Car Park on Boston Manor Park?

Council Executive to discuss development

The Council Executive will meet this coming Tuesday, 24th February, to discuss, among other matters, Boston Manor Sporting and Heritage regeneration.

The aim of discussions held is to find solutions to some, and preferably all, of a number of leisure, sporting and heritage issues. These include:

• "The need to restore and find a viable future use for Boston Manor House, a Grade 1 listed building, and one of a number of Council properties on English Heritage’s Heritage at Risk Register.
  
• A complementary desire to restore the immediate grounds of the House as part of a wider enhancement of Boston Manor Park in which it sits.
• The desire to improve the leisure and sporting facilities available in the Park.
• The desire to improve the sporting facilities which are also on offer in the adjoining playing fields which are run by the LPFF and thereby achieve a combined sporting 'hub'".

"At the same time, there have been continuing discussions about a potential landmark ‘Gateway’ structure which might be constructed on the LPFF playing fields either side of the M4 motorway. The aim here would be to mark and celebrate the visitor’s entry into the heart of Hounslow / London and, at the same time, to generate some rental income for the LPFF to be used to support its sports plans".

Glaxo Smith Kline have indicated a willingness to contribute capital towards these projects, if they can build a car park in (on?) Boston Manor Park. "The proposal would be to utilise the area beneath the elevated section of the M4 immediately north of GSK House to set out a new car park. Access to this area during working hours during the working week would be for GSK staff only and would generally be directly from GSK House. At other times the space could be used by the general public and be reached via the current Boston Manor Road entrance and the existing public car park."

"...the Council granted permission for an additional 179 spaces in 2004 expressly on the understanding that future improvements to public transport within the 50 minute catchment area would enable the company to make car parking reductions, not increases, over time."

Councillor Andrews stated on the TW8 forum that "Any decision on such a proposal would need to be taken by the cross-party Sustainable Development Committee, which could then be overturned (in either direction) by the Mayor of London. The Executive can only offer in-principle support.

"The recommendation before Tuesday's Executive is that it should 'endorse the principle of these various projects and note the program of work set out in Section 6 which will need to be undertaken in the coming months with potential partners.'"

"The local authority has a duty to consult and indeed its commitment to do so on this particular issue is made very clear in the report."

February 21, 2009