A recent Focus On…Queen’s Park from the Liberal Democrats with the candidates for Councillors showing their opposition to the Queen’s Park tower development.
Also highlighted are the traffic problems that are percieved will blight an already congested Salusbury Road. Well, the development is supposed to address this issue by changing the flow of traffic in the area – but with no tower to route traffic around…..?
The proposal for the tower block in Queen’s Park is a lead topic for each of the parties contesting the electoral ward of Queen’s Park. For Labour it is getting like the Monty Python topic not to be mentioned in front of our hosts for the World Cup. The Lib Dems have made great gains from this thread – well, a sitting (yet not restanding) Councillor defected to Team Yellow with the tower plan as a key issue. The defection as on the front page of this weeks Willesden and Brent Times and the ‘bun fight’ at the Queen’s Park Corral was analysed over a double page spread.
The Green’s in Queen’s Park have made opposing the development symbolic of their opposition to decision making without consultation – a characteristic of Brent Council in their view.
While I have not seen any campaign literature from the Conservatives in Queen’s Park (please forward some if you have it!) the Party is opposing developments in the Dudden Hill area – maybe they have the same tac in QP?
More to come:
Thank you for reading.
I noticed these letters written by Dr Shahrar Ali, Green Party candidate for Queen’s Park along with Rupert Degas, to Brent area newspapers recently.
On Brent Labour Council tower block imperatives:
“Whilst this may not come as a revelation to seasoned campaigners, the public admission is a sign of desperation: a local government that denies responsibility for actions that it is going to take on our behalf but against our will.”
On the timing of the planning process:
“Will we have to wait till after the local elections to find out?”
Over at stopthetower a recent email news update has been posted by Barney Cokeliss. Go read it for the stopthetower campaign group’s update on the proposed tower block development in Queen’s Park.
Barney, Will and the gang have not yet got the hang of the idea that as the web is always on, 24hrs a day they can update their website with information as it happens, without having to wait for lots of things to report and then produce a newsletter. I am not against the printed word, in fact I help various groups deliver print newsletter – what I am against is a newsletter that could have been distributed by posting the information on the website weeks ago.
Here’s some words from Barney on the politics of stopthetower and the forthcoming elections.
“We’re a non-politically-aligned organization. And some of us are life-long Labour voters. But we have to tell you that the towerblock is very much a Labour project. Council Leader Anne John (LAB) is the driving force behind it.”
He highlights that Cllr Jonathan Davies decision to defect from Labour to the Liberal Democrats (as previously reported) was in part due to the failure of Labour to engage with residents over the tower block plan.
“The most important thing you can do to stop the tower is to vote against Labour in the May 4th Local Elections.
“It doesn’t matter what the Labour candidates say themselves about the tower as individual councillors they will be powerless to stop it. The key thing is to change the balance of power in the council, so that Anne John’s pro-tower Labour group no longer has a majority.
If Queen’s Park elects Labour councillors even ones who say they’re anti-tower the Labour majority will remain and the tower will be built. Once again, a vote for Labour on May the 4th is a vote for the tower.”
JONATHAN DAVIES BRENT COUNCILLOR QUEENS PARK WARD
6 April 2006
QUEEN’S PARK TOWERBLOCK
Many people have been asking me about the Council’s plan to put a 26-storey towerblock on the car park next to Queen’s Park Station. The Council is not prepared to have an open public consultation about the proposal. My view is that the people who elected me as their councillor deserve to be informed about the proposal.
The Council was in extensive pre-application talks with the proposed developer, Genesis, from at least the middle of 2004. In April 2005, the Council amended the planning guidance relating to the site to allow for a building of up to 20 storeys paving the way for Genesis’s planning application for a set of twin 26-storey towerblocks. The Council persuaded them to withdraw it in September 2005 due to the unexpected level of public opposition to the proposal.
(more…)
Brent Labour Councillor Jonathan Davies has joined the Liberal Democrats reports the BELD website.
“I have realised that the beliefs I stand for such as the safeguarding of our civil liberties, international justice and a free and fair society are best represented within the Liberal Democrats.”
Also connected to Jonathan’s feelings over the proposed development of a tower block in Queen’s Park ? : “The issue of Queen’s Park Tower is a classic example of Brent Labour in action. Consultation with local communities is kept to a bare minimum with decisions being made by a small cabal of Labour politicians and unelected Brent Council officers.”
This local red top was delivered in late February. It leads with the news of the Liberal Democrats delivering a “hammer blow” to Labour” in Dunfermline by-election.
The national political story was the continued opposition to the ID card legislation by Sarah Teather and the Liberal Democrats. The newsletter also covered the story of the comments made by Labour Cllr Jonathan Davies on the ‘consultation’ over the Queen’s Park Tower plans.
The two other key stories are the rehousing of Willesden Market following a successful campaign by the W&BT that Sarah Teather has supported and another highlughting Sarah’s long standing commitment to local healthcare provission with a story about her support for the closure threatened Wembley Minor Accident Treatment Service.
Brent Lib Dems have been redistributing the comments made by Labour Cllr for Queen’s Park Jonathan Davies on the governance and effectiveness of Brents’ Labour Council.
I’m glad to see that Cllr Davies has the ability to speak his own mind and to make judgements based on his observations. His views on the consultation around the proposed development consisting of a tower block in Queen’s Park will chime with many in the local area.
The BELD let themselves down by reprinting the Tony & George snap again – I thought we’d stopped all that after winning a by-election and a general election seat with it. This is a LOCAL ellection after all!
did anyone else see this? the electoral commission have been running advertising campaigns to encourage us out to a polling station next month. here’s one that i think makes the link between local service delivery and decision making nice and simply.
Reason number one (to vote) is the large tower block looming in the back ground over the lush green open space.
