Planning
Stop press- major planning application on Albert Road, just south of our area, but with implications for the whole area and just over the railway line from Brondesbury Villas and Brondesbury Road. Approved by Brent Planning Committee, but group of concerned residents still very active. Read more here
Read details of the Planning Application on Brent Council’s website by searching for Planning Application no. 09/3319.
The Queen’s Park Conservation Area falls within our area. Read Brent’s description of the CA here. This Conservation Area is subject to an “Article 4(2) direction” which means that Planning Permission is needed for many alterations or additions to houses (including gardens and boundary walls and fences). The legislation (under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas)Act 1990) is designed to protect Conservation Areas from insensitive and unsympathetic development.
The Queen’s Park Conservation Area is one of the most important historic areas within Brent and one of the aims of QPARA is to work with the Council to protect it.
Contact Brent Planning Department tel. 0208 8937 5210 (designated officer Andy Bates)
Design Guide Production of a new Design Guide has been delayed for several years within Brent Council. It is now promised for later this year. Meanwhile the previous Design Guide is still a useful document. Read the Good Practice Guidelines here
The Kilburn Conservation Area also falls within our area. Read Brent’s definition of it here
QPARA members have access to planning advice from the members of our Planning Action Committee (details on the contacts sheet distributed with the minutes of the 2009 AGM). Join now
Read Brent Council’s fascinating Character Appraisal of the Queen’s Park Conservation Area here
What a Conservation Area and Article 4(2) Direction mean to you If you live in a flat (including a house which has been converted) you are required to apply for planning permission in order to make any changes to the outside of your property.
If you live in a house you are required to apply for planning permisssion in order to make any changes to road facing elevations and gardens of your property and to all roofs.
Therefore if you live in a house, in addition to standard planning controls, you cannot undertake the following work without permission
- Build a front or side extension including a porch
- Make any alteration or enlargement to the roof
- Lay any new hard surface at the front of your house
- Remove, replace or alter windows and doors which are visible from the street
- Build, alter or remove gates, fences, walls or other types of boundary to front gardens
- Paint in a different colour windows or doors which are visible from the street
- Paint the render or brickwork on external walls or render existing brickwork in areas visible from the street
- Fix a satellite dish or aerial to the front of your house
- Demolish or make alteration to a chimney
Read the Article 4 direction here.
Basement excavation (in the rare cases where planning permission is granted) causes massive disruption to neighbours. The Ladbroke Association has produced a detailed local survey including recommendations for neighbours and the council. Read their Subterranean Developments Survey here.
Read the true story of the installation of a satellite dish here
Garden Trees permission is needed to fell or prune any tree in the Conservation Area which has a trunk diameter over 7.5cm measured 1.5m above ground level. The only exception is for fruit trees. Lawrence Usherwood is Brent’s Tree Officer. Contact Lawrence at Brent house, 349-357 High Road, Wmbley HH9 6BZ or e-mail lawrence.usherwood@brent.gov.uk.
Lawrence is very helpful, makes site visits, gives advice including suggestions of suitable tree species for front and back gardens. Lawrence attended the QPARA monthly meeting in March 2009 and gave a short presentation. Also contact him if you think that a tree on private land is at risk of being felled so that he can consider whether to put a Tree Preservation Order in place. There is a fine of up to £20,000 for destroying a tree.
Don’t be tempted to do tree work without permission just because someone rings on your door bell asking “got any trees need pruning, love/mate?”. Evergreen Tree Surgeons were offering their services in the area recently.
Vehicle Crossovers. Brent has a new policy on crossovers which applies whether or not you live in a Conservation Area. If you do live in a Conservation Area you need planning permission for a crossover as well as showing that your application complies with the new policy. It is designed to ensure that crossovers are safe, that street trees will not be cut down to create crossovers and that if possible 50% of a front garden will have “soft landscaping” to allow for natural drainage. Read Brent’s Policy here.
QPARA discourage the creation of crossovers as they cause front gardens to be partially covered in hard surface (unless a grass grid is used), reduce available on-street parking and create a hazard to pedestrians as well as spoiling the appearance of front gardens and reducing space for new street trees.