Local Authority

ONE of Britain's oldest photographic studios - in Harrow on the Hill - can be demolished, councillors agreed.
The building, known simply as The Studio, was built in the middle of the 19th Century and is, according to reports, in a "very poor state of repair and not structurally sound".
This two-storey timber structure, which is locally listed, sits in a courtyard behind 104 High Street in Harrow on the Hill, the former branch of Hills and Saunders photographic studios.
The company documented life in the borough during the 20th Century and part of the 19th Century and was commissioned by Harrow School to take portraits of its schoolboys.
It has a dark room on the lower ground floor and a photographic studio on the first.
Although the council's conservation area advisory committee told councillors The Studio was the oldest in the country, Harrow School archivist Rita Boswell said: "That's not actually accurate. Before Hills and Saunders there was Goshawk, who was the local taxidermist and thought this new-fangled technology called photography could make him some money. Hills and Saunders bought him out."
Proposals to tear down the structure and build an exact replica, along with a two-storey detached block containing two flats and one house, was approved by Harrow Council's planning committee on Wednesday (13/01) after the authority's own conservation officer advised the studio was not worth saving given its present condition.
The application, lodged by Thomas Harriss, of Northwood, sought to renew planning permission that was obtained in 2004 and had expired.

A FORMER Mayor of Harrow is leading the fight for the fourth time against potentially lucrative plans to replace five large houses with flats.
John Branch, of Sudbury Court Drive, Harrow, who served 12 years as a Liberal Democrat councillor on Harrow Council before retiring at the 2006 elections, started a 75-signature petition objecting to plans to replace 1 to 5 Sudbury Hill, Harrow, with a three storey block of 64 apartments above a basement car park.

A STRING of five houses at a busy crossroads in Sudbury Hill could be torn down to make way for 64 flats - the fourth bid in nine years to redevelop the land.
The owners of numbers 1 to 5 Sudbury Hill, all detached residences, have clubbed together to apply for planning permission from Harrow Council for the demolition of their properties and the construction of the apartments.
And it turns out 1 Sudbury Hill is in the possession of none other than Harrow Council.
Since the millennium, three previous schemes have been submitted to the authority concerning the more or less same row of five homes on the border of Harrow and Ealing.
The first, in 2000, was refused - a decision upheld on appeal - the second in 2003 was withdrawn by the applicants and the third was thrown out when it was considered a year ago.
This latest submission is for a three-storey block of flats with basement parking that will aim to replicate the brick walls and pitched roofs of nearby properties.
In design statements lodged with the council, the architects say: "The urban grain is maintained and the building will form a well mannered and meaningful statement on this prominent corner."

A BAR-cum-restaurant on the Hill can stay open longer at the weekends - despite complaints about noise and disturbance from residents, and Harrow School.
The owners of Cafe Cafe in High Street had asked to operate until 1.30am seven days a week but Harrow Council's licensing panel decided on Monday (02/11) that the business should only be allowed an extra hour of trading on Friday and Saturday until 1am, with last orders 30 minutes beforehand.
Objector Patricia Bawcombe, of High Street, who said she twice called police over incidents at the venue, described the panel's decision as "not a bad outcome".
David Massey, of Coniston Court, told councillors in a letter: "Granting a late night licence will only encourage many more drinkers."
Trevor Gray, estates bursar of Harrow School, had had concerns about the pupils who live in a boarding house 20m away from Cafe Cafe, calling the proposal "unacceptable" due to the noise pollution, while resident Robert Williams, of Coniston Court, said: "The borough should not allow it to deteriorate into a late night drinking area."
Inigo Woolf, company secretary of Coniston Court (Residents) Ltd, said: "Cafe Cafe would appear to run their business responsibly but the problem occurs with the behaviour of individuals after they leave the premises.
"Often they can be hard singing in the street or calling people on their mobile phones and as there is little traffic from midnight onwards, the nature of the street layout tends to funnel any noise upwards such that we can hear individual conversations."
A South Harrow police spokesman wrote to the committee: "I believe this late hour will have a detrimental effect on local residents."

THREE eyesore 19th century cottages in Harrow on the Hill look "appalling" and must be cleaned up, Harrow Council has demanded.
The authority has threatened to serve the owner with legal action unless it tackles the peeling paint, overgrown shrubbery and rotten windows at the properties in West Street.
Those buildings that are blighting the picturesque neighbourhood are numbers 43, 45 and 47, which are locally listed, and the land between 49 and 51, all of which lie within a conservation area.
Using a power it has under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, the council has issued Harwood Press (Holdings) Ltd a notice telling the firm to complete the remedial work must be carried out by November 16.
Failure to comply could result in a prosecution or see the council carrying out the work itself and recovering the costs from the landowner.
Councillor Marilyn Ashton (Conservative), portfolio holder of planning, development and enterprise, said: "Harrow Council has a duty to preserve and enhance the character and appearance of its conservation areas.
"It is completely unacceptable that the lives of residents should continue to be blighted by the appalling condition of the cottages and spoil the natural beauty of the area.
"These are noteworthy buildings within the street scene, the form and features of which would make a significant contribution to the conservation area if their condition were not in such a state of dilapidation."

THREE eyesore 19th century cottages in Harrow on the Hill look "appalling" and must be cleaned up, Harrow Council has demanded.
The authority has threatened to serve the owner with legal action unless it tackles the peeling paint, overgrown shrubbery and rotten windows at the properties in West Street.
Those buildings that are blighting the picturesque neighbourhood are numbers 43, 45 and 47, which are locally listed, and the land between 49 and 51, all of which lie within a conservation area.
Using a power it has under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, the council has issued Harwood Press (Holdings) Ltd a notice telling the firm to complete the remedial work must be carried out by November 16.
Failure to comply could result in a prosecution or see the council carrying out the work itself and recovering the costs from the landowner.
Councillor Marilyn Ashton (Conservative), portfolio holder of planning, development and enterprise, said: "Harrow Council has a duty to preserve and enhance the character and appearance of its conservation areas.
"It is completely unacceptable that the lives of residents should continue to be blighted by the appalling condition of the cottages and spoil the natural beauty of the area.
"These are noteworthy buildings within the street scene, the form and features of which would make a significant contribution to the conservation area if their condition were not in such a state of dilapidation."

HARROW School has applied to build a three-storey extension to its 1980s sports hall in Football Lane, Harrow on the Hill, to provide more fitness rooms and laundry rooms.

HARROW School has applied to build a detached three-bed staff house on the site of the former Dove Cottage in High Street, Harrow on the Hill.

Harrow Council approved the scheme in 2004 but that permission expired three years later.

Harrow on the Hill's Catholic college has applied to construct a new security checkpoint.
St Dominic's Sixth Form College is seeking permission to build a "discreet and hidden" security booth by the chapel north entrance.
It would have pedestrian turnstiles to better control access of visitors on foot and would overlook a separate raisable barrier with intercom for vehicles entering and leaving the campus in Mount Park Avenue.
The scheme would involve the loss of five parking spaces but the addition of one disabled parking space and 10 cycle spaces, as well as new railings and landscaping.

A deal to reopen The Old Post Office on the Hill is close to being agreed, a ward councillor has revealed.

The branch shut on July 3 2008 as one of 152 across London that the Post Office Ltd had decided to wind up three months earlier.

It had served the local community for five decades but customers, including the 800 boys at Harrow School, must use the next nearest service: down the Hill in College Road, Harrow.

Councillor Mark Versallion said: "Just before Christmas, I initiated Harrow Council and Harrow School talking to each other to save the Post Office.

"The school and the council are prepared to do this. We're looking to sponsor it."

"I'm very much lobbying everybody all the time to make sure we come up trumps.

"It's got put through [to the Post Office board] but since then it's dragged on.

"I'm confident we're going to succeed, though."

Mr Versallion said a reopened post office may not offer exactly the same opening hours and services at it used to.

The Observer's Save Our Post Offices campaign encouraged readers to take part in the official consultation process,and more than 500 wrote to the newspaper saying they wished for their local branch to be spared.

But despite the massive public outcry, four other post offices were also earmarked for closure in the borough.