Press Releases
Press Release: Roe Green Village Residents’ Association –v- Powerleague & Kingsbury High School
UPDATE AT 27TH NOVEMBER 2018 – WE MADE AN APPLICATION FOR COSTS
We applied for and were awarded costs by the Secretary of State because the applicants behaved unreasonably in withdrawing their appeal without good reason. Under this order, RGVRA is now seeking to recover the considerable costs it incurred in defending itself against this ill-conceived planning appeal.
From the point of view of Roe Green Village Residents’ Association (RGVRA), Powerleague appear to have recognised the strength of the community but have omitted to admit the real reasons for their withdrawal from this application. The School and Board of Governors may well have seen the temptation of new gym facilities but ignored the advice from RGVRA and will never admit that this application was technically not viable.
RGVRA has always offered KHS alternatives to funding new sport facilities and have supported them as neighbours. However, it has been left to the RGVRA to point out to the School Governors, the error of their choice to go with Powerleague and ultimately the destruction of the area, should this application have gone through.
Brent Council refused the planning application due to serious flaws. RGVRA also found a number of flaws one of which being reference to Schools Sport Partnership in their press release. This‘Partnership’ does not exist and the ‘local’ schools were as far away as Cricklewood and in the Boroughof Harrow. Local schools written to were not given the full facts; these were just glossed over in a line that Powerleague’s scheme would benefit them, when in fact they already had their own grounds or had arrangements in place with other schools much closer.
Powerleague failed to acknowledge that this always was the wrong facility in the wrong place.
The Board of Governors may now realise that the community have saved the School from further ruin, all for the sake of a new gym. Alternatively, if the Board of Governors had taken time to read and take on board the technical facts submitted by the residents of Roe Green Village and their advisers, the School would not have had to waste over 2 and a half years trying to justify an indefensible planning application.
Letter to the Editor
IS THE LUCOZADE in POWERLEAGUE JUST A SWEETENER CAUSING DAMAGE TO LOCAL COMMUNITIES?
We are a Residents Association finding ourselves involved in fighting a proposed development by Lucozade Powerleague.
On investigation, we have found a disturbing pattern emerging.
In the cases we have seen, it does appear that the residents and councillors have put in the most strongest objections. However, in every case from Leeds to London, it seems that Lucozade Powerleague have had their planning applications passed.
The letters we have received from their public relations company have been somewhat misleading and that has led to our suspicion as to how their developments are being processed considering the amount of huge opposition.
Is there anyone out there who has had any contact regarding a proposed development involving Lucozade Powerleague, and would like to join our group in order to exchange views on how Lucozade Powerleague is operating in order to acquire greenfields?
For further information on Roe Green Village and its Residents' Association please contact
Debbie Nyman on 020 8206 2436 or email – contact@roegreenvillage.org.uk
Website www.roegreenvillage.org.uk.
The face of Roe Green Village Conservation Area Response to Harrow Times (February 2016)
LOCAL COMMUNITIES ALARMED BY PROSPECT OF MULTI-PITCHES MAINLY TO BENEFIT LUCOZADE POWERLEAGUE.
Roe Green Village Residents Association – 1st February 2016
The announcement by Kingsbury High School (KHS) in the Harrow Times of 18 January 2016, “High School announces plans for a new multi-sports facility with pitches and nets”, has come as a shock to the local community.
The financing of such a site will not be an altruistic gesture on the behalf of Lucozade Powerleague but very much a commercial venture with huge repercussions in the shape of noise and light pollution 365 days of the year until 11 o’clock at night, for the local community.
It is a very poor move on the part of KHS not to involve the local community when considering the stated improvements to the working of a school sports timetable.
Not that long ago, the local community made special efforts to meet with their Headteacher, Jeremy Waxman, and offered to work with the School to improve their facilities. To date this offer has not been taken up, leaving the response to go with Lucozade Powerleague, without any notice, a real blow.
Schools are intended for local communities and this one in particular is very diverse.
The demographic make-up of the immediate and even wider community is not one that would immediately benefit from this, with elderly people’s homes, alms houses, Listed buildings as in Trobridge Thatched cottages and not to mention, the wildlife in the area includes bats and owls.A commercial venture whose proposed scale is not necessary or suitable for this location, will have adverse consequences on the adjoining communities.
The prospect of wholesale corporate entertainment would certainly not be missed by Lucozade Powerleague and eventually licensing the “Club House” is not to be overlooked.
The siting of this venture is also suspect; quote from KHS “The site is currently a school playing field which gets frequently waterlogged and remains unusable for much of the academic year.” The needs of the school is actually a long-awaited upgrade to their gymnasium and proper management and upgrading of the playing fields’ drainage system.
It would seem that the management of the school has gone for the easy option ignoring and refusing help to raise funds from the local community.We are suspect as to the intentions of a gesture to other establishments to be allowed use of these facilities “free of charge” which is not mentioned. In addition the “Community User Agreement” is yet to be seen and we would like to contact other Lucozade Powerleague neighbours to see if they have kept their promises and how the installations have worked out for them.
Long after the school has gone home, the real face of Lucozade Powerleague will emerge.
For further information on Roe Green Village and its Residents' Association please contact
Debbie Nyman on 020 8206 2436 or email – contact@roegreenvillage.org.uk
Website www.roegreenvillage.org.uk.The face of Roe Green Village Conservation Area
Roe Green Press Release (January 2016)
SCHOOL PROJECT THREATENS CONSERVATION COMMUNITY
Roe Green Village Conservation Area, Kingsbury, London (January 2016)Roe Green Village is preparing to defend itself, for a second time, against an inappropriate business development that would threaten both the cohesion of the community and the habitat of local wildlife in what is regarded as one of the last few tranquil villages in North West London. Designated a Conservation Area by Brent Council in 1968, the Village enjoys a unique community bond amongst its residents.
Neighbouring Kingsbury High School, is set to gain a moderate financial return by converting its (currently grass) playing fields through a commercial partnership with Lucozade-Powerleague. Lucozade-Powerleague proposes to install six Astroturf pitches, along with facilities for its customers, with all the flood-lighting, noise and anti-social behaviour that they would bring. Roe Green Village residents are having to fight their corner once again, when the School submits its plans to Brent Council.
In 2011, when the School previously sought a business partnership with GOALS plc, (see http://www.youtube.com/roegreenvillage) the Village’s Residents’ Association, RGVRA, met with the headmaster of the School, Jeremy Waxman OBE, who denied that his plans were about destroying green spaces for profit, claiming that "[this] was never designed as an income source for the School".
At that time, the community offered to fund-raise and support the School’s efforts to upgrade facilities through other means, but instead the Head has gone behind the community’s back and brought in another business partner, Lucozade-Powerleague – with very little notice of their intentions until the Christmas holidays came round.
There are elderly and vulnerable residents whose homes back right onto the proposed installation.
We believe this development is the “WRONG FACILITY in the WRONG LOCATION.”
For further information on Roe Green Village and its Residents' Association please contact
Debbie Nyman on 020 8206 2436 or email – contact@roegreenvillage.org.uk
Website www.roegreenvillage.org.uk.
FURTHER BACKGROUND:
The layout of Roe Green Village was first drawn up in 1916 by Sir Frank Baines, Principal Architect of His Majesty’s Office of Works (whose other work includes the restoration of Eltham Palace and the design of the former ICI Headquarters (now MI5) building on Millbank, by the Thames). Construction of Roe Green Village, with 250 dwellings on a 24-acre site, was completed by 1919.
Situated adjacent to Roe Green Park, the Village has retained its original design character. It is internationally recognised as a significant example of a wartime ‘munitions village’ (built for aircraft workers), which was planned along Garden Village lines. With its large gardens and many hedges, it is a haven for a variety of wildlife including species of bats and owls. Now approaching its centenary, the Village would rather be celebrating its unique character and its continuing attraction as a place to live than face the very disturbing prospect of an all-night, 365-days-per-year commercial facility backing onto the quiet and calm of a residential community that is also a Conservation Area.
Simon Braidman, a local wildlife expert, states that the noise and light pollution originating from these artificial football pitches "will upset this unique habitat for bats and other wildlife and inevitably drive them away".
Some years after the Village was completed, construction of Kingsbury High School, on Princes Avenue, was begun. Subsequently, the School expanded so that its buildings and grounds are now directly adjacent to the southern boundary of the Conservation Area. The School applied to change the use of its playing field land a few years ago and the Secretary of State for Education at the time consented to the disposal of that land for a 35-year period.
Residents are now deeply concerned that the special community character of Roe Green Village is gravely threatened by the insensitive KHS/Powerleague-Lucozade commercial proposals.