Says Peter Thompson, leader of Hounslow Council
In response to Ann Keen's recent call for reassurances from Hounslow Council on Gunnersbury Park Councillor Peter Thompson, leader of Hounslow Council says “Mrs Keen and her Labour colleagues in Hounslow failed to help Gunnersbury Park for more than 35 years; we can only assume the threat of a May General Election has suddenly woken her up to the needs of a local facility ignored for decades.
"Ealing and Hounslow are working together to guarantee a future for Gunnersbury Park and have achieved more in 4 years than 35 years of Labour neglect. For the first time in more than three decades there is a detailed feasibility study mapping out the options and costs for the park in the future.
"It is important that residents are not misled by Mrs Keen’s blatant electioneering.
"Fact 1: the majority of residents taking part in the Gunnersbury consultation favoured some form of development in the park
"Fact 2, we know that development within the park boundaries would be a highly controversial step. Ealing themselves have ruled this out so it is now not an option; but the massive gap in funding remains.
"Fact 3, if Mrs Keen had been less interested in getting taxpayer funding for her luxury second home in central London and more interested in helping to secure funding to support Gunnersbury then work to save the park may already have been a big success.
"If Mrs Keen truly wants to help Gunnersbury then I call on her to sit down with the borough’s elected councillors, offer wholehearted support to helping find a solution, and even at this late stage lobby for funding to be provided so that Gunnersbury Park is preserved and improved for future generations.”
February 26, 2010
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