Category: Streetscape

  • QPARA news: What is happening on Brent’s plans for Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) for the Queen’s Park Area and Kilburn Area?

    First of all a personal thanks from me to all of the almost 60 people who took the trouble to provide our Streetscape team with your feedback on the plans. You expressed a wide range of views sometimes cogently and often with passion! 

    A lot has been going on since then and our Chair and the Streetscape team have provided the following update in advance of the next QPARA monthly zoom meeting on Thursday 8th October. Members will get their invitation in the next day or so. Anyone wishing to join QPARA and have your say, can do so here: qpark.org.uk/join-us.

    QPARA supports efforts to reduce pollution stemming from through traffic and congestion in its area and around (i.e. on so-called through roads which are also heavily residential). The Association has long campaigned for action on these issues but does not regard Brent’s current Low Traffic Neighbourhood approach as the answer.

    On Tuesday 22 September Cllr Shama Tatler, Highways lead for Brent Council, and Tony Kennedy, Head of Highways, held an online meeting with some 15 representatives of local residents’ associations and other groups. She showed maps of the two Traffic Order schemes being proposed for Queen’s Park and Kilburn.

    These were the same as those circulated unofficially, except that all road closures and ‘no turns’ etc in the Queens Park proposal were  shown in green with a legend stating that they are ‘Potential Future Closure if Needs Be’ or ‘Potential Future Banned Turn if Needs Be. The one exception was Tiverton Road at the bridge into Queen’s Park, still shown as a red ‘Proposed Street Closure’. She emphasized that she was keen to have dialogue with QPARA and other residents’ groups from hereon.

    The Kilburn TO map still had all changes in red – the same as seen already. – Cllr Tatler explained that this would now proceed, subject to full clearance from the relevant emergency services and letters to all residents. Tony Kennedy said actual implementation of both schemes would be at least two weeks away.

    Of the many questions and comments which followed several centred on asking what traffic and air quality data had been available for scheme design and could it be shared. Tony Kennedy said there was little data available but that some monitoring strips had been installed in the last few days.

    While waiting for the promised official note of this meeting QPARA has been busy collecting its own data on vehicle movements during the morning rush hour and assessing the likely impact of the revised scheme. Fundamentally QPARA seeks proper consultation, supported by data, and is ready to give positive consideration to any scheme which improves air quality and reduces congestion both inside the planned LTN area and on the roads which surround it such as Salusbury and Chamberlayne.

  • Queen’s Park gets its first school street

    From 14 September Kempe Road (from Peploe to Chamberlayne) will be designated a “School Street”. It will be one of 30 such Streets in Brent, brought in as a response to the opportunities for improving air quality and road safety as a result of the Covid-19 Pandemic. TfL are behind the plan.

    The aim is to make the street motor vehicle free (with limited exemptions) during the hours of 8.15 to 9.15am and 2.30 to 4pm Monday to Friday during term time. These are the normal drop off and pick up times for parents of children at Ark Franklin school who use their cars to deliver and collect them.

    Important exemptions from the rules are emergency and residents’ vehicles (including bona fide visitors and deliveries). However the scheme will work best if movements by exempted vehicles are kept to a minimum.

    Brent have made emergency orders under the Road Traffic Regulation Act, which do not require prior consultation. Despite this QPARA has established a dialogue with the Brent team about details of the scheme since the relevant road signs were spotted by an eagle-eyed Street Rep in August.

    You can find all the details available to the general public at this link on Brent’s website: https://consultation.brent.gov.uk/highways-and-infrastructure/ark-franklin-emergency-schools-streets-zone/ . This includes the letter sent to individual residents. It will be for the school staff to operate the temporary barriers across the street during the restricted hours.

    There will be a running consultation on the scheme during the next 6 months, but QPARA plans to see how it goes before formulating conclusions. Meanwhile we wish the school and the residents well. For a number of years we have been working to see the end of pick up/drop off by car at primary schools in the area for safety and air quality reasons. This scheme has some loose ends, but that is inevitable considering the speed of its introduction.

    More generally we want to support all our local schools as they manage the return of pupils after the lockdown. This is by far the most challenging aspect of the next phase of living with the pandemic given the constraints and the numbers involved.

    QPARA Streetscape Group

  • Keslake Pocket Park: Proposed improvements to the Chamberlayne Road end of Keslake Road

    In July 2019 Brent Council led a consultation on the Kensal Corridor Improvements Scheme focussed on Chamberlayne Road. Following this process there has been much discussion on redesign of Keslake Pocket Park in response to some local crime and anti-social behaviour issues and as such alternative designs have been explored in a joint working group of Keslake residents, QPARA, senior council officers and local councillors. The emerging preferred layout and design are featured in the leaflet (link here) and we seek further comments on this from the community by Friday 31 July via the online survey link (removed) in the leaflet. Implementation depends on community support and securing funding, this design will form the basis of a bid via QPARA for Brent’s Neighbourhood Community Infrastucture Levy (NCIL) funding in late 2020.

    All Keslake residents have received a letter from local councillors drawing attention to the consultation and inviting them to comment. QPARA’s Street Reps in adjacent roads are being alerted to the consultation and the leaflet is on our Keslake notice board.

    An update to this post can be found here.

  • More trees for Queen’s Park streets this Autumn

    Street trees are an important local amenity, providing clean air, shade, a home for wildlife. Well-maintained trees make our streets attractive, helping to enhance community pride and to reduce anti-social behaviour, but they don’t last for ever and there are currently some streets in the Queen’s Park area with large gaps where trees have been removed. QPARA members have voted to donate £4,000 to Brent Council to replace many of them, close to their original locations. We have also been granted £4,000 for the project from the neighbourhood Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL). This will enable us to fund a total of 32 street trees around our conservation area and Brent Council’s contractors will start planting them in October.

    In addition to the QPARA donation and CIL money, some residents are clubbing together to pay for trees on their streets. Each tree has a one-off cost of £250; if you would like to discuss having a tree planted in your road at the same time as the QPARA street trees project is being delivered, please email hussain@khan.cc, the QPARA street tree lead.

    Click here more more information on the street tree project and the proposed locations for the QPARA sponsored trees.

  • QPARA appears before parliamentary Select Committee

    Palace_of_Westminster,_London_-_Feb_2007

    QPARA representatives, Robin Sharp and Kevin Barrett, appeared before the  HS2 Select Committee on 26 January. We were ‘petitioners’ against HS2’s plan to build a large ventilation shaft and transformer unit on the Keniston Press and car park site by Queen’s Park station. Although HS2’s most recent plan is to switch this to the Canterbury Works site on Canterbury Road, this is not finally ‘signed up’ and has proved unpopular with community interests there. So QPARA decided to present its case against the vent being at the station site. Much impetus has come from Brent Council which has pressed strongly for this change of location so that it can go ahead with a major housing and retail development scheme. Brent’s scheme would also take in land now occupied by Cullen House, the Falcon pub and part of the gyratory road. This scheme was the subject of local exhibitions, consultations and planning approval three years ago. It now looks more likely to go ahead, but depends on final decisions following the Select Committee’s hearing.