Author: News Team

UPDATE – Pinner Station Car Park

The following response has been submitted by The Pinner Association Executive Committee to J Sainsbury PLC following their less than satisfactory reply to our original complaint about the introduction of charges for parking at the Pinner Station Car Park which is managed by Euro Car Parks on behalf of Sainsbury’s – see previous correspondence in  “News” on this website:

Pinner Station Car Park – Pinner Association complaint about the changes to the parking fees and response from J Sainsbury PLC:

Our Committee has now had the opportunity to digest your reply of 10 June, and offer the following observations. Whilst we acknowledge that other Underground Station Car Parks in the vicinity charge at weekends, our older members have reminded us that free weekend parking was one of the promises made to our community to counter opposition to your company’s planning application for its new store. Scrutiny of your last accounts yields no pressing reason for you to change your original policy.  However, insult is added to injury when, as the result of no possibility of purchasing a weekly season ticket, plus the absence of any weekend reduction, the charge for a week’s parking is higher now than at any of the 11 Underground stations in the Borough of Harrow. At our two closest neighbouring stations, Eastcote and Rayners Lane, the cost of weekend parking is less than half that of the cost of parking in Pinner,  so fairness suggests that if an increase is necessary, which we would contest, any charge should not exceed that at neighbouring stations.

We are further informed by one of our members that the Car Park is virtually unavailable to disabled potential users because the lifts hardly ever work, and that, when they do, they are so filthy that they should bear a government health warning. We look forward, in the light of increased charges for this apology of a service, to expeditious repairs and deep cleaning.

Turning to implementation of the change, the experience of our members is far removed from your description of it. There was no information posted in the station on the new weekend charges, nor was there any information in your store or its car park that the ground level section of the Station Car Park, which had been open without any barrier or relevant signage for years to store customers, was about to become unavailable to them. Your contemptuous attitude to stakeholders is best exemplified by the fact that a conversation with our President in March was the first Information that TfL’s Director of Planning  knew of an increase implemented 4 months earlier.

You state that there was a period when warning letters were sent  rather than PCNs to those who did not pay either for weekend parking or for using the hitherto free ground level section of the Station Car Park. However, the letters were completely meaningless as they did not specify the nature of the “offence”.  One of our members, on receiving a warning letter from ECP, wrote in January asking what offence had been committed so that information could be cascaded to the community.  5 months later he is still awaiting the courtesy of a reply. The only inference we can draw from this is that, on your behalf, ECP was more interested in extorting unjustifiable penalties than in telling anybody what was going on. It was only some weeks after PCNs were issued and appeals started arriving, that a scruffy handwritten notice appeared in the Store Car Park, followed by a printed ECP one, and eventually, in March, a notice produced by the store near its entrance, presumably in response to complaints we know were made by customers.  ECP have also belatedly acknowledged their failures by cancelling some PCNs, but others were not cancelled despite being contested on essentially the same grounds.

This whole sorry episode has left a very nasty legacy in Pinner of hostility and resentment towards your company.  We continue, therefore to ask you both to remove or reduce the weekend charges for the Station Car Park, or at least introduce a weekly season ticket at a price comparable to nearby locations, and to cancel / repay those penalties levied on your customers whose offences were committed as a result of inadequate or non-existent communications on the part of your contractors or yourselves.  In the hope of a favourable response, we will resist the pressure we are under from our members to escalate the matter further into the public domain. 

Objection to installation of “temporary vehicle access” on the bend in Cuckoo Hill to allow access for the development of a part of the Tesco car park.

Objection submitted to Harrow Council Planning by The Pinner Association: 

Planning Application reference: PL/1276/24

Tesco, 1 Ash Hill Drive, Pinner, Harrow, HA5 2AG

Details pursuant to condition 5 (Construction Logistics Plan) attached to planning permission P/0719/22 allowed on appeal reference APP/M5450/W/23/3314704 dated 05/12/2023 for redevelopment to provide three storey building comprising 7 X 2 bed units and 1 X 1 bed unit; proposed vehicle access via supermarket to rear; parking; landscaping; bin and cycle stores; amenity space.

 

The Pinner Association has the following objection relating to this, and other “Approval of Details Reserved by Condition” compliance applications, for this proposed development.

A new dropped curb has been constructed on the bend in Cuckoo Hill where there is a granted on appeal to the Planning Inspectorate permission to construct flats in a portion of the Tesco car park at Pinner Green – appeal reference: APP/M5450/W/23/3314704.

There have recently been published on the Harrow Planning Portal several applications (references PL/0944/24, PL/1005/24 and PL/0970/24) from the developers to cover some of the conditions applied to this planning consent.   One of these shows that a “temporary access” from Cuckoo Hill is to be used during the construction of the development.

A “Construction Logistics Plan” application has now been published, Harrow Planning reference PL/1276/24, on the Harrow Planning Portal as was required as a condition of the grant of the appeal:

“21. The condition requiring a Detailed Construction Logistics Plan (DCLP) is necessary to mitigate risks to highway safety and impacts on neighbouring occupiers during construction. It is a pre-commencement condition because mitigation needs to be agreed before any works on site take place.”

This “Construction Logistics Plan” application Has made make it clear that during construction access to the site is proposed to be on the inside of the bend on Cuckoo Hill Road – see section 5 of the applicant’s “Construction and Logistics Plan” section 1.   This states that:

“Vehicular Site Access:

5.4: As mentioned in Paragraph 2.21, a temporary access will be established on Cuckoo Hill (at the northeastern corner of the site) for construction vehicles to enter and leave the site. This will avoid construction vehicles travelling through Ash Hill Drive and obstructing access to, from and within the Tesco Supermarket, which is expected to remain operational throughout the construction of the development.

5.5 Vehicles will drive into the site in forward gear and will then reverse out of the site onto Cuckoo Hill. As Cuckoo Hill will remain open throughout the works, construction vehicles will only be able to leave the site with the help of marshals who will temporarily hold traffic (using stop / go boards) on Cuckoo Hill (in both directions) and guide the vehicle out of the development.”

This would create a road safety hazard at the inside of a blind bend on a cambered incline which has been the site of many road traffic accidents in the past.  Cuckoo Hill is a busy route used by a steady stream of vehicles and stopping this traffic whilst a large vehicle was manoeuvred both in and out of the “temporary access” could result in severe congestion with a queue of vehicles affecting the exit on to Cuckoo Hill from roundabout at the junction with the A404 Rickmansworth Road.  The proposed use of the narrow section of Cuckoo Hill between the roundabout and the “temporary access”, where residents’ car parking effectively reduces the carriageway to one vehicle width, as the route for construction vehicles would again cause severe congestion and which block the roundabout exit and hence affect traffic flow on the A404 Rickmansworth Road .

During the consultation on the planning application for this development – reference P/0719/22 – the Pinner Association and many others objected to a vehicle access on the inside of the bend in Cuckoo Hill on the basis of road safety and as a result the applicants changed the proposed vehicular access to be via the Tesco car park and that is the basis upon which the application was allowed on appeal.

Even a “temporary access” on to Cuckoo Hill would create such a hazard to road safety that the other conditions compliance applications for this proposed development should be refused until a “Construction Logistics Plan” application which shows vehicular access to be via the Tesco car park during both construction and occupation of the new flats has been submitted and granted by Harrow Planning.

There would be a greater number of vehicle movements and by far bigger vehicles using the “temporary access” during construction that there would be during the occupation of the flats and therefore the potential road safety hazard of a vehicular access at that point would be even greater than that considered unacceptable when the planning application was modified to change the location of the vehicular access for the flats.

We are concerned that once the development is constructed the “temporary access” on to Cuckoo Hill could be become the de facto vehicular access for the new flats thus resulting in a permanent extreme hazard to road safety in Cuckoo Hill.

Contrary to the pre-commencement condition 21 of the allowed appeal:

“21. The condition requiring a Detailed Construction Logistics Plan (DCLP) is necessary to mitigate risks to highway safety and impacts on neighbouring occupiers during construction. It is a pre-commencement condition because mitigation needs to be agreed before any works on site take place.”

works have commenced on the site as the “temporary access” dropped curb on to Cuckoo Hill is already in place and the part of the Tesco car park to be used for this development has been fenced off.

Harrow to Pinner Cycleway Improvement Scheme Consultation

Harrow Council and TfL are consulting on proposals for changes to the cycling route between Harrow-on-the-Hill Station and Pinner Station which would involve alterations to the carriageway and parking in Marsh Road.

The section in central Pinner would seek to create “clear continuous cycle tracks from the proposed 20mph zone in Cecil Park to Station Approach, new public realm scheme outside Jubilee Parade, new or revised parallel zebra crossing across Marsh Road and Station Approach, and renewed and improved pavements, rain garden and other greening“.

Further information and the link to the consultation survey may be found here:  https://talk.harrow.gov.uk/harrow-to-pinner-cycleway

The consultation deadline is 23:59 on 11th December 2023.   Everyone with a view on these proposals is encouraged to participate in the consultation so as the opinions of as many Pinner residents as possible are heard.

The cost of this project if enacted would be provided by ringfenced funding from TfL.

Concerts In the Park – Volunteers Required

Can you help?

We are holding  our annual “Concerts in The Park” this year.

30 July, 6, 13 & 20 August @2pm – 4:30pm

The concerts are held in Pinner Memorial Park.

We need volunteers to help:-

  • Steward whilst the concerts are being held. We will be able to provide a seat for our stewards.

If you would like to know more about the stewards role Band Concert Steward’s Instructions 2023

The concerts may not take place if there are severe weather warnings.

Consultation Event on a “Public Spaces Protection Order” for Harrow Borough

Harrow Council are consulting on whether to implement specific restrictions in our town centres and urban centres and parks and opens spaces such as:

  • Intimidating and/or aggressive begging
  • Obstructing access to business premises during opening hours
  • Leaving commercial waste in public spaces for an unreasonable length of time
  • Use of amplifiers or loud speakers without permission
  • Financial Agreements on the Street from a set stand only
  • Placing of tables, stands, or other furniture / fixings
  • Distribution of leaflets
  • Illegal or Unauthorised Street Trading
  • Feeding of Birds and Vermin

For more information see:

Harrow Public Spaces Protection Order | MyHarrow Talk

As part of the consultation process, Harrow Council Environmental Health Officers will be in and around Pinner town centre on:

  • Tuesday 18th April 10:30 – 12:30

Officers will be walking around the area engaging with residents and sharing a QR code for residents/businesses to scan to access the above consultation.

 

New methods of paying for parking in Harrow borough.

Information on the changes to the methods of paying for on-street and car park parking from Harrow Council:

Cashlite Parking

The council is encouraging people to use cashless transactions to pay for its services.

Car parking is one of the areas affected, with suspension of traditional pay and display from late January.  One-hour-free parking will be introduced across all council car parking spaces at the same time.

The easiest way to register your parking session and get your free hour will be with the PayByPhone app – available from all app stores.

PayByPhone also offers text, call and online services. You can set up an account to use these at paybyphone.co.uk or by calling 0208 039 1101.

See more information including how-to guides at the PayByPhone website or YouTube channel 

When parking in the majority of our spaces the option to pay with cash will still be available.

This can be done via the network of PayPoint convenience stores. Details of the nearest one can be found on signage in car parks and near our on-street bays.

PayPoints offer ticketless parking, with no need to return to the car. You will need to quote your vehicle registration and the PayByPhone location number shown on nearby signage.

Where we’re not yet able to provide this facility within a five-minute walk, a pay and display machine accepting contactless card payments will be available instead.

Prior Approval Application for a telecom Mast and Equipment Boxes in Albury Drive Refused.

The Pinner Association, and a great many local residents, wrote objection letters regarding the “Prior Approval” planning application for the installation of a new 20 metre high telecom mast and associated equipment cabinets on a site in Albury Drive, on an Designated Open Space in the Pinnerwood Conservation Area.

We can now report that both this applications have been refused by Harrow Council’s Planning Officers, on the grounds of “The proposed telecommunications pole, by reason of its siting, excessive height and prominent location would be visually obtrusive in the streetscene, to the detriment of the character and appearance of the Pinnerwood Park Conservation Area and the Designated Open Space,” and “The proposed telecoms cabinets, by reason of quantity, height and siting would be visually obtrusive in the streetscene and designated Open Space and result in visual clutter which would detract from the amenity value of the Designated Open Space for local residents, to the detriment of the character and appearance of the Pinnerwood Park Conservation Area, the designated Open Space and residential amenities of local residents,”.

Harrow Council Civic Centre to close at end of January 2023.

From the end of January 2023 Harrow Civic Centre will close.

With 99% of “customer interactions” now online or over the phone, everyday in-person transactions from the end of January will move to Greenhill Library, off College Road. Staff there will offer residents help to do things digitally, including setting up cashless payments for rent, fines, Council Tax and more.

Complex and urgent in-person enquiries for housing and social care will move to a new customer reception, on Gayton Road in the town centre. Offices next door will become the new home of Citizens Advice Harrow.

From Spring 2023, registering of births, deaths and marriages will move to ‘The Pavilion’ – offices next door to Greenhill Library. Civil marriage and citizenship ceremonies will also be performed at The Pavilion.

The Mayors Parlour will relocate to Harrow Arts Centre and Council and committee meetings have already been relocated to new venues.

Most Council staff, including those who manage the thousands of digital interactions from residents, now use an office building at the Council’s depot on Forward Drive as their base.

For further information go to:  https://www.harrow.gov.uk/council/closing-harrow-civic-centre 

Moss Lane and North Way telecom mast “Prior Approval” planning applications refused.

The Pinner Association, and a great many local residents, wrote objection letters regarding two “Prior Approval” planning applications for the installation of new telecom masts and associated equipment cabinets on sites in North Way Pinner and Moss Lane Pinner.

We can now report that both these applications have been refused by Harrow Council’s Planning Officers, on the grounds of “The proposed telecommunications mast by reason of its siting and excessive height and prominent location would be visually obtrusive in the streetscene, to the detriment of the character and appearance of the area,” and “The proposed telecoms cabinets, by reason of quantity, height and siting would result in visual clutter and be visually obtrusive in the streetscene, to the detriment of the character and appearance of the area,”

The Pinner Association has sent an objection letter to the current “Prior Approval” planning application for the installation of new telecom mast and associated equipment cabinets on a site in Albury Drive on a designated open space within the Pinnerwood Park Conservation Area.