Following our story on the closure of Kenton Recreation Ground's community cafe, Mr Callinan has asked us to publish his statement in full.

As the Chairman of the group that has been running the community café, I feel it is important to make clear that the Friends of Kenton Recreation Group had not formally been granted the right to run a café at the Old Bowls Club by either the current (Conservative) or previous (Labour) Council.  We started the project on an informal basis to gauge community interest in the concept of a not-for-profit community-run café.  

We now understand that the Council is legally obliged to offer the lease of the building in a public tender process if it is to be used for commercial purposes.  We had always intended that this should be a not-for-profit community venture and so we were disappointed to learn that we would be subject to a tendering process. We believe passionately in this project and so are prepared to submit to this procedure and make a formal bid.  The café has had to close in order to allow the tendering process to go ahead.

The demonstration featured in your article was intended to raise support for the formal bid soon to be made by the Friends of Kenton Recreation Ground at the invitation of Harrow Council to run a café on the site.  We will need a lot more support, both financially and in the form of willing volunteers, if we are to open on a permanent basis,.

The Friends of Kenton Recreation Ground learned last week that any new tenant of the Old Bowls Club will have to take on responsibility for a full repairing lease, public liability insurance, building-and-contents insurance, utilities and general running expenses. We would be unable to bear that level of expense and so we are now canvassing support for a partnership project with the Council or perhaps a local charity, which would allow us to run the café on a not-for-profit basis for the benefit of all park users, as a focal point in the community. We are still hopeful of negotiating better terms with the Council that would allow us to operate the café on a not-for–profit basis. 

We are extremely grateful for the support given to the Friends of Kenton Recreation Ground over the years by all political parties within Harrow Council.   I would like to point out that although I gave two years of my labour free of charge to refurbish the derelict building and I spent around £1,500 of my own money on materials, the building has also benefited from £10,000 of grants from Harrow Council over the years.  We would like to stress that we are not a political organisation and we wish to retain the support of all members of the Council for this project, irrespective of their political allegiances.  It was unfortunate that I was pictured holding a leaflet from one party.  I did not wish for this to become a party political issue. 

As I hope I have made clear, it was not our intention to attack the Conservative-led Council who are bound by legal procedure in seeking the temporary closure of the café.  The purpose of the Friends of Kenton Recreation Ground is to make the grounds cleaner, greener and safer for local park users.  We have long been aware that those aims are shared by the current Council leadership and we are glad to learn that those Labour councillors who attended the event last week would also be willing to back a community-run café project.

Eugene Callinan

Chairman of  the Friends of Kenton Recreation Group