Below is the text of a letter I have sent to the Infomer. I hope you will agree that this is a fight worth having and one we ought to be able to win.
In this week’s Informer you publish a most attractive artist’s impression of the proposed River Centre. If only it really would be like that. The truth is that to service the Centre the Council wants a loading area for lorries and coaches right across this terraced stretch of the river bank next to the Eel Pie Island bridge where children currently buy their ice creams from the van, feed the ducks and access the foreshore. The view from the river which you illustrate would actually, at best, show the roof of the Centre glimpsed above a line of parked vehicles. The Council’s “preferred plan” of the development can be viewed at www.richmond.gov.uk/regeneration1-3.jpg
So, in order to run a building which is supposed to be about appreciating the environment and the river in particular, we are to lose access to the most popular and attractive part of the riverbank and we will no longer have the views of the river and boats at anchor which can currently be viewed down Water Lane from the Town Centre; the foreshore will be blocked completely by parked and manoevering commercial vehicles.
This loading area is inconsistent with the Council’s own Development Brief which speaks of the importance of maintaining and improving the glimpsed views of the river from the town centre. It also flies in the face of the clear message the Council says it received from the public workshops, namely that parked vehicles should no longer be located along the riverside.
The competing developers are now drawing up their detailed and costed plans for planning permission purposes and unless we object withour delay these will be based on the Council’s preference for loading bays along the foreshore.
The Environment Trust which will run the Centre is currently unwilling to tell the developers and the Council that blocking access to and views of the foreshore is unacceptable to it. This is despite the public committment in its Business Plan that it “will only continue with the River Centre project if the overall scheme provides a solution that it would find acceptable if it were not involved”. It is hard to believe that the Trust would find loading bays in this area acceptable if it was not to be the beneficiary of them.
If your readers want future generations of children to be able to see the river and feed the ducks from this most accessible part of the riverbank in the centre of Twickenham then I urge them to email the leader of the Council at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and the Chair of the Trustees of The Environment Trust at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it expressing their dismay. It must be possible to service the building without ruining the most important stretch of the river bank – maybe from the car park behind?
