Irish developer Glenkerrin faces collapse

For all those people who have taken an interest in Ealing politics you may wish to read the article below by James Whitmore from PropertyWeek.com

"Ireland’s National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) has applied to appoint administrators to Irish developer Glenkerrin’s UK properties. The administration hearing, due to be heard on 10 May, would involve the appointment of administrators at Grant Thornton to the company’s five London properties.

These are the Crowne Plaza hotel in Shoreditch, three developments near Canary Wharf in Docklands - an apartment block called the Forge, the Island Point residential development and a proposed 62-storey residential and hotel tower, designed by Foster & Partners, called City Pride – and a retail and residential site, Ealing Arcadia, in Ealing Broadway.

Yesterday, NAMA appointed Paul McCann and Michael McAteer of Grant Thornton as receivers to Irish properties owned by Ray and Danny Grehan personally and through their development business, Glenkerrin, in a bid to recover a €650m debt.

The Grehan’s major properties include the Grange apartment complex in Stillorgan, the Glenroyal Hotel in Maynooth and the former site of the UCD Veterinary College in Ballsbridge. Ray Grehan paid €171.5m for the Veterinary College site in 2005 which made it, at the time, the most expensive site per acre in the country.

He is thought to have bought an apartment at “super-prime” apartment block One Hyde Park, developed by Christian Candy’s CPC Group and Qatari prime minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jasim Al-Thani." 

The importance of this is not only that the Arcadia site is back in play (and the Council is believed to be in private talks already with another potential developer), but also that the lease on the station site (Villiers House and shops, including the BBC car park) is also owned by Glenkerrin.

This is a unique opportunity for a comprehensive redevelopment of the station to coincide with Crossrail, which so far Ealing Council has refused to get to grips with, as have also Crossrail themselves, Network Rail and TfL.

Top columnist spreads "voter confusion" over AV

City Hall's election managers have written to journalists asking them to stop making the false claim that the Mayor of London is elected under the Alternative Vote system.

CLARIFICATION

We have noticed that there have been some inaccuracies recently regarding the election of the Mayor of London.  For any editorial stories you are writing, I wanted to clarify the voting system used in London to ensure there is no voter confusion ahead of the 2012 Mayoral elections.

The Mayor of London is elected by supplementary vote, not alternative vote.

Quite how this terrible misconception could have arisen in the minds of the British press is beyond me, although it may have something to do with statements like this one in the Daily Telegraph:

It is the system, I may as well admit, that is used in London mayoral elections. [AV] may be just about tolerable there; but I can see no case whatever for introducing it across the country.

An incredibly misleading and factually inaccurate statement written by er, the current Mayor of London Boris Johnson.

Perhaps City Hall's election managers could start by copying him in.

YES to AV and the Ealing Scrutiny Panel

The scrutiny panel I attended tonight went on so long that I missed the YES to AV meeting in Ealing Town Hall.


At the meeting was scheduled to be Tom Brake Lib Dem MP, Steve Pound Labour MP, Jenny Jones Green GLA and it was chaired by Adrian Cave OBE. I hope a lot of people attended as AV is so much better than our current outdated electoral system.

At the scrutiny panel which started at 7pm (and finished at 10pm) a number of subjects were raised:

 
Discretionary Rate Relief - this is where the government and / Councils given rebates to organisations like charities or sports clubs so that they can afford rents and provide services to the community. The current system does not fully work and so the Council wishes to review it which it is doing whilst looking to save money as well! The positive conclusion is that it is likely the Council will be reviewing each organisation separately and will not waste time on very small organisations.


Voluntary Grants - the council committee agreed to not reduce grants this year to give more time to allow organisations to review their outgoings over the next year, The future after this time is not known.

Controlled Parking Zones - I made points to state that the current Religious Parking Arrangements should not stand as they are likely to be open to be abused due to the council not requiring any owner or car details of the people who are meant to be visiting a religious premises. They are allegedly passed on which means many residents who live near a religious building cannot park as the cheaper religious permits can be used to flood the area.

I then raised issues about permits for carers who spend a lot of time visiting relatives to assist when they are in need to help due to illnesses. I also helped to ensure that CPZ zones could still have buffer zones which would mean people in a zone can park in the road adjacent to the border of a parking zone when the parking pressures are great in particular areas.

Update of Ealing's Decision-making meeting...

Last night Ealing held its main meeting where all councillors are expected to attend. We discuss borough-wide issues and make decisions.


I handed in a petition on behalf of a resident who disagreed with the excessive increase in charges for parking and visitor’s permits

I then asked an oral question put to the Leader of the Council about the current plans for a new car park in Southall. He stated the plan would still be about £5 million (no change from the last official estimate) however a senior Council Manager said to us about two weeks ago that the car park would cost about £3 million. The stories are not consistent and so I wonder whether the Leader of the Council may in the future spend £3 million on the car park and then siphon the £2 million into another project? 

There were good speeches from Lib Dem councillors Harvey Rose and Nigel Bakhai on Ealing’s libraries and the need to retain them as well as highlighting that the Council’s libraries consultation is biased and not fair. We have a lot of concerns given that on one hand Labour tonight said that the ratio of residents who would like within a mile of a library would be 91% when currently the figure is 96%. So they appear to have made decisions about which libraries are to close but until the consultation is completed we won’t know their decision.

Councillor Andrew Steed and myself made speeches on a lot of national financial matters to highlight some of the useful things that the government are doing. We do not agree with everything that the coalition does but we should be proud of a number of changes that have happened as the countries financial mess is sorted out.

In a motion about policing, Labour trumpeted what they claim is a large increase in uniformed officers. In truth most are existing Council officers but they are wearing florescent clothing (I don’t think that is a uniform). The Council is cutting a lot of PCSOs and replacing them with far fewer PCs.

In an item relating to Councillor’s allowances Labour refused to allow a discussion. A Tory councillor and Jon Ball spoke to state the issue was important and controversial that it should be discussed in public. What happened was that no speeches were allowed but our amendment for a 10 percent reduction was turned down and a Conservative amendment for a 25% reduction was also turned down (but do remember that when the Tories were last in power they increased their allowances by about 50%)! 

Lastly (and after the meeting) all three party Leaders made short speeches about the last year. I thanked the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor who has raised about £40,000 for two local charities (two charities are chosen each year by the Mayor). The Tory leader, Jason Stacey, made a final speech as he is to step down as Tory leader in about two weeks time. His replacement will be one of four possible candidates.

LibDem Response to Ealing Council’s plans to redevelop Acton Town Hall

I think we all agree that the regeneration of Acton is needed, as do many areas within the borough. The comments relate to the recent policies published by Ealing Council and those that have come to Cabinet.

Town Hall site

Like the pool it is crucial that the heritage aspects of the building are retained. It would be helpful to have a balance of retail space, plus housing to raise some funds but we need to ensure that the community space is of a varied range of sizes to accommodate a range of activities whether that be of a sporting, educational or  community type.

For example there is a shortage of space for particular sports, such as basketball, which are popular elsewhere. Outdoor sports is indeed a need. Maybe space could be offered as play area for a school on the Priory Centre, which could also use the magistrate’s court building. 

The Council needs to make far more of the fact that if the plans go ahead as is proposed, Acton will lose its public performance space. The reduced amount of space in the Kings Rooms (when compared to the area in the Priory) will mean, in the Council’s words “more intensive use” (i.e. more sharing).  Will the various users be able to operate satisfactorily in this more confined area? Local organisations should not be forced to travel into central Ealing for such facilities.

There needs to be proactively to see what can be done to enable arts groups to be involved in using community space.

Given what appear to be very low (an underestimate of) property valuations this is driving more of the building to be sold off for housing that does not add to the community aspect of the Acton regeneration project.

There are a number of public houses in Acton and it would be better to avoid attracting more public houses.

Priory Community Centre

It is clear that this is much more than just a building; it is a diverse set of community associations who provide a number of important services to residents whether they are parents’ groups, children’s services or cultural groups, and they all contribute greatly to the social fabric of Acton.

Our view is that the Priory Centre is not the right location for housing. It should be renovated and kept as a community centre that is more accessible or converted into a joint Primary school (in the day) and a community centre (evening). Multi-use is a better way to use buildings and this site is one where this is realistic.

Within the current plans to move the community space to Acton Town Hall, this brings a number of issues – a smaller space for some large community activities; possibly pricing community groups out of the area; some groups may not exist if they have to wait until the Town Hall is converted. Therefore there needs to be a way to temporarily allow current Priory users to use a building in the area such as a Magistrates Court (the Council must be proactive on this) as well as offering a priority booking system given the long nature of their existence.

How is the Council going to honour the undertakings to the present occupants of the Priory Centre that they would not be moved out until the new space for them was available? So far there is little confidence in Ealing Council as they do not seem to be willing to make any guarantees to the current user groups.

Swimming Pool

We think it would be better to retain a 33 metre however if the space can be used to ensure that a greater number of facilities can be installed then the proposed 25m pool plus trainer pool might be workable.

It is crucial to however ensure that the heritage aspects of the pool are retained as you cannot bring back aspects of a building, once destroyed.

Library

The current library is not adequate but a new library needs to be guaranteed as part of the proposal given the recent consultation on libraries. A new library on the Town Hall site needs to really be used as a magnet to attract its use. This is more than just having a good level of computers and related IT but offers other services that can raise footfall.

Regeneration Projects in Ealing Borough

Myself and other Liberal Democrat councillors met the manager at Ealing Council who is responsible for the developments in Ealing. The items discussed were:

• The need to ensure that when the Acton Town Hall redevelopment occurs that current users of the Priory Community Centre are not forced to move out with no guarantee of future secure bookings as well as not being charged a fortune for hiring community space. Also the heritage of the buildings need to be maintained or else Acton's culture will be destroyed.
• Crossrail and an Ealing Broadway Transport Interchange - I maintained that the Council need to "aim high" so that we can work to ensure we get a proper interchange given the huge number of residents and commuters who use the station. The council appear to be happy to accept a second best approach. Let's hope and fight for something more than just rearranging the bus stops around Haven Green
• It appears that the court case to decide the lease of Hanwell Community Centre will take place in September. Usually an agreement occurs in the coridoors of the courts between the lawyers but this time it appears that both sides cannot find a suitable middle ground. Sad that lawyers are making all this money when perhaps some of it is ultimately diverted from community projects.

Acton Green Residents Association AGM

I have just come back from an AGRA AGM.

Good to hear and summarise some of the years' local events. Many issues were raised:

• The local 94 bus service which had a lot of new and quieter buses introduced seem to be working. This showed that listening to the consultation viewpoints was the right choice. People seem to be happy about this issue.
• People happy no Heathrow expansion (a good coalition policy)
• There appeared to be a shocked silence when I mentioned that about 80% of the Council budget reductions were efficiency savings. So only 20% were actual cuts. I mentioned that the Lib Dems fought with some success to reduce the full cuts to the Park Ranger services.
• Trees - money spent by the local ward committee I chair yeilded about 50 new trees. Most people wanted them and are happy. Not everyone though. Basically the new trees are smaller and do not tend to cause any issues. The older trees are the ones which cause structural problems with walls and buildings.
• A Council Tax freeze.
• I mentioned a review which will take place in the next 12 months concerning Controlled Parking Zones. My party were against the huge increase in parking permit and visitors voucher permits. We wanted a system where any increase would be inflationary.

That's enough ed. Time to watch some World Cup cricket.