Keep the Heart of Pinner Memorial Park open for everyone

The right for everyone to access the heart of Pinner Memorial Park is under threat. We call on Harrow Council to reject Planning Application P/1292/20. Scroll to the bottom to sign the Petition or read on for more information.

A Planning Application (P/1292/20) has been made to extend the terrace area used for café seating and install perimeter timber posts and railing along the East side of West House. This means that the prime position in Pinner Memorial Park will become café terrace and the whole length of the café terrace will be fenced off and available only to paying café customers during all normal park visiting hours.

This is wrong. The land we know as Pinner Memorial Park was purchased by public donations as a War Memorial. In 1949 the Donors entrusted the land to the Council with specific covenants, strict conditions to establish and perpetuate the intentions of the Donors for the use of the gifted land. The first three covenants are:

“(1) That the land hereby transferred shall be identified appropriately as a gift by public subscription from present and past residents and friends of Pinner as The Pinner War Memorial.
(2) That the land hereby transferred shall remain in perpetuity as an open space solely for the recreation benefit and use of the public.
(3) That the land hereby transferred shall be laid out with a minimum of disturbance to its present natural and rural beauty.”

Having a vibrant café in West House is popular and appropriate. We are not opposing the way café activity has spread within West House on the ground and first floors. And it has been reasonable to expand the low walled terrace to accommodate 60 seats on land in an area previously occupied by part of the original West House.

But enough is enough.

And in contrast all the land affected by the current Planning Application (P/1292/20) is subject to the covenants above. Also the land officially has Open Space Designation.

This land along the East side of West House is the prime position in Pinner Memorial Park. It overlooks the panoramic view of the land that has been maintained, as the covenant requires, to provide the public with “natural and rural beauty”.

This also means that increasing the café seating area across the land in front of West House will cause the café to further dominate the experience of Pinner Memorial Park.

Planning Application P/1292/20 should be rejected. It would amount to monopolising the heart of the park for paying café customers during all normal park visiting hours. And even during the night the fencing would remain defining the land as Café Terrace.