Banqueting venue The VIP Lounge in High Street, Edgware has applied to Harrow Council to extend its opening hours from the current noon to 11pm Monday to Thursday, noon to midnight Friday and Saturday and noon to 10.30pm Sundays.

The owners seek to vary one of the conditions of the 2011 planning approval for refurbishment of the premises to allow operating times of 8am to 12.45am Monday to Sundays, including Bank Holidays, to allow clients more preparation and packing up time before and after events and a less disruptive dissipation of guests at 'winding down time'.

EDGWARE: Krishna-Avanti in Camrose Avenue became the first primary school in Harrow to become an academy, on September 1, having previously been voluntary-aided.

The conversion means the school enjoys more freedom from Harrow Council. It has the ability to set its own pay and conditions for staff, freedoms around the delivery of the curriculum and the ability to change the lengths of terms and school days.

A 48-YEAR-OLD woman has been given a 12-month conditional discharge for allowing her dog to be out of control in Stanmore Country Park off Dennis Lane, Stanmore, on February 3.

Rubina Varma, 48, of Dalkeith Grove, Stanmore, had denied the charge but was found guilty and was sentenced at Willesden Magistrates' Court on September 27 and ordered to pay £80 compensation and £620 prosecution costs.

A HANDGUN was found on the central reservation of the Watford By-pass on the very fringe of Stanmore.

The A41 was closed by police from its junctions with Junction 4 of the M1 at its northern end and Spur Road at its southern end while officers recovered the weapon.

A HUGE restoration project has been given the go ahead at Bentley Priory Nature Reserve thanks to large grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The fund, which distributes cash to sites of national importance and lists Harrow as one of its London priority areas, has handed the borough £59,500 for the wildlife area in Stanmore.

Furze Heath and The Greensward form part of the 55-hectare Bentley Priory site of special scientific interest (SSSI).

It contains unimproved species-rich grassland that is rare in London and in decline across the country.

Peter Peretti, volunteer warden for the reserve, said: "I have had the privilege of being associated with the management of Bentley Priory Nature Reserve for 25 years in a voluntary capacity.

"This grant made possible by Heritage Lottery Fund in order to restore and extend the SSSI grassland areas is of immense importance to the present and future value of this local nature reserve.

"It will be asserting its status as a site of metropolitan importance both scientifically and to the communities of Harrow and London."

In order to help the restoration project, the nature reserve management committee will be recruiting volunteers to carry out a range of tasks. Other volunteers will attend courses about the local habitat, including how to identify species.

The project, which will continue until early 2015, will return the grassland areas to the more open appearance that was a common feature of Victorian times.

Local schools will also get involved, including some hands-on help from GCSE and A-level students and an education pack to help younger pupils learn more about the area's biodiversity.

By Caitlin Black

A CLUB is hoping to encourage more people to get in to golf and shake off the "elitist" stereotype.

Stanmore Golf Club is holding a 'Get into Golf' open evening on Wednesday August 1 between 5pm and 9pm.

PARALYMPIC experts took sporty children through their paces as part of a specialised gym open day.

The Aspire gym, at Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore, welcomed more than 60 children from seven local schools to take part in activities and encouraged disabled children to get involved in sports.

AS the country marked Action Mesothelioma Day last week the son of a former pipe fitter's assistant who died after contracting an asbestos related disease spoke for the first time about the affect of the deadly mineral.

A 12-YEAR-OLD schoolboy from Edgware has been offered a place in Mensa.

Jatin Chunilal, who attends Harrow High School in Gayton Road, Harrow, received an invitation to join the society for bright people after it was confirmed he had an IQ of 162 compared to the average of 100.