London – While the Gurdwara is sensitive to the demands for housing, education and health, amongst others, and indeed already works in conjunction with local government in support of educational and social services, it is deeply concerned that this high density development of 124 residential units in four 5-storey blocks, with a new special needs (SEMH) school in the midst of the blocks, will have disastrous consequences for its long term survival.
The Gurdwara has its own vision for the use of the land to address the local Government challenges, in line with the London Mayor’s initiative on the use of ‘Green’ solutions within the 1.1hectare footprint. But it’s requests to the Secretary of State to commence a dialogue since 2019 have fallen on deaf ears.
During the Covid shutdown, attempts were made to fast-track a commercial project that would enable the developer A2D to build the school free of charge and recoup its losses from the erection of residential units. This not only reversed the original 80:20 Education:Housing relative land area ratio to 20:80, but also exposed a 3 headed disaster:
1. The much reduced footprint of the SEMH school that would be engulfed by high rise flats gives the vulnerable students no privacy or space to develop themselves and ever become independent.2. It is also understood that the flats are being marketed for investors to buy and rent. Additionally, the number and the configuration of the flats with no parking facilities would not be attractive to families with children and as such that they would NOT by family habitable – more of ‘cells’ and will end up being occupied by desperate transition families as temporary accommodation. 3. The Gurdwara which provides over 100 services free of charge, including supplementing the services no longer provided by the local Government are at a threat with a possibility of the Gurdwara’s extinction. The Gurdwara which has existed in its current site since 1970s has a vast number of services that could be disruptive leading to hostility amongst the residents, such as security flood lights shining into residents windows, early morning and late prayers, religious celebrations and many more.
The Gurdwara, along with most local residents will strongly object to the application based on ‘planning’ deficiencies as well as human rights violations. We state with regret that despite having informed the Mayor, The Council Leader and the Ward Councillors, no one was available to receive the petitions from the Gurdwara President. These were later collected by a senior member within the Civic Centre.
It is clear that the consultations conducted during the Covid shutdown were flawed and reflective of only 16 ‘strangers’ interviewed. The Gurdwara’s footfall of over 400,000 visitors was ignored and the developers had no idea of the neighbouring activities. The opportunity was used to maximise corporate greed and discard the impact of societies within the Borough.
The local MPs have also been supportive of the Gurdwara’s alternate vision.
The Gurdwara have constantly reiterated and reminded both Hounslow Council and Department for Education of their continuing strong concerns as the plans are based on lack of responsible consultation.
The 20,000 very high number of protests reflects the widespread feeling in the Gurdwara that the crucial Section 10 ‘consultation process’ in support of the proposed development was deeply flawed, having been conducted unexpectedly during the first Gurdwara Covid shutdown period
With the local elections due in May 2022, the local residents also wished to bring the issue into the arena and seek local candidates to view the matter, which will help in deciding on the candidates to vote for
2022-01-19
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