The Kenton Adventure Park Committee strongly objects to The Larches Trust seeking to secure a long-term lease on the bowling green and clubhouse in Kenton Recreation Ground.

An initiative by residents to make Kenton Recreation Ground the focus of its community, defining and promoting its many new attractions through schools and a widely circulated newsletter, will be irreversibly lost should the bowling club be leased to any single issue group.

In 2010, residents working closely with Harrow High, Elmgrove Middle School, Harrow councillors and Kenton community police reinvented Kenton recreation ground, renaming it Kenton Adventure Park.

A wide range of sports were once again played in the grounds and immensely successful events allowing children and young adults to meet and enjoy themselves during school holidays was organised. To assist this transformation, Harrow Council made available the bowling green clubhouse to the committee, when not occupied by The Larches Trust.

So, having welcomed The Larches Trust who adopted our plans for a sensory garden and refreshment kiosk as their own, we were very disappointed when they turned down our request for emergency use of the toilets or access to tap water when children were booked on one of the many summer events. Fortunately, St Joseph’s ‘88 Football Club kindly made alternative arrangements for us free of charge, although for children these were some distance away.

It was therefore especially worrying for us to discover that the charity intended to take over the building for its exclusive use. Its publicity says it has secured lottery funds to build an extension for a building with known structural faults and making an allotment out of the bowling green.

But the the charity is already using spaces built for it at Harrow council taxpayers’ expense in the recreation ground and there is no mention of integration with the wider community.

The Larches Trust has, by its own mishandling of the situation, opened a can of worms. This has not only impacted on its continued stay in Kenton Recreation Ground, but has also imposed upon the residents of Kenton the need to fight the possibility of a single-interest group leasing our bowling green and clubhouse. This could well set a precedent, which will affect other recreation ground public buildings. Should a lease be granted, not only will Kenton residents lose any access to what was once their clubhouse, but in other Harrow recreation grounds, sport and other community interest groups will no longer have confidence in having a meeting point for them to realise their ambitions.

Christopher Langley
Chairman, Kenton Adventure Park