93.5% voted NO to the sale of Twickenham Riverside to a property developer! (From Richmond and Twickenham Times)

93.5% voted NO to the sale of Twickenham Riverside to a property developer!

12:36pm Wednesday 1st July 2009 in

By Julie Hill »

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History was made on the banks of the River Thames last night, when the results of a referendum commissioned by local amenity groups in Twickenham were announced. The 93.5% vote NO to the sale of public land to a property developer leaves no doubt about the opinion of residents.

In response to the question: "Should public land on Twickenham Riverside be sold to a property development company?" 93.5 % (of the valid vote) answered NO.

Twickenham Riverside has provoked controversy for years, following the closure of the old swimming pool in the early 1980s. This is the fourth proposal for significant private development and so far none has succeeded. The referendum is the first independent vote on whether the people of Twickenham think the land should be sold.

Organisers of the referendum, an alliance of five local groups, commented: "The residents of Twickenham are a highly motivated, knowledgeable and sophisticated electorate and have voted comprehensively and overwhelmingly to keep the land for the people of Twickenham."

The turnout was higher than expected for a referendum and was on a par with the turnout for the last Council election (in the two wards concerned) in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.

The area polled includes those most directly affected by the sale of the land. The finance for the referendum was raised through community groups and by donations from the people of Twickenham.

Electoral Reform Services was chosen to carry out the independent referendum. This organisation was created by the Electoral Reform Society to ensure the fair and impartial conduct of ballots, elections and surveys.

"Their integrity and professionalism have been recognised by the United Nations and the UK parliament", added the organisers in a press release. "Electoral Reform Services consultants ensure the ballot is smoothly run, with clients receiving expert guidance at every stage of the election process."

The referendum went out with information about the community groups involved - Friends of Twickenham Riverside (FTR), Referendum on Riverside (ROR), Richmond United Group (RUG), Save Our Riverside (SOR) and Twickenham Riverside Terrace Group (TRTG), which has submitted proposals for community use of the site.

The explanation with the referendum stated: The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames plans to sell land in the Twickenham Riverside Conservation Area, between Wharf Lane and Water Lane, to a property development company. Proceeds from the sale of a 999 year lease are proposed to pay for the shell of a River Centre and other works.

In April 2009 the Council’s Cabinet selected Countryside Properties to build 32 houses and flats on the site.

As an alternative to this scheme, community groups wish to work, through a partnership with the Council, to bring the whole site into public use. Their proposals have been on display at Arthur’s café on The Embankment since February.

At a Public Meeting in March, Richmond United Group requested the Council to hold a referendum on Twickenham Riverside. The Council was reminded of the petition, signed by thousands of Twickenham residents, to retain the existing children’s playground, café and Jubilee Gardens, along with the restoration of the whole site to use as public space.

Subsequently, at a meeting of the Council in April, it was formally moved that, before signing any contract with a developer or agreeing any disposal of land, Richmond Council should organise a referendum to ascertain if the project had the support of a majority of Twickenham residents.

The Council has chosen not to hold a referendum. Therefore, on behalf of the community, we are giving you the opportunity to make YOUR views known through Referendum on Riverside (ROR).

DETAILS OF THE REFERENDUM ON TWICKENHAM RIVERSIDE CONDUCTED BY ELECTORAL REFORM SERVICES Number of eligible voters: 4,090 Total number of votes cast: 1,928 Turnout: 47.1% Number of votes found to be invalid: 18 Total number of valid votes to be counted: 1,910 Number voting YES: 125 (6.5% percentage of the valid vote) Number voting NO: 1,785 (93.5% percentage of the valid vote) Votes counted by an Independent Scrutineer (Electoral Reform Services) Cllr Serge Lourie, leader of the council, has vowed to reject the results of the referendum, calling the question loaded. However, in the council's own consultation to choose the preferred development and developer for the site, there was no option available to choose "none of the above". Even so, over half of the 900 who responded said in the comments box that they would prefer to see no private development on the Twickenham Riverside site.

Text extracts courtesy of Scott Naylor (Friends of Twickenham Riverside)

Comments(4)

meaghers says...
2:23pm Thu 2 Jul 09

Despite a virtually unanimous 'No' response from the independantly funded Referendum on the plans to sell of public land on Twickenham Riverside, the autocratic 'Leader' of Richmond Council, and Lib Dem Ward Councillor for Kew, states that the Referendum was "rigged", "completely biased" and appears anxious to know how "the organisers 'selected' the 3% of the borough's population" for the Referendum. I am delighted to be able to attempt to allay Mr Lourie's anxiety. The area selected was that most affected by any development, ie the Parish of St Marys - NOT Mr Louries KEW constituents. As Mr Lourie states he considers the "issue of Twickenham Riverside is one for the whole borough". And Mr Lourie and his entirely Lib Dem cabinet, have made it quite clear that they do not feel it necessary to take their constituents views into account, especially not those of Twickenham it seems. Mr Lourie has refused the entire Borough a Referendum, has refused to take into account the results of his own CONsultation and the Report of his own independent consultants report funded by taxpayers money, it should be a great concern to all the people of this Borough, who exactly Mr Lourie thinks he is representing. After all, his plans for the riverside were not in his last manifesto. If this were main Government there would be a vote of no confidence, indeed, Mr Lourie is going completely against the LGA Campaign for a more democratic local governance and to ensure Councillors represent the views of their constituents.
Sarah Meagher
Tennyson Ave TW1

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Scott Naylor says...
8:10am Fri 10 Jul 09

Come on Mr Lourie, do the right thing, clearly you saying the rest of the Borough getting the facts they would think differently, does this differ from the 93.5% of the population locally affected by your dumping a river of concrete on them and consigning the town of Twickenham 1000 years of blight by blocking off the town from the river a message enough?

I bet anything if you had a private conversation with at least two of your local councillors, at least the two who are seen at all, or if you even bothered to talk randomly to local residents, why not even join us in the town, we can do it together, unsolicited, then you would learn a lot more in half an hour, rather then defending the position, but to actually listen to them in silence without interruption, then you as your two other councilors active in the area would actually learn the truth about this (privately they already know this to be the case, I asked Cllr David Trigg to join us on the Abey corner on Saturday to listen to the local electorate, he refused!

How about agreing to a public meeting to prove the point? we can arange this before all of the schools break up?

Or is there something you aren't telling us Mr Lourie, there is now extreme suspicion from teh community that either you or Mr Cable must have a personal vested interest you haven't declared in the selling off of the public land, as your Lib Dem colleagues and yourself have tried to do for the last 20 years?

Who is really getting the benefit from this? Is there another reason why you refuse the public their own wishes for the land to be managed by and for the people as a public amentity space, as a Town Square, as a deperately needed youth amenity, as a Market square to amplify the real best parts of the local artisan Twickenham industry, we are all realy proud to be part of through arts and crafts markets, through ice-rinks in the winter, through public performance and rehearsal space?

If you put a massive concrete block in the way you are stopping any chance of redeveloping Twickenham Town Centre of the shopping experience it deserves, as clearly Twickenham needs a carbuncle of a River Centre smack in the middle of our Riverside like a hole in the head, as you will find by using your two ears and your two ears rather than spewing worthless self-posessed rhetoric. Are the Presidents' clothes missing, 93.5^ however you want to see it can see your dishonest game, using a local charity whose founder's purpose we love as a Trojan Horse to build a lego-style cheap cost flat-pack housing to dominate the small patch of grass left.

Forget about being judged at the ballot box Mr Lourie, Mr Cable is also being judge alongside you, you have already been judged by the local electorate on one of the most important local issues of the last 20 plus years. The Twickenham Riverside is THE major Twickenham issue, and you appear so bloody-minded that you force us to more and more hard-nosed ways of making you listen, forcing us to put our hands in our own pockets, and you dare snear at the local populace for doing so. What will it take Mr Lourie, you have already ruled out holding your own referendum, twice, you clearly don't like the idea of beig thrashed as you have been to within a whisker of your electoral coucillor life.

We have already paid for a simple answer to a simple question, we have done your job for you, call yourself a leader now, last chance, and now act like one Mr Lourie, like you have just demonstrated with the parks U-turn, popular opinion has clearly been acted upon here, now do the same in Twickenham.

Prove what a real leader is made of, swallow that pride, bite the bullet, and halt this hated scheme before the summer holidays and you disaapear off yourself, don't leave it to one of your minions 'whilst you are away on holiday' to make the announcement of halting the scheme yourself now!

Show us you can be a humble leader and show us you really repect the community, stop this nonsense of clutching at strawes, prove you are human not a Marxist robot the local and borough community have seen you local councilors Trigg and Carr (also Cabinet members alongside you) become.

Come on Mr Lourie, do the right thing, clearly you saying the rest of the Borough getting the facts they would think differently, does this differ from the 93.5% of the population locally affected by your dumping a river of concrete on them and consigning the town of Twickenham 1000 years of blight by blocking off the town from the river a message enough? I bet anything if you had a private conversation with at least two of your local councillors, at least the two who are seen at all, or if you even bothered to talk randomly to local residents, why not even join us in the town, we can do it together, unsolicited, then you would learn a lot more in half an hour, rather then defending the position, but to actually listen to them in silence without interruption, then you as your two other councilors active in the area would actually learn the truth about this (privately they already know this to be the case, I asked Cllr David Trigg to join us on the Abey corner on Saturday to listen to the local electorate, he refused! How about agreing to a public meeting to prove the point? we can arange this before all of the schools break up? Or is there something you aren't telling us Mr Lourie, there is now extreme suspicion from teh community that either you or Mr Cable must have a personal vested interest you haven't declared in the selling off of the public land, as your Lib Dem colleagues and yourself have tried to do for the last 20 years? Who is really getting the benefit from this? Is there another reason why you refuse the public their own wishes for the land to be managed by and for the people as a public amentity space, as a Town Square, as a deperately needed youth amenity, as a Market square to amplify the real best parts of the local artisan Twickenham industry, we are all realy proud to be part of through arts and crafts markets, through ice-rinks in the winter, through public performance and rehearsal space? If you put a massive concrete block in the way you are stopping any chance of redeveloping Twickenham Town Centre of the shopping experience it deserves, as clearly Twickenham needs a carbuncle of a River Centre smack in the middle of our Riverside like a hole in the head, as you will find by using your two ears and your two ears rather than spewing worthless self-posessed rhetoric. Are the Presidents' clothes missing, 93.5^ however you want to see it can see your dishonest game, using a local charity whose founder's purpose we love as a Trojan Horse to build a lego-style cheap cost flat-pack housing to dominate the small patch of grass left. Forget about being judged at the ballot box Mr Lourie, Mr Cable is also being judge alongside you, you have already been judged by the local electorate on one of the most important local issues of the last 20 plus years. The Twickenham Riverside is THE major Twickenham issue, and you appear so bloody-minded that you force us to more and more hard-nosed ways of making you listen, forcing us to put our hands in our own pockets, and you dare snear at the local populace for doing so. What will it take Mr Lourie, you have already ruled out holding your own referendum, twice, you clearly don't like the idea of beig thrashed as you have been to within a whisker of your electoral coucillor life. We have already paid for a simple answer to a simple question, we have done your job for you, call yourself a leader now, last chance, and now act like one Mr Lourie, like you have just demonstrated with the parks U-turn, popular opinion has clearly been acted upon here, now do the same in Twickenham. Prove what a real leader is made of, swallow that pride, bite the bullet, and halt this hated scheme before the summer holidays and you disaapear off yourself, don't leave it to one of your minions 'whilst you are away on holiday' to make the announcement of halting the scheme yourself now! Show us you can be a humble leader and show us you really repect the community, stop this nonsense of clutching at strawes, prove you are human not a Marxist robot the local and borough community have seen you local councilors Trigg and Carr (also Cabinet members alongside you) become. Scott Naylor

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LindaCC says...
4:25pm Fri 10 Jul 09

I find the whole debate around the Riverside very interesting. On one side the vested interests of influential personalities who do not live in Twickenham and on the other, ordinary local people who are working to prevent public land being handed over, virtually at no cost to commercial/private investors. There is so much debate about one area of Twickenham without any concern, its seems to me, about the state of the High Streetand Twickenham generally. I have lived here for 20 years, it concerns me that a small influential group can assert that by having a riverside centre, this would entice visitors to the Town and somehow restore the shopping areas, the run down random allocation of charity shops that has become Twickenham high street.

The expression Fiddling while Rome burns comes to mind, our town centre is virtually a ghost town at weekends.

There must surely be a law against handing over public assets to private commercial companies?

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Eyeball says...
9:17am Thu 16 Jul 09

Twickenham Riverside is a very emotive subject at this time in our Local history and rightly so as most Twickenham folk actually have an interest in their environment and are against the councils proposed development of 32 luxury dwellings myself being included

The old pool site has been derelict will know for over 20 years Most of these by the present administration. This is their fourth attempt to dispose of this public land to a developer and no dought this will be the forth Failure.

Why did they not carry on where the previous administration left of with that superb children’s playground and excellent café that cost well in excess of one million pounds to produce. Had they done the democratic thing it would now be a welcoming park and meeting place for people’s use of all abilities and ages with safe flat areas for all to relax.
.
Should the councils chosen scheme go ahead most of the grassed area will be on a sloping roof and a small area beside the four story block of flats along Wharf lane. So there is no flat grassed area at all in the scheme. And the extra traffic will produce will make Twickenham town centre a very unwelcome place to visit.

To be continued

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93.5% voted NO to the sale of Twickenham Riverside to a property developer! (From Richmond and Twickenham Times)

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