Thank you to all who came to support our AGM on 30th June making it the best-attended in some years. James Bond (well-known to users of North Harrow underground) spoke of his father, who had been an independent councillor and who inspired his interest in local community activity and his involvement with the HRA. North Harrow, he said, was the most neglected area in Harrow. The Treasurer and Membership Secretary described a difficult couple of years for the HRA. However our new Chairman, Bob Cook, ended the meeting on a positive note saying that the new executive committee was well situated to tackle the challenges facing the association.
The planning application for the North Harrow Assembly Halls site (P/2376/08) was refused by unanimous vote of the Planning Committee at its meeting on 22nd June. However, the HRA was disappointed to see that the council Planning Department’s grounds for refusal had been watered down since the application was last considered in October.
Below are extracts from our Chairman’s letter to the Planning Committee:
“Our view, which accords with the vast majority of local residents, is that the application has once again been rightly recommended for refusal. Since last October, when the Strategic Planning Committee graciously deferred their decision to allow the applicant time to work through your officer’s very considerable objections, little has changed and the proposals remain, apart from some minor amendments, very much the same.”
“Although we fully endorse the substantive grounds underlying the planning officers’ recommendation for refusal, the HRA has very serious concerns about the unjustified concessions made in support of the applicants’ claim. This will become very significant were the applicant to appeal against a refusal decision by the Planning Committee.”
Examples of these concessions are given:
- the same design was considered ‘inappropriate’ in 2008 yet ‘appropriate’ in 2009
- ‘significant increase in on street parking’ becomes ‘increase in on-street parking’
- planning officers have yet to complete an assessment on the availability of alternative sites
- it has not been shown that benefits to the community outweigh acknowledged flood risks
“These are but a few simple examples of the overall diminution in the force and strength of the words throughout the current recommendation for refusal that, overall, affect the substantial strength of the original refusal.”
In addition, the letter gives details from the applicant’s own statement regarding intensive and continuous use and occupation: the hall is currently used by 500 people every Friday midday; the proposed development would bear intensive use throughout festival periods; there would be social functions, with weddings of between 800-1,000 people.
