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Let's get back to Mary's orignal post.  You are right to be concerned about this and other high-density developments that are mushrooming in the Brentford area.  The people who will live in these apartments (yes, Adam Beamish, it really DOES matter where people live) will be mostly hard-working.  Many of them will hold down two jobs. They have to, to afford the extortionate rents charged by profiteering landlords.  They will not know their neighbours.  It is hard to get a sense of community when you live in a self-contained box.  This will lead to feelings of loneliness and isolation.  They will feel no connection with Brentford.  The purpose of these dwellings is to eat and sleep, not engage with your local community.  Their children will complain about having nothing to do.  The little ones will have no green space to play outdoors.  It is hard to motivate yourself to walk to a park or visit the library when you live on the 17th floor.  The parents will feel guilty about this and will know the damage that they are doing to their children by keeping them indoors and on the computer, but you can't just let them out by themselves, can you?There will be No Ball Games signs on walls all around the estate to stop the older children from playing football.  So they will hang around on stairwells, bored and looking for mischief. You can guess the rest.How do I know this?  I speak to parents already living in the GWQ and Paragon developments.  They do not want to live in these high-rise boxes, cut off from neighbours and community.  They aspire for their families to live in a house, with a garden, but this has become a middle-class luxury in Brentford thanks to recent "stack-em-high" housing policy.I've seen a lot of nonsense written about bringing Brentford into the 21st century!  It would seem these days that building strong communities around well-resourced ameneties such as a thriving high street, library, football club, swimming pool, parks and pubs is a Victorian value.  High rise developments - even those wrapped up as 'luxury apartments' - break down communities and breed social discontent. You only have to look at high rise developments in every British and European city to see this  Our politicians and developers have not learnt from the mistakes of the 60s and are putting profit before people.  So yes, Mary, you are right to be anxious about the future of our town - a 21st century dystopian colony of worker-bees with no social cohesion or sense of community.

Katy Whelan ● 4451d

AdamAs it may be me who you think is trying to make the BFC application into some kind of Brentford v Chiswick argument, I'd say the following:- I used to live in Chiswick very near to the development. I would have been in favour of it (with reservations) then as I am now. One of my former neighbours has come out clearly in favour.- I think the development is too dense and planners/council/Boris/whoever should do what they can to reduce it as well as seeking both some affordable housing and some S106 money. Nevertheless EVEN AS IT IS it is OK and a positive development. It will be good for West Chiswick and Brentford alike IMO.- A few very strident posters from (presumably) Chiswick are making a huge amount of noise about it. The West Chiswick and Gunnersbury Society of which I was once a member lost all credibility with me years ago because they seem always to be against any development and it seems to me they and like groups are the ones making much of the noise. The strident posters on CW4 (of whom in truth there are only about half a dozen) claim to have all sorts of worries about Brentford but have expressed no opinion on the GWQ, Green Dragon, Brentford Lock West, Boardwalk or any of the other many developments in Brentford (other than worrying that the Watermans may move a bit further from the 65 bus stop if Ballymore ever happens).- I have expressed the view - which I stick by - that whilst there are flaws in the BFC plans, the rather histrionic views expressed about this development are over the top and counter productive.I don't think its Brentford v Chiswick: as you demonstrate there are those on each side of the dividing line that take opposing views.

Guy Lambert ● 4452d