Hot, stormy and packed. Residents from Goldhawk Road and the surrounding areas crammed the ‘small hall’ in Hammersmith Town Hall last night to hear the planning committee debate the merits of this proposed development.The proceedings got off to a slightly bizarre start as the Mayor of Hammersmith and Fulham solemnly declared that he had a potential conflict of interest as he had once accepted “hospitality” from Innocent Drinks, who are based on the proposed site and employ over 100 local people there. If the development goes ahead they will have to move out.
A sole planning officer was then handed the most un wanted job in the room – to lay out the council’s reasons for wanting the application to go ahead. Several shouts to “speak up” later we could hear her at the back of them room plough through the various objections that had been raised by residents, celebrities and eminent QCs alike. “No substantial points” were contained in letters from residents, John Humphrys had misunderstood the parking impact and the eminent QC, one of the leading planning lawyers in the country, had got it wrong because his brief was too narrow.
This was heard mainly in stony silence but then her presentation began to be punctuated by laughter as she declared that in response to residents objections the overall height of the redevelopment had been reduced by a glorious 0.5 metres, and that the materials used to build it wouldn’t stick out.
Cllr Cartwright (Labour) was asked to show a little more decorum as he addressed the planning officer but the sarcasm was dripping. The officer’s report had claimed Innocent Drinks “wanted” to move out. The officer admitted that at no stage had they said this. Even the Mayor (Conservative) questioned their assertions about parking, which they also had to concede.
But the vote when it came went the way of the Council and the redevelopment will now go ahead as planned. Residents are looking at what they can do next to save their neighbourhood, as they see it. This hasn’t gone away just yet, and come the general election I think its safe to assume that this will be a key issue. Where do Andy Slaughter and Shaun Bailey stand?
[...] making far reaching changes that affect people’s lives, not really listening too much if that planning meeting was anything to go by, and not even being held to account very strongly by someone who aspires to [...]
ReplyDelete[...] sheet that you pay for with your taxes, has given the official council version of what happenned at this planning meeting. Having been there I can say that their account is one of the most biased and [...]
ReplyDelete[...] 13, 2009 by chrisunderwood As you’ll have noted I’ve covered the housing issues on this blog a fair amount recently, and I have to say its been hard to find anything from the [...]
ReplyDelete[...] against the Goldhawk Block decision, but who’se letter to the planning committee was publicly dismissed by council officer as misinformed! I’d say it’s pretty brave to ask him to chair under [...]
ReplyDelete[...] being a very interesting evening indeed. Chaired by BBC presenter John Humphrys, who himself has crossed swords with the Council on several issues recently, the event will be a Question Time format where [...]
ReplyDelete[...] the event when Cllr Greenhalgh, when being pressed by John Humprhys and residents affected by the Goldhawk Block decision, seemed to imply that the whole thing had been a terrible mistake, and that it really musn’t [...]
ReplyDelete[...] 26, 2009 by chrisunderwood News reaches us that the Goldhawk Block decision, which was a planning decision taken so obviously against the wishes of local residents and [...]
ReplyDelete[...] be there in force this evening. And unlike the residents who eventually overturned the Council on this ruling by getting the decision called in by the Secretary of State this lot are getting political. Someone [...]
ReplyDelete[...] December 17, 2009 by chrisunderwood …and lo it came to pass. Shaun Bailey’s campaign to become the next Conservative MP for Hammersmith took another almighty blow last night courtesy of H&F Council’s infamous Planning Committee [...]
ReplyDelete[...] opened its doors in the Westfield Centre and the first of several controversial planning decisions were made. I told you that meeting in Cannes would come back to haunt [...]
ReplyDelete[...] In fact my reading of his defence of Hammersmith & Fulham Council’s controversial approach to planning decisions was basically “look, at least they’re getting things done, and you shouldn’t [...]
ReplyDelete[...] that our Council just can’t bear to leave this part of the Bush alone! After recent planning decisions, which united residents in opposition only for them to be overuled in favour of developers, the [...]
ReplyDelete[...] As we’ve seen anything that is recommended for approval at the planning committee is now a formality so the only question remains .. when will building start? Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)New Shepherd’s Bush libraryVideo: George W. Bush Knew of WTC Crash Before Leaving HotelBush’s effigy burned outside Montreal hotel [...]
ReplyDelete[...] Ashchurch Residents Association. These were the local people who were overruled by H&F’s infamous planning committee, who voted in favour of a ‘meditterenean village’ (or high density housing block in [...]
ReplyDelete[...] February 24, 2010 by chrisunderwood Hello from New York fellow Bushers! News reaches me that the Mayor of London was pressed repeatedly on H&F Council’s treatment of its local residents today. Leading the charge was Labour’s Nicky Gavron who wanted to know what Boris thought of things like this. [...]
ReplyDelete[...] 10, 2010 by chrisunderwood Tuesday 25th May has been announced as the date for the inquiry into this planning decision on the Goldhawk Block that residents successfully applied to have ‘called in’ by the [...]
ReplyDelete[...] big issues are going to be discussed, among them housing and planning, but also a range of others – I plan on asking about the action that they plan on taking if [...]
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