Opposition as Wembley ASDA seeks to expand its empire

Forty Lane.Kings Drive and Asda access road last week

Strong opposition is building to plans by ASDA to built a four pump petrol station in its extsing car park in Wembley. (planning Ref 12/1268) The Walmart owned multinational withdrew a similar plan last year.(11/2679)

Local Labour councillor and chief whip, Shafique Choudhary, has called for the consultation period to be extended to six months rather than the present 'derisory' 14 days. (It was advertised on May 31st and will be decided no earlier than June 21st so the period was actually 21 days).

Residents are concerned about the dangers posed by the increased traffic at the junction that they feel will arise from the location of a petrol station there and have pointed out that other filling stations already exist in close proximity to ASDA. The junction has seen a number of collisions in recent times and there have been injuries to pedestrians as a result of crossing Forty Lane at the Town Hall bus stop.

Residents with flats overlooking ASDA are also concerned that the petrol station would already increase the significant light and noise nuisance from the store.

Lay out (petrol station lower right)

ASDA claim that the impact on traffic will be 'negligible' and that the majority of users will be existing customers using the car park.

Full details can be found on Brent Council website HERE

Town Hall Hotel in Wembley?

From 'The Caterer and Hotel Keeper'

Conversion to a hotel is a possible option for the future of Brent Council's Town Hall, which is soon to be put up for sale.

The Grade II-listed 1930s building, which sites on a five-acre site with views over London, is to be sold as its life as a town hall will end with the opening of Brent's new Civic Centre in June 2013. It is hoped that a new owner, who will preserve the heritage of the building, will be found before the council leaves.

Property agent Colliers International has helped the council prepare a planning brief, in conjunction with a heritage report, which says the building could be converted to a hotel or be used as a residential, healthcare, leisure or retail development.

A precedent for the conversion of a Grade II-listed former town hall to a hotel was created with the £20m opening in Bethnal Green of the Town Hall Hotel and Apartments, in 2010. The hotel went on to win the RICS London Award for Building Conversion.

Barry Gardiner concerned about 'dangerous tipping point;' as youth loses faith in a society which doesn't provide jobs or respect

The Willesden and Wembley Observer website is carrying these remarks from Barry Gardiner MP on the current disturbances: LINK

I was out until two in the morning last night meeting with different groups of youths. There were a lot of people out on the streets, mostly aged from 16 to 26, but I think most of them were there to see if anything was happening. They weren't going to start any trouble. There was only one incident involving a theft from a car, but this could have happened on any night of the year.


The police posted people where they thought there would be trouble, but the situation didn't develop. I would like to think nothing happened because people didn't want to see the things that had gone on across London happen in their community.

It is a very dangerous situation when you have people losing respect for society and not wanting to be on the side of the law. They ask themselves 'why should I help to protect the society which doesn't provide me with a job and which respects other people more than me?'. That's a very dangerous tipping point indeed.

Boris hasn't handled the situation. Where has he been? He said when he became mayor that he would increase police on the streets, but look what has happened to the Safer Neighbourhood teams in Brent, they have all been amalgamated and people don't have any contact with the police in their area. They are more likely to report crimes if they know their local policeman.

6pm - all appears quiet in Wembley

Central Square, Wembley, this evening

Having heard this afternoon that there were rumours that Wembley would 'kick off' evening I had a stroll around to assess the atmosphere. If anything Wembley High Road was a little less busy that usual with fewer young people  around but there were half a dozen or so pairs and sometimes trios of police officers spread along the street and in Central Square. However people seemed calm and there was the usual commuter traffic at Wembley Central station and on the bus routes and the regular al fresco drinkers in the square seemed relaxed enough.


A number of shops were shuttered (although it needs a good local eye like mine to know which ones shut early or are closed for good, rather than closed as a precaution!)  TK Max , Wilkinson and Tesco had closed early but the pubs and most of the fast food joints, including McDonalds and KFC, remained open.

A policeman told me that although things appeared calm on the surface they were keeping their eyes on several small groups of youth in case they came together. He confirmed that shops had closed early in case of trouble later today.

There were no police that I could see in Wembley Park but Currys and JD Sports in the Stadium Retail Park which have proved popular in 'consumerist rioting' were closed and shuttered and some of the bars were open but with doors and windows boarded up. ASDA remained open and busy. Tesco at Wembley City was closed. Wembley Park station and Wembley Stadium station were both operating normally.

Can this be Wembley?

The Green Party has long campaigned against clone towns and domination of  high streets by multinational chains so I give a warm welcome to the Montparnasse Cafe which has just opened in Bridge Road, opposite the Ark Academy. A Patisserie Boulangerie Francaise makes a welcome change from the ubiquitous chicken takeaways and betting shops. I was passing recently and noticed an excited huddle outside the door avidly reading the menu. A young woman with shining eyes turned to me and said. "I can't believe it. This in Wembley! The old place is looking up."

The cafe has French staff: "If you want excellent French food you have to have French people preparing it," said the proprietor. The menu has salads, rolls, paninis, galettes, quiches and omelettes as well as mouth-watering cakes. The coffee and tart I had this morning were delicious. A welcome addition to Wembley's small shops and one in the eye for the coffee chains.

The cafe takes telephone orders and will provide catering and delivery to meetings: 27 Bridge Road, Wembley Park. Tel: 020 8904 3443

ASDA trolleys stage mass breakout!

Summers Close, Wembley

King's Drive, Wembley

King's Drive, Wembley

ASDA store, Wembley

Well Spring Crescent, Wembley

Well Spring Crescent, Wembley

I reported a dozen or so trolleys that had been abandoned around local streets to the Wembley ASDA Customer Services desk last week and they duly noted down the dumping sites. The trolleys were still  there several days later so I tried to telephone the store but all lines were busy. There was no store e-mail address on the website so I e-mailed ASDA national customer services with all the details.

One of the Service Team replied:

I'm concerned to hear about this as it hadn't been removed by our colleagues from the store. We do employ porters to stop customers taking trolleys. We're also rolling out an industry leading system called Cartronics. When a customer tries to push a trolley out of our car park, the brakes will stop it from moving. These measures help us to limit the number of trolleys removed from our stores.

If any of our customers ever feel the need to complain we certainly want to put things right as soon as possible. I've spoken to the duty manager at our Wembley store and asked him/her to arrange for the trolley to be collected and returned to the store as soon as possible.

When the trolleys were still not collected (these pictures were taken today)  I e-mailed again and was told that it would take 72 hours to remove them! In that time of course children may well have played with them and changed their location. Many will be filled up with rubbish.

Of course customers who remove the trolleys are at fault but surely ASDA have a responsibility to make sure trolleys are not taken out of the store site and to have a quick and effective collection system when they are.

I understand that supermarkets can be fined if they allow trolleys to be taken away and abandoned.