‘The people of Harold Hill had not been informed so surely they could not just take our green space away’.

Jenni Blatchford from the ‘Save Gooshays Green team’ writes today for the Havering Daily.

It was a chance reading of something on Facebook that brought to my attention the plans to build on the Gooshays green in Harold Hill.

What was written only implied something may happen. The same evening I knocked on my neighbour’s doors to inform them. They were all shocked but did not believe it would be true as the people of Harold Hill had not been informed, so surely they could not just take a green space away that is used daily.

After posting on Facebook which gathered some attention and caught the eye of some councillors, the next day it was confirmed that indeed the council did have a draft plan to build 64 properties on the green in the pipeline. 

As a family resident in Gooshays Gardens we are against the development on Gooshays green as it will destroy another green space for future generations to enjoy. Crime, along with knife crime, has increased dramatically recently and it is no longer safe for our children to play in the local park.

There has already been a massive development within the Gooshays area, another will cause added strain on local services such as the medical centre who already see more people then they can handle with four week waiting times to see a doctor.

It will increase traffic congestion and Harold Hill already has illegal levels of pollution. This will create noise pollution, destroy habitat for wildlife and knock down twelve trees and will cause road safety issues.

It will also help to destroy the character of Harold Hill, giving an overbearing feel as the development planned is huge, with up to 200 hundred people being packed onto a small area of grass. It has also been confirmed only a small proportion are for social housing, so it can’t even be argued this is in the locality’s best interest! 

I found the plans on the council’s website and printed some information on how to contact the council to oppose the plans and distributed it to local residents to make them aware, how we were all shocked and saddened that they would try to sneak such a proposal through. 

I also started a Facebook group called “Save Gooshays village Green group” which provides locals with information on the campaign and ways to oppose.

Thanks to another local resident called Andy Walpole we now also have a “Friends of Gooshays Village green group” who are a group of local residents who are against the development and meet regularly to discuss action to stop the plans.

These actions have included a stall at Hildene to raise awareness and gain written oppositions (our first wave of oppositions submitted were nearly 600 in number), we have also held community meetings on the green, had a local picnic, have attended meetings with local councillor Paul McGeary.

We have distributed 5000 Friends of Gooshays Village Green newsletters all around Harold Hill to raise awareness and have teamed up with the Havering branch of Extinction Rebellion who want to stop climate change and protect our green spaces. 

On Wednesday 25th September we also plan to protest at the ‘Save Our Greens’ demo outside the Town Hall to coincide with the next Full Council meeting (6.45pm). 

We also have planned a “community action family day” on Saturday 28th September 11-2pm, where people can bring their own picnic. There will be fun and games with the kids on the green space, we will hold a children’s assembly on the importance of keeping our green spaces with the children’s voices submitted to all local councillors and MP’s and we will also have a road swarming to raise the urgency and awareness of the importance for our green spaces to be kept!

Below is a letter of support received from Shaun Bailey.