Dandara: MP needs to be fair in future (From Harrow Times)

Dandara: MP needs to be fair in future

10:39am Friday 20th August 2010 in

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I refer to the letter by Gareth Thomas, the MP for Harrow West, (‘Now let’s build the future’, Your Views, August 5).

Mr Thomas simply cannot resist scoring cheap political points on the serious subject of development at 51 College Road. His letter is full of mistakes and misleading statements which are unhelpful, childish and a reminder of the fool that he made of himself while giving evidence at the public inquiry for this site in March. It became apparent that he had not prepared himself properly and was unable to answer the simplest of questions. He made a political campaign speech rather than making valid planning points, which was tiresome and counterproductive.

Has Mr Thomas forgotten that it was his colleagues under whose watch this site was bought by Dandara in 2004 and one year later they adopted a planning brief which set the scene for such a high density residential development? This vision for the site was encouraged by the then Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, who was very keen that the developer should build as high as possible. In fact, this application was unresolved when the Conservatives took office one year after that. We all know this is Mr Thomas’s hobby horse, but really he must grow up, get real and accept that the way forward must be for the developer to sit round the table and take on board what the inspector and secretary of state has said, because at least the council now has an appeal decision to work from, which gives the justification to demand a high quality design development and actually get it. A design which is befitting of a landmark building in the heart of Harrow’s town centre rather than the huge, bulky blocks which thankfully have been rejected. In future, Mr Thomas needs to be more even handed and fair minded in his approach. Let us see if he will be so critical and biased in his attacks on his own colleagues who now control the council when the time comes for planning applications to be determined in his constituency.

And let us also see how his colleagues manage the serious decisionsto prevent history from repeating itself in respect of council finances. In May 2006, Mr Thomas’s own friends and colleagues left the council in a parlous financial state. The Conservatives sorted out this complete mess and, at the same time, Harrow became a three-star council, which was a considerable achievement and something Mr Thomas appears to have overlooked.

Marilyn Ashton, former portfolio holder for planning, development and enterprise