22nd June 2014: Pavillion EGM

Dear Friends,

We are holding an Extraordinary General Meeting on Monday 7th July at 7pm in The Masbro Centre, Masbro Road, London W14 0LR.

At this meeting we will put the following resolution for approval:

1. That the Board be asked to finalise the Proposed Design for the pavilion and submit it to Planning

Please come if you possibly can, as the pavilion is a vital facility for the Green. We would welcome greatly the participation of Friends in this meeting. The motion, and a copy of this letter plus the Proposed Design, will be placed on our website www.friendsofbrookgreen.org.

Please read on for more details regarding the EGM

As you know, we have been working for two years to reach a consensus on the exterior design of the pavilion. We have talked about the location, the facilities needed, the trees and their roots, the underground pipes and drains, the security issues and resistance to graffiti and much much more, while working with the council at every turn. Crucially we have also raised nearly all the money needed for this and other projects on the Green to go ahead, some of it directly from the community. We have listened to all feedback and taken steps to accommodate, as far as practicable, this input and any concerns about the proposed designs.

We are immensely grateful to the architects for their patience and hard work. They have allowed us to identify, evaluate and shortlist a wide range of options and alternatives down to two Proposals on which we have at separate times invited and received extensive community feedback. Through this process the Board has settled on a final proposed design for the pavilion (“the Proposed Design”), which we believe a significant majority of the community find acceptable, on which we should now like to base our Application for Planning Permission.

However, one group of residents has recently proposed that the Community should be given another choice of design and have commissioned and produced an alternative design for the pavilion.

It is your Board’s strong preference not to change the well-communicated process we have been following for a long time, which we consider to be appropriate, sensible and in the interests of the Community. But for this late development, the Board’s next step would be to submit our proposed design to Planning in the near term. However, we have instead concluded that the circumstances have changed and that it is right for us to seek the guidance of the Community on this matter.

To give consideration to these matters and to allow you to see both designs, we will be holding an Extraordinary General Meeting on Monday 7th July at 7pm in The Masbro Centre, Masbro Road, London, W14 0LR.

As detailed above, at this meeting we will put the following resolution for approval:

1. That the Board be asked to finalise the Proposed Design for the pavilion and submit it to Planning

During the meeting the floor will be open to anyone to propose another design and/or process. We understand that the group of residents referred to above is likely to take the opportunity to propose their alternative, although we have not been able to confirm their intentions with them before calling this meeting. Whilst your board unanimously recommends the resolution above, we of course welcome the debate within the community on any alternatives and there will be a chance for them, and indeed anyone else, to put their case to the meeting in a fair and democratic way.

Friends registered at the time the Meeting was called are entitled to vote on the Motion, and decisions are made by a simple majority of persons present. Exceptionally persons who have not registered as Friends shall be entitled to attend, speak and vote provided that they live at an address in our catchment area and are registered on the electoral roll at that address.

We look forward to seeing many of you on 7th July and to more rapid progress towards our goal of delivering this important facility.

The Friends of Brook Green