Last year, Montreaux announced they’d bought the B&Q site last year for £44.5m. We met their representatives last week to hear more about their plans.
- The site doesn’t include
- Jewson’s, but Montreaux’s plans allow for development there too
- Depot Approach (the road from Beacon Bingo to Jewsons)
- the green between B&Q and Cricklewood Lane, which we registered as an Asset of Community Value.
- It does include
- the road from the car-park to Cricklewood Lane, which will be removed
- the mound between that road and the railway, which won’t be developed in case Network Rail want a second way into the station there.
- They mean to build
- 1,000 – 1,100 homes, depending on the mix of sizes, in four blocks
- four roughly U-shaped or W-shaped blocks, each with a mixture of heights, including
- a
21-storey tower25-storey tower by the railway at the south-east corner, with other blocks reaching 14 and 16 storeys - 35% “affordable”, the rest partly for rent and partly for sale
- about 100-110 parking spaces, some for wheelchair users (they didn’t say “disabled” or “blue badge holders”), the rest for car clubs or for sale or lease, with residents unable to get parking permits for the surrounding streets.
- a few commercial units on the ground floor, mainly for workspace or facilities rather than retail
- space running down the middle of the development, parallel to the railway, open to the public
- a space at the top of the green which could be used for community events
- improvements to the green such as tree planting, re-aligned paths, terracing.
- Their rough timescale is
- 2nd – 3rd February 2020: drop-in consultation at Ashford Place, 60 Ashford Road (11am-3pm Sunday 2nd Feb; 3.30pm-7.30pm Monday 3rd Feb). This doesn’t leave much time for anything anyone says to be acted on before
- March 2020: plans submitted to Barnet Council, formal consultation begins
- early 2021: demolition begins
- each block takes 3 to 4 years to build
- they start with the two nearest Cricklewood Lane, including the 21-storey tower
- development completed in 8 to 10 years.
They say they’ve alread discused these plans with Barnet and the council’s favourable. Though these plans affect the character of Cricklewood, which is one-quarter Barnet, one-quarter Camden and one-half Brent, they say they haven’t discussed them with Brent or Camden. They don’t know what train service levels will be at Cricklewood Station after the new station opens and haven’t asked.
Updated 23/01/20: Montreaux’s reps have corrected themselves. They propose a 25-storey tower.