Agenda and minutes

The Chair opened the meeting, welcomed those present and thanked officers for their assistance in organising the meeting. The Chair also thanked officers and members of the public for supporting his/the committee’s site visit/visit to the Carlton and Granville building.

The Chair then briefly outlined the call-in procedure.

Members are invited to declare at this stage of the meeting, any relevant disclosable pecuniary, personal or prejudicial interests in the items on this agenda.

Councillor Duffy declared an interest as a Member of the Board of the South Kilburn Trust.

Deputations were considered under the item ‘ Call-In of Executive Decision – South Kilburn Regeneration Programme’.

Decisions made by the Cabinet on 15 November 2016 in respect of the South Kilburn Regeneration Programme (Carlton and Granville Centres Site) – Development Options Report by the Council’s Strategic Director of Regeneration and Environment have been called-in for consideration by the Resources and Public Realm Scrutiny Committee, in accordance with Standing Order 20.

At the invitation of the Chair, Councillor Warren outlined the reasons for submitting the call-in, stating that the community had lost confidence in the project following poor consultation. Councillor Warren asked the committee to consider his proposal to remove Councillor Mashari (Lead Member for Regeneration, Growth, Employment and Skills) from further involvement in the project and instead create a ‘task force’ to take the project forward. The task force would include two ward members and would be chaired by the Leader of the Council.

The committee then received deputations from members of the public.

Lesley Barson and Dee Woods (Granville Community Kitchen) provided a brief history of the local community’s use of the site and asserted that the Centre was an iconic building that was at the heart of the community. Furthermore, they considered that the underutilisation of the premises was a result of Council policy. There was considerable concern that the report to Cabinet had not confirmed that the Centre was not to be demolished.

Lesley Benson (Head Teacher Granville Plus Nursery School) addressed the committee advising that the Granville Plus Nursery School was a state nursery school which also provided places for babies and a large number of vulnerable two year olds. The school also had an additionally resourced provision for children with autism. The report that had been considered at the November Cabinet meeting had acknowledged that the school was situated at the Centre but had failed to identify how the school would be engaged with the development of the site. The school was keen to work in collaboration with the council regarding any proposed development of the site and considered it essential that they be fully involved in the design brief for the site.

Members then heard from Roald Versteeg (Chair of Governors Granville Plus Nursery School) who reiterated the school’s commitment to work with the council to deliver a facility that continued to serve the local community and asked the committee to seek assurances from the Cabinet that the council would actively work to minimise disruption to the school and ensure that it was fully involved in any proposals for development.

Ros Dun (Independent Chair, South Kilburn Trust) explained that the site had been identified as a suitable location for a South Kilburn Enterprise Hub and £2million of GLA funding had been secured. These plans were underpinned by an assumption that the development would be completed by 2018. Assurances had been sought and received from the council that it would bridge any shortfall from a loss of this funding as a result of a delay to this project. This had not been reflected in the report to Cabinet in November however. The South Kilburn Trust sought a fully collaborative process moving forward for the site.

Responding to the deputations, Councillor Mashari confirmed that a collaborative approach with stakeholders would be employed and a 12-month timetable would be drawn up  to ensure that everyone understood the process that would be followed. No tenants would be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.