Here Be Dragons

Kew Bridge Road Planning Application

The planning application by St Georges returns to Hounslow Council Sustainable Development Committee on Wednesday, 17 February 2010 at 7:30 pm and will be held at Committee Rooms 1 & 2, Civic Centre, Lampton Road, Hounslow. To view the agenda for this meeting please click here.
This may be the last opportunity to stop this development so please try and attend.

Kew Bridge Road Planning Application Update

At the Hounslow Council Sustainable Development Committee on Wednesday 16 September the decision on the application by the developers St. George was deferred until the new year. None of the councillors present supported the application, one, Councillor Jon Hardy, described it as a “monstrous monolith”.

Paul Lewis, a community member of Strand on the Green Association spoke eloquently on behalf of the many community groups against the development,
“What is the point of local consultations if the views of all the local societies are ignored,” he said. “The only people that could be moved to write in with letters of support for the development were those who were managing agents for other St George developments.”

Paul, please add Green Dragon Lane Housing Co-op to your list of community groups against the development.

I cannot understand that the council officers present recommended the development given that it failed to satisfy many of the requirements of the planning brief, the unitary plan or the conservation area guidelines.

Special mention must be made for the council’s architecture expert whose presentation was so inept, and who appeared to be so embarrassed by her attempts to defend the indefensible, all she could come up with during a 20 minute presentation was that it was a “background” structure with white round bits at each corner providing “bookends” along the Kew Bridge Road frontage. Thank you, your performance surely killed this application if it was not dead already.

That the council officers, their expert on architecture and the legal adviser to the committee all met up in a local pub immediately after the meeting is I am sure entirely irrelevant.

Ecovillage Swoop

All friends of Green Dragon Lane and the ecovillage: swoop

Date:  Wednesday, 16 September 2009 7:30 pm, Sustainable Development Committee

Venue:   Committee Rooms 1 & 2, Civic Centre, Lampton Road, Hounslow

Open meeting.

Kew Bridge Road Planning Application

St George’s planning application for the land adjacent to Kew Bridge at Kew Bridge Road, currently occupied by the ecovillage, will be decided at a meeting of the Hounslow Council Sustainable Development Committee on Wednesday 16 September. Details as follows:

Wednesday, 16 September 2009 7:30 pm, Sustainable Development Committee

Venue:   Committee Rooms 1 & 2, Civic Centre, Lampton Road, Hounslow

Contact:    Wendy Merry, Telephone 020 8583 2061, e-mail  wendy.merry@hounslow.gov.uk

This is an open meeting, although only those who have previously objected will be allowed to speak and even then only by giving at least 5 working days notice before the meeting.

A good turnout will ensure that the feelings of the local community towards this development will be made known.

GreenDragonLane fantasy football league

The beautiful game is back, the new football season approaches and GreenDragonLane has formed a league at The Times online fantasy football site for the coming season. This is the biggest and best fantasy football league out there, if you want to join in the GreenDragonLane league click here to request an invitation from The Dragon.

Eco village week 5 – building a hexyurt

Anne & Alan Keen win squatter court bid

Married Labour MPs Ann and Alan Keen have won a court hearing to take their “main” home back from squatters.

A judge at Brentford County Court granted the couple an Interim Possession Order at a civil hearing.

It comes as the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner confirmed the pair are facing a probe over the property.
Under Commons rules, they should have spent most of their nights there but it emerged last month that it had not been lived in for up to a year.

The squatters, who entered the empty property on 26 June, will have 24 hours to vacate the terraced property once the notice has been served.

Another positive Times piece about the Eco Village

The Times today carried an opinion piece by Richard Morrison extolling the fact that “Britain is still full of people who refuse to lie down and let Big Business – or, even worse, Big Government – crush them.”
Read the full article here.

Brentford activism outbreak continues,”Squatters occupy the empty Brentford home of MPs Anne & Alan Keen”

Guido Fawkes is reporting that Activists have moved into the vacant Brentford home of Labour MP couple Anne and Alan Keen, also known as “Mr and Mrs Expenses”, who were recently caught up in the MPs expenses row for allegedly claiming for two second homes. More images here.

Who would believe that sleepy old Brentford is now rapidly transforming into activist central?

Reports that quote the Keens as “not being keen on this action” are to be discounted, as any voter in Brentford or Ealing will tell you, the chances of the Keens responding meaningfully to any communications are vanishingly small.

The Daily Mail reported their combined expense claim of £313,714 in the last financial year here.

This comes just days after Hounslow Council began proceedings to repossess their Brentford home as reported by The Independent here.

Bloody Brentford. I love you.

Article in The Times today “Squatters take over land to set up ‘eco-village’ near Kew Gardens”

Broadly sympathetic article in today’s edition of The Times, online version here.

Would be perhaps useful if The Times were to look into potential abuses of the planning process whereby the developers, St George West London, submitted a revised application earlier this year where modifications to their previous application were minimal but had the effect of nullifying objections made to the earlier application and where the Brentford and Isleworth Local Planning Committee approved the revised plans in May despite the Affordable Housing element of the development being reduced to zero, and, curiously, without those who had made valid objections to the modified application being notified of or invited to attend said meeting and thus denied their right to voice their objections in person.