SPORTS groups, residents and councillors are angry after controversial plans for a new leisure centre and skate park were postponed.
The decision to push back the application decision was made by the strategic planning committee at a meeting on Wednesday, last week.
This was because additional consultation with The Environment Agency and Sport England was needed, after they both made objections.
Plans were originally submitted in December last year, but were withdrawn and adapted because residents complained about the loss of facilities.
Harrow Squash Club coach Tony Morrison, 46, travelled for more than an hour and a half to get to the meeting and is growing tired of the ongoing saga. He said: "It is absolutely ridiculous that they have deferred it. Why could they not send a few emails around to let people know that it wasn't going ahead.
"These plans are going to have a massive affect on our club and I travelled all the way from Essex to see what happened. Harrow Council didn't even know that we existed and the fact they are fail
ing to let us know about anything that is going on just highlights how the whole proposal has been an absolute shambles."
Planning officer, Frank Stocks, said there was not an opportunity to let people know the application was set to be deferred. Speaking at the meeting, he said: "It was only decided today (May 7) that it would be deferred. We have known about an objection for a few days, but the application was still prepared in the hope that it could be resolved beforehand. Unfortunately this has not been possible."
Councillor Marilyn Ashton (Conservative), chairwoman of the panel, added: "It's no big deal, we will probably only be deferring it for a week. These things happen."
It is anticipated that the application would be reviewed again last night but leader of the opposition Navin Shah (Labour), said: "If the application was not going to be resolved on the night it should not have been placed on the agenda. It is a complete waste of time for the people that are so incensed about the plans.
"To then go and put it on an agenda with other big applications means that the amount of time people have to debate about each of these massive issues is curbed. That doesn't seem transparent or open to me."
