Tag Archives: donoghues

GGERA’s Achievements

GGERA achievements over the years include:

  • Keeping the community informed with a regular free newsletter.
  • Strengthening relationships with our MP, Councillors, Council officers, the Police & neighbouring residents groups.
  • Successfully installing a no-entry enforcement camera, CCTV cameras & speed warning signs.
  • Sourcing funding, together with Our Yard at Clitterhouse, for rewilding and planters.
  • Various litter picks.
  • Bringing parking, pavements, regeneration, fly-tipping and antisocial behaviour issues to the attention of the Council, developers & the Police.
  • Campaigning for flower planters to block vehicular access at the Purbeck Drive entrance to Clitterhouse Park.
  • Objecting to Houses of Multiple Occupation and speculative development.
  • Improving road markings on our streets.
  • Spin offs: Memories Local History Group (currently dormant) & the Clitterhouse Farm Project now known and blooming as Our Yard at Clitterhouse.
  • The successful relocation of Donoghue!

These are small things, results of team work, that together have made a BIG difference to our lives!

AGM on Sunday 15th September

A reminder that our yearly AGM and social meeting will take place on

Sunday, September 15th from 5:00 – 7:30 pm

in the Carey Hall (Google maps link).

We are delighted that our MP Sarah Sackman, who is also Solicitor General, will be in attendance. The Police Safer Neighbourhood Team and our 5 councillors will also be joining us.

Do join us to air your views and to meet your neighbours.

»»» We’re looking forward to seeing you there «««

If you are able to help distribute leaflets in the area before Sunday, please email us.

→ We will be celebrating the departure of Donoghue’s waste management site from Claremont Road after years of protest ←

→ There will an uplifting show dance to round off the evening on a fun note, followed by a simple, 15 minute salsa class that all can participate in ←

→ There will also be a range of nibbles and hot drinks to enjoy ←

Donoghue’s Departure!

No more huge juggernauts clogging up our area and – more importantly – no more pervasive hazardous truckloads of waste at the Donoghue site! The company is moving on after decades of residents’ complaints and more than eight years of our protests.

We give special thanks to Mike Freer, Peter Zinkin, Shimon Ryde, Dean Cohen, Ralph Haynes, Peter Alsop, Anne Clarke, Alan Schneiderman, Arjun Mittra and Just Space, to mention but a few, who were instrumental in Donoghue’s departure – not forgetting the many other wonderful people involved in the campaign, including committed and persistent residents of both Golders Green Estate & Handley Grove.

These pictures may jog some memories!

Councillors’ Corner

Councillors Anne Clarke and Alan Schneiderman write:

  • We have secured funding for planting new hedging and trees along Claremont Road. The work will begin in the planting season and hopefully will be growing well next summer. This is the western stretch of Claremont Road from outside Handley Grove up to the Brent Terrace Triangle. The aim is to reduce the amount of litter and fly tipping that accumulates on this stretch of road and also to finally solve the issue of the recurring overgrowth on both the Brent Terrace Triangle and the area between the Millennium Green and AD Foods.
  • We would like to put forward a bid to Area Committee to improve the Golders Green Estate. We’re thinking of new signage, planting the central roundabout and perhaps a noticeboard. If anyone would like to work with us on this, please let us know. We’re keen to look at what would be of most value to residents.
  • Deconstruction of Donoghue has begun, as many will have seen. The new residential building is expected to be finished in the autumn of next year; however, we don’t have an exact date.
  • The first two buildings in the B&Q development will now be delivered by Fairview Homes. While they have full outline planning permission, they need to submit detailed plans which we have not yet seen. We do know that they will not reduce the height or density of the scheme and that they plan to improve the percentage of affordable homes in the development.
  • If you have suggestions for naming the many roads, squares and buildings going into Brent Cross Town, you can get involved here: https://brentcrosstown.co.uk/street-naming.
  • We were pleased to arrange for a group of residents to meet with senior council officers to discuss how we can do more to tackle fly tipping on the Golders Green Estate. This is part of the council’s new crackdown on fly tipping which will see enforcement officers going out with the clear up teams. Where there is evidence, the council will issue fixed penalty notices. More information can be found at this link. Please report fly tipping on the council’s website.
  • We are aware of the parking problems on the Golders Green Estate and that many residents have asked for a Controlled Parking Zone. The estate has now been added to the council’s list of potential new CPZs. This will be subject to parking surveys and consultation with residents. When you get your consultation letter, please let us know what you think

An Update from our Local Councillors

If we can help in any way, please do contact us:

Anne Clarke
cllr.a.clarke@barnet.gov.uk
07548 128 870
@anne_clarke
Alan Schneiderman
cllr.a.schneiderman@barnet.gov.uk
07920 740 956
@Alan_s01

Donoghue waste site: The good news is that Donoghue will be leaving its Claremont Road site following recent Council approval for a residential development on the site. We do not yet have an exact date yet for the move but expect it to be later this year. Along with residents, we have been pushing for Donoghue to go and it is happening far earlier than originally planned as part of the Brent Cross/Cricklewood regeneration. We are however aware that Donoghue vehicles are still using Pennine Drive despite a weight restriction being in place. We are continuing to raise this with the Council and are trying to get a site visit for officers to see what is happening for themselves and to follow this up with Donoghue.

Millennium Green: We are really pleased that as part of the planning application for the Donoghue site, the developers will be funding improvements to the green and are discussing this with the trustees.

Brent Cross Town Community Fund: This has been supporting local community projects since 2019. It has supported a wide range of organisations, from support services to sports clubs, childcare providers to community gardeners. This year will be the fund’s fifth birthday, and the plan is to make it bigger and better! The fund will launch in May 2023 with the award winners chosen by the community, alongside a panel of judges by July. If you are part of a community group and have a great idea, you can reach out to the team at Related Argent by emailing: community@brentcrosstown.co.uk.

Controlled parking zone (CPZ): Consultation on a CPZ to cover the Golders Green Estate is expected to start in the summer. More information can be found on the Brent Cross Regeneration website.

Brent Cross West station: This is expected to open in October and will provide an additional stop on the Thameslink line.

Buses: Transport for London have announced that the changes proposed last year to our local bus routes 189 and 113 are not going ahead and the routes will remain the same. There has been a more recent consultation on some small changes to routes, including 102, 189, C11 and 210: the destinations will remain the same but there will be some tweaks to the routes to allow them to serve the new Brent Cross West station and the new housing at Brent Cross Town. More information can be found on the TfL website.

Schools: Work to improve the environment around Claremont and Whitefield Schools is happening soon with new planters outside Claremont and painting of the fences around Whitefield.

2020 – What a Year it’s Been!

Covid-19. Perhaps enough said! But …

• It was lovely to see so many join in the Clap for NHS and to see how neighbours have looked out for each other throughout.

• Thanks to the residents who have been supporting our local pharmacy deliver medicines to the housebound.

Litter picking

• One resident was spotted litter-picking on his own in Purbeck Drive one early morning during the first lockdown. How kind!

• Thank you to residents of The Vale who have organised litter pick-ups in the green space there.

• We hope we can organise another estate-wide litter pick-up in due course.

We continue to campaign for Donoghue’s to relocate. On a related note, we were able to help coordinate some strong opposition to the proposed concrete batching facility in Cricklewood.

It was lovely to see in the spring the results of the earlier wildflower bulb-planting activity.

The Memories Group has been meeting weekly via Zoom every Wednesday 5:00–6:00 pm since April. It has become more of a support group to its members during these peculiar times. It welcomes all residents and those with a connection to our area. It is now on Christmas break but weekly meetings will resume on Wednesday 13th January. If you would like to join any of its meetings just email memories@ggera.org.uk.

After some months of cajoling, the vandalized cash machine in Pennine Drive has at long last been removed.

We do thank Barnet Council for installing the CCTV camera in Pennine Lane, behind the shops. Please email PC Singh at amric.singh@met.police.uk if you witness any antisocial behaviour in that area.

We continue to try to halt the overdevelopment of our neighbourhood. Some planning applications have been turned down after our lobbying. Thank you to all those who have taken the time to object.

Other Matters

Clitterhouse Farm’s garden will be closed from this Saturday until January 9th. The Grub Club – which tackles food waste and food poverty by turning surplus into delicious meals on a “pay as you feel” basis – will be returning also on the 9th. Help tackle environmental waste by bringing your tupperware along.

We do also want to thank

  • Barnet’s parks and street cleaning team for keeping our streets and playing fields free of litter.
  • Barnet Police and the Golders Green & Childs Hill Safer Neighbourhood teams for working hard to keep us safe.
  • Our councillors and council officers for their ongoing support in local matters and particularly with our Dump Donoghue campaign.

You can contact our police Safer Neighbourhood Teams for non-urgent matters:

Of course these contact points are not for emergency matters. For urgent help please dial 999.

https://www.met.police.uk provides a way of reporting crime online.

You can keep up to date with police local news and advice by joining www.owl.co.uk.

Donoghue and the NLWP

Our efforts to relocate Donoghue continue.

GGERA represented the community at the NLWP Examination Hearings on Wednesday 20th November and Thursday 21st November.

As explained on the NLWP web site, the North London Waste Plan (NLWP) sets out the planning framework for waste management in the North London Boroughs for the next 15 years. It will identify sites for waste management use and set out policies for determining waste planning applications. It has the potential to affect us all in this area if – as planned – Donoghue’s site is included as a safeguarded waste site.

We made representations to the NLWP draft consultation that took place earlier this year. An inspector was appointed to conduct the examination to determine if the plan is sound. We believe it is not because:

  • No one who is directly affected by Donoghue’s was engaged in the process or was consulted during the consultation.
  • Donoghue’s site is considered an existing protected waste site; however, it is in the wrong location because it is surrounded by residential, community and educational facilities. Additionally Donoghue’s business operations have outgrown its site.
  • Handley Grove and the youth homeless shelter residents that immediately neighbour Donoghue have been living in agony for years and their health and well-being have been affected. They and other many people affected by Donoghue cannot wait until 2026 or later for its relocation!
  • The site is not operated sustainably, generating too many unnecessary lorry journeys and polluting the air we breathe.
  • Our local council has spent too much taxpayer’s money to bring this business into compliance and to repair the damage caused by its heavy fleet on our roads, while our children’s schools and public services are suffering drastic cuts.
  • We would like to have the site’s safeguarded status removed and Barnet to commit to its relocation in collaboration with the North London Waste Authority as an urgent matter.

Protest – Friday March 22, 8:00-9:30 am

We urge you to join our protest on Friday 22 March and stand up for clean air, environmental justice and the protection of our most vulnerable. The time has come for Donoghue to move on.

As you well know, residents and businesses have suffered for more than a decade from Donoghue’s dust and chemical pollution, noise, work out-of-hours, speeding HGVs, transport of uncovered waste and illegal parking.

For the past two years, Barnet councillors, the most affected residents’ representatives, the Environment Agency and Council officers have been meeting quarterly at the Council to find the best way forward.

Thanks to people speaking up…

  • Donoghue is now a high public interest site for both the Environment Agency and Barnet Council.
  • Alarming findings from an independent monitoring report highlighted:
    • Donoghue breaches its daily tonnage limit.
    • Site samples included traces of unauthorised toxic substances, including asbestos.
    • Donoghue’s methodology for handling and recording waste needed to be improved.
  • Barnet Council conducted a deep cleaning of The Vale and Claremont Road.
  • The Environment Agency placed an air quality monitoring station next to the site – although to our surprise it was prematurely removed on Friday 22 February.

This has put pressure on Donoghue to comply with regulations and resulted in more cleaning and dust suppression mechanisms on site.

On the other hand, very little has been achieved to improve the life quality of directly affected residents and businesses. More worryingly, there has been no news of any relocation site.

Under these circumstances, our frustration has been growing. To make matters worse, residents feel angry and betrayed because of Barnet’s Mayor’s decision to include Donoghue in Barnet’s New Year’s Day parade and the recent consultation on the introduction of width restrictions in Somerton Road.

See the recent media coverage on the situation.

See also: Why Donoghue’s Relocation Cannot Wait

Why Donoghue’s Relocation Cannot Wait

1) It is in everyone’s interest.

  • Donoghue wants to move as the site is too small.
  • Both Barnet and the North London Waste Authority (NLWA) require a fully functional waste management plant to cope with present and future demand.
  • Residents and businesses cannot wait.

2) The site is inadequate for waste management for Barnet and the NLWA.

  • It is too small to properly manage the current volume of waste.
  • The site has no space for the number of HGVs transporting waste and so there is an overflow onto Claremont Road.
  • The site is not coping with current waste needs and will not be able to cope with any additional demand from the Brent Cross Regeneration.

3) The site is in the wrong location and puts at risk our most vulnerable. 

  • The area around Donoghue has changed in the last 40 years and is predominantly residential.
  • The site is blocked to the west by the railway; its only point of access is on Claremont Road. Along this road there are 3 schools (a primary, a secondary and a special needs), 2 playgroups, a nursing home for the elderly, a post office sorting office, 2 churches and a community hall. 4 bus routes also use this road.
  • Donoghue shares fences with a young person’s homeless centre, a social housing development and a children’s playground.

4) The quality of the air we breathe is a hazard to our health. 

  • According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), “Regularly breathing construction dust can cause diseases like lung cancer, asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and silicosis. These diseases cause permanent disability and early death. Over 500 construction workers are believed to die from exposure to silica dust every year.”
  • Alex Chown, the Environment Agency’s Area Environment Manager for North London, responding to our concern about the amount of dust in the area, said that what we cannot see is the bigger problem. The visible and invisible dust we all breathe is a hazard to our health.

5) The intensity of use harms our neighbourhood. 

  • This is against national, local and NLWA policies that aim to protect local amenities.
  • In order to prevent this, Donoghue would need to significantly scale down.

6) Our roads cannot cope with the additional load.

  • HGVs are getting bigger, heavier and significantly increasing in number.
  • It is unjustifiable for the Council to spend taxpayers’ money to keep this one business under control and to repair road damages partly caused by its overloading and intensity of use.
  • The Vale repairs alone are estimated to cost over £240,000. We would rather see this money invested in our children’s future.

7) Children need protection. 

  • Children have been speaking up against climate change. Local schools encourage them to walk and cycle to and from school.
  • Lack of action from Barnet Council and the NLWA sends a mixed and wrong message, as it exposes children to very high levels of pollution and terrifying road safety risks.
  • Please do not wait for an accident or casualty before the relocation of Donoghue is taken seriously.