Forum Topic

Will Brentford be able to cope with more population?

Hi there,I have been living in Brentford for 5 years now.Over this time I have seen more and more flats been built which is a great thing considering the house shortage in this country.On the other hand, I would like to share with other Brentford residents my perplexity: will Brentford roads and services (i.e. schools, hospital, GPs, transport)be able to cope with such a big increase in population?I would also like to hear from local Councillors and Hounslow Borough about their ideas/plans. Thanks for readingEmanuele

Emanuele Sozzi ● 4009d22 Comments

Adam will no doubt point to the various minutae of planning protocol which is the professional outlook but that does not really address what people see and feel.Nor it does not seem to prevent poor design, poor quality builds ( look no further than the A2D projects and the GWQ where you can see damp on new walls and a catalogue of problems.Nor does planning seem to be able to address the lack of infrastructure to support such developments from water and energy supplies to road capacity, adequate public transport facilities, not to mention the bizarre policy to reduce health facilities in the face of of a rapidly increasing population.Overdevelopment is going to lead to the loss of so many things that make up quality of life in an urban metropolis.We we probably see the building upon parks, allotments and many open spaces within a decade. Schools will almost certainly be built on parkland and hospitals, rather than be mothballed are to be sold off to allow luxury developments.So many lessons have not been learned.  And planners and architects carry the burden of responsibility for so many 'experiments' that failed and sowed the seeds of the social meltdown so many parts of this country have endured.It's not good enough to always blame government policies. Authorities and planners can lobby and adopt policies to adhere to the highest standards of civic esteem.You won't find the sorts of developments in some boroughs of London and certainly not in towns like Malvern to name but one.The big problem is ££££££££s and promises being used to sway policies and decisionsDo people really want to live in hi rise apartments?  Especially families?If the answer was yes then 100 year old houses would not be commanding sale prices way beyond their worth.The Hounslow plan for this district makes depressing reading as it will create a hugely over populated district with no capacity to cope with such overloading.

Anthony Waller ● 4003d

I too am a concerned resident as I have been a resident for 3 years in December and in that time I have seen several sites erected. Around 5 complexes and that is just from Kew Bridge to the shops in Brentford High street!!!! One of them in touching distance of my flats, literally!!!! Too close I say but I am sure it is not going to stop anytime soon!!!!

Anna Santos ● 4003d

Well, that's well out of order then.

Susan Kelly ● 4003d

"Vanessa, if the rules are the same as they were last time round, tenants who bought had to keep the place for five years before they could sell, or pay back all the discount. So there would be no 'blink of an eye'."I think you've missed the point the rules would NOT be the same, that's the point. If you're giving things away for nothing then there are no penalties.

Vanessa Smith ● 4004d

Vanessa, if the rules are the same as they were last time round, tenants who bought had to keep the place for five years before they could sell, or pay back all the discount. So there would be no 'blink of an eye'.They could let them out, I suppose.

Susan Kelly ● 4004d

'The other brainwave was to knock down all the council estates and replace them with fine Georgian Squares'Georgian squares are, of course, a perfectly proper way of providing London housing, as are tenement blocks, mansion blocks and the best late 60s era estates like Lillington Gardens, but no one seems to mention those.  It's prejudice and ignorance.Curiously there is one place in London where they have recently replaced a failed 60s era estate with a mock Victorian terrace, at Union Square, Islington.  They're rented out as social housing...http://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/dec/04/london-homes-rich-poor-communities

Thomas Barry ● 4004d

Worrying article about housing in 'Private Eye' this week, some pillock thinks that giving away for free the last remnants of social housing in London would be a good wheeze. The normal Thatcher tripe about being a nation of homeowners. The fact that this is also rock-solid Labour territory has nothing to do with it of course.  But as was pointed out, in the blink of an eye this would be sold by anyone with half a brain for a nice profit, mostly to private, extortionate landlords so that the taxpayer could fund yet more people's housing benefit. The other brainwave was to knock down all the council estates and replace them with fine Georgian Squares, to enhance the view across London. Of course this doesn't help the housing situation one jot, but hey! Happy mates and ecstatic and even richer donors to the Tories so who cares?

Vanessa Smith ● 4004d

A friend of mine wrote this the other day about council outsourcing and why it happens:"This is the logical end point of our friend Pickles’ worldview. Pickles claimed back in the 1980s that there was a US town council that met once a year, just to issue contracts to run all its services for the next 12 months. This turns out to have been a fairy tale, but that’s by the by. He tried to implement this in Bradford and failed, but its spirit infused the procurement reforms of the 1990s, all of which were designed on the basis that letting the government get involved in the stuff it bought would be stupid. Instead, the point would be to pick as between brands of biscuits at the supermarket. The really weird thing here, though, is that Pickles procurement differs quite dramatically from the sort of thing neoliberals like to say about stuff you buy in the supermarket. Rather than being an active and informed consumer, the government is expected to use a personal shopper. How well this works…well he did spend £10,000 on snacks."http://www.harrowell.org.uk/blog/2014/08/17/the-west-yorkshire-snack-vortex-his-personal-shopper-nhs-computing-and-fres/Basically, the governing ideology since 1979 is that councils don't know their own mind and it's imperative to stop them trying to do things that the efficient private sector knows perfectly well how to do.  The result is that the efficient sector realises that it knows perfectly well how to sit on its hands and cash cheques.

Thomas Barry ● 4004d

I was talking to someone I know very well at the local library yesterday, Carillion, that well known leisure services provider, are now responsible for this service plus parks. We were both relating our tales of dealing with said contractors, basically they seem to employ people who are most clever at buck passing and not listening to what people say to them, or not taking the slightest notice of information sent to them. What they are excellent at is making a various 'policies', apparently library staff now have a thing called 'don't walk by', should they see any trip hazards or anyone in the library doing something that could be construed as a health and safety issue, they have to tell the offender and not just 'walk by'. However, it gets better, they have now been told that they each have to make at least one report a month! I have been in correspondence with Carillion over the state of a small local park, first off they were in Sheffield, nice and local, then they couldn't find it on their map until I joined the dots for them! The conclusion we came to during our chat was that a) wasn't life so much simpler when you could just 'phone the council and speak to someone who knew the area, and b) how on earth does this palaver actually save any money? That doesn't even take into account the sheer irritation and cost for us the customers.

Vanessa Smith ● 4007d

"This is what is so annoying, because people don't understand the system which we live by they automatically hold the local council responsible for anything and everything they think is wrong"I'm a big fan of arranging the delivery of public services the way people think they're arranged, which is often very far from the way they're actually arranged.

Thomas Barry ● 4007d

According to the Mirror today the number of primary school pupils in classes of more than 30 has tripled since this government came to power. What's worse, some primary schools have more than 70 to a class (not round here, I'm pleased to say)It's kind of inevitable that Brentford will grow and I think most of the new development is OK (biased I suppose as that's where I live and I'm happy as Larry) but I do worry about the transport links (in particular) and the capacity of public services (in general). The council has little in the way of either power or money to address problems.

Guy Lambert ● 4007d

David has pretty much got it spot on.  When you take into account the amount developers have to pay in the form of both Mayoral Community Infrastructure Levy, S106 contributions, on-site affordable provision and the fact that it is accepted that for any development to be viable a developer should expect around 17.5% profit, plus the professional costs involved in actually preparing and submitting applications, something has to give.We've seen it with the BFC application which was approved despite not including the full level of payment of financial contributions or any affordable housing (although there is a potential financial clawback mechanism), on the basis of financial viability and the 'benefits' resulting from the provision of 910 new homes and a stadium with associated community facilities.Not saying whether I agree with it or disagree with it all, after all I have too many hats, but what I will say is that there's very little actual evidence that residents see of things improving as a result of financial contributions paid by developers.

Adam Beamish ● 4008d

I wrote to our local MP, Mary, at the time and got no respnse. Buts it hard for local council to do anything, there is a real need for new flats/houses, as there are too many people on the waiting list for council houses. The private sector is a mess and the prices have gone to far, and these new builds are so expensive as i believe 30% needs to go to the council, so the priviate secotr needs to pay for it and pushes the price up.....We will see the damages in a few years when our kids need to go to school and they will need to travel miles.Not much we can do here, just need to ride the wave and see the outcome....brentford ismgreat, but right now it looks like a building site, eveywhere you look there is a new build and they are so expensive....

Rakesh Patel ● 4008d

This is what is so annoying, because people don't understand the system which we live by they automatically hold the local council responsible for anything and everything they think is wrong. In reality local councillors have had more and more powers taken away by government, but government are equally adept at passing the buck and telling people that it is a matter for the local authority when in reality they have very little wriggle room on some issues, and are put in a pretty invidious position. So much for Dave and Eric's 'localism' eh?

Vanessa Smith ● 4008d

Precisely, Vanessa - the local example being the advertising masts on Chiswick Roundabout, for which TfL applied to Hounslow for planning permission, were rejected, then appealed and won (Hounslow still got it in the neck for 'allowing' them, however, which is a trifle unfair).Education is out of the hands of local authorities to a large extent; they have the duty to find places for extra pupils but are barred from opening new schools, which again is the result of ideology over common sense.  Rail capacity on the SWT line through Brentford is privatised, which in practice means the DfT and Stagecoach.  The NHS is being broken up, sold off and public control removed where possible, as witnessed by the whole Charing Cross saga, which doesn't appear to involve any democracy at any level.You'd think our MP might explain how this is all supposed to provide adequate public services, she keeps voting for it, after all.

Thomas Barry ● 4008d

Yes, but developers have a lot of muscle and the local planning authority have to make decisions in accordance with planning legislation. This means that no matter how much local people may object to/hate/disapprove of an application unless there are bona fide planning grounds for refusing it the applicant has the right of appeal to the planning inspectorate over the head of the local council. So although many applications may be deemed undesirable or over the top for the locality councillors have to make sure they have damned good grounds for turning it down, just because people don't like it won't cut it I'm afraid.

Vanessa Smith ● 4009d

Not sure I understand what you mean.  Isn't it the local authority that makes planning decisions ?

Pat Kingham ● 4009d

I think a reality check as to the limited powers of the local authority is needed here.

Vanessa Smith ● 4009d

The 3 Brentford Councilors ruth.cadbury@hounslow.gov.uk Mel.Collins@hounslow.gov.uk myra.savin@hounslow.gov.uk

Paul Allen ● 4009d

This question has been raised many times on this forum and we never get an answer.  When they eventually build on the  Reynards Mill site it'll be even worse.

Pat Kingham ● 4009d

'will Brentford roads and services (i.e. schools, hospital, GPs, transport)be able to cope with such a big increase in population?'Well, given that the Government thinks that you can safely leave all that to the private sector and that it's actually evil to try and plan for things you know will happen.No (in fact they're closing health services in West London and selling the land for more flats).

Thomas Barry ● 4009d

You'll have to contact your local councillors directly if you want to know what their ideas/plans are. Good luck with that btw.

Keith Iddon ● 4009d