they will not oppose Hammerson's planning applications there.

(Copyright of photo is acknowledged,

but ownership not currently known.)

The Observer: "Olympic Village – long-distance vision marred by short-sighted flaws"

2012-01-08T18:11:00.000Z

Link to The Observer

"The athletes' village has been built to house the 17,000 competitors and officials in the Olympic Games, after which it will become a new neighbourhood of about 1,400 affordable homes and another 1,400 for profit. Its success is vital to London 2012's hopes of legacy: if it prospers, office blocks are likely to rise around it, and dreams of regeneration – the theoretical justification of the whole Olympic exercise – are more likely to come true.

"Most housing [proposals] nowadays consists of expedient, opportunistic developments, thrown up with minimal consideration for the larger area of which they will be a part. [Of whom might he have been thinking?]

"... It has to be said that the look of the village is a tad forbidding, not indeed very villagey at all. It consists of a series of cuboid blocks of eight to 12 storeys, clad in prefabricated concrete panels, laid out on a rigid rectangular grid. [Link to "Cllr Cornelius and his Cladding".]

"... All this construction – many billions worth of station, shopping and housing – has been delivered in the past few years, with ... the close oversight of public planning authorities, yet it does not feel like a work of unified intelligence. [Of whom might WE be thinking?]

"The strengths and weaknesses of the athletes' village reflect the way it was achieved. It started off, in the mid-90s, as a bold plan by the developers Chelsfield for a 'new metropolitan centre', with homes, offices and shopping, which was drawn up over six years of planning and consultation."

Scotsman: "Movements of shoppers tracked by ‘1984’ phone technology"

2012-01-08T16:25:00.003Z

Link to web site

"IT IS the stuff which George Orwell warned of, in his bestselling book '1984'.

"For unsuspecting shoppers who enter a shopping centre are now often tracked on a screen by retail staff – using their mobile phone signals to locate their path through the shops.

"... Hammerson managing director of UK retail, Lawrence Hutchings, insisted the data captured was 'completely anonymous'."

[Regarding Brent Cross, Hammerson would appear to only receive historical, anonymous reports, with no 'screens'.]

Archant Local Newspapers: "Brent [Cross] light railway campaigners to step up fight if HS2 goes ahead"

2012-01-08T15:37:00.002Z

Link to Archant 'London24'

"A group of campaigners striving for a light railway line ... have vowed to step up their campaign, should the green light be given for a high-speed rail link from London to Birmingham.

"The campaign group, 'North West London Light Railway' (NWLLR) has said that, should the HS2 scheme go ahead, the likely interchange station at Old Oak Common would provide an ‘excellent opportunity’ to create further links [across Brent, Barnet, and Enfield/Haringey] via a light railway.

Part of an Old Oak Common connections study

"Councillor for Stonebridge, Zaffar Van Kalwala, said the benefits of a light railway line would be ‘undeniable’, and that he would be pressing Transport for London (TfL) to ensure that Brent does not get ‘left behind’.

Part of a 'Hounslow - Old Oak - Brent Cross/Hendon'
London Overground study

"A spokesman for Brent Council said the route had ‘potential’, and could create greater access to employment.

Hammerson's Morgan Bone, Director of Corporate Communications, said 'Bugger off'.

[We made that up.]

Independent on Sunday: "Green light for high-speed rail stalls car lobby"

2012-01-08T00:56:00.004Z

Link to Independent on Sunday

"The Government is to end the truce in the 'war on the motorist', as Justine Greening, the Secretary of State for Transport, prepares to clear the way for Britain's first new mainline railway for more than a century.

"Ms Greening will this week let the super-fast train take the strain, backing a 109-mile line between London and Birmingham, and future extensions to Leeds and Manchester. In three decades, the high-speed line is expected to replace 6 million flights and 9 million road trips, as travellers switch to rail."

Link to Sunday Telegraph:

"David Cameron to face revolt over high-speed rail green light".

Friday 20 Jan: Barnet Cycling Campaign: building a better biking borough

2012-01-07T15:36:00.000Z

Link to web site

"This first meeting will be at a venue to be confirmed. Agenda items include 20mph local campaigns, Veloteers, and what to do about the A406. However, as this is the first meeting of the new group, we want to spend most of the time hearing from you and getting to know one another.

"We are the newly expanded campaigning arm of Barnet Cyclists. We will be rolling out a number of campaigns and events in the run up to the 2012 Mayoral and London Assembly elections and beyond."

Shopping Centre: "Post-Christmas surge at Hammerson"

2012-01-07T13:44:00.001Z

Link to web site

"Hammerson’s portfolio of prime shopping centres saw a 6 per cent surge in footfall in the post-Christmas period.

"David Atkins, chief executive of Hammerson said:

“Despite pressure on household budgets we have seen some exceptional trading across our centres over the Christmas period. With Christmas day falling on a Sunday, many customers left shopping to the last minute, however, the momentum has continued." [sic]

Daily Telegraph: "Shopping centres track customers with mobile technology"

2012-01-06T15:56:00.000Z

Link to Daily Telegraph

"The equipment is being used in more than 30 major shopping centres including Lakeside in Essex, Manchester's Trafford Centre, [Brent Cross] and Cabot Circus in Bristol.

"Its use has led to privacy fears from groups such as Big Brother Watch that shoppers are being spied on while they walk around shopping centres.

"The FTSE 100 companies Land Securities, British Land, Hammerson, and Capital Shopping Centres are all thought to be using variants of the technology."

Trolley Buses in Leeds

2012-01-06T12:43:00.001Z

This is the Leeds trolleybus proposal, following goverment rejection of a Leeds tram system. It is the only trolleybus solution being developed in Britain at the moment. (As a blogger comments elsewhere, a major city such as Leeds really shouldn't be reduced to merely trolleybuses.)

At Brent Cross, there is no prospect of trolleybuses providing a 'high-speed' transport service, beyond that provided by buses, given the lack of extra road space. An 'off-road' light rail system, given the existing available railway corridors, is the preferred solution of the 'BXC Coalition', and the capital expenditure would be justified by likely passenger levels.

Not that Hammerson or the London Borough of Barnet are interested.

Barnet Times: Former Lord Mayor [and Brent Cross developer] Michael Bear 'proud' to receive knighthood from Queen"

2012-01-05T13:51:00.004Z

Link to Barnet Times

"THE former Lord Mayor Michael Bear celebrated with friends and family after being knighted by the Queen.

"Sir Michael, who lives in Finchley, received the knighthood in the New Year Honours list for services to regeneration, charity and the City of London."

Link to "Lord Bear of Brent Cross and the 266 bus".

Evening Standard: "New look London - how the capital will change after the Olympics"

2012-01-04T15:51:00.001Z

Link to Evening Standard

"That 2012 will be a high profile year for London architecture, as the city gets dolled up to receive the world's media and sportspeople for the Olympics, is something of an understatement.

"... Beyond east London, because there seems to be the political will to force through much-needed housing development across London despite the economy, by this time next year we will see more progress on large housing masterplans such as Greenwich Peninsula (2,000 homes by 2015), Brent Cross, the Olympic Park, and the rather chaotic development of Vauxhall/Nine Elms.

"The latter is one of the hotspots of London property development, with opportunistic planning applications for sometimes very tall residential buildings being made by various developers."

Delusion and Deception in Megaproject Cost Estimates

2012-01-03T14:10:00.003Z

Link to 'Atlantic Cities'

" In 2002, Flyvbjerg (of Oxford University’s Saïd School of Business) [published] a study showing that large-scale infrastructure projects routinely exceed initial estimates and timelines, and, in the case of transit schemes, frequently over-estimate anticipated ridership. His inventory of 258 examples, most completed in the late 1980s and 1990s, includes the Chunnel and the Sydney Opera House, both notorious debacles.

Ridership: not a recent problem in London;
new services quickly become saturated

"... While there’s been some improvement in risk assessment over the past decade, transit projects still tend to be thrown off budget by factors that the project team can’t control, including the addition of new stations, route alignment changes, and political change."

Lord Mayor of London (ex): Finchley's and Hammerson's Lord Bear of Brent Cross and the 266 bus to Cricklewood (well, almost)

2012-01-02T18:30:00.003Z

Link to, er, The London Gazette

"The Queen has been graciously pleased to signify her intention of conferring the Honour of Knighthood upon the undermentioned:

"Michael David Bear, lately Lord Mayor, City of London. For services to Regeneration, Charity and the City of London."

Link (in two steps) to The Guardian

Even though we warned her against doing that to Hammerson's 'Director of Regeneration' since 2003 (is that paradox or irony?) many times:

Link to The Guardian

Although to be fair, the next Lord Mayor is even worse:

Link to Daily Telegraph

Daily Telegraph:

"To summarise the charge sheet: the Corporation is a plutocratic old boys club, in hock to big finance that’s masonically secretive and blind to the City’s excesses. Not only is reform long overdue, but abolishing the Lord Mayor would be a top place to start.

"Wootton relates how the previous Lord Mayor, Michael Bear, has had a 'year-long initiative called Restoring Trust in the City'. To the observation that it doesn’t seem to have worked, Wootton responds that while Bear’s work was 'away from the public gaze', the next phase is 'much more public'."

Link to HOME (see all posts).

Daily Mail: "Mall firm Hammerson reports bumper festive trading as shopping centres thrive"

2012-01-02T16:27:00.001Z


Birmingham's Bullring [sic] *Link to Daily Mail*

"Brent Cross in North London had its busiest ever Boxing Day, luring 65,000 bargain-hunters to the sales – 27 per cent more than last year. In total, more than 900,000 shoppers visited Hammerson’s sites on December 27, the chain’s busiest day in December.

"A spokesman claimed there has been a seismic shift in the public’s attitude to retail parks in the past few years. He said:

"Five years ago they would have just shopped. Now they’re shopping, having something to eat and spending an evening at the cinema."

2009: Brent Cross Railway: The Wilderness Years

2011-12-29T23:55:00.002Z

Link to the Barnet Times
(map shows possible eventual 2009 scheme)

"The light-rail, or electric tram, will ease road congestion as well as reduce climate change, say the Campaign for Better Transport backed by Barnet councillors Geof Cooke, Labour, and Conservative John Hart.

"In Barnet Council’s Local Development Framework, published in June last year, poor transport links within the borough were identified as a key challenge in the borough’s growth.

"A meeting to discuss the plans is to be held at Barnet House, 1255 High Road, Whetstone, this Wednesday at 7.30pm."

Barnet Eye: "Trams for Barnet - Sense at last !!!"

(Click above to enlarge)

Link to a 2009 post (and comments) on Barnet Eye.

"One of my biggest objections to the various regeneration schemes in Barnet is the lack of infrastructure. Looking at these plans, it seems that maybe, at last, a bit of thought is being put into addressing some of these issues. What is interesting about these plans is just how much of the scheme is utilising, disused or underused existing railways.

"One of my biggest bugbears is just how difficult it is to get across the borough, East to West. Since the demise of Edgware general, people wuch as my aunt who lives in Mill Hill, have a nightmare journey to get to Barnet Hospital. This scheme, if fully implemented would make this journey far easier, with a connection from Mill Hill Copthall to Finchley Central, then a tube trip to Barnet.

"Linking the two branches of the Northern Line (Colindale to Finchley Central) is a masterstroke. It is also worth noting that it makes many school trips far more practical using public transport. This scheme is good for the environment, good for the travelling public and good for Barnet businesses. As such I fully support it."

December 2011:

More up-to-date light-rail proposals start from west London's Old Oak Common High-Speed-Two/Crossrail station, via Brent Cross (with a branch to Wembley) then Colindale, Mill Hill East, Finchley Central, and the North Circular Road corridor to New Southgate and Arnos Grove.

'Transport for London' has suggested a new 'Crossrail 2' line, from south-west London to Alexandra Palace. An interchange with that might be the terminus - or light-rail could continue, following the North Circular Road further eastwards.

A 'Phase One' scheme would likely be around either Brent Cross or Old Oak Common. Hammersmith & Fulham Council wants light-rail at Old Oak Common, as shown in its Sir Terry Farrell video.

The vast majority of the 'North and West London Light Railway' route would be along existing freight railway corridors, old railway track-beds, and the North Circular Road. Two tunnels would probably be needed - to cross the M1 motorway (which was built on the removed railway track) and east of Arnos Grove.

There is more information on the TRANSPORT page.

Mayor Boris Johnson and GLA member Brian Coleman share ironic smirk that Brent Cross has "potential"

2011-12-29T17:14:00.001Z

"Landscaping [Brent Cross]"

"Building Less On [Brent Cross]"

Brian Coleman urges Boris Johnson to build less at Brent Cross

from The Barnet Bugle Ltd on Vimeo.

Cambridge Dictionary definition: "Smirk: a smile that expresses satisfaction or pleasure about having done something, or knowing something, which is not known by someone else."
[In this case, we all know Boris, we all know.]

Wall Street Journal: "[Hammerson, et al] Challenge for 2012: Debt"

2011-12-28T14:33:00.000Z

Link to Wall Street Journal

"U.K. real-estate investment trusts [like Hammerson, quoted in the subscription article] are in a bullish mood, as they emerge from the biggest slowdown in the U.K.'s property market in decades.

"But market analysts say the optimism may be overdone. After all, property values are likely to fall in 2012 because of the shaky economic climate, finance is likely to be scarce, and consumer confidence in a next-to-no-growth environment will remain low."

Hammerson's other shopping centre: Keeping Westfield out of Croydon

2011-12-28T14:14:00.002Z

Link to Croydon Advertiser

"CENTRALE owners Hammerson have launched a bid to take over the running of the Whitgift Centre.

"Under the Hammerson proposals, Whitgift and Centrale could merge, to create a single shopping experience, in a bid to make Croydon one of the top five retail destinations in the country.

"Westfield is expected to enter a bidding war for this stake, but Hammerson strongly believes it has the upper-hand, having already proved its credentials by splashing out £100m on acquiring Centrale earlier this year."

Barnet Eye: "Is Barnet Council run by lobotomised zombies?"

2011-12-27T16:00:00.004Z

Link to Barnet Eye web site

"... They seem to have no problem at all holding diametrically opposed views on issues at the same time.

"For example, over-development in Cat Hill (in the London Borough of Enfield) is bad. Over-development in Brent Cross is good. Some may call this being two-faced (as the councillors who oppose Cat Hill are representing people near Cat Hill [and nowhere near Brent Cross])."

Retail Gazette: "John Lewis Brent Cross: virtual window to offer sale items"

2011-12-23T14:00:00.001Z

Link to 'Retail Gazette'

"Department store group John Lewis is to launch virtual window displays in seven of its stores, allowing shoppers to make purchases as part of its online Clearance sale, it was announced today.

"While the retailer does not open its shops for clearance until December 27th 2011, the online sale begins at 5pm on Christmas Eve, and customers passing the Peter Jones, Oxford Street, Brent Cross, Milton Keynes, Reading, Liverpool and Edinburgh can scan barcodes displayed in those shop’s windows on their iPhones."

Link to 'Westfield White City - John Lewis megastore'.

Link to 'Storefront'
"Your update on the latest news & initiatives from Hammerson"

"... [2012 has to be the year] launching our Sales Growth Insight Programme across all our shopping centres, to identify opportunities at a catchment, customer and category level. Our business planning has been heavily focussed on delivering these opportunities, and we enter next year with a wealth of actionable insight.

"Ultimately, we aim to be the multi-channel friendly property company. We've made great strides with the first Houseoffraser.com multi-channel store at Union Square, and the Amazon Collection Lockers in Brent Cross.

"But there are lots of ideas to pursue next year, all recognising the vital importance of the store at the heart of the multi-channel journey."

Thameslink route through Brent Cross leads to Farringdon (future Crossrail interchange)...

2011-12-23T13:38:00.000Z

(This is part of the first video.)

...Then most trains continue to London Bridge station...

Central London: Hammerson uses cutting edge spacial marketing on an iPad (at Brent Cross, you have to carry an A-to-Z and a mains-powered television)

2011-12-22T16:15:00.001Z

Link to 'theneighbourhood' web site

"Property developer Hammerson were looking to market their 500,000 sq.ft. development London Wall Place on a prime site in Central London.

"In competitive market conditions there is a real need for property developers to demonstrate a point of difference, to help sell their space to both commercial and residential tenants, and quickly and effectively engage with their market.

"Working with communications agency Bostock and Pollitt and software developer T5C, we created a unique iPad application to meet this challenge. The first of its kind, the app is a 'portable marketing suite', giving leasing agents a powerful and flexible sales tool with detailed visualisations and a wealth of important information at their fingertips, wherever they are.

"Sitting on a complex site and designed by Make Architects, the project comprises two striking buildings. Through the interactive 3D model within the application, the building becomes easy to understand for the viewer.

"Another of the unique functions of the app is to allow potential occupiers a looking glass into the future. Utilising the iPad 2’s gyroscope position and movement sensor together with its GPS capability and compass, the app allows users to stand on site and use the iPad 2 as a ‘virtual porthole’ to look around and see how the scheme will look upon completion.

"London Wall Place has been a pioneering project, and forms part of our evolving portfolio of creative digital solutions for the property sector.

"The app is available for free from the iTunes store."

Heart-warming Good Wishes to the London Borough of Barnet

2011-12-22T14:14:00.002Z

The Coalition includes the Bestway Cash & Carry firm, a local land-owner at Brent Cross.

In this time of seasonal greetings and celebrations, our hearts were warmed by these words of Christmas Cheer, sent from Bestway to the Planning Department of the London Borough of Barnet.

"We have just read that the Councillors and Senior Management team of Barnet Council have received a 'Highly Commended' citation, in the 'Legal Bullies of the Year' section of Private Eye's 'Rotten Boroughs Awards 2011'.

"The commendation is quoted and presented on the internet, and reads as:

Private Eye's Legal Bullies of the Year Section
"The past year saw a growing trend for councils to use the law, or the threat of legal action, to stifle free speech and limit public scrutiny of the way elected representatives spend tax payers' money. Councils seemed particularly alarmed by the increase in 'citizen journalists' writing blogs and tweeting - and holding councils to account in ways that many local papers no longer have the balls to."

"As you well know, we have personally experienced exactly this 'stifled free speech and limited public scrutiny' problem with the London Borough of Barnet, and have worked hard for a year or so with Freedom of Information Act requests and other important matters.

"However, we are now pleased that the Examination in Public, and more recently, the support from the Information Commissioner's Office, are starting to pay dividends for Bestway's defence. We are confident that we have set up Bestway with an excellent platform from which to benefit in 2012.

"We said months ago that 'the truth is out there', regarding attempts to acquire the Bestway site at Geron Way [off Edgware Road] for a waste site. It is indeed out there, and we are getting close to finding out all that we need to know now. And let's not forget that any Compulsory Purchase Order for our land will be another, very different ball-game."

"Merry Xmas"

Hammerson and Kleinwort Benson (Tax Havens-R-Us): The Ood make a Moove at Brent Cross [Updated: plans are now on-line]

2011-12-22T00:46:00.000Z

Second update: 11 November: "The consultation period for the application ends on 23rd November. The target date for the decision is (was) 14th December."

A (small) full planning application has just been made, with the snappy name of 'F/04296/11', for land to the east of Brent South Shopping Park. The applicants are Hammerson (Brent South) Ltd. and Kleinwort Benson (Channel Islands) Corporate Services Ltd, and it will be decided under delegated powers.

Link to previous episode of
The Doctor and Quod Planning

The agents are the well-known Doctor Who tribute act, Quod Planning.

May 2011: Estates Gazette blog:

"This morning's EGi tells us that the government has called on Mary Portas, 'queen of shops', to advise it on saving embattled high streets. BIS (the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills) has said it 'would announce more details shortly about its commitment to introduce a package of measures to support town centres'.

"Well jolly good call, I reckon. You won't find many of us in the regeneration sector who don't adore Ms Portas (actually, these days, you won't find many of us in the regeneration sector at all. Full stop. But that's another story altogether).

"So if Ms Portas is to take on this Herculean task, she will need a team around her. Which got me thinking... who would I have on the team?

"... John Rhodes of Quod should be the planning guru, particularly now he has added the team of Andy Hunt and Tom Dobson [a different Dobbo], supreme regeneration economists, to the mix (because they know about jobs and micro businesses)."

Also May 2011:

"The 'Practitioners Advisory Group', made up of four members including John Rhodes of Quod, launched their draft National Planning Policy Framework. The draft was prepared by the group to inform the Government on the preparation of their own draft NPPF, which was published for consultation in July.

"The suggested draft for the NPPF promised to deliver a significant change in national planning policy, with a dramatic simplification of planning guidance, whilst delivering on the Government’s promise of sustainable growth.

"John Rhodes, Director of Quod, said:

"It has been a privilege to be given the opportunity to work with the Group, and to be given the opportunity to contribute to the debate about finding a fit for purpose planning system.

Reform is necessary to reduce complexity, devolve power, and to make planning more accessible to all those that it affects. But reform is also necessary to drive growth – responsible growth that can deliver the development, the places and the environment that the country deserves."

Update: "The Life and Death of A3"

'Tea anyone?'

DRAWING ONE:
Site as existing:

The current brown-field site was formerly used for parking - but has since been closed to traffic, and is currently overgrown as weeds take root in cracks in the tarmac.

TWO:
Proposed A3 unit (pre Primary Development Package['pre-Phase One']):

The unit will provide a much-needed food and beverage facility [a nice cafe, or a junk-food joint] for the existing Brent South Shopping Park. Land to the east will continue to be disused until onset of Primary Development Package construction [time for a lot more weeds, then].

THREE:
Proposed A3 unit + Primary Development Package:

The unit will fill an otherwise disused area of land, behind development plots 24 and 25 of the masterplan. It will face onto a landscaped area at the foot of a wide, public subway connecting the existing Brent South Shopping Centre to Tempelhof Avenue to the east.

FOUR:
Completion of final illustrative Phase 7 of masterplan:

The entire Brent South Shopping Park along with the A3 unit will be demolished, and office accommodation within the Office District Park will be constructed in its place. [The A3 unit may fall down, previous to that, due to its age.]

Update, 22 December:

The application has been approved.

Link to HOME (see all posts).

Barnet in Private Eye's "Rotten Boroughs Awards 2011"

2011-12-21T18:00:00.000Z

"Their Christmas decorations are not what they were"

Click on the image above for the 'Private Eye' web site,

or read the Barnet press cutting at 'Mr Mustard'.

Also mentioned is "Broken Barnet" (Mrs Angry)
and (in the longer article) the 'Carmarthanshire Blogger'.

Our own

"Hammerson Quote of the Year"

"... it is key to have strong local leadership in the Local Authority, at Leader and Chief Executive Level."

as in: "Mike McGuinness, Hammerson Development Director, and "leading on Brent Cross Cricklewood" (who is 'following'?) fails to mention the place".

Hammerson avoids being "delighted" with something (now banned from its press releases?)

2011-12-20T20:03:00.002Z

"Highcross [Hammerson's shopping centre in Leicester - which we have no reason to criticise, by the way] enters the Christmas season with 12,000 sq ft of new retailers signed up.

"... Sheila King, Hammerson director group retail leasing, commented:

"These new brands provide real strength in depth across our retail mix at Highcross, offering specialist fashion retailing, high end entertainment and fine art to our consumers." [Sheila completely avoids being 'delighted'!]

*The Cameron-Clegg coalition
is, er, on the right.

"Bidwell Webber De Pons* and Lunson Mitchenall acted on behalf of Hammerson.

For further information contact:Sarah Sims
Corporate Communications Executive
[Cruel of us we know, but EXECUTIVE?]
Tel: 020 7887 1057 Email: sarah.sims@hammerson.com

UPDATE: We were wrong - Hammerson is "delighted"

Link to Hammerson's Storefront

"Hammerson is delighted to announce that leading international fashion retailer Forever 21* is to open a 53,000 sq ft store at Bullring [sic] Birmingham, its first in the UK.

* Link to [Daily Mail] [The Guardian]

"Lawrence Hutchings, Hammerson Managing Director UK Retail said:

"Forever 21's decision to open their first store in Europe at Bullring [sic] reflects both the centre's and the city's assertion that Forever 21, a proven success worldwide, will flourish at the centre. This is on the back of unprecedented like-for-like sales growth at the scheme over the course of the last 24 months."

Not to mention:

New Stores: "Brent South welcomes Lloyds Pharmacy village"

"Lloyds Pharmacy has opened its first large format Health Village concept at Brent South Retail Park in North London.

"The 5,000 sq ft store operates an almost concessionary format, offering a range of products and services designed to endorse a healthy lifestyle. From a consultation with a pharmacist to a session with a physiotherapist. Plus video consultations with doctors, optician services and expert skincare advice. The full service offer is a one-stop-shop for wellbeing.

"In addition, Brent South has also been joined by leading Sofa specialist retailer CSL ltd, opening a 12,000 sq ft store offering a broad range of mid-priced homewear solutions."

Westfield White City (John Lewis mega-site): Consultation extended

2011-12-19T15:09:00.003Z

Link to 'The Shepherd's Bush Blog'

"The consultation with residents over the controversial development of the White City area [north of] Westfield has been extended until 30th December, with a revised application having been submitted.

"The new application contains less flats ,and it also means fewer affordable units in some of the proposed blocks, which is likely to re-ignite the row over whether Hammersmith & Fulham Council is fulfilling its duty to provide affordable homes."

Public transport heaven:

There is direct access to the new
Wood Lane Hammersmith & City Line station.
To the north is Wood Lane Central Line station, next to the BBC TV Centre.
Finally, Shepherd's Bush London Overground station is to the south.

The wider area

Matrix: "£1m refurbishment of Brent Cross Shopping Centre Car Parks"

2011-12-19T13:50:00.000Z

Link to Matrix web site

"When Brent Cross Shopping Centre opened in 1976 it was the first stand-alone shopping mall in the UK. [No, it wasn't. The Bull Ring, Birmingham (see Pathe video) and sauf London's Elephant & Castle were.] It was initially constructed in an dumbbell shape, running east-west parallel to the North Circular Road, with the two largest stores (John Lewis and Fenwicks) at the ends.

"... By adopting [our] approach, we are able to successfully work in retail park, shopping centre and supermarket surroundings, without negatively impacting on footfall or parking space availability."

Link to "BBC: Historic Rise of Britain's Shopping Centres".

Link to HOME (see all posts).

Brent Cross (more bus melée than a true bus station)

2011-12-18T14:17:00.000Z

Link to 'One Bus at a Time' web site:
266: Brent Cross Shopping Centre to Hammersmith

Guardian and Telegraph: The Future of the High Street

2011-12-17T19:03:00.003Z

The Guardian: "No bed of roses: Mary Portas plan gets short shrift from struggling stallholders"

Link to The Guardian

"Mary 'Queen of Shops' Portas, the prime minister's fashionable retail guru, believes street markets are the key to revitalising Britain's dying high streets.

" 'You should be prepared to wait for a considerable time for vacancies to occur, as most waiting lists are quite long,' Westminster council warns in its street-trading fact sheet. 'It must be noted that being near the top of the waiting list does not guarantee obtaining a pitch.'

"... While Smith's Bread Man stall makes enough money to support his family, he warns that most new stalls fail. 'I've watched quite a few people try and start up around us – three-quarters of them failed within a year and the ones that survive tend to be those in chains.'

"It's a similar picture nationwide. Joe Harrison, chief executive of the National Market Traders Federation, puts the odds of survival after a year at 30-40%."

Daily Telegraph: "Mary Portas cites Barnsley market as role model to energise high street"

Link to Daily Telegraph

"After warning that town centres are facing a 'crisis point', she said car boot sales should be reintroduced to galvanise them.

"Speaking on the BBC’s Today programme, she said market towns were good examples of how to attract shoppers:

"She said: 'Everyone thinks when I say markets, I’m thinking "Let’s all sit down and have a nice organic lunch" but the most exciting market I saw was Barnsley, where it’s £10 a table [stall], and you get it all out there."

BBC Newsbeat: "Market trader responds to town centre report"

Link to BBC Newsbeat

"Retail expert Mary Portas has set our her recommendations to the government about how to revive the high street and combat the problem of empty shops.

"Among her suggestions, the former store chain executive who presented the TV series Queen of Shops says there should be less red tape for market stalls.

"Newsbeat's been getting reaction to the report from market stall holder Faye Hannah, 25, who has recently set up her own business selling personalised signs in Canterbury."

In & Out Art from Hammerson's Emerging Artist

2011-12-17T16:37:00.000Z

Link to ArtRabbit web site

"Hammerson´s Emerging Artist Initiative is pleased to present an exhibition of work by London-based artist Adrian Navarro.

"The space at 60 Threadneedle Street is dominated by Navarro´s new paintings: the Ring Cycles. His latest project strengthens itself along those particular creative lines that establish connections and distensions among the pictorial medium, reality, architecture and perception."

(Our comment: Hammerson has a few 'distensions among reality, architecture and perception' to worry about at Brent Cross Cricklewood.)

Hammerson makes a stand at the British Council of Shopping Centres

2011-12-17T15:48:00.001Z

Link to Yogi Creative web site

"This stand was design [sic] for the British Council of Shopping Centres, the premier retail property event in the UK. The stand incorporated all of Hammerson’s retail development’s [a grocer's apostrophy!] around the UK [even admittedly quite large, but still tucked in the corner, Brent Cross!] as well as a video wall."

Brent Cross shopping centre and Christmas

2011-12-17T14:52:00.000Z

Link to Brent Cross web site

We'll let you find all the unreasonable number of exclamation marks on the Brent Cross web site.

In addition, there is a soft drink lorry at Brent Cross tonight, all lit up.

Coca-Cola Great Britain's 'Market Activation Director' says:

"We're really excited to be building festive anticipation across the country, including Brent Cross,
propelling the nation into celebratory action."

Freedom of Information from NLWA and Barnet

2011-12-15T21:22:00.001Z

(The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the UK’s independent authority set up to "uphold information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies, and data privacy for individuals".)

"On behalf of Bestway Holdings [cash-and-carry owner on A5 Edgware Road], I am formally complaining to the ICO again, and ask that the ICO investigate this matter as promptly as possible, as attached.

"We have had nothing but poor and bad performance, and a thoroughly poor attitude from officers generally, from the North London Waste Authority (NLWA) and London Borough of Barnet, and other parties involved with this matter. Our original information request will be a year old on Jan 6th 2012, and we urgently need this information.

"We stand to lose a vital site, and the reasons given are not true and correct at all. This will destroy many jobs, and will greatly affect our business, let alone the trade of several thousand local independent shops. Bestway cannot replace this location, as there are no sites available in this part of London, for B8 employment locations.

"As things stand, the NLWA, Barnet Council, and the Brent Cross developers have co-operated, to try to take our site, by way of a Compulsory Purchase Order. They are most certainly unclear as to the reasons, so we desperately need this information.

"Bestway attended the LB Barnet 'Core Strategy' Examination in Public (EiP) inquiry this past week, and had to listen to 'half-truths' regarding this matter. The missing information would have assisted us, yet we are being obstructed. Furthermore, there is another EiP, with a different Planning Inspector, for the North London Waste Plan in spring 2012, and it is not fair that we can't have this open information now, is it?

"We need your assistance to determine this complaint and, assuming that you will again agree that we am due thesaid information, AND to allow time for the NLWA to perhaps further delay complying with your decision, we need to get before a Tribunal before late Feb 2012, for the outcome to be of use to us at the Waste EiP.

"We have tried to hold our costs down here, by not using our retained Leading Counsel, namely, Mr. Philip Coppel QC. However, we expect we will need to refer this matter to him again, unfortunately, before it is concluded. Incidentally, we cannot see how, for such a massive request, that there could ever be only just 82 documents - our request was pretty extensive, and over a two-year period.

"We have worked so hard on this matter for so long now, and have been slapped down by the NLWA and LB Barnet so many time - Please therefore, help to turn this one around as fast as possible.

"Wishing all at the ICO a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year."

"Centrale shopping centre owner Hammerson 'need to overcome problems' before £50-million investment"

2011-12-15T18:03:00.003Z

Link to 'This is Croydon Today'

"A STRING of problems need to be overcome, if Hammerson is to achieve its objective of helping catapult Croydon into the retail centre top-ten, the company has admitted.

"The centre's inherent problems include:

its impact in North End
a poor environment
lack of natural light
hidden shop frontages
inconveniently located stairs and escalators
limited leisure facilities, and
a poor family dining offer.

[Other than that, ...]

Link to "Croydon: Turley Associates".

Daily Telegraph: "Landlords question Mary Portas' demand for Town First planning rules"

2011-12-13T20:12:00.004Z

Link to Daily Telegraph

"Plans by Mary Portas to improve high street management, cut business rates, and create a level playing field with out-of-town malls, have been broadly backed by business groups.

"But landlord groups have questioned 'the wisdom' of the retail consultant's call for Secretary of State level 'sign off' of all future out-of-town planning applications, to create a 'level playing field' with high streets.

"... The Federation of Small Businesses, which has over 200,000 members, backed the review, and urged 'central and local Government to take action as soon as possible'.

Evening Standard: Mary Portas: "'Crisis' on high street laid bare"

2011-12-13T18:32:00.000Z

Link to Evening Standard

"The state of the UK's high streets has been laid bare, after a government-commissioned report described some town centres as 'dead', with huge increases in the number of empty shops.

"Ms Portas, presenter of the BBC programme Mary Queen Of Shops, said the high street had been 'displaced' by out-of-town shopping centres, without anyone considering the impact of such a huge change. Community had been sacrificed for convenience, and there was now no sense of 'belonging' to a local high street, she added."

Link to The Portas Review

[Reposted from June] Light-rail across north London? (There's an election coming)

2011-12-12T23:43:00.000Z

(Click to enlarge the image, and usually again to magnify)

('Haringey Journal')

This also made the west London media:

Our view:

"Follow the Money"

Boris's development sites ought to be used, collectively, to help fund an east-west light-rail line, across outer north London.

Click above to enlarge

('Transport 2025' map)

Click above to enlarge,
and also link to the 'North London Strategic Alliiance'

A suggested 'DLR-type' system for north London (instead of on-road trams) is described here.

In the west, it could start at either Ealing Broadway, or the proposed HS2/Crossrail station at Old Oak Common.

In the east, it could be extended beyond Finchley, along the wide North Circular Road corridor, to New Southgate and Arnos Grove stations.

Link to HOME (see all posts).

The Guardian: "High-street rescue plan sees Mary Portas set out market stall"

2011-12-12T12:14:00.004Z

Click image to link to The Guardian
(The two links below do not work on the Guardian web site -
they may be fixed. Or not.)

"A back-to-basics world of market stalls run by entrepreneurial traders is at the heart of a plan to turn around Britain's ailing high streets, by the retail 'troubleshooter' Mary Portas.

"More than 30 recommendations from Portas, set out in a review published on Tuesday, call for a bonfire of red tape, and are expected to be welcomed by David Cameron, who commissioned her to take on the study seven months ago.

"The prime minister had said he hoped the review would help 'create vibrant and diverse town centres, and bring back the bustle to our high streets'."

The Independent:
"Can Portas save the high street?"

Portas's business partner, marketing expert Peter Cross, told 'The Independent on Sunday':
"The high street is not just about shops. We actually need fewer shops. It is about offering something that shoppers can't get at home.

Mary wants to create a different vision. She has been brought in to do this because she thinks differently to the previous 26 people that have been asked to do a review like this. She has listened to the social as well as economic arguments. But everyone has got to give a little bit to make this work – the landlords, and the councils, but also the shoppers themselves.

Shoppers have found it easier to put the kids in the car, and drive to the retail park. But to make this work, we all have to give the power back to the high street."

Link to HOME (see all posts).

Brent Cross and riots: "X Factor culture fuelled the UK riots, says Iain Duncan Smith"

2011-12-10T16:49:00.001Z

Link to The Guardian

"A 'get rich quick' celebrity culture, exemplified by 'The X Factor' and the dysfunctional lives of footballers, has created a society 'out of balance', the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Iain Duncan Smith, says today, in an interview surveying Britain after the summer riots.

"... Duncan Smith said the riots could be partly explained by a number of short-term factors. But he pointed to a host of structural problems that he said were partly to blame, and said he wanted create balance in society, adding: 'Balance is if you try hard, you work hard, then the rewards are in balance with what you put in, and what is available.'

"He also blamed monopolistic capitalism, arguing that free-market philosophers and advocates of 'a moral market place', such as the 18th-century economist Adam Smith, had always warned against anti-competitive banks.

"... He said he was also deeply disturbed by the way in which social housing had become ghettoised:

"Now, more than ever, we live our lives by income, in a way we would not 200 years ago. If you are an executive, you probably don't live in an executive home, you live in an executive estate.

There will be a housing estate for the poor somewhere else, and preferably nowhere near you, because that will bring your house prices down."

Link to Daily Telegraph

Daily Telegraph: "Empathy has fled the inner city, and it’s time for me to follow"

" 'So, why you leaving then?' I’m sitting outside the Cat and Mutton, successful gastropub and emblem of everything that’s gone well with this patch of Hackney in the past half-decade. The question is asked of me by the young man who manages it, as I’ve just told him we’re moving out of the borough, off to an outer London suburb.

"We're leaving because we can. Just another working couple, worn out by inner London. It takes energy to ignore the rubbish that swirls about our feet as we pick our way home from work; it’s an effort to turn a blind eye to the repellent antisocial behaviour that marks out too many bus journeys. Ten years of trying to fix my vision solely on the beauty that does exist here. I can’t do it any more."

'The Guardian' and London School of Economics:

"Reading The Riots"

Search for 'RIOT',
or link to HOME (see all posts).

Evening Standard: "Croydon's set for a Westfield makeover, come what may" (and a CPO for HAMMERSON?)

2011-12-09T13:39:00.001Z

Link to Evening Standard
(the photo is not exactly relevant)

"I asked Croydon's chief executive, Jon Rouse, on Wednesday if his council might compulsorily purchase land from the squabbling owners of the Whitgift Centre. Why? Because they are stalling the urban equivalent of a heart transplant by Westfield. The Aussie developer wants to replace the clapped-out centre with a Stratford-sized mall.

"Westfield might even want to build a centre far larger than the Whitgift.

"Hammerson is looking to upgrade its 700,000-square-foot Centrale mall, just to the west. If you compulsory purchase (CPO) both, Westfield could build a mall even bigger than Stratford."

Evening Standard: "Only real flair can save the high street this Christmas"

2011-12-09T13:20:00.001Z

Link to Evening Standard

"The hassle of helicoptering Justin Bieber from Shepherd's Bush to Stratford was immaterial. This wasn't simply showbusiness, it was far more important than that. The hope was that an appearance by the teen idol at Westfield shopping centres at either side of London last month might actually kickstart consumer spending.

"Visa believes online shopping will be up 12 per cent this Christmas. The Centre for Retail Research thinks this is the first mobile Christmas, with £1.6 billion spent via smartphones, from a standing start last year. Even when the economy begins to recover, the clicks will take care of themselves. It is all those bricks that retailers have to work out what to do with."

Brent Cross Shopping Centre owner: Alleged fake person "maintained" Wikipedia entries

2011-12-09T11:27:00.001Z

Link to The Independent

The Independent: "The arms company, the oligarch and the ex-PM's sister-in-law: lobby firm's Wikipedia hit list"

"Wikipedia has now locked down ten user accounts that it believes are associated with computers owned by [PR company] Bell Pottinger, pending an investigation by the website's founder Jimmy Wales.

"When approached by the 'Bureau of Investigative Journalism', several companies denied having ever employed Bell Pottinger to manage their reputations, but did reveal that they had signed deals with other companies owned by its parent company Chime Communications.

"... [Brent Cross shopping centre joint-owner] Standard Life, the pensions and insurance group, had its Wikipedia presence edited more than 12 times between November and December 2010. Barry Cameron, head of media at Standard Life, said it had hired Team Spirit, an advertising and marketing firm at Chime, and that the brief had included maintaining the company's Wikipedia profile.

"... Lord Bell, chairman of Chime Communications, the owner of Bell Pottinger, said an internal review had been launched. On Wednesday the firm admitted it had used a number of accounts to change Wikipedia pages.

"Of the ten Wikipedia accounts suspended for being involved in suspected tampering by Bell Pottinger, two go to great lengths to give the impression of being real people.

" 'Biggleswiki' lists a number of personal details about himself on his user page. He claims that his name is David Biggles, and that he was born on 2 November 1979 in Hammersmith, London.

"He provides a selection of details, and claims that he met his girlfriend while living in Newcastle, but has since moved back to London. He writes:

"I currently work in engineering and really enjoy it. I get to travel around the world doing my job and have been to South Africa, Zimbabwe, Australia, China, New Zealand and Russia.

"My interests include art, music and photography and I'm rubbish at all of them."

The Bureau has been unable to identify a 'David Biggles' who matches the above description. Searches of the electoral register yielded no results for 'David Biggles' anywhere in the UK. Bell Pottinger has since admitted that it used the Biggleswiki account."

Waste Incinerator still planned for Brent Cross

2011-12-07T16:49:00.001Z

Link to PDF file

A new BXC document (dated 1 December 2011) has been produced by LB of Barnet.

Above is 'version 2', from 3.32pm on 1 December.

If you want to see 'version 1', from 29 minutes earlier (and we know that you do), it is here.

(The only difference seems to be that the last two lines are missing in version 1. Bit of an anti-climax, really.)

Link to HOME (see all posts).

SHOPPING CENTRE TO BE DEMOLISHED (No, not what you're thinking)

2011-12-07T13:47:00.001Z

Link to BBC South West Wales

"Large parts of Swansea's St David's Shopping Centre are to be demolished as the site has been bought by the city council and Welsh government.

"They say the deal for an undisclosed sum is part of their regeneration plans for the city centre.

"Council leader Chris Holley said:

"This is a hugely important site in the city centre, but it is largely empty, and has become detrimental to our overall aim of improving retail in the city centre.

It's clear that the city centre can't be regenerated without public sector intervention, and purchasing this site gives us the opportunity to work with our development partner Hammerson, to put in place a plan to redevelop the site and regenerate the city centre."