North Kensington Gate 2016

Kensington Gate: This is a site at the top (north) end of Scrubs Lane and is within the OPDC area and adjacent to the Car Giant site. We have been invited to view proposals which are an advanced pre-application stage. We do not know much of the detail except it involves a tower block of about 25 storeys.

OPDC : (See Newsletter Page 4) Also attached is the Society’s detailed response to the Draft Local Plan for the OPDC area. This involved a lot of analysis and attending copious briefing and discussion meetings. My thanks go to Melanie Whitlock and Angela Clarke for their help and support with this exercise. Our major concerns are spelt out in the Newsletter but if you would like to see what else we had to say, please take a look, although it only really makes sense if read it with the OPDC documents which can be viewed on line. We hope that our comments will help make the overall development a more humane environment for all who will live, work and visit there.

The Council’s Email Alerts to Planning and Licensing applications are always informative. To never miss a planning application in your area, register with the Council. You specify the area you are interested in – and it’s as easy as that. In addition to receiving prompt notice of applications you can click through to the application itself, look at the documents and, if it is a small application, click on ‘Make a public comment’ and write your comments in the box provided, then receive a receipt (and your comments) in your email Inbox. If your concern is of interest to the Hammersmith Society please forward to us. We’ll be glad to respond.

Hammersmith Town Centre as it could be with the flyunder

The first meeting of the group of local residents to review proposals for the Town Centre including the Flyunder took place on 3 December.

There are 25 on the panel and the Hammersmith Society Committee is represented by myself, Melanie Whitlock, Rosemary Pettit and Richard Winterton.

The first meeting involved a summary of the group’s terms of reference and what the Council hopes to achieve. The brief is wide ranging and ambitious. Meetings will be held once a month and the outcomes will influence the Local Plan and the Supplementary Planning Document proposed for the Town Centre due to be published in May/June. The next meeting on 21 January will include a briefing by Transport for London (TfL) on their various proposals for the Broadway site including a rumoured threat of 40 storey towers. We understand that the Council will issue progress reports on the Working Party from time to time.

This briefing event took place in the Town Hall and was useful and informative. There were 34 attendees and several presentations explained the principles and showed examples where Neighbourhood Plans had either been implemented or were still going through the process.  Two separate initiatives are being pursued : Henry Peterson advises as follows :

Old Oak Neighbourhood Forum and Plan

Proposals for a neighbourhood plan for the Old Oak area continue to be developed, and the following residents groups and amenity bodies in Ealing and in Hammersmith & Fulham, are involved in current discussions.

• The Island Site Residents Association (TITRA)
• Wells House Residents Association
• Wesley Estate Residents Association
• Residents of Midland Terrace/Shaftesbury Gardens
• Residents of the Old Oak Estate
• Friends of Wormwood Scrubs
• Brickfield Association of Residents (Eynham Road area)
• Residents of Woodman Mews

For those who find the planning system incomprehensible, our President Hans Haenlein recommends this ‘We Plan London’ animation.

http://citiesmode.com/

Again I reported on this in my previous News Updates. I have since attended a meeting of the Grand Union Alliance which is a grouping of the many interested groups (and individuals). Interests range from the strategic views for this whole development area to the very personal effects to which many existing residents will be subjected.

The worry is that the OPDC will just become another vehicle for large developers to promote their interests but on the other hand the possibility exists for something really amazing to come out of it. One of the major worries is that it will take between 18 months to 2 years for the OPDC to develop its Local Plan – with added consultation (Public Inquiry etc.) on top of that : In the meantime developers such as Car Giant are pushing on with their plans and have to be assessed against the Old Oak and Park Royal Opportunity Planning Area Framework (OAPF) which is supplementary planning guidance to the Mayor’s London Plan, although this is not formally adopted yet. Apparently there were 3,500 responses to the consultation on this of which 3,400 were QPR supporters. Remember QPR have no land ownership within the OPDC area at present!

Our older archived newsletters (without summaries) are shown below. Click on an image to view/download the pdf .  More recent newsletters are available here.

2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006