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MP lines up with cash-and-carry millionaire to fight £4billion Brent Cross makeover
Ross Lydall and Mark Blunden02.09.09
To the casual observer, the proposed £4billion regeneration of London's first shopping mall is good news. Brent Cross shopping centre will be reborn, with 7,500 homes, three rebuilt schools, a railway station and 27,000 jobs.
But beneath the surface a bitter row is raging, involving two of London's brightest political stars, one of Britain's richest men and claims of "dirty tricks" involving his financial support of an MP.
Proposals will go to Barnet council on 23 September after seven years in development. Former Mayor Ken Livingstone called it London's best conceptual project".
Work would start in 2012 and take 20 years.
But Sarah Teather, Liberal Democrat MP for Brent East, is urging ministers to call in the scheme, claiming north London will be gridlocked by 27,000 extra daily car journeys.
"There is no doubt that we need regeneration," she said. "But the last thing we want is a massive great shopping centre that congests the whole of the area."
Ms Teather also fears a plan to move a council waste station would mean 300 refuse lorries a day going through her constituency.
The scheme is backed by Barnet council, whose leader Mike Freer is the Tory parliamentary candidate for Finchley and Golders Green.
This seat and the new constituency of Brent Central -which Ms Teather will fight - will be vital in the general election.
Mr Freer said: "It's the best way we have for investing £4billion in that part of the borough. It allows Brent Cross to retain its pre-eminent status as a shopping centre."
Ms Teather has found herself at the centre of a whispering campaign after she accepted funds from cash-and-carry firm Bestway.
It is refusing to sell its land so the developers can build a "green" waste station.
Bestway is led by Sir Anwar Pervez, who has a reported wealth of £489million.
Sir Anwar, 74, was knighted in 1999 and his charitable donations - Bestway gives away 2.5 per cent of its profits - have brought him into contact with the Queen, Prince Philip, Prince Charles and Baroness Thatcher.
The firm paid "several hundred pounds" to Ms Teather to sponsor her Christmas cards last year. She declared this in the MPs' register of interests, as well as support for leaflets opposing the Brent Cross scheme.
Ms Teather, named as one of the few "saints" in the MPs' expenses scandal, insists she has done nothing wrong.
"Do you honestly think I would not take up a campaign that would affect 10,000 of my constituents?" she said.
"We were working on this campaign long before Bestway had links with me. It's normal for a local business to sponsor an MP's Christmas cards.
"It's a non-political piece of literature that goes out once a year. It's a silly accusation."
Sir Anwar's son Dawood has spent £500,000 trying to prevent Bestway's site being compulsorily acquired by the developers - a consortium formed by asset management firm Brookfield Europe and Brent Cross's owners, Hammerson and Standard Life.
He said Bestway often donated to MPs but fears the gift could backfire if the firm is portrayed, in his words, as "just a bunch of dodgy Pakis".
"I did turn around to my father - I'm a lawyer - and I said it would have been better if we hadn't done this. But at the end of the day it's a red herring."
Some suspect Bestway is just holding out for more cash, which Mr Pervez denies: "Why are they coveting our land? This isn't the Olympics.
"There is nothing special about our site, other than the fact it allows them to keep a waste facility away from their shiny new buildings."
Brent and Camden councils object to the scheme, while the North London Waste Authority, which owns the refuse site, does not want to move.
Brian Coleman, Barnet's mayor, said: "I think it is appalling. Where is Prince Charles when you need him?"
Reader views (5)
That this planning application is going to be dealt with in an impartial manner when the Leader of Barnet has lined up right behind it, is laughable. Would Barnet Tories like to confirm that their members on the Barnet Planning Ctte are not being whipped to tow the Mike Freers line?
The developers claim to be spending some £200+Million on transport when there is precisely NO NETT INCREASE in public transport provision. This sum will cover moving Cricklewood station on the Midland mainline half a mile north, and will otherwise pay mainly for road alterations. This scheme promises to suck the life out of high streets for miles around.
The proposed scheme is so stuck in the 1970s and 1980s that you have to pinch yourself to remember that things have moved on considerably since it was originally conceived. We now know about CO2 emissions, global warming and that we are going to have to expand public transport, not the role of the private motor car.
If you want to do something about this, turn up at Barnet Town Hall on 23rd September 2009 and make one hell of a noise in protest. That, and write to every member of Barnet Council, particularly within the Tory group and particularly those members on the Planning Committee. The coalition against the Brent Cross expansion plans are seeking to have this application referred by the SofS at the Dept of Communities & Local Government to a formal planning inquiry - and remove it from Barnet's jurisdiction.
- Cllr Anthony Dunn, Kilburn, LONDON NW6
This so-called-scandal pales into insignificance compared with the relationship Barnet Council have had with the developers over a long period. Such a relationship contravenes the Roanne ruling (January 2007) that local authorities should always tender for development partners within the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU), or else are in breach of EU procurement regulations. Barnet have been working with this one developer for 10 years.
It is more convenient however for the PR machine of the developers to focus attention on whatever stands in their way, rather than on their own shortcomings. Let us not forget both Brent and Barnet council have rejected the plans on the grounds of transport, and local residents in a wide area of northwest London are rallying in opposition to this totally unsustainable plan, which is one of the largest developments in the country.
Call it in to Public Inquiry now, Barnet alone shouldn't decide what is going to have such a negative impact on a wider London area.
- Viv Stein, Brent, London
How shameful it is that politice and spin is used to hide real issues. A dirty waste disposal unit is being imposed upon the residents which will effect thousands years to come. The claim as for as three new schools to be created is wrong as existing three schools will be demolished and instead these will be moved to new location - what a spin! Yes "rebuilt" is real word.Would you like 29000 veh including dust trucks/carts passed 24 hours a day on your road. I am sure you would not like it.
Real surprise is Ken Lingston claim that project is best conceptual project" what a jok?.
- Shafique A Choudhary, Next to the proposed Waste Disposal Plant - Cricklewood
Yet another MP who alleges she has "done nothing wrong".
THE DAY ANY MP DOES ANYTHING RIGHT WILL BE WHEN PIGS CAN FLY OVER THE HOUSE OF CONMEN.
- Reuben Camara, Morecambe Compound, EUSSR
In respect of Coleman's comment,"Where is Prince Charles?". One can only imagine him staying as far away from Coleman as possible after his full scale attack on his hard working sister, the Princess Royal, in the Telegraph last week!
- Daniel Hope, Barnet
