Urgent appeal to protect Northwick Park golf facility as Public Open Space. Deadline Midnight tomorrow (April 2nd)

 

Following the public notice above, Northwick Park Community Garden has issued the following appeal:

    

We are shocked and dismayed to find out that today that Brent Council made a notice on the Friday before Christmas to sell the Freehold of the Northwick Park golf facility. Then at the Council’s Cabinet in early February agreed to sell the Freehold. Now a notice has been issued to remove the protection of its designation as Public Open Space after the 2nd of April.

Public Open Space is protected from inappropriate developments and is defined thus:  

land that is generally accessible to the public for recreation, exercise, or relaxation, including parks, green spaces, civic squares, and play areas. These areas often have few restrictions on access, allowing for both formal and informal activities, and are typically managed by local authorities to enhance community health and urban biodiversity.

 
It should be noted that the path from Watford Road, the Northwick Park Playing Fields, that runs alongside St Cuthbert’s Church is being included in the disposal and redesignation.

If you believe, as we do, that public spaces need to remain for the use of us all in this day of increasing high rise buildings with a lack of gardens, and need to be protected then please email objections by midnight 2nd April to:
Pam@brent.gov.uk

 

Editor's note. Thanks to people who have pointed out 'pam' stands for Proprty Asset Management - had me confused!

UPDATED: Proposed Stopping-up Order near Olympic Steps - Does Brent Council really want to embarrass itself in Court?

Guest Post by Philip Grant in a personal capacity

 

The meeting where submission of the Stopping-up Order application was approved.
(Note the date!)

 

UPDATE: Brent Council have put off the Court hearing for their Stopping-up Order application, but the main Officer involved still seems determined to go ahead with it. He wrote on 15 January:

'The current position is that we have asked Willesden Magistrates Court to vacate the date next Thursday. We had originally only booked a one hour slot at 2pm, but in light of your objections, it was considered that more time would be likely to be needed for the magistrates to consider the matters at hand. Once we have been provided with a new date for the Magistrates’ Court, we will reissue the S116 Stopping Up Notice ....'

The full text of the email, and my response to it, are available in the comments section below ("For Information 3, and 4") for anyone who wishes to read them.

 

In a guest post on 1 January I asked: Why does Brent want to Stop-up “highway” near the Olympic Steps? I have had a couple of email exchanges with Council Officers about this matter since then, the full texts of which are included as “FOR INFORMATION” comments under that article (along with several comments from WM readers).

 

In the latest response, from a mid-ranking Council Officer on 8 January, it was suggested that if I had wanted to challenge the application for Brent’s proposed Stopping-up Order, I should have sought a Judicial Review of a decision made by Brent’s General Purposes Committee nearly four years ago! That was nonsense – any member of the public has the right to be heard when the application is actually made to the Magistrates’ Court.

 

The hearing is scheduled for 2pm on Thursday 22 January. But as I’m convinced that even making the application is a mistake, and unnecessary (and I can be very persistent when I feel strongly about something), I have tried one final attempt to make Brent Council see sense. As I had failed to convince them with words, I decided to use pictures as well. This is the text of the email that I sent on the morning of Monday 12 January to Brent’s Public Realm Director, Chief Executive and Director of Law (and I have asked Martin to include the “pictures” attachment below this post):

This is an Open Email

 

Dear Mr Whyte, Ms Wright and Ms Henry,

 

I have tried, in my emails of 2 and 8 January, to persuade Council Officers in words why Brent Council need not, and should not, pursue this Section 116 Highways Act Stopping-up Order application. 

 

I realise that it must be frustrating when an ordinary resident seeks to tell Officers that they are "going down the wrong road", but when I can see that the present course is wrong, and that there is a right way, I feel I have a civic duty to draw this to your attention. 

 

If my words cannot persuade you, I hope that my pictures will, so please look at the attached document. It shows that the areas of highway, which the proposed Order seeks to remove the legal right for pedestrians and vehicles to cross over, are in everyday use by the people of our borough and visitors to it.

 

Does Brent Council really want to embarrass itself in Court, by claiming that these areas of highway are unnecessary?

 

I realise that Brent Council, and Quintain Limited, wish to resolve an outstanding problem over these areas of land as "adopted public highway", and Highways Act 1980 does provide the right way to do that. It is Section 256, not Section 116:

 

 

 

[From Highways Act 1980 on www.legislation.gov.uk ]

 

 

I sincerely hope that reason and good sense can now prevail, and that the Council will withdraw its Stopping-up application from the Willesden Magistrates' Court list for Thursday 22 January. I look forward to receiving your reply, in good time before that date. Best wishes,

 

Philip Grant.