I blogged before about how the area around the Civic Centre is being improved. I have a bit more detail on how the Civic Centre itself integrates with this part of Wembley. The idea of course is that people are drawn from Wembley Park towards the Civic Centre, Wembley Arena, the Hilton Hotel and the London Design Outlet.
In this broad scheme, Brent Civic Centre is one of the attractions that draws people to the area, and reduces its overdependence on massive football matches at Wembley Stadium. As well as all the Council offices and services, we of course have Wembley Library. It has been announced that another cafe will go into one of the retail units. I am not sure yet whether this will serve Fairtrade goods in the way the Melting Pot and the Wembley Library Cafe do.
The Civic Centre is also close to completing a deal with a well known supermarket chain to move into one of the other retail units, and a third unit will be used as a showroom by Quintain for some of the housing they are building in the area. There is a fourth unit, but I believe that has yet to find a tenant.
Although there have been niggles about the building, Brent Council has done the big stuff quite well. The Civic Centre has been substantially delivered within time and within budget. About 2,000 staff have moved into a new building with no break down in services. There have been some technological issues, and not everyone has yet got used to the new arrangements around paperless working and travel in particular. However, these problems can be worked through and sorted. Personally, I think it is great to see an area that has been rundown for so long getting the kind of transformation that it needs.
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