A surprising planning application for 2 to 12 Priory Park Road.

Brent Planning Application number 19/1279.

2 to 12 Priory Park road conssit of 3 building groups.

2 to 4, an architecturally interesting building that consisted of ground floor shop units and 3 upper floors of residential accommodation. This group of buildings was sold on 9th September 2002 for £550000 and left to go into dereliction. Its ownership was transferred on 26/02/2018 as part of a bulk transfer for 2 to 12 Priory Park Road.

6 to 12 Priory Park Road are 2 Mansion Blocks that originally consisted of 16 flats each. The ownership of these buildings is not clear as the applicant company on the planning application, Priory Park Property Limited, does not exist. However a company, Top Class Investment Limited, have a valid charge registered at Company House, against these 2 Buildings. There again ownership of these buildings seems to have been transferred on 26/02/2018 together with 2 to 4 for the grand sum of £14.199.995.

6 to 12 Priory Park Road have been subject to numerous planning applications all with various caveats.

87/2087. (19/10/1988) permission granted to erect play room on condition that building is returned to full time accommodation within 3 years.

88/0094 (19/10/1988) refused permission to continue use as B&B and increase of capacity- Substandard provisions

88/0934 (17/04/1989) change of use to hotel with redevelopment granted.

91/1561 (26th February1992) permission granted to refurbish 6 to 12 priory Park Road, linking the 2 buildings and use as hotel. The link between the 2 buildings was never built and the buildings were never used as hotel but as HMO’s

91/2030 (3/03/1992) retention of playroom granted on condition that buildings are used as hostel

02/2547 (6th January 2003) change of use to HMO with linking of 2 buildings refused

11/3354 (26th March 2102) permission to demolish 2 to 12 Priory road and develop into a hostel refused.

11/4478 (14th december 2017) erection of a mansard roof on 6 to 12 priory park road to accommodate caretaker flat- refused as having a flat on top of HMO is not welcome.

18/3953 (18th December 2018) Certificate of lawfulness to use as HMO refused as HMO use had not been established for enough years.

In summary 6 to 12 Priory park road were granted a change of use to hotel in 1989. However the promised developments never materialised and there is no documentation to establish that these 2 buildings were ever used as hotels. It is evident that the buildings, when not empty were used as hostels and/or HMO. In fact these 2 buildings were operated in a scandalous way by Clearsprings to house Asylum seekers under a Government Contract. In December 2018 a fire broke out in the buildings, used as hostels.

No change of use was ever granted for 2 to 4 Priory Park Road.

All 3 buildings have been poorly maintained, if at all in the last 30 years. There is evidence of broken windows, gutters, balconies and fire damage. It is quite clear that they have been used to house the less fortunate. So is this application motivated by the fact that the Government Contract has ended and that it seems Brent are not using these buildings as short-term accommodation anymore?

So what is this new planning application about? Linking 2 to 14 Priory Park Road, adding Mansard roofs and creating a luxury hotel while retaining some of the frontages features.

While the renovation of these historic buildings is very much welcome, the hotel concept presented is less than clear. The website referred to in the application does not exist. It looks like the developers want to create a mix of short let appartments, with coffee shop provision at the back in conservatories, a gym and restaurant in 2 to 4 Priory Park Road. Slightly confusing are the floor plans showing 54 “studios”, 16 “1 bedroom” flats, 15 “2 bedrooms” flats so a total of 85 units and a total of 100 bedrooms, not the stated number of bedrooms on the application form.

In the traffic management document, the estimated increase of traffic (dead-end street) would be negligeable as apparently these buildings already operate as hotels. We doubt that would be the case as we all know these buildings were used for years to house homeless families and asylum seekers with no traffic whatsoever. The proposed turn around space for delivery vehicles in Glengall Passage is not adequate.

The planning application states that the sites are vacant. This is not true. The 2 mansions still house homeless and asylum seeking families. We witnessed numerous people going in and out.

Also does Kilburn need more short-term lets or simply long term accommodation? There are numerous short-term accommodation options in Kilburn, The Marriott Hotel, The Maitrise Hotel, The Quarters above Kilburn Library, Sanctum in Belsize Road, Black Lion B&B. However Kilburn is short on long term accommodation.

Thus we ask you to object to the change of use of 2 to 4 Priory Park Road, and ask for a return to 2 retail units and 6 flats on the 3 upper floors. We ask you to object to redevelopment of 6 to 12 Priory Park Road into short-let units. We think the proposed self contained flats should be long term accommodation, much needed in Kilburn.

Please comment on this application by 29th May.

Thank you.