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Consultation over Whitchurch Fields set to start
THE organisation chosen to manage playing fields in Stanmore has set up a public meeting to discuss the future of the site and to get the community involved.
Out of borough leisure group Whitchurch Consortium was selected by Harrow Council in November as the preferred bidder to manage Whitchurch Playing Fields, while a bid by a consortium made up of local sports club, including Harrow RFC, was rejected.
The leisure group, together with the council which owns the site, is holding a public consultation meeting on March 26 to launch a consultation on its plans to redevelop the dilapidated pavilion into sports facilities and make improvements to the fields.
A cabinet decision to select the group, based on public consultation held in 2009, has angered some neighbours and opposition councillors, however, who have previously told the Observer that the new consultation should have been held before the selection was made.
Councillor Thaya Idaikkadar, portfolio holder for property and major contracts on Harrow Council, has defended the decision ahead of the first public meeting.
Mr Idaikkadar said: "We want to provide excellent sports and leisure facilities to Harrow residents that encourage more people of all ages to lead healthy, active lifestyles. The proposals for Whitchurch Pavilion are to provide better facilities for the whole community at no cost to council tax payers in Harrow.
"However, it is important that residents and interested parties have a real influence on the project.
"That is why in November Cabinet chose the Whitchurch Consortium as the preferred bidder to give them the confidence to spend considerable resources on a full and far reaching consultation with the community."
The meeting comes after the council rejected a call-in last month and a motion at cabinet last week, asking for the bidding process to be restarted.
It will take place at Whitchurch First School in Wemborough Road on Monday, March 26, at 7.30pm.
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Mr Idaikkadar speaks with forked tongue. The decision by cabinet on 17 November 2011 was "called in" for review on 5 December 2011 and after saying that the preferred bidder would be responsible for further consultation with residents and other stakeholders, he went on to say that "It was fully expected that any final sports facility would only go through with the support of local neighbours" - as recorded in the minutes of the call in sub-committee meeting on the council's own website. Given the overwhelming opposition to the proposals at the consultation meeting held on Monday 26 march 2012 I hope Mr Idaikkadar is a man of honour and integrity, if so he will vote against these proposals at every opportunity he has henceforth.
The proposals when boiled down to essential elements are to establish a wedding facility on the sports ground, the income from which will pay for the development over a period of years yet to be settled, while at the same time providing grounds maintenance for the sports fields. The cost to Harrow council is NIL, but the cost to local residents is lots of noise, traffic, and light pollution totally unrelated to sports, which don't forget is enshrined in the covenant protecting the area. however, the council already rode roughshod over that one before to build Whitchurch School - and then reneged on promises of all weather pitches to make up for the facilities lost. They then proceeded to totally neglect the pavilion, culminating in it being fatally fire damaged 7 years ago. The council should be renamed the NERO council for they fiddle while the facilities burned and went to ruin.
If the Council has any integrity left they should forget private sector involvement and get back to providing proper services for its residents paid for from within its council taxes and government grants.