The Gunnersbury Park estate cannot survive without earning income because the two councils which own it have been gradually reducing their contributions to its funding – an estate which has been a publicly-funded asset for 100 years this year!! At a time of massively rising costs this is a high risk strategy. The staff team has been raising project funding for the Museum, the Friends have contributed grants to support garden and museum projects but it is impossible to get grants for essential core funding – indeed, funders won’t provide project funding without some sense that the heart of an organisation is safe. Since our charity was founded in 1981, the Friends have always argued that Gunnersbury offers a wonderful space for events as long as they are appropriste and carefully managed. They got off to a bad start in 2018 when the very inexperienced CIC took over. But there have been great improvements since then and it is significant that, for example, the Police consider the management of the crowds to have been effective. Nevertheless noise and crowds, large areas closed off for weeks at a time and now serious evidence of damage to the soil and landscape, show the serious risks involved.

Applying for ten years’ licensing has probably been rather too ambitious but we beg the Licensing Panel and local authority members and officers to help in finding a compromise to enable the beautiful refurbished Gunnersbury to survive into its second 100 years of public ownership and provide enjoyment and discovery for wider audiences. It needs some events – but it needs public support and champions if the much loved park and the imaginative museum are to flourish.

All over Britain parks and museums are facing the same problems of tapering/shrinking public funding and the same difficulties involved in putting on events that could help to alleviate this problem. The neighbours and campaigners who have been upset by the events must surely want to see proper care of the handsome Park on their doorstep (it probably contributes to the value of nearby properties) as well as a Museum whose learning programmes contribute to the development and enjoyment of their children and grandchildren. Compromise must surely be achievable.

The long and careful decision of the Licensing Committee was published this afternoon here:https://democraticservices.hounslow.gov.uk/mgAi.aspx?ID=140614

Val Bott (Friends Chairman)