Harrow Council will be holding a public consultation at Harrow Arts Centre, 171 Uxbridge Road, Harrow, HA5 4EA on:
Wednesday 25 June at 1pm-5.30pm
Thursday 26 June at 1pm-9pm
Friday 27 June at 1pm-8pm
Representatives of the Council will be on had to share the ideas and answer questions on a one-to-one basis. The exhibition will provide an opportunity for residents to find out more about the proposals and to leave written comments to enable the Council to prepare a Master Plan for Pinner Park Farm. The exhibition will be teamed with a website consultation on the Council’s Your Say page on its website where you will be able to view drawings and make comments. This will go live on 25 June.
Harrow Council is considering options for Pinner Park Farm. Its aims are to increase public access to green spaces and to provide sustainable use of the listed building and ancient monument. The main constraints are that the area is Green Belt, is a heritage site with an ancient monument, has listed buildings and is an archaeological priority area. The council has commissioned Bidwells, property consultants, to advise on this matter. Bidwells have suggested two options.
Option one is to provide more public access to a country park with basic facilities, such as car park and toilets, with the area being grassland. The existing farm buildings would be converted into housing to provide revenue to help to fund the project. Buildings that are not protected or used for housing would be demolished. Under this option there would be no new buildings, only conversions.
The second option would be an extension of the first in that the public park would have higher specifications, such as a visitor centre, pathways and tracks, fitness paths, games area and a café. To fund this there would be redevelopment of additional areas. The additional residential housing would be in the existing footprint of the current buildings on the farm. In discussions with Bidwells, option one is unlikely to provide sufficient revenue to cover the costs of the development of the park so that the most likely option would be the second one or some variant of it.
I am the Neighbourhood Champion for George V Avenue which becomes St Thomas’ Drive so I do look at the full length and report issues to the council.
The main problem here and on STD is speeding and dangerous driving but I am hitting a brick wall in trying to get any action on stopping this. The police are responsible for speeding but the Borough Commander tells me he has insufficient people to concentrate on speeding. I dont remember any police prescence with speed traps for over 6 months and the road has now become a race track. A car travelling from Hatch End to Noth Harrow this week lost control approaching the 30mph sign , shot over the central reservation, spun round and hit a tree before ending rear end first into the fence. Luckily no-one was coming in the opposite direction as they are usually at 50mph+ at that point.
I did speak with TFL who, by the way told me that the road is to be resurfaced from the roundabout to the point where the Pinn crosses under the road, with the other stretch being completed soon afterwards. However they sad they had nothing to do with redesigning the road. (The Council has the money in place and O’Haras are to do the work but, for some reason its been put back)
If a Country Park is to be set up then it should incorporate safe cycle lanes and parking spots. There is no reason for the road to be a dual carriageway as there is insufficient traffic and was built to be part of a bye-pass scheme which never happened. This should happen even if neither scheme is implimented.
I have tried to interest the Pinner Association but they are only concerned with things in their own back yard such as the traffic lights at Pinner Green so I am trying to find anyone interested in preventing the potential fatalities in this area.
Is this something the HEA has considered or would be concerned enough to apply pressure?
I really hope to get things done to prevent unecessary deaths or injuries so please help if you are able.
Harrow council is the legal landlord of pinner farm and they should be held responsible as landlords. I don’t like either of their proposed options. I think the farm should be left as the functioning farm that it is. I think Harrow council should be held responsible to use the funds they have been receiving as rent to pay for the building repairs and maintenance required. It is a blessing to have a functioning farm so close to the city of London and it should be cherished and not thrown away. It is time Harrow council stop misleading the people with their poorly written and misleading surveys and be held responsible to provide upkeep to the buildings for the farms continued use.
Thank you Jo for your comments they will be considered in our reply to the consultation. As I said at the meeting at Pinner Park Farm there should have been a third option on the consultation form to consider the continued use of farming on this green belt land.
Anne Swinson- HEA