Another stretch of the high street will be worked on by Thames Water now from the 7th until the 10th of February – potentially creating more tail backs during busy times.

In addition to this, unfortunately yet more work is required on the railway bridge roundabout because the previous additional repair & rebuild did not meet the council’s required standards after it was replaced during bridge strengthening work.

Locals might feel history repeating itself – several years ago the same roundabout was moved several times due to long vehicles such as buses finding it difficult to manoeuvre around the raised roundabout.

Council contractor Conway Ltd will carry out these works between 9:30am and 4pm from Monday 13th February 2012 at the junction of Broad Street, High Street and Park Road. Weather permitting, the work should take one week.

During this time, traffic management will be put in place to prohibit right-turns into Park Road (from Broad Street) – instead road users should cut down The Causeway or find alternative routes. Parking restrictions will be in place nearby and cars parking in “no waiting” areas may be towed away.

New architects practice Fletcher Crane have revealed plans and artists impressions for the new £450,000 community hall which will be funded through a combination of insurance money and donations.

The timber-framed design was developed with input from consultations with the Church’s congregation and local community and will meet the various requirements that include optimising natural light, security and maintenance.

The plans are now online and are attracting some comments that highlight that the striking modern design might not be in keeping with character of the surrounding area and “more like a modern office than a church hall“. If given the go-ahead, work will start on the project in June 2012.

Another artists impression has been created, this time for the replacement clubhouse for Teddington Rugby Club & Teddington Town Cricket Club – designed with the rugby club’s recent success in mind as a replacement for a much-loved but ageing building.

The fund-raising for this project is ongoing but at the last published update was well over £100,000 from various events and private donations. The club hope to achieve the remaining £150,000 through funding, grants and corporate donations.

“Craig House” on Park Road is a development by Richmond Housing Partnership of affordable houses and is still on track to be completed on time despite the theft of lead from the building site. Neighbours are encouraged to report any suspicious activities on the site after 5pm week days or any time at the weekend to the police.

Craig House on Park Road

Bulldozers last week moved in to start the demolition of the Somerset House site – this is a large development that campaigners fought against on the grounds of overcrowding in an already highly populated town vs parking spaces and other amenities.

Somerset House demolition. Photo: Avery Architect

The plans for Kingston Road Shell Station housing development are now online – a slightly amended number of dwellings, now seven three-bedroom houses and one two-bedroom flat. Residents are still finding it difficult to head to petrol stations further afield to fuel-up.

View Larger Map
Red: permission still pending or denied
Grey: permission granted & work underway or complete

Some developments never see the light of day – they are rejected or withdrawn such as this plan to add an additional floor to Causeway House for residences. It’s great to see that developments are no longer languishing whilst they awaiting funding but it cannot be denied that the population of Teddington is definitely growing!

The Teddington Society has pressured SWT to update, re-paint & glaze or just replace the ageing bridge for some time now. Vince Cable has added to this pressure and has reported that work will start early next year starting with scaffolding being put up in mid February.

The footbridge has been a sore point for many years with peeling paint, missing windows and any that remain not being cleaned.

Cable: “I am told that … the work will involve full decoration and refurbishment of the footbridge both internally and externally together with replacement of the windows with ones which are easier to maintain.”

Photo: jakepjohnson

The footbridge is a particular embarrassment because it is often the first impression that visitors experience when they visit the town. Although this clearly hasn’t scared too many people away judging by the flattering “Metro Moves” article in last weeks Metro.

Teddington is described in this as “an area offering a perfect balance between town and country” along with valuable assets such as Bushy Park, good commuting, excellent schools and then a breakdown of property prices to expect. Alongside the article is an advert for Hamptons International which is to move in to the office currently occupied by Fielding Gould.

Plans for the demolition of the previous Queen Dowager pub (North Lane) and building of 5 x 4 bedroom houses have now been submitted to Richmond Council.

In addition to the loss of the Waldegrave Arms (also to be turned into residential use) this will be one less pub in the area, but one that consistently struggled to keep up with other high street competition with several different landlords and temporary management companies all trying in vain.

Recent marketing of the pub has not successfully found either a lease or freehold manager so Youngs have decided to instead apply to turn the site into residential housing. Work has already begun on the site including removing a several large trees in the beer garden.

[Update 24/12/2011] Thanks to those who have emailed this info. Q Developments have published some images from proposed plans for the residential development of the Kingston Road ex-Shell garage site. Plans include 3 x 4 bedroom family townhouses, 4 x 4 bedroom contemporary family houses and one 2 bedroom flat. Plans will be submitted to Richmond Council soon and be available online for comment.

So far public comments are a mixture of for and against – some whole-heartedly backing this attempt at harnessing some of the untapped hydro power and others that mention the scheme isn’t economically viable and will potentially cause damage to the environment.

The group has also published its first newsletter “The Hydrograph”, designed to update followers on every aspect of the project with the latest news.

As well as corporate sponsorship, Ham Hydro has responded to calls for a method to receive smaller donations to help the scheme – you can now buy a brick to help build the project!

Just as final costs for construction are being confirmed, the overall financial model and project viability is at an important stage so any help with funding will ensure that plans can be turned into reality. Each donated virtual brick costs just £20 and your name will be added to the list of supporters.

Meanwhile upstream in Windsor, another hydro-powered scheme by Royal appointment will be providing approximately half of the energy required to power Windsor Castle.

This £1.7 million project just beats Teddington’s scheme to be the first of its kind in place on a weir managed by the Environment Agency and is expected to start producing power in the new year.

“Three and Everything Everywhere” group (owners of T-Mobile and Orange networks) have started installing a new mast this weekend that should be operational in just over two weeks. This will cover the area affected by the removal of Somerset House mast and protests that halted a new mast installation elsewhere.

Although the company haven’t specifying the exact location, Richmond Council has been informed of plans to install a new mast on Crest House (a serviced office building) on Church Road.

In approximately two weeks Teddington will lose its last petrol station. Rumours about what this site will be used for range from retail to residential. A recently re-posted planning application made in 2000 points towards a mixed residential development: eight one bedroom flats, two two-bedroom flats and two two-bed bungalows.

Jet garage on Stanley Road was also demolished some time ago to become a mixture of residential and office space (now home to Chiropractors bakclinic).

[Update 02/11/2011] See below comment – Shell have replied to a request for info on this closure and their reply is that there 9 other shell petrol stations within 5 miles of this one all on major roads into Teddington. This property will indeed be replaced by a housing development.

Also local councillor Tony Arbour was asked to comment and replied:
“I am too am sorry about the loss of the petrol station, but its closure is a matter solely for its owners. So far as the previous consent is concerned it is no longer live but shows what might be acceptable. I think the current proposal is an overdevelopment.”

One customer reported today that this petrol station was only taking cash-only payments this morning and another was informed by staff that it will close on November 23rd 2011.

Phone users in the area however have been reporting issues with their phone signal over the last week, particularly with O2 and Three networks leading to loss of data service and in some cases completely no phone signal at all. One such user got in touch with Three and was told that the issue is being caused by the demolition of phone masts on Somerset House and that this will continue for at least another week yet.

The recent change of use to Travelodge’s attached side-building plans (from offices to residential) were refused due to “loss of employment land” and “increased burden on transport, health and education infrastructure and services in the locality” – all concerns expressed also about the Somerset House development. The re-submitted Garden Centre redevelopment plans have also been recently refused permission.

Artist impression of the completed development

Other local mobile phone masts have been in the news recently – peaceful protests stopped a project to install new masts on the roof of Traherne Lodge, Sutherland Grove (just off Stanley Road). Concerned residents who live in and around these flats were worried that the T-Mobile masts could affect their health.

A lorry was used to block the installation and RHP and T-Mobile agreed to postpone the project until concerns had been heard. Residents have said that no consultation had taken place and instead, a letter a week before the work was their first notice.

A project to replace an existing church flagpole with a communications mast has led to similar objections in Barnes.

[Update 03/11/2011] It appears that the Taherne Lodge mast was to replace the Somerset House one(s) in advance of this demolition. As this has been halted by t he protest, O2 and Three are now looking for alternatives to cover the area now with bad phone signal. If you have had issues with coverage  in the last few weeks you can add your details to this editable map so we can get a clearer picture of the area effected.

A series of landlords in recent years had failed to bring in the income required by Youngs to make it viable and the most recent ones were only given 9 days notice that the pub was to close despite tripling turnover since taking it over.

Licensees Shaun & Kathryn (pictured below) kept on smiling and wanted to go out with a bang so held a closing party with live music. They are now off to run a pub in Somerset – even further away from their roots in Burnley, Lancashire.

Photo: George Gimber (CAMRA)

The pub sign and fixtures & fittings have already been removed and the new owners are believed be planning to turn the building residence(s), a move which will be opposed by The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) who regularly oppose the change of use of pubs to residential or other business types.

[Update] a short history/obituary for the pub courtesy of the Richmond & Hounslow branch of CAMRA: A small village beer house has stood in North Lane, Teddington since at least 1747. It was previously called the Two Lawyers or Jolly Lawyers and was subsequently leased by Young & Bainbridge in 1860. It was rebuilt in 1906-7 but, like the Abercorn Arms, remained a beer house until it was granted a full licence in 1950. The pub was refurbished and extended in 2003. The former public bar was opened up to the main bar. The name commemorates Queen Adelaide, the widow of William IV.

Once complete, the project will generate clean electricity using hydro-power generated by the tidal Thames – investing the generated income to promote further low-carbon schemes in the local area.

Recent mock-up of how the scheme might look

The group is holding a public meeting hosted by the Teddington Society at St John’s Ambulance Hall, Park Road on September 30th at 7.30pm. Anyone interested in hearing details or wanting any burning questions answered are welcome to attend.

A short presentation on the project including the background, technical issues, environmental impacts and funding of the scheme will be followed by open questions from the floor.