Village Crier

Editor's Blog - Is barter the new black?

Past Entries

Not just picking a pocket or two...

Police in Hammersmith and Shepherd's Bush have warned that gangs of Eastern European pickpockets are currently targeting this borough. Bag-dipping - where cash and phones are removed from handbags without the victim even knowing - is especially rife.

Though the pickings in Westfield are known to be especially rich - we blame the slight feeling of anaesthetised inertia that seems to be a condition of most Westfield shoppers - police say that there's no particular reason why BugleLand is under attack: it's just our 'turn'. These professional gangs simply pick an area, so to speak, and work it assiduously until either the police close in or word of mouth results in people becoming much more careful and less of an easy target. Then the gangs simply up and move to the next borough.

Local SNT teams, the bobbies from our business improvement district (or BID), HammersmithLondon, and the National Mobile Phone Crime Unit respond to such spikes by following the dippers and catching them in the act. During a previous spike, one night at the Hammersmith Apollo was attended by a task force of officers, who were then instrumental in recovering and returning 17 stolen mobile phones over a period of four hours.

It's loafing time in Lyric Square

Summer is here! Our good friends at HammersmithLondon have made it happen, by starting their Summer Festival 2012: bigger, better, longer, stronger...

The Big Screen in Lyric Square is up, showing Wimbledon for the next two weeks and thereafter every olympic moment except the football - right up until the 9th September. The famous deck chairs will be out every (rain-free) lunchtime, making Lyric Sq the lounging lunch capital of Hammersmith - oh, except for the Ping London ping-pong table and the various lunchtime live demonstrations of today's groovy ways to keep fit...

Interspersed will be Film Nights (every other Wednesday evening at 5.30pm), live streaming from the Opera House, a Dance in the Square Championships for anyone who fancies cutting a rug in public and an ongoing collaboration with the Lyric itself in the form of Theatre in the Square: all a bit mad, but strangely enjoyable if you just let yourself go...

Home Sweet Home: good news in the property market

Widespread opposition to French School extension may lag at crucial planning stage

**News Just In** The council's decision on whether to sell the air space above the Planetree car park has suddenly been deferred to the 10th October. Is the Bugle blowing its own trumpet in claiming the credit for this, given its coverage last week about the summer being a good time to bury bad news? No, no, that wouldn't be our style - but we can tootle to the treetops that this is Good News for everyone concerned: now both sides of the debate have a more equal playing field, given that they can mobilise support from parents on all sides. A good day for democracy!

Now there's just the planning timetable to be unearthed...

How we reported this story last week:

Local residents still left with urgent questions about the controversial Ecole Jacques Prevert  extension are worried that the timing of the planning application and the decision on the sale of ‘air rights’ over the council-owned car park in question (set for September) mean that the summer holidays will interfere with any systematic and effective counter-measures.

In a classic case of ‘bury the bad news at a time when no-one is looking’,  the council Cabinet are set to decide whether to dispose of the block of air (yes, strange but true) that would represent the tacked-on extension block, for more than £100,000 (yes, for air) on the 5th September – meaning that any local protests would have to be lodged during the ‘dead’ month of August. LIkewise, suspect residents, with the planning application, expected to be submitted any time now...

Recent meetings in May and June, between residents, Planetree Court inhabitants and school governors, have led worried residents to wonder whether the French School are really bothering to take local opposition seriously. The school representatives have admitted to attenders of the meetings that no aspect of the design has actually changed since January, but insisted that the much-vaunted traffic plan is being implemented, despite evidence to the contrary. In just one example, at the May meeting, locals were assured that the school coach only stopped for a few minutes to pick up/drop off children: yet the very next day, the coach was parked outside Planetree from 11.40am until 1.10pm – not even counting the drop-off/pick up periods.

Opposition has even encompassed all colours of the political spectrum: local MP Andrew Slaughter and local councillor Joe Carlebach found themselves unexpectedly on the same side of the political fence in questioning both aspects of the design and the rigour of the school travel plan. Curiously, in a document now being disseminated by the school to parents, it is clear that EJP feel that they have nothing to fear from the planning process – “On the architectural side of the project (design and concept), we have listened to the requests and worries of the planning department and it seems pretty clearly that the design itself is not an issue any more. “

Yet again, the Bugle asks: how, in a Conservation Area where any sort of non-period architectural detail is usually forbidden, is this design even allowed off the ground? (so to speak..) How, on a Building of Merit, is EJP allowed to tack on a three-storey extension crowding oppressively right up to the edges of an old people’s residence? (as one Planetree resident said, “it’s just too big and too close”).

Yet again, the Bugle welcomes the merry conviviality of the French school and their community but yet again, we wonder if the site they are on is now just too small… how about the old Headmaster’s House, now called just plain 153 Hammersmith Road, now back on the market again after a failed sale? It’s huge, ripe for redevelopment and right next to a green space…

email ian.ruegg@lbhf.gov.uk at the council and  our local councillors involved(joe.carlebach@lbhf.gov.uk and robert.iggulden@lbhf.gov.uk) and let them know your view.