…and welcome Brentford Lubyanka. At Brentford County Court today St Georges PLC were granted a possession order for the land at Kew Bridge and the Eco Village can be evicted after a minimum of 7 days. In the eleven months since the occupation began the ecovillagers have proved to be excellent neighbours to the local community, giving much and asking little, and have been impressive in their commitment to a way of life which embraces and celebrates both people and the world in which we live in a caring and spiritual way. You will be missed.
As a counterpoint it is interesting to note Andrew Dakers, whose prevarication was in large part responsible for this site being granted planning permission, failed in his attempt to become MP for Brentford & Isleworth and that the voters in Brentford ward of Hounslow Council decided to dispense with his services as their councillor. Karma.
]]>
There will be a Court hearing next Friday the 7th of May in which the developers St George are seeking a possession order with a view to removing the ecovillagers from the development site at Kew Bridge Road.
This will take place at Brentford County Court from 1PM onwards.
]]>
On Friday 26th March St. George PLC met with representatives from Kew Bridge Eco-Village who were informed of plans to begin court proceedings and to start building work in May. A meeting will take place at the eco-village on Monday 29th March at 7pm to “share your ideas and discuss approaches to peaceful resistance”.
Read the eco-village blog here.
]]>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.
]]>Date: Wednesday, 16 September 2009 7:30 pm, Sustainable Development Committee
Venue: Committee Rooms 1 & 2, Civic Centre, Lampton Road, Hounslow
Open meeting.
]]>
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.
]]>
The eco village can now be found on Twitter. Watch a video of the first day here and check out their facebook page here.
]]>On Saturday 6th June eco-activists inspired by “the land is ours” campaign (website here) through the yahoo group “diggers350″ (link here) began occupying the Kew Bridge/Kew Bridge Road development site with the intention of setting up an “eco-village”. For downloadable pdf containing photographs of the occupation click here.
Are they going to be a nuisance?
Their manifesto claims:
“To be ecologically friendly we need to work in harmony with our environment, this means people as well as nature! Without your support and blessing this cannot be a reality. We are aware that we’re within earshot of people’s homes and so have banned amplified music and other noisy activities, we have also adopted a strict policy against people getting drunk on the site”
Contact numbers for the squatters are out of hours on: 07967 864370 Carolyn on: 01727 812369 or Gareth on: 07515 166011
Email: diggers360@yahoo.co.uk
An exhibition of the planning application submission is taking place today Friday 11th July 3pm-7pm and tomorrow Sat 12th July 11am-3pm. This exhibition, in the Brentford Community Boating Arch under Kew Bridge, gives the local community the chance to view the proposals, including a model of the scheme, and put questions and comments to staff from John Thompson and Partners and St George.
In conversation with Malcolm Wood, the Land Director for St George PLC, I was surprised to hear that an exhibition has been arranged to take place in the Green Dragon Lane Cabin on Tuesday 15th July. Does anyone else know about this? Strange that whoever organised this has seen fit not to publicise it.
Update: a leaflet went out on Monday 14th July and another is due today Tuesday 15th July.
]]>