I am writing to voice concern over the mammoth Brent Cross Regeneration programme which is to be undertaken over the next 25 years.

I live on the front line of this development near Cricklewood Broadway and despite the growing involvement of community groups, I believe it is a project about which many people in the northwest side of London have little awareness.

Yet it will impinge in very serious ways upon their quality of life.

Over the past three years, there have been numerous meetings and apparent overtures of collaboration from authorities such as Barnet Council and the developers, but ultimately we are impotent in the real decision-making process which will alter our future in the face of the juggernaut of planning and local government.

It is, we gather, to be the second largest development in Europe and yet its profile seems to be obscured and ever-changing.

It will impinge not only upon the southern end of Barnet, but upon two adjacent huge boroughs of Brent and Camden, yet they were only latterly alerted to the social and logistical repercussions.

Cricklewood regeneration is to be the London gateway and, as such will be the first sight of London for visitors and tourists leaving the M1, A41 or North Circular.

There is much that needs replacing and this is a once in a lifetime chance for something beautiful and visionary to be created to complement the few architecturally and historically interesting remnants of old London. Without colossal amounts of integrity, it could become the biggest scar on this great city.

The prospects do not look promising:

  • There is to be a freight transfer station heaving white goods off trains onto heavy goods lorries which will thunder along the Edgware Road all through the night.
  • A environmentally controversial incinerator is proposed near to the junction of the A5 and the North Circular, to serve not only Barnet, but at least two other large boroughs with a waste transfer station alongside.
  • There is the nightmare prospect of an increase of 29,000 cars and 400 to 800 heavy goods vehicles flowing along the A5 into central London, when Cricklewood Broadway is already at a standstill.
  • There is the statutory provision of 7,000 low-cost houses, which I would approve of, except once again a large proportion of these are to be high rise. People on low incomes will once again be relegated to the least appealing areas along the side of a polluted major trunk road, with uncontrolled traffic, beside an incinerator, a waste and a freight transfer station. I do not see this as a fit place for people to live.
  • Beside all this, there is to be a “new town” on the wasteland bordered by the North Circular and the A5 yet, crucially, no provision of creative youth projects.
  • The design for enhanced transport services is as yet vague and does not offer itself as an appealing alternative to the car and indeed there is scant parking provision. Every city now has park and ride schemes and London has none. While the roads are being dug up, why can’t vast underground car parks be created along the perimeter of the North Circular?

The promise of enhanced transport systems within London is only relevant if vehicles can be left on the outskirts.

What we will see as we enter our great city is tower blocks, an incinerator chimney, a freight and waste transfer station and a permanent traffic jam.

If we want to create a prestige entry point to be proud of, this is not the way to do it.

Attending numerous meetings held by a growing number of uneasy residents, one is struck at the lack of transparency both over what is really intended and over the relationship between Barnet Council and the developers.

In light of this, I would ask for greater scrutiny of the scheme and whose interests it really serves?

Alexa Wilson
Midland Terrace, Cricklewood