The Hammersmith and Fulham Air Quality Commission report was adopted by the Council in November. The Commissioners, chaired by Rosemary Pettit, have recently asked the Council for an update on the Commission’s recommendations.

A total of 25 recommendations were presented to LBHF council, and 17 of these have been acted upon. These include an Urban Ecology Plan, an increase in diesel permit charges, a target of converting Council fleets to low-emission vehicles, and arboricultural and greening policies to be promoted in the Local Plan and Supplementary Planning Documents. Further details

At Government level, MPs from four influential committees will launch a joint inquiry into the scale and impact of UK air pollution. The Environmental Audit Committee, Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Health Committee and Transport Committee will consider mounting scientific evidence on the health and environmental effects of toxic air. The H&F Air Quality Commission report will be submitted to the inquiry.

At GLA level, the Mayor of London is to prioritise air quality in a new London Plan, expand use of electric buses, reduce vehicle ‘idling’ and review London’s Climate Change and Energy Strategy.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, today announced plans for 10 more Low Emission Bus Zones deploying the greenest buses on the capital’s most polluted routes to cut harmful nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions. This is in addition to the two zones already announced at Putney High Street and between Brixton and Streatham.

The zones are expected to reduce NOx emissions from buses along the routes by around 84 per cent. They form part of the Mayor’s hard-hitting measures to tackle London’s air, with major plans set to be implemented in 2017 to tackle the dirtiest vehicles.

The two additional Low Emission Bus Zones affecting Hammersmith are:

• Uxbridge Road to Shepherds Bush – from Ealing Broadway via Hanger Lane to Uxbridge Road, The Broadway
• Chiswick High Road to Kensington – via Hammersmith Broadway and Kensington High Street to Studland Street.

Heathrow Expansion

A third runway at Heathrow will mean a new flight path over Hammersmith and noise levels commensurate with those already experienced by Richmond.  The Government will shortly be launching the consultation phase of its proposal to build the third runway. It will be a vital opportunity for residents in areas – like Hammersmith – which will be affected by more aircraft noise and new flightpaths, to express their views.

handfnothirdrunway will be holding its first meeting on Monday 30 January at 7.30pm. The key speaker will be John Stewart (Chair of HACAN), who has years of expert knowledge campaigning to protect the rights of people living under Heathrow’s flight paths. He will speak about campaign plans and facilitate a discussion about the implications of the third runway for Hammersmith and Fulham. The group’s website is: handfnothirdrunway.org

The meeting will be held in the Small Hall, Holy Innocents Church, Paddenswick Road, London W6 0UB. All are welcome.

Cineworld Hammersmith

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.

Our day to day work of monitoring and commenting on planning applications continues relentlessly. Recent and current schemes include Savoy Circus (Student Housing) – turned down by the Planning and Development Committee in February in spite of officer support : Proposals for Latymer Upper School  Boathouse, St Paul’s Girls School, Cambridge House, Auriol Road, Dimes Place, the Walkabout site, the Triangle site and many others . . . There has been a focus on several applications for tall Telephone Masts by mobile phone providers : In themselves they sound relatively harmless – except where sited in front of Listed Buildings – until you realise they also require up to three large metal cabinets on the footway nearby. Fortunately planning officers agree with our view and those of other groups that the siting of these on public footways is unacceptable. The suspicion is that the companies do not want to pay the tall buildings owners (where they should be mounted) for putting them there.

Bush Theatre

The theatre has got approval and funding to undertake some alterations and a small extension. The theatre will close shortly and hopes to re-open at the beginning of 2017.

Information can be found at : www.bushtheatre.co.uk/our-plans