Cineworld in King Street have finally announced the formal closure to make way for the Town Hall Redevelopment Scheme. This will close in Mid. April.

To many of us this will be a sad loss with many family memories. A small replacement cinema complex is promised as part of the later phase of the Town Hall scheme. In the meantime, we will have no local cinema and Riverside Studios is not due to re-open for a couple of years.

This is the panel set up to advise the Council and Planning Officers on the design quality of major planning schemes.

We have been critical of the operation of the panel for a long time as we felt it was not transparent in its operation nor representative of local views. The current administration closed the panel down at the beginning of last year. The panel has now been reinvigorated and we are delighted that our comments and recommendations have been listened to, and the new panel will include non-architect members from the Hammersmith Society, the Fulham Society and the Hammersmith and Fulham Historic Buildings Group. The West London Architectural Society and the local RIBA Branch will also be able to nominate local representatives.

As I reported in my last News Update, the Cineworld Cinema is due to close imminently and work will start on its demolition. A planning application has now been received by the Council in respect of revised details for the housing and new offices on the west side of Nigel Playfair Avenue. The planning reference number is 2016/00619/VAR. The consultation period is open to 18 April. Your committee will be commenting. Initial indications are that not all the changes are positive unfortunately.

At a packed meeting at the Town Hall on 12 February the Transport, Environment and Residents Services Select Committee presented the draft Feasibility Report on the Flyunder, and took questions from the audience. The report is clear and well presented and may be read  here (See pp.6-29).

The completed report will be sent to the Mayor in March with a view to enlisting GLA support. There is much still to learn about the implications of a tunnel but a surprise to many – including myself – is that the longer the tunnel, the less traffic is likely to use it (p.14), i.e., a shorter Option 1 tunnel will scoop up more traffic (and be less expensive). The shortest proposed version buries the Flyover only – if it was extended west by a few yards to clear the Town Hall and Furnivall Gardens it would help deliver the environmental and amenity benefits that we seek while not increasing surface traffic.