There’s still time to comment online on the application for a 9-storey tower block in the middle of Cricklewood, where the Co-op and the Health Centre are. Barnet are taking comments online until the end of Friday 28 June – click here.
The developers showed us a 13-storey block at first. When we told them that was too tall, they increased it to 15. Now they’ve cut it to 9, a “compromise” that that might well have been their target all along. The buildings around are 3-storey at most, and almost entirely 2-storey on the surrounding streets. The new building on the Galtymore site at 194-196 Cricklewood Broadway will be 5-storey. That should be enough; a 9-storey block will tower over everything around.
It won’t be hidden by the building on the corner of Cricklewood Lane and Cricklewood Broadway; that’s going to be torn down to make way for the junction straightening.
Their transport assessment is astounding. It seems to assume hardly anyone will be going out to work.
- the proposed development could generate an additional 2 two-way walking trips in the AM peak and no increase in trips during the PM peak.
- the proposed development could generate a maximum of 18 additional two-way trips by public transport modes in the AM peak, including 11 two-way trips by bus and an additional 9 two-way trips by public transport modes in the PM peak, including 7 by bus
- the 7 additional trips on London Underground and rail services would be distributed across services from Cricklewood railway station
That begs the question of how anyone will be able to afford to live there, given that the developers are still totally non-committal on the provision of affordable homes and their plans only show 9 affordable homes.
The application still talks grandly of the development “creating cityscape presence (increased mass)” in Cricklewood, complaining the Brent Cross Cricklewwod masterplan “fails to do the same around Cricklewood Station” and “stops short of fully connecting with the extended Cricklewood town centre.”
Swooping over Cricklewood
This much is true. Barnet’s Cricklewood, Brent Cross and West Hendon Regeneration Area Development Framework is clear that it does not propose tall buildings everywhere: “Buildings will generally respect the minimum storey heights within each zone unless the specific location justifies a taller building. Whilst tall buildings will be encouraged in certain locations it is not desirable that they become the predominant urban form.” So the framework maps where the tall buildings will be. They’re not in the middle of Cricklewood. That’s not Barnet’s plan for the town centre, or Brent’s, or Camden’s.
Click here to add your voice.
Barnet’s development framework: high-rise in West Hendon and Brent Cross, but not Cricklewood
Afterword: our own additional objection’s here and our original objection’s here.