Heathrow impact (image: H&F council)

On Thursday 4th Oct all the organisations presenting a legal challenge to Heathrow expansion will be in court seeking permission to go ahead.

H&F Council have now joined 4 other Councils to challenge the Heathrow decision. Friends of the Earth are challenging it on climate change grounds, and Greenpeace on grounds of air pollution.

The judge will decide which, if any of challenges, can proceed to a full hearing. The campaign needs a big crowd inside and outside the court to show public opposition. The permission hearings will be at the Royal Courts of Justice, if you support the challenge and can attend, please be there by 9 am.

Hammersmith takes one for the TEAM

For those in any doubt as to what 3rd runway traffic might look like, this is what TEAM landing patterns already look like at 6.30 am on a Sunday morning even when the alternation schedule plans to only use the southern runway!  See this link for the current alternation schedule and an understanding of the carte-blanche that is TEAM. 

TEAM landings 30th Sept 2018, 6.30 AM. Image courtesy Flightradar24.com

The effect of the existing arrangement is that a Sunday lie-in can end at 6 am without notice for those in the southern areas of Hammersmith, never mind the long-suffering residents of Chiswick, Barnes, Mortlake, Kew, Richmond and Twickenham.  You can extrapolate as to what the effect of a further runway to the north might look like over the middle and north of the borough.

Our articles on airport expansion (chronological) 

Hammersmith Bridge 2017, © Jane Bain

Members of the Hammersmith Society, Historic Buildings Group and HAMRA committees met the team in charge of the major works planned for Hammersmith Bridge.

Jane Bain of HAMRA delivered an  impressive visual presentation about the effect of surrounding developments on the Bridge silhouette and general loss of visibility over time, using archive photographs (small selection shown below) to support our contention that the paint treatment of the Bridge should be revisited so the Bridge is visible, distinctive and can be fully appreciated in longer views. The agreement of Historic England will be needed to any change in the colour treatment, which may be a challenge.

Hammersmith Bridge 1950 © Hammersmith Archives

Hammersmith Bridge 1964 © Hammersmith Archives

Hammersmith Bridge 1986 © Hammersmith Archives

Hammersmith Bridge 2003 © Jane Bain

The works, which will involve bridge closure, are still scheduled for the end of this year. At the moment studies are still being carried out on the Bridge: stress tests, load assessments, effects of previous repairs. A feasibility report is being prepared on the basis of this information which will give options for the scale of the major repairs: financial viability may not necessarily support TfL’s aspiration to have double-decker buses using the Bridge. 

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Further to my News Update last week, we have received notice that there will be an ‘interim’ report to the Council’s ‘Community Safety, Environment and Residents Service Policy and Accountability Committee’ on Monday 29th January at 7pm.
You can see the Report  here

This Committee is open to all and I strongly recommend you attend if you can. (Unfortunately I shall be away).

The report is completely noncommittal and there appears to be no recognition of the considerable local opposition both in Hammersmith and Chiswick where there are various active anti-CS9 groups and petitions. Continue reading →

Hammersmith Bridge, night – Mariusz Czajkowski

We have been pressing the Council – so far unsuccessfully – for us to be involved in decisions regarding the refurbishment of the bridge which is due to take place later this year.  As you will all be aware, the bridge is in need of strengthening so that it can support the weight of double decker buses and some lorries.

This a joint project between Transport for London and the Council who have responsibility for the maintenance of the bridge. Several short term closures have been necessary for temporary works and we understand further closures are necessary to allow detail survey work to be carried out. There still does not seem to be a formal programme for the main works. For obvious reasons we do not expect to be involved in the technical detail and our main interest is in the lighting and redecoration. Since the last lighting upgrade for which the Hammersmith Society gave its Environment Award in 2000 for the ‘blades of light’ created on each side of the bridge, lighting technology has moved on in leaps and bounds so that the individual incandescent bulbs will almost certainly be replaced by strips of modern LEDs. Continue reading →

There have been no new major site applications. The updated Local Plan originally planned for the Spring will not now be ready until the Summer – and this is thought to be due to the difficulties of reconciling the proposals with the realisation that the huge area of land required for the Crossrail Elizabeth line sidings cannot be built over economically and therefore will radically reduce the area of land available for development.

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