2012-10-31

Place West London: "Old Oak opportunity four times that of Olympics"



"The massive regeneration opportunity that is Old Oak Common – christened “Park Royal City” by LB Hammersmith & Fulham – was laid out before delegates at Place West London in 2012.

"Sir Terry Farrell led off, talking with enthusiasm about his masterplan for the area – some 750ha of generally brownfield land – which could deliver 100,000 jobs and 19,000 new homes.

"The Old Oak opportunity area is much bigger than either Canary Wharf, at 11.5ha, or the Olympic Park, at 200ha, and has a lot going for it. The proposed interchange between HS2 and Crossrail offers much more than just an interchange. The chance to create a whole new district of London above ground is one too large to ignore, he said.

"HS2′s present plans just include a sealed interchange between the two lines, without even a connection to the neighbouring London Overground or Underground stations. There was general agreement on [the need for these connections?] ... among speakers, including Colin Wilson of the GLA, Mike Cummings of SEGRO and Nick Botterill, Leader of LB Hammersmith & Fulham.

"Wilson showed the GLA’s thinking in the current draft of their Opportunity Area Planning Framework, with a phased development of the area up to and beyond 2031. The green assets of the area featured heavily – Wormwood Scrubs and Kensal Green Cemetary being two of the largest green sapces in London.

"He was at pains to say that the development planned was mainly residential and commercial office/industrial. There was no real need for significant retail elements with Westfield a couple of minutes away on the West London Line.

"Mike Cummings made the point that this proposed development was not, as the Olympic Park had been, on derelict land far from any major centres of employment. With Park Roylal right next door, where over 60,000 people work already, it was important that any development enhanced this economic dynamo’s capacity to deliver economic growth and employment. He appealed for plans to provide ways of easing road congestion for the whole area.

"Wilson and Botterill both thought that the project was big enough to benefit from a Mayoral Development Corporation, as the Olympic Legacy does, and this would look like a significant possibility if the argument over the station can be won with HS2, and with the Goverment, to create a station equal in passenger throughput to Waterloo, and immediately one of the five biggest in the UK.

"Nick Botterill also pointed to the proposed direct link to HS1, and relished that this would bring 'passport control in to Hammersmith & Fulham for the first time'. [Very unlikely, though. Use the proposed Euston - St Pancras travellator, instead.]
"Old Oak is another example, alongside the Battersea Northern Line Extension, of how infrastructure investment can provide the opportunity for significant economic development, and of the value that such investment can release for the future of west London, and indeed the whole city." [So let's not screw it up, like at Brent Cross. Rely on transparency throughout!]

The Guardian: "Earls Court project: revisiting that 'social engineering' claim"


Link to Dave Hill, The Guardian

"The housing and redevelopment policies of the Conservative flagship Hammersmith and Fulham (H&F) council first came to my attention in July 2009, due a campaign launched by a local Labour MP Andy Slaughter. Responding to the council's core strategy options document and its proposals for constructing what it called Decent Neighbourhoods and armed with the yield from a Freedom of Information request, he accused H&F of 'using the language of social cleansing' and of planning 'social engineering on a grand scale'.

"Slaughter has continued to accuse the council of using housing policy to alter the social complexion of the area to the political advantage of the Conservatives, and the administration has continued to strongly deny such claims. However, Slaughter has long cited a Conservative Home article from February 2009 co-written by the then leader of the council Stephen Greenhalgh as further evidence to back his claim that, as he put it to me for an article I wrote in March about opposition to the Earls Court project, the council has 'set out to gerrymander the electorate by reducing the amount of social housing in the borough and increasing the amount of high-value, mostly investment property'."

2012-10-25

Ealing Times: "Neighbours blockade road, in protest at Old Oak Lane incinerator plans"


Link to Ealing Times

"RESIDENTS blockaded the road on Saturday morning, as they stepped up their efforts to stop the development of a waste incinerator plant.
"The Triangle Island Residents’ Association protest aimed to highlight the disruption that Clean Power’s lorries would cause them along Old Oak Lane, Acton, near Willesden Junction. Their temporary blockade ended around midday."

BBC: "High Speed 2 compensation to be 'comprehensive'"


Climb aboard the web site

"Residents affected by the first phase of the HS2 rail line will be offered a "comprehensive package of compensation measures", the government says.

"Phase one of the £33bn high-speed rail link, between London and Birmingham, is due to start operating in 2026.

"The Department for Transport says the compensation would be 'significantly beyond statutory requirements'."

2012-10-18

Ealing Times: "Neighbours in protest at Old Oak Lane incinerator plant scheme"


Link to Ealing Times

"EALING and Brent residents joined forces to protest outside Willesden Junction station on Saturday (13) against a planned waste incinerator plant off Old Oak Lane, Acton.

"The Island Triangle Residents Association, consisting of more than 200 houses, is particularly concerned at Clean Power’s plans to develop the site so close to their community.


"Battle-hardened TITRA have experience of unwanted developments, having fought for clean air since the neighbouring Powerday Waste Recycling Plant opened.


Brent & Kilburn Times: "Kicking Up Stink over Incinerator" (the front page lead!)


(Click to enlarge, or in addition,
right-click and copy to new window.)

2012-10-10

'Wembley Matters' (Brent Greens): Stopping the Harlesden Waste Incinerator


Link to 'Wembley Matters'

"Harlesden residents got a shock last night at the 'Harlesden Connects' forum when they heard of plans to build an 'energy recovery centre' (is this a controversy avoiding term for an incinerator?) at Willesden Junction.

"It is in Ealing borough, but but very close to Brent residents. Apparently Ealing's notification to Brent Council was 'mislaid', so hardly anyone who might be affected had a chance to comment, before the conusltation closed last week. [Just a few] addresses in Ealing and handful of streets in Harlesden received a notification letter."





http://www.pam.ealing.gov.uk/portal/servlets/ApplicationSearchServlet?PKID=152202

Evening Standard: "Anthony Hilton: Tracking down the real rail culprits"


Link to web site

"It would be a shame if last week’s fiasco over the West Coast Main Line rail franchise should fade into history without the blame being pinned firmly where it belongs — not on a trio of now-suspended civil servants, but on Theresa Villiers, the former Transport Minister.

"She it was who, while in opposition, dreamed up the idea that rail franchises should be lengthened to 15 years. In power, she said there should be a lessening of the rules attached to the franchises, so the operators would have much more freedom to run the service in their own way, but in return they would have to take on all the financial risk of the operation."

The Independent: "Exclusive: Minister - 'We will fast-track HS2 high speed rail'"


Link to web site

"The Government will defy 'grief and hassle' from its own backbenchers and fast-track plans for a new high-speed rail link between London and Birmingham, the Transport Secretary has told The Independent.

"Patrick McLoughlin dismissed suggestions that the Department for Transport's financial modelling errors behind last week's West Coast Main Line debacle would undermine High Speed Two. The project had the unequivocal backing of both David Cameron and the Chancellor, George Osborne, he added."

2012-10-04

BBC: "Boris Johnson warns of 'risk of inertia' over Heathrow future"


Link to BBC web site

"Boris Johnson has called for the debate over Heathrow's future and alternative airport capacity in southern England to be decided by the end of next year.

"The mayor of London said rivals were 'forging ahead' while the UK was deliberating, and he described a review due to report in 2015 as 'glacial'.

" 'There is no reason to go on for three years discussing this,' he said."

2012-10-02

Delays to Crossrail tunnelling ahead?


(Photo: currently unknown source/copyright)

Part of the Crossrail spoil conveyor system collapsed at Royal Oak on Thursday, falling onto the spoil train.
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