page_title: London Borough of Hillingdon
section_title: Parks and recreation
hierarchical_section_title: London Borough of Hillingdon / Parks and recreation
caption_attribution_description: English: The dovecote in Eastcote House Gardens
context_page_description: The London Borough of Hillingdon is a large borough in West London, England. It was formed from the districts of Hayes and Harlington, Ruislip-Northwood, Uxbridge, and Yiewsley and West Drayton in the county of Middlesex. Today, Hillingdon is home to Heathrow Airport and Brunel University, and is the second largest of the 32 London boroughs by area.
  The main towns in the borough are Hayes, Ruislip, Northwood Hills, West Drayton and Uxbridge. Hillingdon is the least densely populated of the London boroughs, due to a combination of large rural land in the north, RAF Northolt Aerodrome, and the large Heathrow Airport.
context_section_description: The borough maintains over 200 green spaces, totalling around 1,800 acres (730 ha). As much of the area is within the Metropolitan Green Belt it was, in 2008, one of the least densely populated of all the London boroughs; open spaces range in size from the Colne Valley Regional Park by the River Colne in the north of the borough, to smaller gardens and parks such as the Norman Leddy Memorial Gardens and Lake Farm Country Park in the south of the borough.
  Council leader Raymond Puddifoot had given a promise that green-belt land in Hillingdon would be safe on his watch: 'I can give a categoric assurance that under this administration we will never see a threat to the green belt.' In August 2012, however, Mr Puddifoot announced plans to build on green-belt (and longtime common land) site Lake Farm in the south of the borough. Dismissing the discontent of residents in the south of the borough, the Conservative majority of the Council's planning committee peremptorily rubber-stamped the plans in March 2013.
  Harmondsworth Moor, a park owned by the borough, is administered by British Airways on behalf of the borough. After British Airways planned to create a new headquarters in 1992, the airline agreed to convert a former landfill site into Harmondsworth Moor.
  The Grand Union Canal passes through Hayes, Yiewsley, Cowley and Uxbridge in the Borough. Ruislip Lido was built as a feeder reservoir for the canal, but was eventually disconnected and changed to become a recreational lido. Two Sites of Special Scientific Interest next to the canal, Frays Farm Meadows and Denham Lock Wood, are managed by the London Wildlife Trust.
  The borough also operates children's centres, recreational areas for children of under five years of age and their families. The centres include: Barra Hall, Belmore, Cherry Lane, Colham Manor, Cornerstone, Cowley St. Laurence, Harefield, Hillside, McMillan Early Childhood Centre, Nestles Avenue, Oak Farm, and Uxbridge College (Hayes Campus).
  The borough owns four theatres: the Beck Theatre in Hayes (which is operated on behalf of the borough by HQ Theatres Limited), the Compass Theatre in Ickenham, the Winston Churchill Theatre and Hall (part of the Manor Farm site) and the Open Air Theatre, Barra Hall Park in Hayes.
caption: The Eastcote House walled garden
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