| Topic: | Last night's Meeting at the Small Mansion | |
| Posted by: | Victor Mishiku | |
| Date/Time: | 20/04/13 02:52:00 |
| Last night at the Small Mansion, councillors met to discuss the current proposals. A presentation set out the timetable for planning permission and cabinet approval, etc. The permission being assumed and a mere formailty, it seems both from the Council and the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber). However, the timetable failed to include the time required for the Tribunal's consideration of the proposals - last time it took 3 years (1992 - 1995)! It transpired that the developers taking the land for 200 years for the exclusive school are a Ritblat-owned company registered in the British Virgin Islands. The school is to be allowed to rent out the premises out of school hours. The Lease arrangements give the school control of areas of the Park for staff car-parking, a playground and other parts of the Park are to be fenced off with high steel fencing and security CCTV cameras installed plus a caretaker's residence, although it was suggested that the school would only be there for 32 weeks a year. Would the high steel fencing excluding the public be taken up and down then? The Friends of Gunnersbury Park spokesman, Mr James Wisdom, did not appear to favour what he thought would be an all-white very exclusive school run by tax-haven developers! Several councillors expressed reservations. Mr Wisdom queried why the restoration of the Small Mansion was being linked to the conversion to a private exclusive school, when the Large Mansion and other parts of the Park were being refurbished with monies received in grants in S.106 monies from Chiswick developments without linkage to development. Another meeting is to be held in June for residents to be told how wonderful it all is yet I cannot see these tax-haven developers parting with £6 Million Pounds whilst there are time-consuming legal issues remaining unresolved. Apart from all this and the binding restrictive covenant, it seems to have been forgotten that the Park is held on Trust for the public having been acquired under the Public Health Acts 1875 to 1925 and therefore, the Council is under a statutory duty to preserve the use of the Park as a Public Park or for Sports Playing Fields, etc. - even if there were no covenant! |