12 October 2021

Pinner Grove Estate: Investment and planning needed to ensure a sustainable future

Pinner South by-election candidate, Alex Lee shines a light on the Pinner Grove Estate, calling on Harrow Council to invest in its current buildings, whilst ensuring any new housing developments are environmentally sustainable

 

Since 2016, Harrow Council has been consulting on plans to build new homes on the Pinner Grove Estate. Originally built in 1949, the estate comprises 180 leasehold and tenanted flats in Grove Avenue and Pinner Grove, next to Pinner Village Gardens. So far there have been three public consultations on the proposed development of the estate, with the latest closing for comments on 19 September 2021. 

According to the latest Pinner Grove consultation website, the council wants to demolish existing garages and underused areas to develop 26 affordable rent council homes and shared ownership properties, including five one-bedroom flats, 16 two-bedroom flats and five three-bedroom flats. 

We desperately need more social housing and council homes in Harrow. By the council’s own admission, demand for these homes significantly outstrips supply. The borough has one of the lowest levels of social housing in London, accommodating just ten per cent of its households in a mixture of around 4,800 Council properties and 4,350 Housing Association properties, At the end of September 2020, around 3200 households were on Harrow’s social housing waiting list, 1200 of which were homeless households living in temporary accommodation. Families are having to wait years to be offered suitable accommodation. 

So the development of new homes in the Pinner area is an extremely welcome one, especially as the proposal promises to “incorporate renewable energy systems”and have “a very low environmental impact”, having been “designed to Passivhaus principles”.     

That said, the proposal doesn’t go into too much detail on exactly how these renewable energy systems and efficiency measures will work or what the new layout and landscaping will look like. While we’re pleased to see that the developers are looking to sow seeds and plant new trees, the plans have so far failed to address the expected felling of existing mature trees, risking a loss of biodiversity and worsening the effects of the Climate Emergency that the council has declared.  

Ongoing issues with current buildings

Current residents have raised concerns about the poor state of Pinner Grove right now.  Reading the 74 comments left on the Council’s proposals for Pinner Grove, residents complain of leaking roofs, inadequate waste facilities, criminal activity and a lack of parking. They are against any loss of green space or overall negative impact on Pinner Village Gardens, which essentially acts as their back garden.

While looking to build much needed new homes, we must not neglect the disrepair and unacceptable living conditions already being experienced by existing residents of the estate. Earlier this year, the council set aside £1.4 million towards replacing the copper roofs on the blocks of flats at Pinner Grove with thermally-improved roofs by summer 2021. Visiting the estate this October, it appears the works have still not been completed with the majority of buildings enclosed in scaffolding and piles of incomplete building work scattered around the site.  Meanwhile, despite their reports to the council, residents I’ve spoken with tell me they are still living with dripping ceilings and with serious damp and mould.

They also tell me there’s a drug-dealing problem on the estate. One said, “What I can’t understand is why all the current residents are being let down to live in these conditions and being told there is no money to fix the problems, but yet the council can afford to build new blocks of flats”.    

When considering parking provision, why not also look at electric car sharing schemes? In Greenwich, for example, we’ve seen the council trial an electric car club. If new refuse areas are to be included, how will they help residents to recycle more readily? Could the council try out ideas like the Community Skip, to counter fly tipping, which has been successful in Brent? How much thought has been given to the potential of zero-carbon district heat networks on estates like Pinner Grove?

We are in dire need of more and better council homes in Pinner, and there’s a real chance to make this development project as green as possible, while improving conditions for those currently living there, mitigating the impact on mature trees, and leading the way for more environmentally sustainable schemes across Harrow.

While I’m pleased to see Harrow Council investing money into more affordable, energy efficient homes, let us not miss this opportunity to implement real green ideas that could change the estate for the better.

 

Alex Lee, Green Party Pinner South By-Election Candidate

Tweet