Evening Standard letter

Willesden and Brent Times, and Evening Standard: "Louis Theroux’s hopes for Harlesden"

(Link to W & B Times)

(Link to Standard)

Town Team Meeting: 4 October

The letter below and the attachment are from Leroy Simpson, Chair of the Harlesden Town Team:

Dear Friends of the Harlesden Town Team,

We are contacting you as you have expressed interest in becoming a Member of The Harlesden Town Team and may have attended at least one of the meetings and workshops hosted by John Dryden and Urban Design Skills over the last few months.

London Blitz - Recent LT Museum Event at Aldwych Station

Click above for slide show

Harlesden Area Consultative Forum

(Click on picture for a map.)

 Next forum meeting
7pm Wednesday 29 September

Venue
All Souls Church (next to Lloyds TSB), Station Road. Harlesden NW10 4UJ

Wards covered
Harlesden, Kensal Green and Stonebridge

LINK TO NEXT MEETING

Harlesden Town Charter - See it, Read it, Touch it.

The Harlesden Charter sets out a five-to-ten-year vision for the community and the local environment, as developed through a series of community meetings and workshops.

The Charter assesses Harlesden as a place, and looks at its existing strengths and weaknesses, its assets and its issues.

 Town Charter Launch Event:-
 Mon. 4 October,
 6.30pm, for a 7pm start.

Harlesden Town Charter Launch

Please join us for the next Harlesden Town Team (Team Harlesden 2010) meeting and workshop, to be held on Monday 4 October.

Please be there at 6.30pm for a 7pm start at the Salvation Army Hall (32 Manor Park Road, Harlesden NW10 4JJ). Tea and coffee will be served.

We look forward to sharing with you the published Harlesden Town Charter, introducing the work of the newly elected core team, and working with you to determine the priority projects for the team to undertake.

Please join us and make Harlesden a better place! Please invite your friends and colleagues, and we hope to see you on Monday 4 October.

Kind regards,

Scott Adams

Brent Council's Public Realm Design Guide (Final Draft)

Economist: "Policymakers should embrace mega-cities. Businessmen should escape them."

"How big should cities be? In many countries, city sizes follow a remarkably regular pattern, known as the rank-size rule.

"According to this law, the biggest metropolis in a country will have roughly twice the population of its nearest rival; three times the population of the third-ranked city; and so on."



BBC: A tourist's guide to 'Carbuncle Town'

Residents of a town in Stirlingshire have accepted an 'Eyesore-of-the-Year' award, in the hope it will revive redevelopment plans.

Torytroll Blog: "Boroughs reject Boris's traffic light removal plans"

The Hyde Group's 'Hillside Hub', Stonebridge wins a Gold Award from C.A.B.E.

(Photo by Simon Feneley)

(Click above for web site)

THE 'Building for Life' Awards celebrate well-designed housing projects and neighbourhoods in England.

They recognise housebuilders and housing associations that demonstrate a commitment to high design standards, good place-making, and sustainable development. They are administered by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (C.A.B.E.).

The Stonebridge 'Hillside Hub' building, Harlesden is one of a total of 20 schemes that have achieved a Gold Standard (compared to 12 last year).

 The Award is given to: The Hyde Group with Rydon Construction; Edward Cullinan Architects; Rydon Construction; REAL; Inplace

BBC Video of Boris's Routemaster Replacement: The New Bus for London

Blogging on Protecting Corner Shops (linked to GLA report)

Proposed "Thames Tunnel" video (solid facts from Thames Water, if rather "PR-jolly", with too much crap music)

The Guardian Newspaper on Public Transport

"The Buchanan report springs to mind on reading the Campaign for Better Transport's study, which roundly and rightly praises those cities that have laid on abundant and cheap public transport as a rather less drastic approach to taming the car. Ever since 1960, attempts have been made to try and keep this machine under control.

"Libertarian bores will insist this is due to some patrician hatred of mass mobility, but the CBT's report reminds us that what we could call "transport poverty" is something that afflicts the old, the unemployed, and the ill; and that the most effective means of dealing with traffic-choked cities is through public transport, rather than moralising."

(Thanks to the Brent Cross Coalition for this item.)

'Sustainability Brent' web site now operational

Brent Countryside Day 2010 on Sunday

Brent Countryside Day 2010

Brent Parks are holding their annual Brent Countryside Day at Fryent Country Park this year on Sunday 19 September.

From big top circus, funfair, falconry and sheepdog displays to Miller's Ark Animal Farm and the ever popular Scruffs dog show, go along and learn more about the natural environment and animal welfare.

Cost: FREE
 When: Sunday 19 September

Time: 12 noon to 6pm

Where: Fryent Country Park

More info: contact 020 8937 5619

Free bus service from Wembley Park, Preston Road and Kingsbury tube stations.

Last Ten Days of 'Brent Brain' Web Site

Queries: BRAIN Administrator (Brent Town Hall Ground floor, Room 9)
Email: brain@brent.gov.uk Tel: 020 8937 3275

The Guardian: "Investment in cycle tracks, a tram network and buses make for a top ranking city for green transport"

Previous Harlesden Town Centre Action Plan (February 2009)

On the North Circular Road: NEASDEN IKEA's CATS (yes, cats)

(They call it Wembley IKEA, we call it Neasden.)

Harlesden Town Charter now published

We are told it has been printed, and will be available soon.

ISBN 956638201
ISBN13 9780956638205
Publisher Urban Design Skills
Format Paperback
Publication date 26/07/2010 (presumably amended) 
Pages 48
Weight (grammes) 270.00
Published in United Kingdom
Height (mm) 204
Width (mm) 204

Core Team elected

(Originally posted on 26 July, after the meeting)

On Monday 26 July, we had another successful and engaging Town Team meeting. We voted for our Core Team and we now have a great team to help guide and work with Brent Council, TfL and others.  

Congratulations to:

Leroy Simpson, Chair, Harlesden Town Team

My name is Mr. Leroy Simpson; I was born in 1961 at Central Middlesex Hospital (Park Royal). I went to school in Brent, played football for a local team, lived and worked most of my life in the Brent.

At present I am a Board Member of SAHA.

Liz Carter, Vice-chair, Harlesden Town Team

I was brought up in Devon, went to boarding school in Reading and to University in Swansea, South Wales. I have been living in London since 1972, of which the last 25 years have been in Brent, currently Craven Park, Harlesden.

I worked in computing in the City until 2002 and in parallel have refurbished property in Kensal Rise, Harlesden and Stonebridge, taking great pleasure in seeing new life breathed into old, neglected properties. I was actively involved in the consultation and review of Brent Council’s 10-year Unitary Development plan in the 1990s and had high hopes, very sadly not realised, for the regeneration of Harlesden as a result.

I love the cultural and ethnic diversity of Harlesden, and the range and quality of those independent shops that reflect this. I am fascinated by its history, from Domesday Book village to the present day, as reflected in it layout and architecture. After years of neglect, I am very pleased that a new opportunity has arisen to enable Harlesden to become the place it so richly deserves to be. I look forward to working with the Town Team to turn our common vision into a reality.

Rupert Mikely, Secretary, Harlesden Town Team

(Short bio forthcoming)

Angela Clarke, Vice-secretary, Harlesden Town Team

Angela Clarke has been associated with Harlesden for almost 30 years. During this time she has attended Open Door Ministries Church at Tubbs Road, Harlesden NW10. Through the church Angela has been involve in many initiatives involving children, young people and Senior Citizens. Her most recent projects have included running play schemes and co-ordination of a Winter Homeless shelter at Open Door.

As a qualified psychologist and counsellor, she continues to use her knowledge and experience to benefit her local community.

We look forward to working on next steps with the Core Team in delivering our Town Charter, which will be available to you at our next meeting in late September or early October. Below is an overview of this past Monday's Town Team meeting, by Rob Cowan, fellow director at UDS.

Enjoy the rest of the summer and we look forward to real work in seeing some early results in Harlesden!

Kind regards, Scott Adams
Project Manager for the Harlesden Town Charter project
 

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Harlesden Town Team Meeting: Monday 26 July 2010, 6.30pm – 9.00pm, at Salvation Army Hall, 32 Manor Park Road, Harlesden

This was the last meeting of the Harlesden Town Team before the topic working groups get down to work to focus on projects related to

• quality of place;
• cultural activities;
• health and safety; and
• image and perception.

It was hard going: a number of people had not been to the previous meetings and had to be brought up to speed. We had to elect the Town Team’s officers and representatives from the council. But eventually that business was completed, and now we can get down to the work that the members of the Town Team really want to get stuck in to.

  

An overview of the developing Charter was presented by Scott Adams and a few copies of the final draft were distributed so that Town Team members could understand the look and feel of the soon-to-be published Harlesden Charter. Scott asked for additional individuals to sign up to the Charter and stated that copies of the printed Charter would be available at the next meeting.

David Caroll from Brent Council’s planning department then presented a planner’s perspective. While he had been pessimistic about what planning could contribute to Harlesden, it was useful to know how things stood. The whole point of the Town Team is to help make things happen differently in future.

As Albert Einstein said (not at the town team meeting, of course – he had not been able to find a babysitter): ‘We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.’ One of the town team said to David Carroll: ‘let us know how we can help you and your fellow planners to be more effective. That’s what we are here for.’ Carroll promised to come back and discuss how the planning department and the Town Team could work together to make the best use of the council’s planning powers, and how the Harlesden Charter can be embedded in the planning process.

There was considerable discussion about whether – as is usual in Town Teams that have been organised in other places – there should be a councillor on the Town Team. Would that not cause a conflict of interest? Eventually it was agreed that there should be a councillor on the team. The town team does not see itself as being in opposition to the council: it wants to work with it, and with every other organisation that has a stake in the future of Harlesden, in making good things happen.

The meeting concluded with a Culture and Arts update from Aida Esposito, who offered a range of next steps to assist with the cultural arts portion of the Town Charter.

The next meeting will be held in late September or early October.

Evening Standard: A Royal Commission on the Future of London?