An environmental campaign group has been saved from closure at the eleventh hour.

Harrow Agenda 21 was worried that it would be forced to close at the end of November unless its members became more involved.

As a result, an emergency meeting was held on Wednesday to decide the future of the group.

During the meeting, which took place at Harrow’s Civic Centre, in Station Road, the group’s members were asked to vote on a motion to close the forum.

The chairman, Mick Oliver, explained to members that they would be forced to close down unless people became more actively involved.

Consequently it was agreed that the best way forward would be to set up a Facebook page to encourage younger people to get involved in the campaigns.

The group will see how successful this is and will then reconsider closure in the spring.

Harrow Agenda 21, based at the Community Resource Centre in Northolt Road, has acted as a watchdog on green issues in the borough for more than 15 years.

The group, which has 100 members, and received funding from Harrow Borough Council until last year, has fought developments on green belt land in Stanmore, campaigned to protect threatened skylarks, and some members have even stood as candidates in by-elections.

However, chairman Mick Oliver says that now only a handful of members take an active role in the group.

He told the Harrow Times: “We need more people to start picking up the cudgels, so to speak, or there’s no point in us continuing.

“A few of us on the executive are sick and tired of doing everything, but if everyone comes to the meeting saying ‘no, you can’t do this’ and says they will help then we’ll keep going.

“At the moment we don’t really feel like we’re getting anywhere.”

He added: “We are in a world that needs to get its act together environmentally, and as a nation we have set ourselves a lot of targets that must be achieved at local authority level.

“We have had a good relationship with the council but they do need to be reminded of their responsibilities and the need to meet those targets.”

The group’s current focus is on ensuring sufficient parking and public provision at The Hive Football Centre, where Barnet FC are due to play their home games from next August, air quality levels in the borough and concerns about overdevelopment.