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From bad to worse

BBC London's Alice Bhandhukravi reporting from Thursday's demo

It’s September, the nights are drawing in, and now, thanks to the total closure of Hammersmith Bridge, it seems the only way for some Barnes children to get to school is by walking or cycling through unlit parks and towpaths in the dark. For those children who can use public transport, journeys that once took 20 minutes now take up to an hour and a half.

Doctors and nurses working in our central London hospitals are facing an appalling commute and elderly Barnes residents trying to visit their GP surgery across the river are being forced to take an hour-long bus ride (if they can get a bus) to make a journey that only a few weeks ago took 10 minutes.

The closure also means that shops at the top of Castelnau have had their passing-trade business wiped out overnight with some of them worrying how they might survive.

In response to this unprecedented situation local pressure group ‘Broken Bridge Broken London’ organised a protest meeting by Hammersmith Bridge on Thursday night, where one-by-one people came to the stage to share how their lives have been blighted by the sudden closure of the bridge to pedestrians. 

Local MP Sarah Olney also spoke about how she and fellow MPs from other areas affected by the closure have been trying and failing to get any response from the government to requests for urgent funding to repair the bridge.  [Just as the Bugle was going to press she has at last received a letter from the Minister in charge - Baroness Vere. You can read it here. You can also see a summary from Sarah Olney outlining the work she has been doing on behalf of her constituents here.]

Pressure on the government to react is building and media coverage is intensifying but there are still no answers on where the money to repair the bridge is going to come from.

It is currently estimated that the cost of repairing the bridge to take vehicular traffic once more is £141 million. However, this week in a joint letter to Boris Johnson, the leaders of Hammersmith and Fulham and Richmond Councils asked for a minimum contribution of £46 million to make the bridge totally safe for pedestrians and cyclists. You can read the full letter here.

The government is now being forced to respond after a parliamentary petition has gathered more than 10,000 signatures. If the same petition reaches over 100,000 signatures the subject of the petition will be considered for debate in parliament.

Broken Bridge Broken London are urging everyone affected by the bridge’s closure to sign and spread the news about the petition via social media. You can add your signature by clicking on the button below.

Is there any good news?

It is a gloomy situation but in the past 24 hours the Bugle has come across three stories which appear to offer a small glimmer of hope. However, given our experience of covering this story we would caveat this by saying that glimmers of hope in relation to the bridge do tend to get extinguished on a regular basis.

The Department of Transport is setting up regular weekly meetings with experts from TfL and Hammersmith and Fulham Council.
The MP for Fulham, Andy Slaughter, revealed in an interview on BBC Radio London that the Department of Transport Minister with responsibility for bridges is actively trying to move the situation forward. You can hear what he said on this recording of the Eddie Nestor show (you will need to scroll forward to 1 hour and 49 minutes into the programme).

There’s still a chance the bridge could reopen to pedestrians and cyclists again within the next ten weeks.
Speaking on BBC London News, Hammersmith and Fulham councillor Wesley Harcourt revealed that it is hoped that a new ‘temperature control’ system could be installed on the bridge over the next couple of weeks. This would help to monitor the temperature-sensitive cracked areas of the bridge. This, combined with the existing monitoring systems, would allow engineers to evaluate whether the cracks that recently grew in size have stabilised and whether it would be possible to keep their temperature stable to prevent them getting worse. The situation has to be monitored over an eight-week period but if engineers do give the thumbs-up the bridge could be open to pedestrians and cyclists once more before Christmas. This is unlikely to be a long-term solution and could still leave the bridge at threat of further sudden closures. 

Serious consideration is being given to a ferry service.
Read more in our story below.

Ferry tale with a happy ending?

Setting up a ferry service across the river is not a straightforward proposition.

Firstly, the Thames is tidal, so how do you get people down to river level when the tide is low? 

Secondly, you need infrastructure and staff in place to handle embarking and disembarking passengers plus sites for that infrastructure.

Thirdly, you need enough capacity to transport the number of people who want to use the service.

Despite all these difficulties, Hammersmith and Fulham Council and the Port of London Authority are working together to see if a ferry service would be possible and to figure out how quickly it could be implemented.

This week, thanks to local businessman Jamie Waller, one piece of the jigsaw is  in place, as he has spent £500,000 buying the wharf area on the towpath outside Harrods village.

He says “Harrods Wharf was used in the past by large boats to drop off and pick up storage containers from the Harrods Depository and there is no reason that it can’t be used again, but this time for people. If the Council are serious about finding a solution, then they have one for the south side through me and I am sure Fulham Reach would work with them for a solution for the north. I would be amazed if a temporary ferry service could not be set-up in the space of a few weeks ready for children returning to school. With the right amount of energy and application this could be achieved. As a local resident I can see the need, and as a father I feel for those that have younger children about to start school. As such I am prepared to offer the use of the site for free, if others involved in the project will do the same. This is a time to do something for the community.”

In addition to this, we hear that there are a selection of serious providers in contention to set up a ferry service, including a group put together by logistics and engineering specialists based in Barnes. It is too early to give full details of their project in this issue but as soon as we know whether a viable ferry solution is in place we will let you know.

What about the buses?

The bridge may be closed but the 209 has continued to ply its trade. Recently, it has hardly been packed in these Covid blighted days of working from home, but had the bridge not been summarily closed it would have been full of schoolkids from this week onwards.

However, while the 209 has been empty, queues for the 533 have been legion. And, with access to the tube at Putney being in high demand the 378 and 485 services are coming under increased pressure. Neighbourhood forum NextDoor Barnes has many stories of people waiting for a 533 but being unable to board full buses.
In response to the bridge closure TfL has said that they are making changes to bus routes, decreasing the frequency of the 209, and beefing up the 533 and 378 services. Whether that will be enough to meet demand will become apparent over the next month.

You can read TfL’s full response to our bus questions here.

What about the temporary bridge?

Despite reports in the Evening Standard that plans to build a proposed temporary bridge have been shelved in favour of a plan to stabilise the existing bridge to take pedestrian traffic, the press office at Hammersmith and Fulham Council have denied that the idea of temporary pedestrian bridge is dead in the water (our pun and definitely intended).

In an ideal scenario the government would fund the full repairs to Hammersmith Bridge and, if that were to come to pass, a temporary bridge would still be needed to divert pedestrians and cyclists to give engineers and construction workers free rein to repair the main bridge.

Recently ITN reported that the cost of TfL’s proposed temporary bridge would be over £25million. TfL, however have disputed that amount saying the cost would be lower (although not divulging the actual amount).

At a consultation meeting held in March a TfL representative told the Bugle that the cost of the temporary bridge would come out of the £25 million initial grant made to cover engineering investigations, initial works, and other costs related to the bridge closure.

So far £16.7million of the initial grant has been spent and the remainder of the £25 million is no longer available as a result of TfL's funding crisis.* TfL is now hoping that the cost of the temporary bridge as well as the repair of the main bridge will be covered in future government grants to TfL.

It is also still saying that it won’t apply for planning permission for the temporary bridge until funds are guaranteed for the repair of Hammersmith bridge itself.

*Since TfL is funded by now much-diminished fare income it is reliant on government cash to keep going.

Broken bridge stories

New stories of hardship caused by the total bridge closure are emerging every day. There are so many it is impossible to share them all with you but home-made videos and news reports have told some very compelling stories.

ITV News have produced some excellent coverage which you can see here, and this video shows how potentially dangerous the journey to school has become for pupils trying to get from Barnes to Hammersmith by bike.

Finally, as we have already mentioned, the closure is having a devastating effect on the shops at the top of Castelnau. You can read all about the impact it is having on them here.

The devil is in the detail

When you spend time reading multiple, and sometimes conflicting, media reports as well as vocal discussions on social media and message boards, it can be hard to keep up with what is actually happening with the bridge.

In order to put the Bugle together we devote a lot of time requesting information from Hammersmith and Fulham Council and TfL as well as liaising with our local MP’s office. Our aim is to provide the most up to date and accurate information available. 

Throughout the bridge crisis TfL’s press office has been very open to sharing what information it can. To help us compile the bridge stories in this month’s Bugle we put a huge number of questions to their team. We don’t have room to include all the detail, but for those people with a keen interest in the bridge story here’s a link to all the answers TfL gave us this month.

Meanwhile in Mortlake...

Developer plans to add nearly 400 more homes to brewery site

When Richmond Council passed plans for the new Mortlake Brewery site earlier this year many of the objections at the planning meeting were about the proposed density of housing on the site and the impact that would have on our already jammed roads.

The proposal went through despite the objections and was then called into review by the London Mayor’s Office.

However now that Sadiq Khan is looking into it, the developers have revised their plans. Gone are the 150-home care village, nursing home and gym in the original proposals, and in their place are nearly 400 additional homes - bringing the total up to 1250.

The revised plans bring the scheme closer into line with the GLA’s target for all new schemes to include at least 35% affordable housing.

The total area of the scheme has also grown by 15% with the increased number of new homes leading to an increase in height for some buildings. Plans for nearly 200 car parking spaces have also been pulled.

A cinema, hotel, community hall and rowing club will still be included, while the scheme’s office space has grown from 3,000sq m to 5,000sq m.

The Mayor’s Office is now holding a consultation on the proposals and residents have until September 27 to comment on the plans.

Comments can be made by emailing mayor@london.gov.uk.

Local campaigners, the Mortlake Brewery Community Group - are dismayed by the plans saying “The scale of what is proposed, combined with the loss of the sports field, a new secondary school and the long-term closure of Hammersmith Bridge will change Mortlake for ever, creating traffic gridlock. An increase of new residents of this proportion will increase pressures on local roads, transport and health infrastructure to an intolerable level.”

They are urging people to object to the proposals by emailing mayor@london.gov.uk and are asking everyone with an objection to attend a rally on Mortlake Green on Tuesday September 22 at 5pm.

Don’t forget about the Homebase development
The plans to build 453 flats on the site of Homebase by the Richmond Sainsbury’s has also been referred to Sadiq Khan’s office, and campaigners are saying that local infrastructure won’t be able to cope with the combined influx of new residents from the Stag Brewery and Homebase developments.

Snake in the grass

Creative Commons Image: Bartholomeus Thoth 

We don’t know who the member of the public was that spotted a boa constrictor slithering on the Chiswick side of Barnes Bridge earlier this month, but we’re glad it wasn’t us. The 5ft long snake was eventually rescued by the RSPCA who said it had either been abandoned or escaped. If you’re not of a squeamish disposition you can see the moment the snake was captured here.

Are you totally au fait with Covid statistics and how to use them to interpret how much risk you face? No, us neither. And do attention-grabbing newspaper headlines make things more confusing or less? 

It was alarming to see a report this month in the Evening Standard reporting a big leap in cases in Richmond Upon Thames and identifying Richmond as having the second highest rate in all of London, based on a weekly snapshot.

The data it reported showed that in the week leading up to August 17, 33 new cases had been diagnosed in Richmond (compared with 8 the week before) taking the weekly case per 100,000 figure up to 16.7.

As any listener to the brilliant podcast ‘More or Less’ can tell you, statistics are all about context. Should you take a week’s snapshot as indication of a trend? Perhaps not, if you see that the following week fewer new cases were detected, lowering the case per 100,000 figure. 

However, new cases have gone back up again, to 25 in the seven days before September 1, giving Richmond a case per 100,000 figure of 12.6, roughly the same as London as a whole.

Looking at the bigger picture, cases across London are rising and Richmond is just part of that trend.

The Head of Richmond Council, Gareth Roberts, has now started to announce Richmond figures on YouTube and you can see him giving a bit of background to the local figures here.

It seems Richmond is carrying out more tests than most other London boroughs and if you carry out more tests you will pick up more cases. However, despite carrying out the second highest number of tests of any London borough the positive return rate (1.5%) is below the London average. They have identified that the majority of cases being picked up have come from people returning from holiday.

All of which means now is probably not a good time to let down our guard. Local doctor Patrick Gibson says that the growth in diagnosed cases is “a reminder to stay vigilant, be attentive to hand washing, social distancing and using face coverings in confined spaces.”

Should you wish to fall down a statistical rabbit hole you can see our local data by clicking here.

Covid in Barnes

Huge thanks to everyone who took part in the survey we ran in the August issue. Over 200 people replied meaning we had a sample large enough to compare results with the July survey.

What we found made interesting reading. Just under 20% of respondents thought they had had the virus (a similar figure to the last survey) but the latest month in which anyone said they had contracted it was April.  

Of respondents still in employment, just 5% of said they were ‘back in my workplace full time’. Only 8% had been going into their place of work throughout lockdown and beyond. There are signs of some people returning to their place of work part time with 10% mixing ‘WFH’ with stints in an office. However, 66% are still furloughed or working from home. 

The signs of the economic impact of Covid are becoming apparent with self-employed people saying they have less work and one respondent reporting that they have had to close their business. Five people said that they have been made redundant.

One of the biggest shifts in attitudes from the last survey was that more people were comfortable with going back to bars and restaurants with 50% saying they were okay with this as opposed to 38% last time.

Road to nowhere

Creative Commons Image: Bartholomeus Thoth 

As we have previously reported, plans are afoot to reduce traffic in all the Royal Parks across London, and people using Richmond Park as a cut through are now facing restrictions as part of a six-month trial that started in the middle of August.

On weekdays Richmond Park is restricting all through-traffic between Broomfield Hill Car Park by the Isabella Plantation and Robin Hood Car Park and closing the vehicle link between Sheen Gate and Sheen Cross. 
 
On weekends, they will add to these restrictions by stopping all cut-through traffic between Roehampton, Sheen and Richmond Gates.

Richmond Council says it will be closely monitoring the impacts on nearby communities - including congestion and air quality.  
 
Cllr Alexander Ehmann, Chair of the Transport and Air Quality Committee at Richmond Council, says: 
 
“Responsibility for managing traffic within Richmond and Bushy parks lies solely with Royal Parks. 
 
“As it is wholly understandable that Royal Parks do want to protect the environmental status of the parks for the future, we do need to study the effects of these changes to ensure that residents are not adversely impacted by any changes.  
 
“The proposals have tried to address some of the anxieties that residents have voiced about changes to the Park’s vehicular arrangements. However, these are still significant changes from the status quo - which is why we have agreed to a regime of monitoring that will help inform the Council of the impact on borough roads during the trial.
 
“If either of these trials result in poor air quality, a decline in road safety or additional congestion in nearby communities where our residents live and work, then they may need amendment or could even prove unsustainable.  
 
“We encourage residents to share their views with the Royal Parks during the trial phase.  We also welcome direct feedback that will inform the Council’s overall view and ongoing dialogue with the Royal Parks.”
 
To stay informed of the process and progress of the trials, people are encouraged to sign up to the Movement Strategy mailing list.

It's deja-vu all over again

Picture this. The community is at serious risk from a deadly epidemic. There are no effective treatments; the main strategy is to isolate suspected cases to try to contain the spread.

This was Richmond in the late 1880s when the authorities proposed opening a fever hospital in Mortlake, to the horror of the local residents. The diseases in question were diphtheria and scarlet fever.

Now, in 2020, as the old Barnes Hospital site faces a new future, the Friends of Barnes Hospital have published a fascinating history of the institution. Based on extensive research in the archives and conversations with former patients and staff, the story traces the hospital’s controversial beginnings through the good times and the bad, until the present day. 

To obtain a copy, at £10 per copy including postage, either email admin@fobh.org.uk or telephone 07928 650077.

Let there be music

Keeping fingers crossed that a second wave isn’t on the horizon, Barnes Music Society has planned a complete season of eight concerts from 29 October 2020 to 15 June 2021 to be held in St Mary’s Church.  The church is an ideal size for members and guests to be seated, socially distanced, in complete safety.

The first concert features one of Europe’s leading violists, Rachel Roberts. She will be performing with Tim Horton, himself one of the foremost chamber pianists of his generation, in a programme of solos and duos by composers who were born during or around Beethoven’s lifetime.  Tim has selected Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No 27 in E minor, Op.90 as well as a sonata by Schubert.

Rachel has chosen, as her solo, a piece by Henri Vieuxtemps, a Belgian composer, born just seven years before Beethoven died.  He became a child prodigy violin and viola player from the age of nine, including popular performances in England when he was fourteen.  

The concert culminates with the mesmerising Brahms’ Sonata Op.120 No.1 for viola and piano.

Become a FiSH trustee

Our amazing local charity FiSH is looking for a new Chair of Trustees.
Their board are looking for someone with strong leadership skills who may also have charity or volunteering experience. They’ll be interviewing in the autumn with the aim of making an appointment in November.
It is an unpaid but extremely fulfilling role and a chance to make a real positive difference in many people’s lives. You can find out more about FiSH on their website and if you would like to apply please email a CV and a covering letter to director@fishhelp.org.uk  by September 30.
Outgoing Chair Crispin O’Brien says “It has been a huge honour to serve as Chair. FiSH is entering a new phase of its development and planning. The board will soon begin work on the next three-year strategic plan; it is right that a new Chair will lead on this.  I am very proud of the work we continue to do to support and cherish elderly and isolated people in Barnes, Mortlake and East Sheen. I will continue to volunteer and be a passionate supporter of FiSH.”

Along for the ride

Louise Farrer only bought her bike in February, yet this month she spent four days cycling through the Alps climbing over 11,000 vertical metres and covering a distance of 400km; all to help fundraise for the Royal Marsden.

She, and many others from Barnes, were participating in Le Cure (or Le Cure de France as the ride is officially known) an event which over the past seven years has raised over £1.5 million for the charity. The people who take part are generally not cyclists, come in all shapes and sizes, and this year ranged in age from 21 to 75.

Louise says that it was a miracle that this year’s event went ahead at all. Coronavirus meant a last-minute switch of route to Switzerland and the Italian alps. The cyclists managed to cross the border into Italy just as quarantine for people returning from Switzerland kicked in.

Louise took part with her husband as a way of marking five years since her own cancer diagnosis aged 35. She received the news that she had cancer just days after giving birth to her second child.

You can find out more about Le Cure, donate and volunteer to take part on their website.

Strong in song

The Barnes Community Choir would normally meet every Thursday evening during term-time at Lowther Primary School, but have had to cancel their rehearsals and planned concerts. Undaunted by working in a time of a pandemic, their musical director, Joe Bunker, has been running zoom choir sessions to enable the choir to get together and sing. They have now recorded a virtual choir video –you can view it on YouTube by clicking on the image above. It is dedicated to a much-loved choir member, Jennie Cooke, who sadly died after contracting COVID-19. 

Celebrity signers

If you fancy buying a great book signed by a gen-u-ine celebrity, pop on down to the Barnes Bookshop where they have copies of Richard Osman’s new book, and Gyles Brandreth’s bumper compilation of jokes – What’s Black and White and Red All Over (surely headed for a Christmas stocking near you this year). 

Luckily for Barnes, Osman carried out the book signing for his new book– The Thursday Murder Club – on a Tuesday.

Phone mast battle

Residents in North Barnes and Harrods Village are fighting the installation of a new mobile phone mast. Phone operator Three is seeking to erect a 20 metre tall telecoms mast and three service cabinets, to be positioned by the entrance to the Barn Elms Allotment on Trinity Church Road. To comment by  September 15 click here.

Join the lit set

After having to cancel the end of last year’s programme, the Barnes Literary Society are back and running at full throttle with a brilliant programme of events for the 2020/21 season. Speakers include historian Tom Holland, controversial biographer Tom Bower (who will be talking about his biography of Boris Johnson), and crime writer Mark Billingham.

All the talks will be at St Mary’s Church but with reduced capacity allowing the BLS to observe a strict social distancing protocol. For those that can’t attend, all the talks will be filmed and shared by private link after the event.

To find out more about this year’s programme and to join the literary society (events are for members and their guests only) visit the BLS website.  

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