News: October 2017
Grovelands School proposal, the burning down of the rugby club pavilion and alternative uses for the site
The school proposal is still on the table but nothing much appears to be happening. With Ashmole's primary open (and now with planning permission for a permanent building) and the temporary primary on the Broomfield site looking more permanent by the day there appears to be acceptance by the council that the overall need for a further primary school in the Southgate area is far from urgent so the prospect has, at the very least, receded. It is also accepted that legislation would prevent any new school being anything but a free school. In late 2016, the Lime Trust (which runs a school in Chingford and has the go-ahead from DfE to open a free school in the Chase Farm area) applied to DfE for permission to open new free primary schools in the Southgate and Meridian Water areas. Grovelands was one of the sites that they had in mind. However, they were unsuccessful. All mention of the projects disappeared rapidly from the Lime Trust website so that seems unlikely to proceed. Permission from DfE would not of course have got round any of the issues with the site, in particular the objections from Historic England.
The main development concerning the site in recent months was the vacation and subsequent burning down of the rugby club pavilion (apparently due to an electrical fire rather than arson). The remains of the pavilion are to be demolished but it has to be done safely, making sure that all services have been cut off and that the asbestos present on site is handled correctly. The council has attempted to secure the site but the protective fencing has at various times been blown or pushed down, something we have pointed out repeatedly to the council.
At one stage squatters had been present in the vacated pavilion and there are obvious concerns about who else might seek to gain access to the land. The council did take out a short term injunction against persons unknown prohibiting occupation of the land This turns out to have covered a wide range of council-owned open spaces in the borough, not just the Bourneside area within the Grovelands estate.
The moment the rugby club moved out, the greater the worries about anti-social behaviour on the site became. Even before the pavilion burnt down, interested local parties, including the Priory Group, had got together to consider what alternative uses could be made of the building. Its loss changes the situation, as any alternative use would have to be in a new building, which would have to be consistent with Historic England's on suitable size and design. The council would also have to be onside, as the landowner. It is early days but thoughts are being put together about a building for use by both the Priory Group and the community. This is not a GRA-led initiative but in principle the GRA supports it and some committee members are likely to be involved as individuals. In the short term, local dog trainers are seeking permission to rent a small area; as this would involve positioning two containers on the site, they have had to apply for planning permission.
As things stand, the council is likely to be considering five options, the first four involving applying for Heritage Lottery Funding (HLF):
- submit a HLF bid, which would include purchase of the Thames Water land for public use;
- submit a HLF bid, entering into an agreement to lease the prospective school site to the Education Funding Agency for a 2fe free school and purchasing the Thames Water land for public use;
- submit a HLF bid and look for a sports partner to redevelop on a limited basis;
- ditto but also involving a national sports body;
- do the minimum necessary to clear the site
We have made the council aware of the prospective Priory Group/community interest as a further alternative, with or without lottery funding.
Parking
In September, the council wrote to residents in part of the Controlled Parking Zone proposing changes to the restrictions at the top end of Wynchgate, Queen Elizabeth's Drive and the whole of Raleigh Way. These involved relaxing most of the yellow line restrictions to 11am-noon, matching the permit bay restrictions, and also permitting parking on one side of the road in Wynchgate between The Bourne and Raleigh Way (where no parking is currently allowed between 8am and 6.30pm). The most glaring point is that parking on both sides of the road would become the norm for most of the day and that vehicles (particularly emergency vehicles) would find it difficult at best, impossible at worst, to get through. After consulting with residents, the GRA wrote to the council outlining objections. We await a response.
125 bus route
TfL is consulting on proposals to extend the 125 from Finchley Central to Colindale via Hendon Lane and Aerodrome Road. Unfortunately it seems that the resources for this would come from reducing the daytime frequency from every 10 to 12 minutes, though no justification is given for this. So basically we would pay the price for Colindale's extension, much-needed though it is given the amount of new housing. This does not fit well with the Mayor's transport strategy, which would reallocate resources released by service cuts in the centre to improve services in the suburbs.
As it happens, the daytime frequency is currently every 12 minutes. This reduction was increased during the phase of the Cycle Enfield works when buses had to continue from Station Road to Hedge Lane to turn round. This phase finished months ago so it is a mystery why the service reduction remains in place ... unless it is to soften us up for the proposed permanent reduction.
The consultation is open until 12th November.
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