Queens Parade, Willesden

Queens Parade, Willesden, is best known as an experimental meanwhile space, an experiment that was very successful.  It is now part of a planning application that I suspect will will be far less popular.  The proposal is for a seven and eight storey building that will be used for student accomodation.

I think that is frankly too big.  Brent has a policy of concentrating tall buildings in its five growth areas for a reason _ to protect the lower density developments in the rest of the Borough.  There is a creeping pressure on Willesden to accept bigger and bigger blocks.  Electric House was one of those, which I can accept because of its position at the head of a street.  Similarly with the Erin Court development from a much earlier time, but The Queensbury redevelopment was rightly refused as much too big. 

The provision of more student housing is also questionable in an area that already suffers from an extremely transient population.  In the past, Brent planning committee refused student accommodation at the former Spotted Dog development citing this as a reason.  The logic behind this has not changed.