|
Montage courtesy
Twickenham Online, © Online Communications. Reproduced with
kind permission.
The new development
won't appear until the picture download is complete. It's a 60kB
file, so please be patient. This montage is to scale, taken from
the architects' drawings, and it illustrates the impact the scheme
will have.
1st March,
2002: Planning permission granted to Dawnay Day Scheme
After a marathon
session, beginning on 28th February and ending at a quarter to one
in the morning of 1st March, the Council's Development committee
approved the Dawnay Day scheme.
The silent protest outside beforehand drew a large crowd, and 220
people jammed Clarendon Hall for the meeting. A surprising number
stayed to the bitter end.
Seventeen local people spoke against the development, and of the
nine who spoke for it, only one has no involvement with the Council
or the Developer.
The vote was six to three in favour of the development, on entirely
party political lines.
Before the meeting started, it was announced that the Government
Office for London (part of the DTLR) has directed the Council to
submit to the proposal for examination and a decision on whether
to call it in for a public inquiry. The Call-in Notice.
The Council's
minutes of the meeting.
In a separate vote, consent was also given to the demolition of the
existing pool buildings. This may have an impact on the charity,
HANDS, which is still located on the pool site, and for the Riverside
Terrace Project, which wants to use part of the pool facade for
its building, and has planning permission to redevelop the site.
Legal advice is being sought.
27
April, 2002: New Designs released by the Twickenham Terrace Group:
 |
| |
 |
Notes from
the Twickenham Riverside Terrace Group: The basic concept
remains that of providing a landscaped terrace garden, that is
accessible and safe for public use, but also provides serviced
(water /electricity) locations for cafe, bar or shopping or other
activities to operate from the site in a temporary or flexible
way.
We have endeavoured to retain the essential elements of the Pool
site that make it unique. New views and vistas of the Thames and
Twickenham Riverside that will be revealed when the existing first
floor parts of the Old Baths Building are removed and remodelled
to provide the Terrace. The existing functional toilets are retained,
as are the existing Bath House and Pool Restaurant buildings, so
that incoming cafe or bar operators can renovate them.
The pool itself can either be filled to provide a paved and grass
area, or only partially filled with the material removed from the
pool buildings, or even dredged from the river, to form a sunken
garden that with limited additional investment could become an open
air auditorium The ideas illustrated also show how the area at the
end of Water Lane could be paved to make the area more pedestrian
friendly. Ease of public access is essential from all directions.
New steps and ramps are provided as part of the general repair works
to the retaining walls and other structures around the site.
19th June:
Public Inquiry announced for the Dawnay Day scheme
Click
here for the full text of the Council's letter announcing the
Inquiry. Another and somewhat different letter was issued by the
Government Office for London, which included the correct address
for the Inquiry Inspectorate.
Those who wanted to make a statement to the Inquiry, or to write
to the inspector to express your opposition (or support), had to
write to:
The Planning Inspectorate
3/17 Eagle Wing
Temple Quay House
2 The Square
Temple Quay
Bristol BS1 6PN
quoting reference number APP/L5810/V/02/1092346
Subsequently, on 29 June, The Planning Inspectorate informed us that
any submissions made earlier to the Government Office for London
WOULD NOT be passed on to the Planning Inquiry. This is not mentioned
in the Council's letter.
27 June
: GOL orders Environmental Impact Assessment
The Government
Office for London notified the Architects that an Environmental Impact
Assessment is required for the poolsite because of:
| a) |
The
impact on the immediate neighbours and historical and cultural
landscape including the Thames |
| b) |
The
visibility of the proposal from these locations by virtue of
its size and its impact on views to and from these locations |
| c) |
The
associated impact of traffic generation on the neighbouring
area caused by the proposed development. |
It
appears that they will have to do the Impact Statement before the
Inquiry begins. So far there has been no formal response, though
there was a three-week time limit to reply. Local environmental
groups and individuals had repeatedly asked that the Council do
an Environmental Impact Assessment before the scheme was put to
Planning. Those requests were refused.
See the News page for links to more information
on an Environmental Impact Assessment.
31 JULY
2002: RICHMOND COUNCIL TERMINATES NEGOTIATIONS WITH DAWNAY DAY
At a special
meeting on Tuesday 30 July, Richmond upon Thames Council's Cabinet
decided to terminate negotiations with Dawnay Day Structured Developments
on its scheme for the redevelopment of the Twickenham Riverside.
The Cabinet has requested a detailed report for its September 2002
meeting setting out potential options for the site.
The meeting was in response to a resolution made at the May 2002 Cabinet
meeting, that the implications of continuing or withdrawing from the
Dawnay Day scheme for developing the site should be explored.
The report set out three options which were:
- Continue negotiations
- Withdraw from negotiations (terminate)
- Suspend negotiations
After full deliberation, the Cabinet decided to terminate negotiations
with Dawnay Day, for the following reasons:
- Concerns at the lack of progress after a significant period
of negotiations with Dawnay Day and the likelihood that it will
not be possible to reach agreement on acceptable contractual terms
which fully deliver the Council's requirements within a reasonable
time period.
- A concern that the evidence points to a scheme with doubtful
financial viability and that a number of future events could further
impact on the viability of the scheme and/or the level of public
benefits delivered.
Councillor
Tony Arbour, Leader of the Council stated: "Having explored
this matter in detail, I firmly believe that the Cabinet's decision
is in the best interests of the people of Richmond upon Thames.
I look forward to receiving the September report and to selecting
an option for redevelopment which will bring the troubled history
of this site to an end. My administration will work to ensure that
this site will be something that future generations can be proud
of."
23 Sept
2002 The
discussion paper "Rethink
on the Riverside" is published.
7 December
2002: ALTERNATIVE SCHEME
The Twickenham
Society Group have put together a possible scheme for the riverside,
based around a low-density development drawn up by award-winning
architect Clive Chapman, with Jim Deasley. It incorporates some enabling
development, public open space, and a public asset building.
Click here to view it.
11 December
2002: COUNCIL DECISION
Last night's
Council Cabinet meeting decided to pursue a long-term scheme for
the pool site that would be low scale, with commercial enabling development
and public open space.
For the short term, they opted to demolish the pool building and
replace it with an open formal terrace. That would have hard landscaping
(paving) with raised planting beds and seating, and landscaping on
the banks on each side of the new terrace. Details on this, including
costings estimated in the area of £505,000, will be presented
at the Cabinet meeting on 25 February 2003.
A further report, by Council officers, will set out the design for
this short term scheme. The details of the longer-term enabling development
and public asset (including mass, scale, uses, risk, costs, timetable,
viability and deliverability) will be worked out and presented to
the Cabinet meeting in February.
Council Documents, Cabinet meeting 10 December 2002:
The
Agenda and meeting minutes
Report
to the meeting (55 page .pdf, 260kb)
Leader's
statement, 29 August, 2002 (.pdf, 54kb)
Appendix
B-F & H-N (.pdf, 44Mb - very slow download)
Appendix
G1 (River Use Working Group Report) (.pdf, 1Mb)
Appendix
G2 (The Centre Working Party Interim Report) (.pdf, 1Mb)
Appendix
O-Q (.pdf, 31Mb - very slow download)
Addenda
(Dawnay Day submission) (.pdf, 5Mb)
No further design proposals are being sought, and the arrangement
with St George is regarded as terminated with the ending of the Dawnay
Day scheme.
For the public asset part of the new, long-term development, Council
leader Tony Arbour issued a Twickenham Challenge - "A
competitive process to identify and prioritise between the various
public asset uses proposed for the site". The deadline for that
is 10 December 2003. More details will follow.
Editor's note: Dawnay Day submitted yet another scheme to the Council
last week. This called for 76 flats on 3 to 5 storeys with parking
and an underground box for arts use. The covering letter referred
to the rough plans as being sympathetic to the riverside setting.
In addition, it said that they have no intention to resurrect the
scheme by MacCormac Jamieson Prichard - though to date Dawnay Day
have not formally withdrawn from the Planning Inquiry. (See above
for more information.)
13 December
2002: Update
The Twickenham
Riverside Terrace Group's website has an indicative sketches
of how the Council's plans for the short-term changes to the riverside
might look. They've also done annotated
versions of two diagrams presented to the Cabinet on Tues 10
December. The result is not exactly a garden.
18 December
2002: PUBLIC INQUIRY CANCELLED
The Government
Office for London has written to Dawnay Day's agents, the architects
MacCormac Jamieson Prichard, stating that, because they have failed
to produce the mandatory Environmental Impact Assessment, the Public
Inquiry will be cancelled.
The large-scale commercial development, with flats, shops, restaurants,
the exclusive health club and three screen cinema complex will not
now go ahead. This clears the way for the low-scale developments
to go ahead, as the projected planning permission for the development
no longer applies.
Full
text of the letter
^^ top of page
<< Riverside Home Page
<< Poolsite History 1980-2001
<< Poolsite History for 2002
<< Poolsite History for 2003
<< Poolsite History for 2004
<< Poolsite History for 2005
<< Poolsite History for 2006
<< Poolsite History for 2007
<< Poolsite History for 2008
<< Poolsite History for 2009
<< Poolsite History for 2010
<< Poolsite History for 2011
|
