Ashill Developments are proposing to redevelop the commercial buildings and replace them with 62 new homes – a mixture of houses and apartments.

The previous plans prompted many complaints from associations such as the FA, Sport England and the London Playing Fields Foundation citing that after the development the school would only have provided a quarter of the recommended playing field space.

The new plans have however still attracted many objections from parents and local residents who still fear that there is not enough playing space and are also concerned about access to the site.

Meanwhile the various housing developments planned for North Teddington as part of the controversial ’linked sites strategy’ are facing increasing opposition from residents who fear it will lead to ‘catastrophe’. Residents of already-crowded Railway Road are concerned that the removal of garages and addition of more houses will put unwanted strain on parking, with similar worries about the Strathmore Road and Somerset House plans adding more pressure on the area.

Regular customers will be pleased to hear that the plan is for the garden shop, florist and interior landscaping business to remain and still trade from this location – using the ground floor of the new building with the owner living in one of the flats above.

The building itself will be an eco-friendly timber framed Huf Haus which you may recognise from Grand Designs – supplied and assembled on site by their experienced team.

The site is within a Conservation Area but planners are keen to point out that the proposals include keeping the front of the building as it is now to lessen the impact of any changes and for the parts that will be demolished and rebuilt will use materials and styles in keeping with adjoining buildings and the High Street in general – to be “sympathetic to its surroundings“.

As well as adjoining the High Street, the site is also near St Mary’s Church Hall, Udney Park Gardens and Langham Nursery. Previously residents had expressed concern over use of the site for a motorist centre but the application was approved for the car dealership and occasional repairs that was situated here. The current agreement would still allow for this intended usage however a previous application to develop this site into a Kwik-Fit was rejected in 1997.

If approved the new centre will put itself in direct competition with long established Meades Motors directly opposite.

New plans are expected to be published within a few weeks.

Historical Research – research projects and booklet publishing (on sale at local events and in local bookshops)

Planning – monitoring planning applications and make representations where necessary or arrange public meetings concerning important proposals

Riverside and Open Spaces – taking an active interest in all matters relating to the local riverside, surrounding areas and parks (collaborating with Environmental Agency, Richmond Council and the Thames Landscape Strategy)

Roads and Transport – issues concerning roads and transport in Teddington and protection of the interests of rail and bus passengers as well as cyclists and pedestrians

Environment – issues such as litter, waste bins, graffiti, composting, fly-tipping, fly-posting and re-cycling

If you are particularly interested in any of the groups then you can register your interest on the application form and then be sent more information and updates on what the Society is doing to help in those areas.

You can help as little or as much as you like – volunteers at events, litterpicks etc are always welcome but even by simply joining the Society you are helping to keep Teddington at its best.

Also included in the membership is the popular quarterly newsletter Tidings which contains reports from the above groups, details of local news & events and articles about the local history, residents, businesses and more.

As well as leading the charge against some high-profile objections to planning proposals the Society also have a lively and regular social and outing calendar.

Annual membership fees are £5 for individuals, family £7, senior £3, joint senior £4.
For any enquiries contact secretary@teddingtonsociety.org.uk

The demolition of these garages is part of the ‘linked-sites strategy’ which has ties to the much wrangled and protested Twickenham riverside development plans.

Despite delays to the Twickenham scheme, the building of the 13 three-bedroom affordable houses will go ahead separately. Councillor Stephen Knight: “In the case of the riverside, the strategy will allow us to minimise the amount of development near the river, and hence maximise the amount of the site available for new public open space.”

Specifically in Teddington areas to be used for the housing will reside in Railway Road and Shacklegate Lane and Teddington garage blocks. Across the borough residents have collaborated to officially complain about the consultation process and generally the need for the housing vs impact that removing the garages will have.

Tile Depot moved into the vacant space near some of Teddington’s oldest and most beloved buildings and churches, installing shop signs that residents and ultimately Richmond Council concluded were in breach of planning guidelines: too large and not in keeping with the conservation area in which the building resides. The shop now has the signs removed until new smaller ones are installed, but it also appears as though the building lease is now for sale.

Another chain – this time Carpet Right also carried out a refit before applying for planning permission. Many residents objected to the shop frontage and flagpole. Prompted by these complaints, the retrospective planning permission received a split-decision with the flagpole sign deemed “out of keeping with the surrounding street scene, providing excessive visual cluttering”.

Kou Kou Bar was granted a late license a year ago which recently expired. The requested renewal has just been refused due to overwhelming objections from nearby residents (mainly in Church Lane) on the grounds of late-night noise pollution from music, revellers outside the bar and problems associated with drinkers leaving after closing time.

Richmond Council take a dim view of works taken out before planning permission has been granted but don’t assume that this means that the permission won’t eventually be given after the fact – as with the controversial method in which Subway takeaway was installed.

Letters to community groups, notices on Richmond Councils website and notice boards to request responses – most of which were split fairly evenly between for and against.

At a meeting to decide the outcome of the proposals, 23 councillors voted for, 16 abstained and 4 voted in favour of the motion. One of the reasons given to not make the changes was that ward names are easier to remember, distinguish between and administrate when they are shorter. The proposals would have meant the already lengthy names increasing even more.

Another curious reason was that a large amount of money would have been needed to change the ward boundary names on road signs – whereas it’s actually district boundaries that appear on some road signs (you can see ‘Twickenham’ whited out on some signs replaced with ‘Richmond’).

As if to prove how confusing some names remain, a Richmond and Twickenham Times article includes an error mentioning “South Twickenham” instead of “South Teddington”:“However 54 per cent of people voted for the Hampton Wick ward to have South Twickenham added to its name.”

Replacing Teddington Clinic, the new centre will “house community nurses, occupational therapists and care managers, family planning services, children’s psychology and speech therapy, and specialist dentistry services for people with learning disabilities.” (Richmond & Twickenham Times).

The centre adds more valuable, modern facilities and skilled staff to the area and compliments other valuable services on the site such as the Walk-In centre for minor injuries. The rebuild and upgrade was paid for by a government award to NHS Richmond whereas funding for the Memorial Hospital is helped greatly by the tireless work of League of Friends who volunteer for various projects and have raised approximately £7 million over the last 20 years. Their latest drive is to raise £35,000 for a high-tech Pathology service to speed up the results from blood tests.

The hospital had an uncertain future at one point but the NHS is switching emphasis away from larger costly hospitals towards smaller health centres based within communities. The Teddington centre is seen as a great success within the scheme – reducing the need for ambulance trips, taking additional strain from larger hospital casualty units as well as carrying out tests and screenings that would have previously only been available at larger hospitals. Due to this success the walk-in centre has now extended its opening hours and operates until 10pm on weekdays, 9pm at the weekend.