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1 November 2004 - Demolition to begin
Please
see the River Centre website for details
The Council has advised local residents that work will begin
on 1 November, with demolition on the old pool building commencing
on 8 November. Completion of the short-term scheme is scheduled
for the end of March, 2005.
Twickenham
Online has frequent reports, updates, and comments.
Planning Application lodged for the Short Term Scheme
- 17 Sept 2004
Notice
of the application
Details
of Planning Application - 03/1141/DD01
Includes illustrations of the plan elevations and sections,
proposed street furniture, light fittings, fences, plantings
and landscaping.
Comment
on the application (on the Council's site)
Council Cabinet Meeting 14 Sept 2004
Click
here for the Council's report on the consultation on the
revised UDP for the Riverside plus the minutes of the meeting.
Issues include the wording on the provision of public toilets
and public open space on the Riverside.
Twickenham
Online's report and Vox
Pop Letters to the Editor
18 July 2004 - Changes to the UDP
Letter to our supporters:
To all our supporters their families and friends.
The Unitary Development Plan (UDP ) Revisions and their implementation
by the Council.
Twickenham Riverside
We have campaigned long and hard for the restoration of Twickenham
Riverside and the pool site as public open space. The reason
for its purchase by the Council in 1924.
Recently the UDP Inspector made the following recommendations
for the future of this site.
- The restoration of the requirement to provide public
conveniences.
- More explicit emphasis on the provision of public open
space as the predominant feature of any redevelopment scheme.
- The requirement that the planning brief for the redevelopment
of the site indicate:
- The extent of the public open space to
be provided, which should be immutable irrespective
of the time scale of any proposals, and
- the characteristics of the Conservation
Area which justify its designation and to which new
development should have regard.
Despite these recommendations Richmond Council have decided
to amend the Inspectors recommendations as follows:
For (1.) above, 'The toilets are to be provided in association
with other uses', ie they will not be public but local shop
or restaurant owned toilets. This proposal was made by the
Council at the UDP Inquiry, but the Inspectors view then and
our view now is that this is not a satisfactory arrangement.
For (2.) above, the term "Public open space" is replaced
by "open space". This means that the open space will
not necessarily be for the public and will be provided at the
discretion of the developer, it could for instance be private
gardens for the residents. The Inspector reported "To
my mind the public open space component of any scheme should
be the baseline of the proposal and should condition the scale
of balancing private development needed to implement it."
For (3.) above, the Council say the planning brief will not
indicate the precise area of open space. The words public and
immutability are ignored. The Inspector reported, "It
seems to me of prime importance that the planning brief should
establish what part of the site should be public open space
and that should be an identical requirement whatever the time
scale".
To summarise, for future development on this site Richmond
Council proposes to change the term "public open space" to "open
space" and the planning brief will not indicate the area
of immutable open space.
These revisions have been advertised by the Council in the
Richmond & Twickenham Times 25/6/04 and are now open to
objection by writing to:
Helen Cornforth
Principal Planning Officer
Planning and Research Section
Department of Environment Planning and Review
London Borough of Richmond upon Thames
Civic Centre
44 York Street
Twickenham TW1 3BZ
Before 4pm Friday the 6 August 2004
email: h.cornforth
@richmond.gov.uk
Copies to Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
Frances Blaber
Decision Officer,
Planning Central Casework Division Zone 3/J3
Eland House
Bressenden Place
London SW1E 5DU
Fax 020 7944 5929
Chris Bedford
Government Office for London
Riverwalk House
157-161 Millbank
London SW1P 4RR
Fax: 020 7217 3450 e-mail CBEDFORD.GOL@go-regions.gsi.gov.uk
We request that if you are concerned for the future of the
Twickenham Pool site and wish to safeguard its predominant
use as public open space please take a positive step in helping
to protect this site from future over development.
You can write to the Council and make your views known. A
suggested letter is appended and should be sent before
the 6 August 04.
The acceptance by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister of
the Council's 5 year scheme was made taking into account the
recommendations of the UDP Inspector with regard to the future
use of the site. It appears that the purpose of the Councils
UDP changes are to make this site more acceptable to development
by removing restrictions on its future use.
The Committee Twickenham Riverside Terrace Group.
Fighting for the restoration of the Twickenham Riverside pool
land as public open space.
NEW: 25 June 2004
Duration
5 Years - TRTG's comment on the Council's
5 year plan for Twickenham Riverside
NEW: 20 June 2004
TRTG PETITION
In view of the fact that there are now two Inspectors Reports,
one for the Borough wide UDP and one for the Twickenham Riverside.
To avoid confusion the petition is for the UDP.
TRTG has recently published an open letter to all amenity
societies and their members in the local press. As a follow
up to this we ran a petition at the Charities fair at Twickenham
Green on Bank Holiday Monday 31 May which aroused a great
deal of interest and 107 signatures. This petition is still
current. It says:
"We call on Richmond Council to honour the recommendations of the Government
appointed Inspector asked to investigate the use of the Twickenham Swimming Pool
site. These included:
- The provision of public open space as the predominant
feature of any redevelopment scheme,
- The provision of public toilets,
- That the public open space should be immutable and that
any development should have regard to the conservation
nature of the area.
All these conditions are in line with the Groups own plans
for a Twickenham Riverside Terrace."
If any reader wishes to support this petition please click
here to email us, telephone 020 8255 1207,
or write to: PO Box 378, Twickenham, TW2 5WB.
If you wish to support us in any way we welcome new support
and currently have regular local meetings.
TRTG is a non party amalgam of local residents who are concerned
to safeguard the Twickenham Riverside Swimming Pool site purchased
for the benefit of the public in 1924. Our plans restore this
land as public open space so that the River can be enjoyed
by young and old. Other action groups in the Borough have demonstrated
that where there is a unified support for a definite proposal
it can be achieved despite Council opposition.
We call on the public to bear in mind the unsympathetic developments
in terms of public use for this site in the past and are evident
elsewhere on the Thames.and join us in a positive public open
space proposal.
We are aware that there is a perceived notion in some quarters
that the Council can be influenced by reason We would remind
all that if this was correct then the Independent Inspector's
report would have been welcomed by this Council. Unfortunately
this is not the case, and it is the reason for our petition.
UPDATE: 18 June 2004
Planning permission granted for the Pool site.
LBRuT:
Twickenham Pool Planning Permission Finally Granted
ODPM:
Poolsite decision letter (.pdf, 4 pages, 158kb)
Inspector's
Report on Called-In Application for the Twickenham Pool (.pdf,
29 pages, 270kb)
Twickenham
Online Report
Twickenham
Online - Have your say!
UPDATE: 28 March 2004
Public Inquiry Notes and documents
Notes on the evidence by the Council Officers and the consultants,
plus all the proofs of evidence and statements, are now on
the River
Centre website.
UPDATE: 10 March 2004
Public Inquiry Completed
The Inquiry Inspector finished hearing evidence on Friday,
27 February. He has now retired to write his final report.
Click
here to read the Terrace Group's closing statement (.pdf,
4 pages, 34kb)
Other reports and closing statements:
The
Council's barrister's closing statement
(61 pages, 568kb .pdf file. This will download very slowly,
depending on connection, and some browsers may not indicate
activity. Please give it time.)
River Centre website (TSG and Clive Wren's final statements)
Twickenham
Online
9 February 2004
Documents for the Planning Inquiry into the Council's short
term scheme for the Twickenham Pool Site
The
Rule 6 Statement (.pdf, 3 pages, 35kb )
Supplementary
Update (.pdf, 8 pages, 58kb)
Final
Summary of Proof of Evidence (.pdf, 6 pages, 47 kb)
The Inquiry will be held in the Council Chamber, York House,
commencing at 10.00am on Wednesday 11 February.
See also the Twickenham
River Centre website.
31 January 2004
Preparations are ongoing for the Planning Inquiry into the
Council's "short term" scheme for the Pool Site.
The modifications to the UDP relating to the Riverside are
pertinent to the Inquiry. See the Council's website for the UDP
First review (.pdf 16 pages, 129kb). Page 7 has
the T1 brief on the Riverside.
The UDP Planning Inspector has delivered his first report on
Twickenham Riverside, which includes clear recommendations
regarding open space in any development proposed for the Pool
site. There's a report
on Twickenham Online plus the UDP
Planning Inspector's report (.pdf, 5 pages, 160 kb).
Please see the News Archive for
newsletters, updates and statements for 2001 and 2002.
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