Go Ahead Urged for St. Michael and All Angels Memorial Garden

Proposal includes widened entrance and wildlife area

A visualisation of the new entrance and memorial garden from planning documents

June 6, 2026

Hounslow Council planners are recommending approval for a proposal to create a new memorial garden, wildlife area and widened entrance at St Michael & All Angels Church on Bath Road.

The application, submitted under reference P/2026/0796, has attracted strong community support, with twenty-eight comments in favour and only one objection.

The plans would transform an underused patch of lawn into a peaceful memorial space centred on an octagonal seating area with an engraved stone bearing the words “I am the resurrection and the life”, accompanied by a cross and the Greek letters alpha and omega.

The seating would be surrounded by planting designed to provide year-round interest, with permeable resin-bound gravel paths laid on a geo-cellular base to protect the roots of nearby trees.

Alongside the memorial garden, the church proposes a wildlife area planted with pollinator-friendly species, shrubs and grasses, supported by features such as log piles and bug houses. The existing mature yew tree, which the church describes as overly dominant and damaging to surrounding planting, would be removed and replaced with a more suitable native tree.

The application also includes widening the main entrance path from Bath Road to improve accessibility for wheelchair users, people with mobility aids and families with buggies. The church says the current layout becomes congested after major services and does not serve disabled visitors well. The new path would reuse existing paving where possible and incorporate permeable mortar and a soakaway to avoid additional surface water runoff.

A visualisation of the memorial garden looking across from The Avenue from planning documents

Supporters of the scheme said the proposals would improve access for disabled visitors, enhance the approach to Bedford Park and provide much-needed landscaping that complements the W B Yeats sculpture nearby. Many welcomed the increase in biodiversity and the overall improvement to the setting of the Grade II* listed church. Historic England, consulted at an earlier stage, described the design as subtle and sensitive and confirmed it would raise no heritage objections. The Bedford Park Society also supported the general restraint of the scheme and the inclusion of wildlife-friendly planting, although it raised several detailed points that the church says it has addressed.

The entrance area on Bath Road as it is now

The single objection focused on concerns that the benches would face each other and might encourage antisocial behaviour, that the new fencing should extend further around the planted area, and that planting should be kept away from the church walls to avoid damp. The church responded that the spacing between benches is more than five metres, that similar seating elsewhere on the site has not caused problems, and that fencing has been kept to a minimum to avoid visual clutter. It also said that planting will be managed sensitively to protect the building.

Planning officers concluded that the scheme would cause no harm to the appearance or character of the listed church or the wider conservation area. They noted that the low-height fencing proposed around the garden would provide appropriate security without detracting from the setting. The application will now proceed to formal determination at a borough planning meeting.