Local Residents Triumph Over Big Business: A Tale of Community Spirit and Resilience
Way back in March 2011, our then Chair, Harry Godwin received a notification that Kingsbury High School were selling off their playing fields to GOALS plc. We notified all residents and it seemed the threat had passed after a year or so. But then a stronger bid came in from Powerleague in December 2015.
A campaign commenced against Powerleague from 2015. Brent Council recommended refusal of the application but they appealed and we found ourselves still campaigning right up until 2018.
2018 was our Village centenary, and somehow we managed to battle with Powerleague whilst at the same time as organising the mammoth task of celebrating the centenary… and eventually, achieving our goal of defeating Powerleague.
The team, under the Chair of Stan Rynkowski and guided by John Evans who previously lived in Roe Lane was joined by Dan Hulsmann, Brian Yauner and Debbie Nyman (co-ordinator) and a gentleman called John Timms, MBE whose knowledge of the area was second to none.
It was a small but amazingly effective sub-committee who worked tirelessly from 2015 through to 2018 to ensure the village was not destroyed by GOALS initially or Powerleague with their football pitches installation.
If this group and residents did not persevere in the way that we all did, there would now be a Powerleague installation in Kingsbury High School. We would have lost the green playing fields for the school and our conservation status and ultimately the prices of our properties would have plummeted.
As it happened, Covid struck during this time and the School may well have been in deep financial trouble had the installation gone through.