Harrow Council reveals 22 parks that are to disappear

Ha Ha Harrow has now received a clarification of its Freedom of Information request to Harrow Council about the 22 “wilderness parks” that will soon be “no more”.

Back in October, Susan Hall revealed one of her primary drivers for wresting control of the Council from the split Labour group.

It’s no secret, she told the Harrow Times on its front page, (issue: 10.10.13), that residents are fed up with parks “so overgrown they might be a delight to adventurer Bear Grylls but no one else”.

Miss Hall and Harrow Council have repeatedly restated the message: “no more wilderness parks”.

Ha Ha Harrow has now received a list of these parks.

None, it seems, are actually parks.  

The “parks” the Council has become concerned about, under the leadership of Conservative councillor Hall, are open spaces that have offered patches of urban countryside in our crowded community, for generations.

These rare opportunities for children to play and exercise their imaginations, and adults to wander and allow themselves to think they are further from town than they really are, will be culled because Miss Hall claims her mailbox is full of complaints about them.

Second on the list of 22 under threat is featured in the Harrow Observer’s Picture of the Week this week. It is Churchfields, Harrow-on-the-Hill, which is photographed “capturing the wonderful contrast of light and shade” of the area.

Harrow’s rampant reorganiser, Councillor Hall, has other ideas of what is beautiful and worth preserving. Fortunately for the residents of north London and south London, similar landscapes, such as Hampstead Heath and Wimbledon Common have survived for hundreds of years.

Whether Harrow’s nature spots will vanish completely or be reconfigured as allotments or housing, or simply be groomed to a state of  artificial “prettiness” is impossible to know from Harrow Council’s policy statements.

Harrow’s parks are in three categories. The Open Spaces are the ones it says are referred in its policy of “no more wilderness parks”. For those concerned, here is the list of the areas that will be lost.

Key Parks	Parkland	Open Spaces
Centenary Park	Alexandra Park	Brockhurst Corner
Harrow Rec	Bernays Grds	Churchfields
Headstone Manor	Byron Rec	Croft
Lowlands Rec	Harrow Weald Rec	Elms Road O.S.
Pinner Memorial Park	Hatch End P.F.	Greenway
Roxeth Rec	Hooking Green	Grove Fields
Cannons Park	John Rumney	Kenton Rec
	Cedars O.S.	Lake Grove
	Chandos Rec	Little Common Pinner
	Melbourne Ave	Little Common Stanmore
	Montesoles P.F.	Lynwood Close O.S.
	Priestmead Rec	Newton Park East
	Queensbury Rec	Newton Park West
	Rayners Mead	Pinner Rec
	Roxbourne Park	Pinner Village Grds
	Shaftesbury P.F.	Ridgeway P.F.
	Stanmore Marsh	River Pinn O.S.
	Stanmore Rec	Streamside
	Weald Village	Whitchurch P,.F.
	West Harrow Rec	Whitefriars O.S.
		Woodlands
		Yeading Walk