A LONG-RUNNING battle to save green spaces in Heston from development will be decided at a public inquiry next month.
Plans for a total of 58 new homes across three sites on Heston’s Brabazon estate were approved in March last year, despite a 400-signature petition from people angry about the loss of green space.
In a last-ditch attempt to block the development, campaigners applied for village green status for two of the proposed building sites.
If successful, the move would outlaw building on those green spaces, between Brabazon Road and Cranford Lane, and Brabazon Road and Johnson Road.
A planning inquiry to decide whether to award the two sites village green status is due to be held at Hounslow Civic Centre, in Lampton Road, Hounslow, over three days from April 10.
Should the applications be approved, only 10 of the planned 58 homes – on derelict land behind shops in Brabazon Road – could be built.
That would force the council and Hounslow Homes, which manages council housing across the borough, back to the drawing board.
They have already had to back down once, following huge opposition to plans for homes on the main green, and a second setback would be hugely embarrassing.
Debbie Noad, who applied to have the strip of land between Brabazon Road and Cranford Lane recognised as a village green, said the area was already overbuilt.
“The land has been used for at least 30 years by local people for sports and recreation,” she told the Chronicle.
“We’ve got precious few green spaces as it is and I know of very few people on this estate who want new homes built on any of them.”
The proposed development on Brabazon estate is part of wider plans by Hounslow Homes and the council to build a total of 158 homes across Heston.
A spokesperson for Hounslow Homes said there is a huge need for additional housing in the borough, with more than 13,000 households and counting on the council’s housing waiting list, and it has to look at all options to increase the supply of new homes
