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

Click here for Later Press Cuttings

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

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"

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

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!

Link to 'Wembley Matters' web site

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

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."

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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"

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."

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

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..."

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

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?"

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)

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"

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

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"

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

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"

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"

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"

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"

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."

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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

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"

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"

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

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"

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"

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

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."

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

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."

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

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

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?"

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"

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."

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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)...

 
(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)

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

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]

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

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A (small) full planning application has just been made, '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 Quod Planning.

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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'.