Category Archives: Gunnersbury Park

Regenerating Gunnersbury Park, local history museum and mansions – A way forward

In the past few week’s we’ve had hot air from our Labour MP which clearly really frustrated the Tory Leader of Hounslow Council. I have some sympathy with his view. With just three days until our Budget meeting for the 2010/11 we need solutions, not more waffle.

Over the past few months Joe Bourke and I — with input of several local people — have been working on how the £8.2m funding gap could be resolved. On Friday I shared with other political group leaders on Hounslow Council the short report ‘Regenerating Gunnersbury Park, local history museum and mansions – A way forward’ that is the result of this effort.

The report picks up on our call for substantial investment in these local assets in January and provides the detail behind this element of our Alternative Council Budget announced last week. Our more detailed work set out in this report has concluded that the best model for investment would be to borrow the £8.2m London Borough of Hounslow needs to contribute to the regeneration through ‘prudential borrowing’ and repay the capital and interest over 25 years.

If you have thoughts on the paper and our proposals for a way forward please do not hesitate to get in touch.