Launch of eco-friendly community centre on St Raphaels estate

A new energy-efficient community centre has opened its door to residents on the St Raphael’s Estate for the first time.
People turned out to welcome the net zero carbon building at a launch event yesterday. The exclusively solar-panelled centre has been designed to generate its own electricity, as well as supply power to Sufra NW London foodbank next-door.

Cllr Promise Knight, Cabinet Member for Housing, Homelessness and Renters Security, handed over the keys to members of St Raphael's Voice community group at the launch.

The temporary climate-friendly building is part of a regeneration plan that will see around 400 new homes and an additional £30 million spent on wider estate improvements, including the provision of a permanent new community centre on St Raphael’s Estate.

Asif Zamir, chair of St Raphael’s Voice community group, accepted the keys from Cllr Knight. “This is a joyous occasion,” he said. “It has been over 20 years that we have not had any community facilities that we can call our own. We have put in a lot of hard work to make this community centre a reality. We can run our projects here. The fact that it is great for the environment helps to reduce our costs and makes it more sustainable for the community.”

In an estate-wide consultation, St Raph’s residents said that they wanted to see enhanced lighting and security across the estate to address issues such as fly-tipping, the removal of bollards and improved rubbish collections in their neighbourhood, as well as better maintenance of the grass meadows. 

The council has held meetings to update people on the development plans. In response to residents’ requests about wider estate improvements, Brent has recently carried out the following:

• Installed a portable CCTV camera that can be moved to cover hots spots, in addition to the 11 CCTV cameras already operating on the estate.
• Erected new CCTV and no fly-tipping signage.
• Improved maintenance of the green area next to the estate.
• Removed six bollards from the estate with a further 77 bollards due to be removed in August.

The housing plans are part of the council’s plan to build 1,700 council homes in Brent by 2028.