By Ted Cremin

Chair, Twickenham Riverside Trust



At Richmond Council's recent planning committee meeting, members voted in favour of the current proposals for redevelopment on Twickenham riverside. 

Along with other locals, we at the Twickenham Riverside Trust spoke in opposition to the plans, which we believe to be to the detriment of our town's unique river frontage and to the public amenity afforded to its residents. 

 But what is the Twickenham Riverside Trust?

 We're a charity which exists thanks to a decision made ten years ago to grant a 125-year lease on the former Twickenham baths site to protect it as open space for the benefit of the public. 

This followed many years of indecision on the future of the site and resulted in the creation of the Diamond Jubilee Gardens, opened by Princess Alexandra on behalf of HM the Queen. 

The Gardens have subsequently been protected by the Trust for public benefit with many enjoying the café, playground, and regular events. The charity is run by nine volunteers from around the Borough and has no political affiliations.

So why do we oppose the Council's proposal?

As Trustees our statutory objective is to protect, preserve and enhance the riverside for the benefit of the public. 

The Council's scheme to build a 21m, 5 storey block of private flats (the building on Wharf Lane) on public open space while offering less advantageous open space in return is entirely contrary to this objective. It is this building that is at the core of our objection.

Our professional survey has shown that although the Council's scheme proposes to move the public open space of the Diamond Jubilee Gardens to other areas within the overall site, this space is not equally advantageous to the public and so we are duty bound to defend the space we have now from the scheme.

A significant proportion of the 'replacement' land is also at high risk of flooding. It is subject to vehicular access rights, exists on different levels and it suffers from a detrimental impact to its character by virtue of its location alongside the 5 storey Wharf Lane building.

The Trust had hoped for meaningful negotiations with the Council about this, however the Council chose instead to pursue the more aggressive strategy of taking out a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) on land that it granted to the public just a decade ago. 

We believe that the public should also be deeply concerned about the proposals.

Given the proposed replacement open space would be confined between tall buildings and relegated in part to the flood zone, these plans will lose forever a secure and protected open space on the riverside (the Diamond Jubilee Gardens), in exchange for a privately owned apartment block offering no public amenity value. 

This is precisely the kind of development which local people have sought to avoid for so long and which the Trust was created to protect the riverside from. 

The environmental impact of this scheme is also alarming. 

Felling 65 of 66 established trees on the Embankment, losing nearly 200m2 of tree canopy from the Gardens alone, and nearly 90m of native hedgerow does not speak to a greener borough. And while the Council claim that the scheme would provide replacement trees, they acknowledge this will take a very long time to establish, if ever. 

Local politicians would have you believe that it is just Trustees who object to their plans, when the reality is that over 2,500 local people have signed a petition backing our position in just a week. They also suggest that the delay caused by the CPO route (initiated by the Council themselves) means that affordable housing options are delayed, when the reality is the Wharf Lane building will comprise expensive luxury flats. 

The petition remains open at https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-twickenham-riverside-public-gardens and we encourage the public to keep signing as we progress through the next stages of defending against the CPO. 

So how do we suggest improving the riverside?

The Trust can accept and support much of the Council's current plan. We welcome the proposed development on Water Lane and have no objection to the removal of parking from the Embankment. We would be happy to work with the Council to better integrate the Diamond Jubilee Gardens with the riverside and the proposed buildings and landscaping along Water Lane. We support the accessibility improvements this would offer for pedestrians and those with mobility issues. 

However, we fundamentally disagree with the proposed Wharf Lane building and the seizing of the public open space of the Trust's land for that. We believe this is a historic misjudgement by the Council. 

The Council's ability to remove parking from the riverside and to regenerate derelict areas are not at all dependent on the Wharf Lane building. The removal of car parking from the riverside was in fact approved two years ago. Since then, it has been within the Council's control to remove it and the Trust do not object to this at all.

Similarly, the derelict land on the riverside is already owned by the Council and the Trust supports the proposed use of these areas, the Santander car park, and associated buildings for the Water Lane building, which can be achieved without building on the existing Gardens – and which meets objectives in terms of affordable housing. 

We believe the Council has an excellent opportunity to get this done properly for the benefit of the public and we would welcome working with them to deliver this.