Latest news

Hi All,

Following the close of the initial consultation, the project team at the council has been going through all the responses received. During the 8 weeks this consultation phase was open, over 2300 people visited the project website. More than 640 comments were placed on the map, and in total nearly 3500 “agreements” were left (clicking the thumbs up icon next to a comment). The top five issues commented on were; safety, traffic volume, cycling, traffic speed and pedestrian accessibility. While an average of 7 in 10 comments were negative, that’s not surprising given the nature of the project and the known issues that traffic is causing.

One thing we noted is that the consultation failed to generate much input from those under the age of 30. This is something we wish to address, to ensure a fuller cross section of the community has the opportunity to express their opinion and help shape the project plans. The council is therefore currently undertaking some additional engagement activity locally, including working with Chiswick School, to help capture this feedback.

A huge amount of traffic data has also been captured to establish the volume and speed of traffic on local roads, and the proportion of traffic using residential streets as a short cut. This data is currently being analysed and will be reported alongside the community feedback to set out the priorities of the project going forward. Due to the restrictions on council communications related to the upcoming London Mayoral election, this report will be released in May.

Prior to that, however, the council will be launching a consultation on the Grove Park Piazza in March. This is one of the more established elements of the Liveable Neighbourhoods project, and the council has been working on a detailed design in partnership with the local Grove Park Group. We are now looking forward to sharing this more widely, and will update the website once the consultation goes live in early March. April is a key month for the Barnes Bridge walkway, with further feasibility work due to complete that will inform the cost and time frames for that part of the project. More information will also be shared on that soon.

In other local news, two design options will be consulted on for a new pedestrian walkway under Kew Bridge, using one of the existing arches. This is a longstanding project, and while not funded through Liveable Neighbourhoods, providing step free pedestrian access was a popular comment made during our previous consultation. More information on this project will also be available in March.

Hi All - A quick reminder that the consultation map and questionnaire is going to close this Sunday evening (17th November). It was due to close on Friday, but we're keeping it open for the weekend, to capture any final comments.

If you haven't already, please do share details and encourage your friends, family and neighbours to comment.

Watch this space for further updates on the project!

Thanks to everyone who attended our recent events at St Paul’s Church. All three sessions were well-attended, and it was great to hear about your wide-ranging transport issues. I was involved in conversations around residents’ parking, potholes, bus routes, gated communities, school traffic, subways, the relocation of Brentford Football Club… and much more besides.

Any successful Liveable Neighbourhood project will need to be founded upon close engagement with the local community, so I’m delighted these events have helped us get off to such a positive start. We’ve now received over 500 individual comments on the project website, while the number of total contributions (those who have read, commented and agreed with other comments) has passed the 3000 mark!

In recent weeks, the project team has met with Chiswick House and Gardens Trust and Grove Park Primary School, while we have a meeting planned with the Strand on the Green Infant & Nursery School. We are also due to meet with South Western Railway and are in close communication with Network Rail – these relationships will be of particular importance given the feedback we are receiving on the challenges of crossing the railway line.

As part of this project, the council commissioned work to gather a wide range of traffic data. Tubes attached to the road surface measured traffic speeds and volumes, and vehicle size. Video cameras captured origin and destination data, which will help us understand what proportion of traffic is using residential streets as a cut through between major roads, rather than starting or ending its journey in the local area. We have received the raw data from the survey company this week and have just begun to analyse it. We will share it with you shortly along with a summary of the key findings, which should be a bit easier to digest than the spreadsheets!

There are just over two weeks left in the initial consultation phase, so please continue to spread the word among your family, friends and neighbours, and encourage them to add their feedback!

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this Liveable Neighbourhoods project so far! I’m pleased to report that almost 1000 people visited the project website in the first two weeks, and there are already more than 300 comments pinned on the map, with many more agreeing to comments made. So far, the main issues that respondents have commented on are safety, cycling and traffic volumes.

In the coming weeks, council officers will be out talking to as many people as possible, to increase awareness of the project and capture further feedback. Three drop-in events will be held at St Paul’s Church Hall (64 Grove Park Road, W4 3SB) on the following dates:

- Tuesday 8th October: 5-7pm

- Saturday 12th October: 10am – 2pm

- Thursday 17th October: 5-7pm

If you have the time to pop along and share your thoughts on the area, then please do. I would also be grateful if you could please spread the word to your friends and neighbours… and encourage them to get involved! You can also share details of the project through email, WhatsApp, Facebook or Twitter – links to all of these are available on the project website.

Finally, a few people have asked why the map pins for the question ‘How do you feel about this place at present?’ are in different colours. The answer is that you can use a red pin to tell us ‘It’s awful’, a green pin to tell us ‘It’s great’, or a pin on the sliding scale of orange and yellow to represent the views in between those extremes.

As you can see from the map, most pins are currently near the red end of the scale… and I’m looking forward to the challenge of improving that as this project progresses!