The council has put residents front and centre in formulating plans that will be central to what happens to Hammersmith town centre in the coming years.
The Hammersmith Residents’ Working Party met for the third time to undertake their first work shop that will in large part govern what developers are permitted to do and what will happen with the Hammersmith Flyover and the gyratory and roads system.
The working party has been recruited to work alongside the council and create a development strategy for how Hammersmith could change over the next 20 years.
Council leader Stephen Cowan said “We’re keen to work with residents rather than do things to them. This working party will strengthen the council’s hand in the tough negotiations we have with developers and others and has given residents’ associations and interested local people a much stronger voice on what happens to the neighbourhood they live in and care about.”
The residents’ working party was formed last autumn, of local residents and resident groups.
Members were selected from a wide-ranging number of applicants who are long-standing, concerned residents many of whom are also passionate business members and others with specific skills and knowledge.
Aims for the project include improving and greening the environment, boosting numbers of genuinely affordable homes for residents, supporting business and growing the local economy, creating good new jobs, improving King Street, restoring the town’s links with the river.
During the workshop, the group looked at three key areas: land use, open space and connectivity and community. All the feedback and work in subsequent meetings will be used by officers to help produce a planning document that will act as a blueprint for the regeneration.
The Hammersmith Residents’ Working Party meets each month.
