THE Asha Foundation has asked Harrow Council to extend the outline planning permission for its proposed multi-cultural centre in Stanmore.

The Harrow-on-the-Hill based charity, which has struggled to raise money to fund the controversial project, wants to be given another three years in which to submit detailed plans.

Under the conditions of its existing permission, granted in 2000, it is due to submit the final scheme for approval by July, but wants the deadline extended to July 2006.

The appeal is due to be heard by the council's development control committee on Tuesday, but planning officers are recommending rejection because extending the deadline would conflict with the borough's draft unitary development plan.

The foundation wants to build the centre on the site of former government offices in Honeypot Lane and has outline permission for cultural, community, retail and food and drink facilities, with short-stay accommodation and parking.

In its new application, the foundation said it needed the delay because it had taken possession of the site only in December, more than two years late, which had held up its plans, but these were "now in hand".

Residents opposed to the centre have told the council the charity should be given no more time to prepare and that the seven acre site should be put to the public good.

One said the land should be used for low-cost housing for vital workers such as nurses, teachers and firefighters, saying : "If this state of affairs is allowed to continue it would be a scandalous waste of a valuable location."

Her view was echoed by Shirley Sackwild, secretary of Cannons Park Residents' Association, who said that having lost its National Lottery funding from the Millennium Commission, and failed in its bid to get that decision overturned by the House of Lords, Asha could not fund the scheme and should relinquish the site.

"As it is, the site is ghastly, derelict and empty," she said. "There is a chronic shortage of affordable housing and starter homes on this side of the borough and the site should be put to good use."

Asha spokeswoman Zerbanoo Gifford said the foundation had not been told that the issue was on Tuesday's agenda, nor what the planning officers' recommendation was.

May 29, 2003 14:00