Brent Cross Cricklewood greenwash

The plans for the Brent Cross Cricklewood development are full of
utter 'greenwash', seeking to create a false impression about the
environmental sustainability of this multi-billion pound project.

For a start, these plans should be thrown out completely unless the
development partners pledge to make the whole site carbon neutral.

The proposed buildings are likely to exist for several decades at
least and there is no way whatsoever that the British government will
achieve its aim of a 60 per cent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by
2050 if concrete giants like the Brent Cross shopping centre are still
belching out carbon dioxide from heating, lighting and air
conditioning.

This scheme is an ideal opportunity to install energy conservation
measures and sustainable power facilities right from the beginning.
There is plenty of scope on the site for enough wind turbines, solar
arrays and ground source heat pumps to make the whole area carbon
positive, never mind carbon neutral.

So why aren't they doing it? As well as benefitting the environment,
carbon neutrality would save money for the people who live in the new
town and for the businesses, as their energy bills would be much lower
– they might even make money by feeding electricity back into the
grid.

Can it be that the developers are more interested in building cheaply
than in saving on running costs for the future occupants of the homes
and commercial buildings?

Secondly, at a time when neighbourhood shopping areas are under threat
all over London from post office closure, cut backs to libraries and
the marginal viability of many small shops and pubs, Barnet Council
should be studying the likely impact of Brent Cross Cricklewood on
other shopping areas in the borough.

For make no mistake, the scheme is not just about new housing and a
so-called town centre, the whole thing is based on "an expanded and
improved shopping centre", with an "enhanced retail offer including
new stores at Brent Cross Shopping Centre", to cite the developers'
own documents.

When the council has assessed the likely impact, it should order the
developers to pay whatever it costs to ensure the sustainability of
Hendon, Golders Green and the other nearby centres: better street
layouts, improved public transport, more greenery, more public
toilets, more benches to rest on or whatever it takes to ensure that
these neighbourhood areas remain available and attractive for local
residents to use.

Council Leader Mike Freer cannot genuinely oppose post office closures
and support sustainable communities at the same time as he is praising
the Brent Cross Cricklewood plans.

As for the transport issues surrounding the new plans, of course there
should be a direct rail link to the expanded shopping centre rather
than more car parking. The developers say they expect cars still to be
the main way that people get there but why is that? People will no
doubt continue to want to shop at Brent Cross but why should they
necessarily go by car? Do people go to Oxford Street by car? Of course
not, because it is properly served by London Underground lines and by
buses.