Category: News

Harrow Council are currently consulting on their proposals to make significant cuts to many of the services that they provide to the residents of the borough.

From the Harrow Council website:

“Budget cuts mean that the Harrow of the future will look very different to the past.

Everyone in the community is likely to be affected in some form, and cuts will impact everything from street cleaning to waste collection, school crossing patrols and car parking prices. As much as possible, cuts will be made in ways that do not affect residents, for example cuts to management.

We are proposing innovative ways to make savings of £25 million in the first round of cuts, however there will be more budget reductions to come in future years.

Options for the first round of cuts include:

•          Reduce grass cutting in public spaces.

•          Cut the number of senior managers in the Council.

•          Closure of Emergency Relief Scheme due to removal of Government grant.

•            Negotiate with suppliers to reduce the amount they charge the Council.

•          Cut funding provided to the voluntary sector.

•          Switch off some street lights or reduce the hours that they are on for.

•          Reduce the number of staff answering the phones in Access Harrow. (This means the average waiting time will increase)

•            Removal of the Friday and Saturday night Environment Health noise nuisance response service and a reduction in the size of the team (maintaining minimum service levels for Environmental Health).

•          Close the Harrow Arts Centre and look for an alternative space for it to continue from 2016 onwards.

•          Cut the number of council committees.

•          Close or reduce some of the Council’s early support services to families, including Children’s Centres.

•          Close the Harrow Museum.

•          Reduce the short respite breaks to children and carers as we do now.

•            Remove additional road/pavement sweeping near shopping parades.

•            Introduce a separate weekly food waste collection and charging for a fortnightly collection of garden waste.

•          Stop locking park gates, increase biodiversity in parks and cut the number of times litter is picked up.

•          Move to community management of parks.

•          Close some of Harrow’s libraries.

•          Cut the costs of maintaining Council buildings.

•          Cut some support provided to older and disabled people in Harrow under the Supporting People Programme.

•          Review Fees and Charges charged by the Council, including parking charges.

•          Do more online and by email to cut the costs of postage.

•          Stop funding community festivals.

•          Share Council services with other boroughs.”

Additional information about these proposals and how to response to the consultation is available in the on-line booklet on the Harrow Council website at:

HYPERLINK “http://harrow-consult.limehouse.co.uk/portal/cc/budget/take_part-_budget_consultation?tab=files”

http://harrow-consult.limehouse.co.uk/portal/cc/budget/take_part-_budget_consultation?tab=files

The Council is organising drop-in ‘Take Part’ sessions where you can meet with Councillors and senior officers to discuss the cuts face to face.  In Pinner is will be held on Saturday 25th October from 12-4pm on the corner of Love Lane and Bridge Street. 

The Pinner Association Committee are to compose a response objecting to these proposed cuts, many of which would have a great detriment to the quality of life of our members and other local residents and businesses.

The deadline for responses to the consultation is 5pm, Saturday 8th November, 2014.

The Hatch End Association –

HYPERLINK “http://www.hatchend.org/”

About Us

– are organising a petition against the proposal to close the Harrow Arts Centre in Hatch End, which will run until the end of October.  At least 2,000 signatures are required.

HEA have placed petition forms in the following locations in Pinner:

CC Vassar, 17 Love Lane

Pinner News, 8 Bridge Street

and also in Hatch End Broadway:

Pulver Carr estate agents (349 Uxbridge Road)

Mili Newsagents (365 Uxbridge Road)

The Post Office (corner Uxbridge Road & Cornwall Road)

The Moon and Sixpence pub

Village Pharmacy (272 Uxbridge Road)

Tanna Pharmacy (320 Uxbridge Road)

Star News Food & Wine (418 Uxbridge Road corner with Woodridings Close)

Please find the time to sign this petition to help save a much valued resource for all Harrow borough residents.

Ruth Boff, Honorary Secretary, The Pinner Association.

 

The Arts ‘Week’ (from 26 September to 5 October) kicked off too a good start with an Art Exhibition at West House an Artisans’ Fair, Photgraphic Exhibitions, a Jazz concert (See below), a violin recital and other attractions  over the week end of 26 – 28 September.
                                                              

                                                                                          Art at West House

                                                                                                Artisans’ Fair

27 September saw the launching of another Jazz season in Pinner Parish Church when the Dixie Strollers performed in front of a well packed church.  They  gave the season a really  rousing send-off. Amongst the most youthful group ever to play Jazz in the Church was Pinner resident Scott Chapman who provided the essential percussion to the Group.
 The programme below should attract large audiences:

A splendid Summer’s day set an ideal scene for the Annual Village show on 13 September.

 

For information about your local Horticulturalcal Society visit:  http://www.streamside.org.uk/

On a rather Autumnal afternoon in August a crowd of children revelled in Pippa’s story telling sessions in the Memorial Park.

The  Sketch Club launched its annual exhibition today when Commendations and Awards were announced. The exhibition runs until the end of this month.

Recipient of the Grimmett award for her sculpture:

As the walk along Long Meadow to Eastcote Gardens is popular with many Pinner Residents you may be interested to hear about the Backwater project by the River Pinn currently being implemented by Hillingdon Council:

London Borough of Hillingdon has received funding from Big Green Fund to create two backwaters on the River Pinn, on areas where a meander and a backwater used to be in the past. It is also proposed re-profiling a small section of steep river bank by the footbridge to create a safe and gradual approach to the river.

The works will be undertaken as a partnership between LBHillingdon,  Groundwork, Green Corridor, the Friends of Eastcote House Garden, Eastcote Resident’s Association and River Pinn Volunteers.

Benefits of the Backwaters include:

• It will improve the ecological value of the land and provide a new and important wetland area for amphibians and aquatic invertebrates.
• Pre planted coir rolls will be installed to encourage marginal vegetation and purification of water.
• It will create additional offstream flood storage potential.
• Scrub and tree management would open river views and overgrown swims. Openings along the river would be aesthetically pleasing.
• Open river views and well managed paths would contribute to the general landscape of the site.

27 July saw the launch of the 2014 open air concert season when the large crowd was entertained, in proper Pinner sunshine, by the Grimsdyke Brass Band.  A great time was had by all. These concerts are organised by the Pinner Association with the local Rotary Club, any takings from the interval collection being shared between West House and the Rotary Club charities. At the first concert the collection raised some £550.

On the following Sunday the entertainment was provided by the Fats Rollini Jazz and Blues  Band.  This was received with acclaim and a strong vote for a return in 2015. Over £600 was raised in the collection.
                                          The Fats Rollini Band with Tamar Pincus

On the third Sunday we suffered the left overs of Hurricane Bertha, torrential rain resulting in cancellation of the concert in the morning only to lead to its reinstatement when the Harrow Youth Steel Band arrived in the afternoon and were able to produce their own marquee/gazebo. The band played enthusiasticallyuntil after 5.30. As you will see it attracted 2 or 3 hundred stalwarts, some of whom were seen enjoying their ice creams. Despite the weather some £120 was raised in the collection.

On the fourth Sunday, despite the threatening weather, which must have deterred many regulars from attending, we were treated to a wonderful performance of swing by the Stardust Big Band.  The suggestion that they should return next year was applauded enthusiastically………

and certainly appreciated by young and old. The collection totalled over £400, despite the poor weather.

The Pinner Association

Response to the Consultation on “The Future of Pinner Park Farm”

July 2014

 

 

THE PINNER ASSOCIATION (Registered Charity number 262349) is an amenity society founded in 1932. Its aims are to conserve and enhance the quality of life in Pinner, and it has a membership of some 3,500 households in the Pinner and Pinner South Wards.

1. The Executive Committee of The Pinner Association has considered the proposals outlined in the consultation document “The future of Pinner Park Farm, Harrow – Public Consultation Summer 2014” and have the following comments, which are being submitted as a formal response to the current consultation:
2. The Pinner Association does not support the proposal to provide greater public access to Pinner Park Farm.
3. The Pinner Association does not support the proposal to convert the listed farm buildings to residential use to provide funds for their “restoration”.
4. The Pinner Association supports neither “Option 1” nor “Option 2” in the consultation document.

1. The reasons behind the above responses are as follows, and should be taken as a part of The Pinner Association’s response to this consultation:
2. The residents of Harrow need to have access to documentation that provides evidence that the consultation process on these proposals for Pinner Park Farm has been conducted appropriately.
3. There is a lack of true opinion-seeking in this consultation; the choice of two options both based on the same premise is not seeking public opinion, rather is seeking approval for a predetermined decision.
4. The presentation by Harrow Council to the public of the consultation process does not suggest that the council is inviting proposals that include the retention of Pinner Park Farm as a farm. For example, the website notification to the residents[1] states that:
   “The council is looking to:  …. provide greater public access to the 230 acres of land  ….   create a viable new use to secure the future of the historic farm buildings located within the site, many of which have fallen into disrepair and require substantial investment”

This statement implies that the Council is not open to the retention of this site as a working farm and indeed has already decided that it will not be so retained.

4. The design of the online survey is closed and therefore leads respondents to make the choice of Option 1 or 2, thus resulting in a misrepresentation of opinion in the data set that is produced for the management information upon which the decisions are to be made.  An opportunity should have been provided to give the response of ‘NEITHER OPTION’.  Although it is possible to submit the questionnaire without selecting either Option 1 or Option 2, most respondents would not discover this. Those who did not agree with the principle of a Country Park may well have selected the option which represented the lesser of two evils to them, without actually being in favour of it.
5. The short time allowed for public comment on what is a complex issue is inadequate.
6. The lack of any business plan to support either “Option 1” or “Option 2”:

6.1.Would Harrow Council gain sufficient funds from the sale of the buildings for development as private housing to cover the costs of the buy out of the lease and the creation of and perpetual maintenance of a “Country Park”?

6.2.How would any funds for the maintenance of the “Country Park” be retained and protected from being subsumed into the general council budget?

6.3.How would capital budget money be transferred to the revenue budget so that it may be used for the maintenance of the “Country Park”?

7. The Pinner Association objects to the sale of the listed and other farm buildings for development, especially “residential use” as described in the consultation document.  The most pressing local need for additional housing in the London Borough of Harrow is for social housing, of which Harrow has a desperate shortage, and this is not the type of development described in these proposals.
8. The Pinner Association objects to the change of use from agricultural Green Belt to Country Park status as this allows the perpetual lease to be broken and therefore effectively makes the current farmers and their cattle herd homeless in a time when new meat sources are needed in the supply chain and local supplies should be supported.

Policy 7.22 of the London Plan 2011, LAND FOR FOOD, and its supporting text, states that:

A        The Mayor will seek to encourage and support thriving farming and land-based sectors in London, particularly in the Green Belt.

B         Use of land for growing food will be encouraged nearer to urban communities via such mechanisms as ‘Capital Growth’.

C         Boroughs should       …… identify other potential spaces that could be used for commercial                food production                ……..

 

London Plan 2011 paragraph 7.66 advises that:

Providing land for food growing will have many benefits, it will help promote more active lifestyles, better diets and food security, social benefits and support for local foodgrowers. Agriculture is an appropriate use in the Green Belt and farmers adopting agri-environmental stewardship schemes will deliver good environmental practice,  including longer term biodiversity benefits, particularly in the urban fringe………            

9. If a “Country Park” was created on the site there would be many practical difficulties, including;

9.1.How would visitors using the Country Park safely cross the dual carriageway road?

9.2.Would any on-site parking be sufficient to accommodate the crowds that may use the “Activity Events Field”?

9.3.If sufficient on-site car parking were to be provided, how would this impact on the Green Belt open aspect of the farm?

9.4.How would a “residential development” sit within the centre of a public open space?

9.5.The gardens envisaged for the “residential development” would not be a suitable use of the Green Belt land.

9.6.How would traffic enter and exit the site from the busy dual carriageway safely and without disruption to the traffic flow?

9.7.What would be the visual impact of development (one or more residential development with associated gardens and hard landscaping, visitor car parks, visitor centre, signage, pathways, and etcetera) on this Green Belt land?

9.8.How many people would attend events on the proposed  “Activity Events Field” and how would events on this land impact on the amenity of the residents of the proposed new housing and on existing local residents and on the visual amenity of the Green Belt land?

1. Pinner Park Farm should continue to be designated as Green Belt and should remain a working farm; currently there is public access via the footpath and bridle way, and any further access would damage the open aspect and condition of the land.
2. Harrow Council should work with the current tenants to find a resolution to the problem of the repair of the listed buildings.
3. If no agreement with the current tenants is possible then consideration should be given to using the site as a “Community Farm”.

21^st July 2014.

Dr R. Boff, Honorary Secretary, The Pinner Association.

10, Crest View, Pinner HA5 1AN

020 8868 3988
[email protected]
www.pinnerassociation.co.uk
[1] http://www.harrow.gov.uk/info/200143/public_notices/1255/pinner_park_farm