'Time running out' for Hermitage as Hounslow Council urged to act (From Hounslow And Brentford Times)

'Time running out' for Hermitage as Hounslow Council urged to act

1:00pm Sunday 7th February 2010

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The property developer owner of a decaying 15th century cottage has been accused of giving a “two-fingered salute” to the council by neglecting the historic building for more than six years.

Gurmit Singh Bhullar, 54, bought the Grade II listed Hermitage, in Upper Sutton Lane, Heston, just over a month before it was ravaged by fire in 2003.

The blaze, which was believed to have started in a chip pan, destroyed the roof of the medieval wing and the first floor.

Concerned residents said time was rapidly running out to save the formerly thatched timber-framed house, and called for Hounslow Council to make a compulsory purchase order (CPO).

Heston Central Councillor Peta Vaught said: “I’ve said several times the owner should be prosecuted.

“I think it’s disgraceful. We are letting an individual practically give a two-fingered sign to the council, and that’s totally wrong because he purchased it under the pretext of a residential property.”

Mr Bhullar, director of Bellforce Development, has submitted plans to transform the Hermitage – believed to be the borough’s oldest building – into a care home.

Residents calling for it to be converted into a community centre were left frustrated by council protocol at a Heston and Cranford area committee meeting last week that bans members of the public from asking questions about agenda items.

Nick Marbrow, of Heston Residents’ Association, said the rules “stifle justified public criticism of the failure of Hounslow Council’s planning department and the area committee to resolve the problem”.

He pleaded with the committee to consider an empty dwelling management order (EDMO), introduced by the Government in 2006, which he said were “tailor made for this situation”.

And Tony Cooper, chairman of Heston Community Development Association, said senior management at West London College had agreed a team of students could reconstruct the Hermitage in an educational project.

Maggie Urquhart, historic conservation and urban design officer at Hounslow Council, admitted she was “not familiar” with EDMOs.

She said NHS Hounslow might not approve Mr Bhullar’s plans for a care home, but he was still awaiting a formal response.

She said: “The concept of what the use is going to be is, and always has been, absolutely fundamental to the way in which this site can be brought back into beneficial use.”

Heston West Councillor Elizabeth Hughes said the all-Labour committee’s “hands have been tied” over taking firm action against the owner.

She said: “It has to be a big decision done centrally from the top of the administration.”

Mr Bhullar, who lives in Slough, was unavailable for comment.

A spokeswoman for Hounslow Council said: “If the area committee wants to look at a CPO as something to take forward it needs to be reported to the executive.”

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