Harlesden Town Team

I do encourage everyone to get involved in the Town Team process, which I think is really begin to taken Harlesden Town Centre places.

The idea of the Town Team is too attempt a more participatory form than urban planning has generally achieved. Traditionally, especially on Transport projects which is how this one started out, a group of Council engineers would identify an area (say an accident blackspot), draw up a detailed plan to deal with it and send out some letters about it. The public would therefore only get involved quite late in the process.

The Town Team idea is more geared to generating ideas from the public. So far, I have already seen the scope of the project change quite dramatically. It started as a "public realm" project with a focus on traffic. As a result of peoples' diffetrent inputs, it has moved to a much bigger concern with planning issues like the mix of shops or cultural initiatives like the Lexi screening in Roundwood Park.

I understand there will be a Town Team stall at the next Respect festival where people can find out more.