There was a meeting at Hendon Town Hall last Monday to discuss the future of Brookdene Nature Reserve. Under the 1972 Local Government Act, councillors on the Assets Regeneration & Growth Committee had a statutory requirement to 'consider any objections to the proposed disposal that are made to them'. This is the precise and only reason that Brookdene was on the agenda. The Chairman, Cllr. Daniel Thomas, wrote to us trying to underplay and discredit both the level and correctness of the letters of objection sent in.
With regard to the total number of objections - of the 58 letters appended to council papers, 42 were submitted on the 3rd April 2015. 1 was submitted on the 10th April and 15 were submitted between the 1st and 15th August 2015. No mention is made of letters submitted prior to 3rd April nor between the 11th April and 31st July. We know that there were other letters and emails not included. We would estimate, that about 15 letters were sent in before 3rd April, 30 between 11th April and 31st of July and about 35 directly to Cllr Thomas - we had been copied in to a number of these. THIS BRINGS THE TOTAL LETTERS OF OBJECTION RECEIVED TO ABOUT 137. Quite a considerable number, we think you'll agree. And everybody is saying the same thing - they appreciate this piece of unspoilt woodland and they do not want it declared surplus to council requirements and passed to a property developer for any reason. We stand by what we wrote in our report THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN and no amount of spin or wishful thinking can change this fact.
There was a lot of confustion at the recent meeting with attendants not really knowing what the Committee was doing. And we were very surprised by Labour Councillors who wanted to give three quarters of the Brook's public land to a private developer as when they visited the site they said they would oppose the lease.
It has transpired that no decision was made on the 7th September. The Brookdene item was referred to Full Council for decision on the 20th October, 2015. When a decision is referred to Full Council, it also means that every councillor will have an opportunity to debate and vote on the proposals.
So, in the meantime, get writing to all councillors and remind them that this piece of Brook public land should remain public. We oppose the granting of a 150 year lease in order to make a private garden for 43+ flats. Just copy and paste these names below into your email.
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