Lengthy discussion by committee fails to clarify future of pavilion
Gunnersbury Park Bowling Club before lockdown. Picture: Visit Gunnersbury
January 22, 2021
After a discussion lasting an hour and a half at the Hounslow Planning Committee this Wednesday (20 January), the future of the Gunnersbury Park Bowls Club remains unclear.
Planning officers had recommended that the application by the Gunnersbury Park Community Interest Company (CIC) be refused but the decision was called in by Cllr Guy Lambert for consideration by the full planning committee.
The committee eventually decided to defer the decision with no date given for when the application to convert the bowls pavilion to a Café/Restaurant will be reconsidered.
The discussion strayed from specific planning issues into the broader question of whether a commercial catering business should be taking over the site.
The council planners recommended the application be refused because the pavilion is a community asset and therefore, if a proposal is put forward to remove it from community use, it should be advertised first to see if there is any other community based group that can make use of it. A council planner described such community assets as ‘rare as hen’s teeth’.
Despite this being the second attempt to get permission for the pavilion to be handed over to a commercial company which would convert the site into a pitch and putt operation, the CIC has still not advertised the building as being potentially available for community use.
The CIC argues that the regulation should not apply because the pitch and putt will bring in considerably more visitors to the park and much needed revenue. The pavilion is needed for the viability of the operation because the charge for playing golf would not, on its own, be sufficient to operate profitably.
Supported by volunteers the bowls club has continued to maintain the site in the hope that they can restore it and recommence club activities.
James Wisdom, chairman of the Friends of Gunnersbury Park said in a message to the group, “The long and at times confused discussion showed that policy decisions about Gunnersbury Park and Museum should be handled by the CIC engaging with stakeholders, politicians and the public, not by making unilateral decisions which can then only be challenged at the planning committee (which had received 64 objections from the public, and none in favour of the café/restaurant application).”
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