Returning as promised with a few more comments on your posting, Conal.The push to promote a sustainable plan to increase use of the canals for freight has come down from Government and the GLA. Last year Peter Brett & Associates were commissioned by Transport for London, with some financial contribution from British Waterways, to prepare a report on all existing and potential freight transfer locations on the West London Canal Network. This was published in September last year and is most comprehensive. So far so good, but in preparation of “Phase 2” of the report, which is to identify specific locations to be actively protected and developed, BW insisted on more active participation. The cynical view could be taken, that this was to ensure that sites they did NOT wish developed for freight purposes were omitted from any recommendations. The problem of conflict of interest comes to the fore regarding Brentford. Having destroyed the major transhipment areas above the Gauging Lock by partnering housing developments on them, being partners in a joint venture to develop the waterside area of the South Brentford High St proposal and also, through the ISIS partnership, seeking to redevelop the whole of the canalside of Commerce Rd, they do not wish any “inappropriate” freight use or boatyard support structure anywhere in the area. Because of this, although the “Phase 1” report identified Ridgeways’ boatyard, Albion Timber’s wharf and the Commerce Road overhanging warehouses as sites with potential for transhipment, you can be confident that these will all be disregarded in the “Phase 2” analysis. Instead, they will be promoting the development of a site at Transport Avenue, safely beyond the sanitised Town Centre area, as sufficient for any potential transhipment use. Even here, as elsewhere on the canals, they will rely on massive expenditure from major companies willing to set up the necessary infrastructure in implementing freight by water strategies. In one sense this is reasonable, all we would require is that BW support any future possibilities by not seeking to destroy existing facilities, and by being prepared to encourage potential freight carrying companies by not placing major financial obstacles in their way.You mention “a number of historic wharves which enjoy some protection.” Which do you refer to, and what protection do you imagine they have? The only one to my knowledge, that has any measure of protection at all, is that covered by the overhanging warehouses along the top end of Commerce Road. The only reason it has some protection is by reason of it falling within the Grand Union Canal Conservation Area. Because of this, BW have applied for Conservation Area Consent for a demolition order! This is to forward their plans to convert the whole of the eastern area along Commerce Road into mixed use, as I mentioned previously. Robin Evans, CEO of BW, has specifically dismissed use of this area of Brentford for continued commercial use, despite Hounslow’s desire to maintain this. Have you seen BW’s plans for Commerce Road? Forget “Brentford-on-Thames” as a vision of the future, think “Benidorm-on-Brentford”!“Brentford needs to be marketed as the gateway to the canal network, not least by the Council.” Hear, hear! But the BW interpretation of such a description is of a tourist destination, whereby the occasional visiting pleasure boat might enliven an otherwise sterile waterspace, surrounded by up to 15 stories of luxury apartments crowding the canal edge. Upper echelons within the Council would support this, as, to their shame, do the Mayor of London and the Secretary of State. Brentford’s “raison-d’etre” as England’s freight portal for the inland areas is set for eventual and imminent annihilation.“The Council needs to move fast to protect what remains of industrial land along the off-side embankment and provide flexibility for the land to be used as a transfer and distribution [point].” True again, and the one slim hope is that the planning department seem keen for the moment to preserve the industrial employment use for Commerce Road, and are becoming more aware of how they have endangered the boatyards remaining along the south of the High Street. They will, however, need to take a very much stronger and more pro-active role than to date. On a point of accuracy, there are no longer any remaining industrial land areas along the off-side embankment this side of the motorway. They are all on the towpath side.The excitement of people like yourself, at the prospect of Brentford benefiting from the trumpeted upsurge of interest in promoting water-borne freight, is shared in an article in this morning’s Brentford, Chiswick and Isleworth Times. Knowing what I do, these optimistic expectations are doomed to disappointment. Only overwhelming public pressure on the Council to ACTIVELY protect the remaining infrastructure will help.BW’s London Regional Director, the one proudly taking credit for the initiatives on the television programs you saw, has agreed to come down to my boatyard to discuss my concerns over BW’s plans for Brentford. When (if) I have a date from him, I’ll let you know, and any who wish to urge inclusion of Brentford in his freight by water plans will be welcome to join in. Realistically though, only some huge commercial offer to implement a viable cargo-transhipment scheme would have any hope of success, and in the face of the vast profits from residential development BW hope to make here, how much of a hope do you think that would represent?
Nigel Moore ● 7288d