Residents First

Right to Buy first in Hammersmith

A Hammersmith couple have become the first people in the UK to sign up for a £75,000 Right to Buy extended discount.

The Government has recently increased the maximum discount that council tenants can receive if they wish to buy their own home from £16,000 to £75,000.

Tarek Tuzani and his partner Laura Stevens handed in their application forms at 9am this morning and will receive the huge cash discount on their flat in Standish House, St Peter’s Grove.

They plan to use the cash they saved, via the huge discount, to renovate their home and create a brand new bedroom for their baby daughter, Sophia.

The couple are the first of hundreds of people in Hammersmith & Fulham who could be in line to receive the new bumper reduction. And, to ensure that as many tenants as possible are taking advantage of the massive discount, the council will be holding special H&F Right to Buy road-shows during April and May.

A4: Make a tunnel a reality

Cllr Lucy Ivimy's speech to the Council meeting on Wednesday evening

The Hammersmith flyover was a triumph of modern engineering when it and the A4 were built in 1961. Both hugely eased the flow westward of traffic along the then Great West Road. There had been a debate on the relative merits of flyover and tunnel beforehand – but tunnelling was then relatively far more costly than now. And great noble expanses of concrete were fashionable then.

In the 1960s – and of course the planning of this took place in the 1950s – traffic and car ownership were a small fraction of what they are now. The number of vehicles on the road must have gone up by at least fourfold. The damage of that traffic has gone up by more – a small amount of traffic on a road brings welcome life, a very large amount is utterly destructive.

Ravenscourt Park Ward does not have the shadow of the flyover hanging over it, but it has been slashed in two by the almighty roar of the A4. Walk along it and the poison of that road, the noise, the pollution and the dead dereliction that abuts it, is striking. When canvassing, it is difficult ever to find someone in at a property adjacent to it. When I have done so, I have heard a litany of ill health which I am very confident is caused in no small part by the air pollution and the stress of the constant traffic roar.

Businesses back King Street regeneration

Plans to breathe new life into the west end of King Street by creating a new public square and 290 homes have been welcomed by local traders.

Business owners in King Street say that the development, which was given the green light by Hammersmith & Fulham (H&F) Council’s planning applications committee on November 30, will bring much needed regeneration to the area and will boost their trade.

Dave Parmar, managing director of Scanview Electronics Ltd, said:

“I’ve been here for almost 35 years. We need some kind of development to bring the people in. We were doing very well till Westfield opened and most of the customers around here prefer to go to Westfield because under one roof, you can get everything.

“But if you had something very similar further up the road maybe the customer can be brought in and while coming to that new mall they will be passing my high street shop and maybe will do a bit more, and at a time like a recession like this we need as many people on the road as possible to spend money so that there are benefits for me, benefits for the council and for the local public.”

YouTube film of traders backing King Street regeneration

 

King Street regeneration

By Cllr Stephen Greenhalgh, Leader of Hammersmith & Fulham Council

Walk down King Street today and you will see a town centre that is struggling.

Get to the bottom of it and you will see Hammersmith Town Hall extension – an act of 1970s architectural vandalism that drags the area down.

It is not just a blot on the landscape. This carbuncle would cost you, the taxpayer, £18 million in years to come just to keep it standing.

That is £18million which the council does not have, especially in this day and age.

The development approved this week will give Hammersmith a vital shot in the arm.

The monstrosity of a building will be replaced by a new Civic Square which the whole area can take pride in. This will include new, energy efficient, council offices built at zero cost to the taxpayer.

Green light for King Street regeneration

Plans to breathe new life into the west end of King Street and create a new public square and 290 new homes have been approved.

Hammersmith & Fulham (H&F) Council’s planning applications committee gave the green light for the plans, from King Street Developments Ltd (KSD), at a lively meeting at Latymer School last night.

The planning approval now paves the way for KSD to demolish the ugly Town Hall extension, which is coming to the end of its life, and regenerate a run-down corner of the borough with new public spaces,
shops, homes and offices.

The package of improvements that will now be delivered by KSD includes:

Simpler rules for traffic signs welcomed

New guidance on traffic and parking signs is making it easier for councils to get rid of unnecessary signage and de-clutter the nation’s streets.

The Department for Transport (DfT) has responded to calls from Hammersmith & Fulham Council for more flexibility when deciding what signs or parking lines are created. As a result, the DfT has agreed to make signage ‘simpler’ and of a ‘more concise design’, and to remove unnecessary or duplicated signs.

The council called for the move last September (2010) as part of its 105 ways to slash red tape.

Cllr Nick Botterill, deputy leader of H&F Council and cabinet member for environment, said:

“This is great news for the enemies of waste and bureaucracy and is a victory for common sense. We have been saying for years that traffic sign rules and regulations are too prescriptive and this has spawned far too many street signs that lead to confusion and gridlock. Allowing councils to keep signage to a minimum will make things clearer for all road users and will reduce the need for ugly pillars or posts on our streets.”

Council calls for car club comments

Hammersmith & Fulham Council is calling on residents to help shape the future of car clubs in the borough.

Earlier in the year, the council created four parking spaces dedicated solely to car clubs, which allow members to hire cars from an hour up to a few weeks. The trial aims to relieve parking stress in the borough’s streets and give residents who do not own a car the opportunity to use one.

Four companies – Zipcar, Streetcar, City Car Clubs and Connect by Hertz – are currently able to park a car each in spaces in Nasmyth Street, Ravenscourt Road, Paddenswick Road and Beavor Lane.

But now the council needs residents and local businesses to share their views on the pilot scheme to help decide whether or not the current parking spaces should be made permanent and whether more parking spaces should be created as part of the scheme. Residents who are keen to join a car club are also being asked to suggest new locations for car club bays.

Cllr Nicholas Botterill, deputy leader of the council and cabinet member for environment, was similarly enthusiastic:

Passageway improved

A passageway that is a popular cut-through for passengers using Ravenscourt Park underground station has been radically improved.

The council received several complaints from residents about the alleyway that connects Dalling Road with Ravenscourt Place and has carried out major refurbishments.

Complaints focused around the uneven pavement, the narrowness of the alleyway, poor lighting and a lack of security at night.

As a result, Hammersmith & Fulham Council has now widened and resurfaced the alleyway, replaced the old railings with a new fence and installed two CCTV cameras and two lampposts.

As part of the scheme, new pavements have been laid and de-cluttered on Dalling Road, Ravenscourt Place and Ravenscourt Road. The road has also been resurfaced on Ravenscourt Place and a new, larger cycle facility has been installed at the tube station.

Cllr Nick Botterill, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Environment, said:

“This passageway fell below the standards that residents expect so the council was only too pleased to carry out these improvement works."

Rosemary Pettit of the Brackenbury Residents Association, said:

“We are often critical of the council's development ambitions, so it is a pleasure to record that the passageway has been improved almost beyond recognition.”

Oliver Letwin backs West London Free School

From Hansard

Mr Slaughter: Yesterday my local Tory council announced that 22 well regarded voluntary organisations would be evicted from their home in Palingswick house, which they have been in for 25 years, to provide a site for a free school run by the self-publicist Toby Young, most of whose pupils will come from outside the borough. Will the right hon. Gentleman extend his deliberations and come to Hammersmith to sort out the broken big society there?

Mr Letwin: I have of course heard about the Palingswick house events, but it is hugely in the interests of the hon. Gentleman's constituents that there should be a free school there, as it will improve education standards, I have no doubt. That is of course entirely a matter for the local council, not for the Government, because we believe in localism, but I understand that the council intends to find other ways to house the voluntary and community groups that are involved, and I am sure that it will do so with his help.

By the way Slaughter assertion that "most pupils will come from outside the borough" is very unlikely to be true given their admissions criteria:

If there are more applicants than places, places will be offered in accordance with the following criteria in order of priority:

1. Children in public care (children looked after by a local authority under section 22 of the Children Act 1989).
2. Up to 12 children who have applied to be considered under the musical aptitude scheme.
3. After places have been filled under the first two criteria, 50% of any remaining places will be offered to those children who live nearest to the School, measured by the straight-line distance from the School gate to the child’s home. For 2011-2012 admissions, the distance criteria will be measured from the postcode of the Town Hall in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham to the child’s home.
4. After places have been filled under the first three criteria, two-thirds of any remaining places will be offered to children living within a three-mile radius of the School. Where the number of
applicants in this category exceeds the number of places, offers will be determined by random allocation.
5. After places have been filled under the first four criteria, any remaining places will be offered to children living within a radius of between three and five miles of the School. Where the number of applicants in this category exceeds the number of places, offers will be determined by random allocation.
6. After places have been filled under the first five criteria, any remaining places will be offered to children living beyond five miles from the School. Where the number of applicants in this category exceeds the number of places, offers will be determined by random allocation.