Brentford High Street - Open Exhibition Meeting 29/10/1

by Mil Vukovic

I thought it would be helpful, while we are waiting for official minutes, to share my recollection of some key points raised by the members of the public, Brentford community, at the exhibition and presentation of the Ballymore current proposal for Brentford High Street redevelopment on Saturday 29 October in the Docking Station:

  • Density of the area - for instance, current proposal envisages 800-1000 dwellings which is almost double the number of residents in Brentford Dock which covers larger area than the one in the proposal/there is no infrastructure to support this influx of new residents.
  • The proposal of three 8-12 story buildings* – it adds to the density, dramatically changes the landscape, is not in keeping in with the current landscape, the blocks are too close to the waterfront, they will have direct impact on the Brentford Dock as it damages the vista and also closes the now open space around the waterway and shipyard.
  • Proposal for sports activities and boats - rowing around the dock is not well thought through as the canal is at its narrowest there so it might not be possible to accommodate large number of rowers; perhaps moving this idea near the Watermans centre would be more appropriate as the river is much wider there.
  • Is it possible to link the magistrate’s court to the re-development of the high-street so that there is a market space that has open access all the way to the waterfront with buildings and smaller shops along the way? Current proposal closes that space.
  • Focus on retail – how could the plan include existing and encourage new spaces for small traders and workshops/production units for local producers?
  • How is the increase in traffic and need for more parking space in the area going to be addressed? Current proposal doesn’t stipulate new parking space.
  • How will the current boats and barges be affected by the development? The plans are focused on waterway activities but don’t seem to encourage sustainable water-living.

*It is also worth noting that at the meeting with Brentford residents on 6 September only one 10 story building was mentioned in the architect’s presentation and in the minutes of the meeting.

I would also like to comment on the consultation with the community regarding the Brentford High Street development.

There is no structure, transparency and clarity to the consultation process. No minutes of the meetings of the working groups are available on the website and there is no way to view any other comments people are making during this process and how those comments are fed into the design team. And most importantly there seems to be no plans for feedback from the developers to the community on their input so far.

The presentation on the 29th was only a presentation. It was not a consultation or a facilitated conversation as Soundings suggested that after the presentation people should talk among themselves in smaller groups and write down their feedback. Only after an intervention from a member of the audience did we have a brief collective discussion about common concerns with the design team. Facilitated 15-20min conversations in smaller groups could have only happened if there was an assigned moderator, who would note key points and present them to the whole group at the end so that knowledge and key concerns are shared with everyone. Perhaps that could be a more efficient and effective way of conducting these meetings in future.

 

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It's all about the money!

  • NOV 2 2011

  • Jeff Birnberg

I visited the Docking Station presentation and spoke with the head designer and another employee of Ballymore. I addressed the environmental impact on Brentford and was told that Ballymore had retained independent consultants to address the issues, however they couldn't tell me what the issues are; very worrying.

It's also worth mentioning that they proceeded with their plans without the impact statement being completed. By the way, it's still not completed. They claimed that Ballymore wants to work with the community in creating an acceptable plan, but admitted that a ten story building was necessary to make the project economically feasable; my translation - it's all about the money! They said that they had received an award for another completed project where they provided social housing for low income residents; my reply was "so what". It's nice that they won an award, but that doesn't now make their plans for Brentford acceptable.

Let's get one thing straight; this is a business that must turn a profit and it's all about the money; they are not our friends!!!

  • OCT 30, 2011

  • Liz Price

Buildings of 8- 10 storeys on the canal side are totally unacceptable. The number of proposed dwellings for the size of the site is far too great. Where are all these residents going to park? - on Augustus Close?

There is already an excesss of flats in Brentford - can the infrastructure withstand this additional influx?

Some of the examples of blocks of flats show at the exhibition are hideous. The proposal to replace the hideous 'Heritage' asbestos wharf building with something similar defies belief!

Signage requirement

  • SEP 18, 2011

  • Duncan Walker

There will be an inevitable filter of people over onto the Dock'.

We already have a problem of non-residents treating our private estate as a public park and Thames pathway, which it certainly is not, and with 1,000 more dwellings (about 2,000 people?) it becomes even more important that we introduce our new signage, in order to make it clear that this is a private estate for our residents only. There needs to be:

  • signage at the Augustus Close entrance
  • signage and a gate at the end of the pedestrian bridge over the canal at the residents clubhouse, directing people down onto the canal bank
  • signage at the Thames Lock, directing people from the canal path down Dock road
  • signage at the ends of Dock Road both on the High street and on our estate.

The Board have already been looking at new signage requirement for a long time now.

 

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