Broomfield House: What is the council up to?

The saga of Broomfield House rolls slowly on, but what kind of ending it is heading towards remains as obscure as ever.

Enfield Dispatch has reported this week that Enfield Council has confirmed that it has submitted an "expression of interest" bid to the National Lottery Heritage Fund for obtaining grant funding for work related to the remains of the Grade 2 listed building, but without giving any clue as to what it would spend the money on. The council says that "there will be a form of engagement and/or consultation later this year" and that, if it gets through to the next stage of the bidding process, the cabinet will consider proposals some time next year.

It's clear from comments in the report by Colin Younger of the Broomfield House Trust that the council has, not for the first time, failed to keep the Trust and the Friends of Broomfield Park in the loop, despite the decades of hard work that these community organisations have put into trying to find a satisfactory solution to the problem of the fire-ravaged mansion.

Colin is quoted as speculating that the council might be planning to submit a proposal that the lottery fund would find unacceptable and thus provide a justification for demolishing the remaining structures. For him, the Broomfield House Trust and many local people, this would be a bitter disappointment after the continuing presence of the ruins in Broomfield Park have kept alive some hope of at least partial restoration for all these years - though, it has to be said, not for everyone, since some people just regard the unsightly remains as a continuing blight on the park.

The new Dispatch report is best read together with Colin's August update for Palmers Green Community - links are below