Sir Keir Starmer was the guest of honour in the new hall – but tenants have only been in there once since

TENANTS on a 500-home estate revamped by a council regeneration project say they have been locked out of the new community hall a more than a year.

Councillors were told there was a great “fanfare” when Holborn and St Pancras MP Sir Keir Starmer came down to see the new look Maitland Park Estate last year, but the facility had stood unused by residents ever since.

Speaking at Monday’s full council meeting, Kirsteen McDonagh, a rep for the tenants and residents association, said “It’s a beautiful hall with a kitchenette, a foyer and two large rooms and some outside space. There’s a big sign which says ‘Maitland Park Community Residents Hall’. It is currently locked.

“The only person that is in there is a security guard who is there around the clock and the builders are using it to store some goods for the block of flats across the road that they’re putting repairs into. But nobody else is allowed in there.”

Kirsteen McDonagh leads the deputation to the full council meeting

She said the planning documents for the works on the estate had included a pledge to provide a new space after the old hall was demolished.

“We are a large estate with over 500 homes, and our TRA has been unable to provide any activities for our community,” Ms McDonagh said. “There have been many residents who have questioned why are we not using the hall. And this is proved very difficult to answer because we have never been given an answer.”

The new building, locked up to the TRA

With supporters by her side and in the public gallery she told the meeting that they would have to be able to give one to residents by the time the TRA’s AGM came around in September, adding: “The only time we were allowed in before we had to sit on the floor and have a discussion.

“It’s been used by the council to have a listening event and when Keir Starmer came to open it. That was a very big fanfare and then when he left it was locked again.

“I find that quite appalling. It [the hall] was treated as a really good thing, but actually we’re not allowed in it. So why was that? Why did that happen?”

The event in the hall in the new Mary Prince House on the estate last December featured speeches from both Mr Starmer and Danny Beales, the council’s now former regeneration chief who was elected to be the MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip earlier this month.

Regeneration chief Danny Beales stepped down from the council earlier this month after becoming an MP in Hillingdon

The project saw the estate reordered to create 119 new homes ­– partly funded by new private properties on the site. Fifty-one new council homes were created.

Housing chief Sagal Abdi-Wali at Monday’s meeting

Housing chief Labour councillor Sagal Abdi-Wali said the future of the new hall depended on the council finding somebody to run it ­– and bringing in an income.

She told the meeting: “In terms of the concept consultations, we’ve widely consulted with the community around Maitland Park and we’ll continue to do so in that spirit of openness and working together to find a long-term tenant for this space.

“We’re trying to negotiate how to best use this space for the community.” Cllr Abdi-Wali told Ms McDonagh and the deputation: “Financial constraints mean the council can’t subsidise the use of the space by the TRA.

“There is a need for us to find someone to rent the space… we’re committed to working to find a tenant for the space and really negotiate a lease that allows you to have the space.”