Council urged to reconsider after overwhelming opposition from residents
Save Our Skyline, a concerned group of Hammersmith residents, and amenity associations, announced that its public meeting to discuss the Council's proposed redevelopment of the Town Hall and surrounding land was attended by over 400 individuals and expressed overwhelming opposition to the proposed scheme.
The meeting heard local residents and other concerned parties speak about the impact the proposed plans will have from a variety of speakers, including representatives of the Ravenscourt Society, Hammersmith Mall Residents Association, Hammersmith Historic Buildings Group and blind residents of Thomas Pocklington Trust, who will be evicted from their homes under current plans.
Speakers also included local children, highlighting the impact the loss of the cinema would have on young people in the area, and an inspirational presentation on the successful transformation of the Phoenix Cinema in Finchley into a long term, sustainable, cultural asset for the community and the precedent it sets for Hammersmith's classic art deco cinema.
A wide number of speakers from the floor of the meeting included Andrew Slaughter MP, the Leader of Hammersmith and Fulham Council Stephen Greenhalgh and Cllr Stephen Cowan, Hammersmith Broadway councillor and leader of the Opposition and Cllr Harry Phibbs (Conservative, Ravenscourt Park).
John Jones, Save Our Skyline Chairman, said: “The phenomenal turnout tonight shows the strength of feeling in the community against this ugly and ill considered scheme.”
“We have heard much about the new Government's vaunted Big Society and we can now see it in action in one of their flagship Boroughs. We urge the Council to listen to the voice of the community and think again before Hammersmith's skyline is blighted by this unpopular and disproportionate development.”
“A very bad deal for residents and the Council who would get too little benefit from this multimillion development of luxury flats”
October 14, 2010