Our next open meeting is this Saturday June 30th at 4pm in St Helens Church Hall (St Helens Gardens W10).  Anyone living or working in the surrounding area is welcome to attend.

There are several issues to discuss.  This week we learned of the threat of closure of the A&E Departments at both Charing Cross and Hammersmith Hospitals.  This would leave local residents with St Mary’s and Chelsea & Westminster as the nearest hospitals in an emergency.   The latter might as well be in another city, in terms of travel times at peak hours.

Andrew Slaughter (MP for Hammersmith) is organising a campaign against these closures.  For more details see at http://www.andyslaughter.co.uk/

NHS North West London has launched a consultation on the changes, with 3 options – their preferred option and two alternatives. All 3 would see A&E at Hammersmith Hospital close and 2 of them, including their preferred option, would see A&E at Charing Cross close as well.

At our June 30th meeting, we will also be discussing the latest position on the Imperial West planning application.   This may be decided by Hammersmith & Fulham’s Planning Applications Committee on July 10th, or on July 30th.  Or it may be deferred again, given that H&F are having to respond to two sets of legal challenges on their approach to planning decisions (on the Shepherds Bush Market redevelopment and at Earls Court .

We will also be explaining the proposals for a new Neighbourhood Forum for this area, as a first step in developing a Neighbourhood Plan.  The area to be covered is at this link Neighbourhood_forum_sketchmap.  Information on how to respond to the current consultation is in our earlier June post.  A reminder that the deadline for responses is July 20th.

Hammersmith & Fulham and Kensington & Chelsea councils have now published the proposals for a new Neighbourhood Forum, to develop a Neighbourhood Plan for the St Quintins and Woodlands area.

This signals the start of a formal six week public consultation period, which will run until July 20th.   The details appear here on the RBKC website, and here on the LBHF website.

We hope that many local residents and businesses will respond to the consultation, with a majority in favour.  This is an opportunity to strengthen the influence of local people in planning decisions in the area, ranging from conservation policies to major developments and future infrastructure projects such as Crossrail and the proposed HS2 railway line.

The next open meeting of the Association, on Saturday June 30th at 4pm in St Helens Church Hall, will discuss initial ideas for neighbourhood planning and for establishing the new Forum on a formal basis, subject to approval of the application by both councils.