Warrington Guardian: "Intu collapse: What will happen now to the shopping centres?"

Link to web site

"The owner of the UK's biggest shopping malls, including the Trafford Centre, Intu has tumbled into administration after failed crunch talks with its lenders.

"The shopping centre owner said it has applied to appoint administrators from KPMG, after warning earlier on Friday that it was on the verge of collapse.

"The confirmation came minutes after the London Stock Exchange suspended shares in the listed firm."

Estates Gazette: "Argent Related presses go on Brent Cross offices"

Link to web site

"... 'Brent Cross will be nothing like King's Cross,' says Nick Searl, Argent Related partner and joint lead on the Brent Cross South development. 'We’re not trying to copy what we did there. It is a completely different place. Brent Cross has a very different existing perception. And it’s something that we are going to have to work really hard to shift.'

"He's not lying. Google 'Brent Cross' and you are not greeted with pages and pages of rave reviews, of blogs fawning over the community, the amenities or the Happiness Index. You are greeted with images of a rather depressing shopping centre and not much else.

"... A consent earlier this month for a new Brent Cross West Thameslink station means that by 2022 there will be a direct line into King's Cross that takes just 12 minutes, the area already boasts an existing Tube station on the Northern Line taking people into (or out of) Old Street and the City, it sits at the foot of the M1 giving easy access to the Oxford Cambridge arc, and within an hour you can be at any one of five airports." [That's enough items in a list. Ed.]

Evening Express: "Chairman of Bullring and Brent Cross shopping centres quits"

Link to web site

"The chairman of struggling shopping centre owner Hammerson has announced he will quit on the same day its sites, including Birmingham's Bullring and Brent Cross in north London, reopened non-food stores for the first time since lockdown.

"David Tyler said he would quit no later than October 1 and be replaced by former Land Securities chief executive Rob Noel, the company confirmed.

"The decision comes less than a month after chief executive David Atkins quit, following years of over-expansion which has left the business with a massive financial black hole."

BBC: "Climate change: 'Gob-smacking' vision for future UK transport"

Link to web site

"People in the UK need to shift from cars to public transport to address the challenge of climate change, the government says.

"Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: "'Public transport and active travel will be the natural first choice for our daily activities. We will use our cars less and be able to rely on a convenient, cost-effective and coherent public transport network.'

"They are made in the foreword to the government's De-Carbonising Transport consultation."

Inside Croydon: "[Brent Cross and Croydon's] Hammerson’s £781-million loss points to end of the shopping mall"

Link to web site

"Anyone clinging to the faint hope that the publication this morning of Hammerson's annual report would offer encouragement about the prospects of a new super mall in Croydon town centre were quickly disabused when the company’s chief exec issued a statement which included the doom-laden verdict: 'The magnitude of the challenge facing UK retail is significant.' But then, David Atkins' company's losses for the last 12 months were £500-million more than in 2018.

" 'We are reviewing plans for Brent Cross and Croydon ... to ensure the developments address changing customer and occupier requirements and include a greater mixed-use element than originally planned,' Atkins, the Hammerson CEO, said in his report.

"Hammerson has been flogging off shopping centres in the past year to reduce their debts (since July 2018, they have sold 14 retail parks, generating £764million). They are certainly not building any news ones and incurring new debts."

The Independent: "A car-free future? How UK cities are moving towards a pedestrian age"

Link to web site

"Rush hour, York city centre, sometime around the end of the decade. Stress-free commuters glide by on bicycles, community gardens are tended by volunteers as they leave work, and early evening diners spill outside on to table-filled squares.

"Over in Fossgate, a mid-week street festival is just beginning. At the station, a line of on-demand driverless pods whisk arriving rail passengers to their end destinations.

"Such is what this North Yorkshire city could look like if proposals approved by the council to make the centre car free by 2023 come to fruition. Or so say advocates."

Barnet Times: "Barnet ward boundary map re-drawn"

Link to web site

"The electoral map of Barnet has been re-drawn to ensure local politics remains representative as the borough’s population grows.

"... The changes, which are due to take effect in 2022, are designed to ensure the number of voters represented by each councillor is roughly the same across the borough while maintaining community identities.

"They include the creation of a Cricklewood ward and the division of Colindale into separate Colindale North and Colindale South wards."

[Reposted] Brent Cross West station: extra 8-car platforms for the Dudding Hill Line from west London - but not in planning application!

Alternative station designs (Bedford is to the left, St Pancras to the right)

WLO Brent Cross West Interchange Feasibility Study Report Rev P02 (1) by scribdstorage on Scribd

November 2018: Brent Cross West station:
'reserved matters application'.

HS2 Ltd: "We invite your feedback on the design of HS2’s Common Design Elements planned for the Phase One route between the West Midlands and London"

"Common Design Elements are parts of the railway with a standardised appearance which will give it a recognisable look and make it more efficient to build. They include frequently used structures, such as bridge piers and parapets, as well as lineside noise barriers.

"Since Parliament approved plans for the Phase One route in 2017, we've been developing the design of the new railway and now we need your views to help inform how we progress with the Common Design Elements.

"You can view the plans on the HS2 website and download an information booklet, before completing our quick online survey. The survey closes at 11pm on Thursday 30 January 2020."