Bentley Priory and Harrow College up for debate at council (From Harrow Times)

Bentley Priory and Harrow College up for debate at council

3:38pm Monday 6th July 2009 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(1)

THE troubled future of a former RAF base and a college redevelopment recently sunk by the Government will be debated by Harrow Council.

A motion calling for Alistair Darling to fund a museum to commemorate the Battle of Britain at Bentley Priory, in Stanmore, will go before the council at a meeting on Thursday.

The education centre was due to be created in the most historic rooms and corridors of the Grade II* listed mansion at the heart of the site, in The Common, with funding expected from a private housing development elsewhere on the grounds.

But, as the Harrow Times exclusively reported in March, a contract for the project fell through and the sale of the base has since been shelved.

Councillor Marilyn Ashton, responsible for planning at the council, proposed the motion, saying “it is unacceptable that a site of such significance is left to deteriorate”.

Bentley Priory will be open to the public for four days from Thursday, September 10, to Sunday, September 13, when re-enactors will provide a living history of the base, posing as key staff including Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding.

In another motion, Councillor Bill Stephenson, leader of the Labour Group, hits out at the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) after it bungled the job of dishing out grants to colleges across the country.

The quango was due to provide the bulk of the funding for plans to bring Harrow College's two campuses together on a single site in the town centre, but backed out after promising too much cash to too many centres.

Cllr Stephenson says the LSC “let everyone down in a most disgraceful way” and calls for a cross-party delegation to meet with ministers in an effort to breath new life into the scheme.