February 2009 Archives

A record number of youngsters flocked to polling stations this year, wanting to ensure their favourite candidate was elected to the UK Youth Parliament.

More than 7,000 young people voted at more than 20 polling stations across Harrow in the week leading up to the announcement - almost 2,000 more than in last year's election.

Harrow's two places in the UK Youth Parliament were won by Aakash Bharania, and Rhiya Pau, both 15, while Amar Chandarana and Mahek Metha claimed deputy spots.

The budding Gordon Browns and Boris Johnsons, who had all been nominated for the posts by their peers, were given the results at the Civic Centre last week and will now join members drawn from all over England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The UK Youth Parliament (UKYP) was set up nine years ago as a way to improve youth participation in decision-making.

Harrow had previously been allowed just one elected Member of Youth Parliament (MYP) on the UKYP and one deputy, but has been asked to elect two of each for the past two years.

An internet class that helps Muslim women detect the tell-tale signs of extremism in their children has been praised by government officials.

The Harrow Council scheme, launched earlier this month, was one of three Harrow-run projects up for awards in the Prevention of Violent Terrorism awards, held last Tuesday.

Labelled the E-safety training workshop, the idea saw off competition from Brent, Hounslow and Lambeth in the best women's project category.

The class aims to cover safety advice on the use of internet messaging, social networking websites and chat rooms, but also helps to alert Muslim mothers about teenagers who might be enticed to look at websites which promote terrorism or extremism.

The event, which was organised by the Government Office for London and the London Prevent Network, was hosted by minister for London and Harrow East MP, Tony McNulty.

Harrow was also shortlisted for prizes in the best youth project and innovation categories.

Councillors are supporting the campaign for Gurkhas' rights and encouraging the public to get behind the ex-servicemen.

Harrow Council has put forward a motion that will urge local MPs to support the campaign and write to the Prime Minister to demand help for retired British Gurkhas.

Labour group head Bill Stephenson, council leader David Ashton (Conservative) and the Liberal Democrats' head Chris Noyce have all backed the plans.

The council is also asking its chief executive Michael Lockwood to look sympathetically at street collections in aid of the ex-servicemen who have been suffering financially.

Mayor of Harrow Councillor John Nickolay said: "I hope we are speaking for 99-100 per cent of the public when I say the Gurkhas are so grateful for what they do have and that they deserve to be treated with respect.

"They are from Nepal, but they are so patriotic for Britain."

Chairman of the Royal British Legion Harrow branch John Stelfox said: "We will obviously help in any way that we can.

"We have 15 Gurkha members in the Harrow British legion and I do know a lot of them are suffering financially, so any support we can give them we will."

The motion was heard at a council meeting last Thursday.

A Pinner man was stabbed in the stomach in the early hours of Saturday morning, sending shockwaves through the village.

The 24-year-old victim suffered non life-threatening injuries after the attack outside Grove Avenue, Pinner, just before 2am.

Two men, aged 22 and 24, have been arrested on suspicion of causing grievious bodily harm (GBH) with intent and have been bailed until next month.

News of the stabbing has come as a surprise to residents in the area, but some are concerned that these incidents are no longer as infrequent as they used to be.

Ian Sutton, 31, of Cannon Lane, Pinner, said: "It seems that this kind of thing is happening a lot more recently than it ever used to.

"By and large Pinner is a safe place to live and go out, but incidents like this are becoming a real worry.

"Unfortunately I think this kind of thing is becoming more and more of a problem everywhere and as much as we might like to think Pinner is immune to it, it clearly isn't."

Before the start of the new year Pinner saw a spate of serious incidents.

Two separate fights outside The Victory in the High Street saw a handful of arrests for GBH, while in November a 24-year-old man was stabbed in the chest with a kitchen knife in Pinner Hill Road.

Also, a 44-year-old man is due to stand trial next month, after an alleged double stabbing in The George pub in Marsh Lane.

But not everyone feels Pinner has ever been as trouble-free as some might think, despite its quaint image.

Councillor John Nickolay (Conservative), a councillor for Pinner South, said: "Obviously this is very bad news for Pinner and everyone is horrified by this kind of incident.

"Although I hope this is an isolated incident I have to say that when I first came to represent the area 10 years ago it was apparent even then that the area had problems on Friday and Saturday nights.

"I, like many others, always thought it was a very quiet place but there is a lot more nuisance there than you might think."

A two-year battle to save precious conservation ground in Pinner needs the support of residents next week when the saga finally looks set to come to an end.

The Save Pinner Gardens Action Group, which has been campaigning to stop housing developments at Eastglade and Woodpeckers, off Moss Lane, is calling on villagers to come to the Civic Centre next week as Harrow Council opens a four-day public inquiry into the plans.

Village Homes, which has lodged applications for a four, three and two-house scheme, has long had designs on the area after first showing an interest in 2007.

Since then, however, the scheme has been littered with controversy.

Originally the company had wanted as many as 10 flats on the site, but it has altered this on three occasions after plans were dismissed by the council.

The developer is now fighting appeals on all three applications, the latest having been scaled down to two £1million detached houses.

More than 1,800 people have written letters of complaint about the scheme or signed petitions, and this time last year campaigners were shocked to see placards they had put up against the development mysteriously disappear, some ending up in the River Pinn.

The latest episode in the ongoing saga saw both Village Homes and a tree surgeon, hired by it, being ordered to court for illegally chopping down protected trees on the site.

But the protracted debate could finally be settled in the next few months, much to the relief of resident Edwin Lucas, who has been instrumental in the campaign against the plans.

He said: "It is important that we make sure indiscriminate building doesnÕt happen in Pinner.

"This scheme would be completely out of character and keeping with the area, changing the whole aspect of the village.

"This has dragged on for two years so what we are looking for is a clear decision that this kind of thing is not approved or considered acceptable."

The inquiry will be opened on Tuesday next week and will end with a site visit on Friday, with decisions taking up to two months to be returned.

Oxford University's finest choir heads to Pinner on Saturday, February 28, to perform a selection of much-loved works.

Schola Cantorum will give a one-off show at Pinner Parish Church, in Church Lane, and tickets are now on sale from 07972 542 524 or at scholatickets@gmail.com.

For more information on the concert visit the choir's website www.schola-cantorum.net

Comedy playwright Neil Simon has had his first Broadway hit reworked by Pinner Players for their latest production.

Come Blow Your Horn will be staged at Pinner Village Hall in Chapel Lane from Thursday night at 7.45pm.

Shows will continue through to Saturday and tickets are available from the box office on 01923 827 432.

MEP Robert Evans has called for the UN to intervene in the conflict in Sri Lanka to prevent a civilian massacre.

Mr Evans, who has responsibility for boroughs in West London, including Brent and Harrow, said: "All the evidence suggests that about a quarter of a million people could be caught in a ghastly bloodbath."

The civil war in the north of Sri Lanka has become increasingly violent, and Gordon Brown's nomination of former defence secretary Des Browne as special envoy to the country was last week rejected by its government.

Mr Evans is the chair of the European Parliament Delegation for Relations with South Asia and has made many visits to Sri Lanka.

He said: "The Sri Lankan government has become increasingly paranoid and defensive about all matters relating to the war.

"It is still impossible to know what is going on because it doesn't allow independent access to the war zone."

He is also due to speak at a public meeting on Sri Lanka in Wembley tomorrow.

Pensioners were forced out of a nursing home in Hatch End because the site could not cope with the severe weather conditions.

All 26 of the residents at Silverlands Care Home, some of whom suffer from conditions such as Alzheimer's, were evacuated to Hatfield last week, following problems with water pipes and central heating.

It is anticipated they will not be transferred back to the Wellington Road site for as long as three months.

One family member of a resident at the site, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "I think it's all a bit unsettling for those staying there because all of a sudden they are having to try and come to terms with different surroundings again.

"Unfortunately, Hatfield is hardly the closest place to Hatch End, which makes visiting a lot harder, making the whole situation worse for everyone."

Sanctuary Care, which runs Silverlands as well as a number of other sites across the country, claimed the move had occurred without a hitch and that the home in Hatfield is more than capable of dealing with an additional 26 residents.

Rita Harris, regional manager for Sanctuary Care, said: "We have safely transferred all 26 residents from Silverlands Care Home to Hatfield Nursing Home in Hertfordshire, following problems with underground water pipes.

"We are pleased to confirm that they are all safe, well and have quickly settled into their new surroundings. Although the move was initially disruptive for them, our residents are all very happy and comfortable at Hatfield, which is one of our newest, state-of-the-art homes and therefore has the bed spaces to keep them all together, which was essential to ease their transition.

"We have arranged transport to enable Silverlands' staff to continue caring for our residents for the duration of their stay at Hatfield and despite the bad weather we have managed to get all the staff to Hatfield and they have overnight bags in case the weather worsens.

"This situation was unavoidable after engineers confirmed the heating system and water pipes under Silverlands needed replacing, work which could take around three months to complete."

Torrential rainfall forced roads to close and caused widespread flooding across the borough.

More than six roads were affected by the weather, including Uxbridge Road at the junction of Oxhey Road, Potter Street Hill, in Pinner, as well as Methuan Road, in Edgware, on Tuesday.

Two of the worst-affected were Honeypot Lane and London Road, in Stanmore, both of which were closed.

The ground floor of a house in London Road was completely destroyed after it was engulfed in water.

The grandson of the owner of the property was shocked by the damage to the house.

The 26-year-old said: "My 86-year-old nan discovered the water with her carer, so my mum and I rushed down from our house.

"The whole of the back garden was four feet under water, we think it was the amount of rain that was the problem.

"We are all quite distressed and they had to shut the whole road this morning while they pumped it out.

"I've been up from 5am and we have been told it will be three or four months before we are let back into the property."

Firefighters from the Stanmore station spent more than four hours pumping out the water in the house.

Honeypot Lane, at the junction with Crowshott Avenue, was shut after a bus broke down and cars became stuck in the water.

A council spokeswoman said: "We are currently looking into ways of alleviating flooding in the future for these problem areas."