Residents First

Residents asked for views on Fulham Riverside

A reinvigorated riverside with thousands of new homes and jobs could be on the way in South Fulham and once again the council wants residents to have their say.

The second and final round of public consultation on proposals to transform disused industrial land on a riverside stretch of Sands End, from Carnwath Road to Imperial Wharf, is now taking place. Residents have until Friday May 11 to make their views known.

Known as the South Fulham Supplementary Planning Document (SPD), the council first consulted on the draft proposals last spring and has now incorporated a series of changes after listening to residents’ feedback. The SPD is important as it provides guidance for regeneration in the area over the next 20 years.

The latest consultation comes despite Thames Water’s controversial ‘super sewer’ plans which threaten to derail one part of the SPD – a possible residential led mixed-use scheme on Carnwath Road – for up to 10 years.

Ending the borough divide at Earls Court

Cllr Nick Botterill's speech to Monday's council meeting

Tonight we are deciding whether or not to endorse a policy which translates an emerging vision of renewal into a practical framework; a template which will guide the future development and regeneration of this important part of London for at least the next two decades.

There are some who say that local government in this country is generally pretty irrelevant. Some councils live this maxim and take the view that there is merit to be had in dodging the taking of tough decisions; rather the epitaph “they did nothing at all but they did it very well!”

We on this side do not believe that success lies in not taking tough decisions. We here believe that it is only by having a vision with a clearly desirable endpoint AND by having the sound judgment and confidence to deliver that endpoint AND by following a robust process that actions for the benefit of ALL the people will come to pass.

The aspirations and benefits for this 90 acre area are truly grand:

Estates need to be rebuilt

Cllr Lucy Ivimy's speech to Monday's council meeting

We know that the security of a permanent home is of paramount importance to people. Which is why a decision to incorporate the West Kensington and Gibbs Green estates in a wide regeneration project is one that can be made only after very careful consideration and only if two paramount conditions are met: First, that the long term benefit to existing residents of those estates significantly outweighs the disbenefit; and second that existing residents are treated fairly and with the greatest consideration.

I wish to assure this Council that both these conditions will be met.

It might be possible for a scheme to cover merely the Exhibition centre and TfL land leaving the West ken and Gibbs Green estates intact. So why include them in the development? Well the West Kensington Estate was built in the early seventies, one of our worst periods for both architecture and build quality. The consequence is that many of the homes there have very poor insulation and are difficult to keep warm as well as having a high carbon footprint. They can suffer from bad condensation and damp. In the larger blocks the communal areas are poorly designed and so do not feel hospitable. The individual houses are also of very poor build quality and suffer from the same poor insulation. The West Ken estate, even after the Decent Homes refurbishment, will not offer the sort of high quality accommodation that our tenants have a right to expect. It has a limited life and will require increasingly costly refurbishment to remain liveable in the twenty first century.

Listening to ALL the residents on the West Ken and Gibbs Green estates

Cllr Tom Crofts gave the following speech at Monday night's Council meeting

Over the last months I have been talking to residents on the West Kensington and Gibbs Green estates regarding the consultation which has now closed. I personally spoke to a large number of people. There wasn’t one view – there were many. Some were very much against redevelopment seeing their home as their castle and who had lived there for many years. Some were against because of rumours that are simply untrue. Some were indifferent saying that if it happens then just get on with it and some were very much in favour and wanted to move as soon as possible.

I am not deaf to my electors, I have engaged with resident, I have been honest with them and I have been impartial when talking to them as I wanted them to come to their own conclusions and I have even handed in Forms on behalf of residents who were against regeneration. All I want is for resident to be given the facts and be allowed to make their own mind up.

I spoke to one resident who was vehemently against the plans and was furious the text of the legal agreement wasn’t available yet, just the guarantees. He thought it was a conspiracy. And I spoke to another resident in one of the blocks on West Ken who took me into his house to show me the damp and
poor state of the flat which he lived in. He also showed me where the drug users would sit in the stairwells at night and who also threatened him and his wife on a daily basis. He was scared and wanted to move. And lastly I spoke to a large number of residents in the surrounding streets who told me that
they were sick and tired of drug dealers and joy riders going up and down their streets. They unsurprisingly were very much in favour. It should be noted that the good majority of law abiding residents are equally fed up with the by - products of poor design and neglect over the years.

Vision backed for new urban quarter at Earls Court

A Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) to guide possible future development in the Earls Court area was approved by Hammersmith & Fulham Council last night.

The SPD has been jointly produced by Hammersmith & Fulham (H&F) Council, the GLA and The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It supports the vision for a new, residential led urban quarter within the Earls Court and West Kensington Opportunity Area that delivers a significant number of new homes, a minimum of 7,000 new jobs, new retail units, new social and community facilities and a new cultural facility.

It supports the idea of comprehensive regeneration across the entire 92 acre Opportunity Area which includes both Earls Court 1 and 2 Exhibition Centres and is bordered by Warwick Road to the east, West Cromwell Road (A4) to the north, North End Road to the west and includes the Seagrave Road car park site to the south.

The major landowners within the Opportunity Area are Hammersmith & Fulham Council (West Kensington & Gibbs Green estates), Transport for London (Lillie Road transport depot) and Capital and Counties (Earls Court Exhibition Centres, the Empress State Building and Seagrave Road car park).

The SPD supports the inclusion of West Kensington & Gibbs Green housing estates as part of comprehensive regeneration, citing the potential benefits that this could bring, including new homes for people living on the estates, new job opportunities, new community facilities and a greater range of housing choice.

Rogue builder hit with record fine

A rogue builder who turned a quiet street in an historic conservation area into a building site after knocking down his house without consent is now more than £500,000 worse off after being taken to court by Hammersmith & Fulham Council.

Piers Rance of Cloncurry Street, Fulham, was fined £120,000 at Isleworth Crown Court yesterday – £40,000 more than the previous highest fine for similar offences in the UK.

He was also told to pay the council’s legal costs of around £100,000 and will have to meet his own costs, said to be around £300,000 - to make the eye-watering total of more than half a million pounds.

Conservation areas are designated for their special architectural and historic interest and anyone wishing to demolish a building needs to obtain permission from the council before going ahead with the work.

Slaughter's short memory on tall buildings

Letter to the Fulham and Hammersmith Chronicle

Dear Sir,
The suggestion from the Labour MP Andrew Slaughter that those of us who dislike tower blocks should support Ken Livingstone to be restored as Mayor of London shows Slaughter has a short memory. When residents objected to a ten storey tower block on the Allied Carpets site just north of Ravenscourt Park, Livingstone tried, unsuccessfully, to push it through. When the Prestolite site in Larden Road was revised with a reduced height he tried to scupper the changes to a more attractive scheme thus threatening a delay to the much needed extra housing.

The truth is that Labour have offered kneejerk opposition to all development since they lost control of the Hammersmith and Fulham Council five years ago. They say they understand the need for more housing yet when more housing is proposed their councillors on the planning committee have voted against it en bloc every single time.

Slaughter should reflect on his own record of failure on housing during his ten years as Council leader. He might find some new data from the housing charity Shelter instructive. When he ceased being council leader in 2005 there were 1,825 household in temporary accommodation in this borough. Often it would mean hostels or overcrowded conditions. Temporary accommodation manages to combine being expensive for the taxpayer and dreadful for the tenants. It is now down to 881.

Green light for Fulham Reach

An exciting scheme to breathe fresh life into the Fulham riverside has been approved by Hammersmith & Fulham (H&F) Council.

On Friday, September, 23, developer St George was given the green light by the council to regenerate the Fulham Reach area by constructing 744 flats on a riverside site at Distillery Lane, together with new office space, gym, restaurants, swimming pool and a boat club.

Cllr Nick Botterill, deputy leader and cabinet member for environment, said: “The committee approved this application as it believed that the development would revitalise the riverside by bringing new homes, jobs and prosperity to a part of London that has been in desperate need of regeneration for many years. We recognise that there were differing views on this scheme but ultimately, having considered the application in detail, it is our opinion that this development will improve Fulham Reach and the surrounding area."

As part of the scheme, the council has negotiated a £12m Section 106 package from St George that will be spent on improvements to the surrounding area.

Speaking after the meeting, local residents spoke of their satisfaction that the plans had been approved.

Fulham resident Paul Makaviglia, said: “I am sure that this development will improve the area. I have been living here for around seven years and that bit of land has always looked a bit scruffy. When I look at what St George have done in Putney, I am sure that this will be a real improvement.”

Briefing on the King Street regeneration project

Principal challenges:

• This stretch of King Street is sandwiched between central Hammersmith and Chiswick and offers a poor choice of shopping for residents and an extremely poor trading environment for existing retailers.
• The 1970s town hall extension, which was once voted the ugliest building in Hammersmith & Fulham, is in urgent need of a comprehensive refurbishment – which is estimated to cost around £18 million including staff decant costs.
• Around a quarter of shops in the area around Hammersmith town hall are currently vacant. A survey in January 2011 showed that 10 of the 42 shops on King Street, between Connexions and Ravenscourt Road, are currently unoccupied.
• Local residents in the King Street area are separated from the River Thames by the busy A4 trunk road, with only subways providing access across to Furnivall Gardens.
• The council does not have the ability to fund a refurbishment of the extension or an office improvement project in the context of having to make savings of £65 million over the next four years.
• Retention of the cinema is not viable and the existing cinema almost closed 8 months ago despite receiving below market rent from Tesco.

Proposed solution:

Following an exhaustive competitive tendering exercise, Helical Bar Plc/Grainger Plc were appointed as redevelopment partners. At the time residents voted overwhelmingly in favour of this scheme when the shortlisted schemes were exhibited prior to the council’s decision to appoint a development partner.

The scheme incorporates:

• Demolition of the town hall extension and removal of ugly bridging connections to the historic town hall.
• New town square (a Mayor’s Great Space), repairs to the town hall and reinstatement of steps to the north facade of the town hall.
• Pedestrian bridge over the A4 re-linking the municipal campus with Furnivall Gardens (part of which used to be the riverside municipal frontage to the listed town hall prior to its severance by the construction of the six lane A4).
• Restaurants, cafes and other retailers.
• 320 studio, one, two and three bed apartments.
• Replacement council offices including a one-stop shop for residents.
• Local food store.

Whilst there is vigorous opposition from some amenity groups (“Save Our Skyline”) and some residents (particularly in Upper Mall), 81% of respondents at the most recent public exhibition said the scheme would have a positive impact on Hammersmith town centre.

Key benefits:

• If it receives planning permission, the King Street regeneration project will strengthen Hammersmith’s economy, revitalising the west end of the town centre while delivering efficient new civic office buildings at zero cost to the taxpayer. Contrast alternative approaches (in some other boroughs and the previous administration’s scheme which was larger, negotiated behind closed doors and required a £27million public subsidy).
• It will act as a catalyst to attract further investment into this part of King Street.
• The new town square will provide a focal point and become a destination for residents.
• The £18 million cost of refurbishing the town hall extension building will be avoided plus £4 million annual savings resulting from disposal of other council offices.
• Energy costs are expected to reduce from £225,000 per annum to approximately £80,000 pa if the new modern buildings replace the existing inefficient structure.
• An elegant and accessible footbridge will reconnect King Street to the river through Furnivall Gardens re-linking the municipal campus.
• The development will not cost a penny of public subsidy although the council is contributing some land.

MBE for Angela Clarke

Huge congratulations to Angela Clarke who has been awarded an MBE in the New Year's Honours list for services to the community in Hammersmith.

Angela served for three years as Chairman of the Hammersmith Society. In a previous role Angela was a Conservative councillor. However she was staunchly independent as the Hammersmith Society's Chairman - being critical  of a number of planning applications but doing so from the right motivation and in a well informed, intelligent and constructive way. She remains a committee member.

She is Chairman of the Governors at John Betts School and a Trustee of Hammersmith United Charities.