Chiswick Beach Leisure Facility Planned for Strand on the Green
Motorboat club and 'fast pedalos' would form part of river development
Part of the area of the proposed development - Ball's Wharf
An application is being made to build a mixed river leisure facility by Strand on the Green. The development which would be called ‘Chiswick Beach’ would include twelve new moorings for houseboats and it is proposed to form a Chiswick Boat Club for motorboats to operate from the facility. The applicant says there would also be facilities for canoeing, rowing, sailing and ‘fast pedalos’ as well as a club boat with a café and restaurant. The scheme would be entirely on the water.
It would be located just east of Kew Bridge and stretch to the small park opposite the Café Rouge restaurant. The applicant promises to support ‘arts, music and creativity’ of all kinds at the facility. It would also be the home of the Institute of Life an organisation which is described as having a ‘fundamental philosophical belief in Life and the conservational use of the natural world for the well-being of people’. The facility would generate its own power and provide a surplus to feed back to the National Grid.
Permission has already been requested of the Port of London Authority (PLA) for installation of piles, pontoons and moorings in the area that used to be called Ball’s Wharf and was formerly used for river related commerce.
The applicant claims that Hounslow Council ‘is particularly excited’ by the scheme. The Council have recently approved a scheme to build moorings for 25 houseboats opposite Watermans Park to the west of Kew Bridge.
A plan of the scheme submitted with the report to the PLA
A report they have submitted to the PLA says that there is a significant deficiency in river facilities east of Kew Bridge and this is the only site in Hounslow Borough where such an amenity could be built. The report describes the site as ‘blighted’.
The report states, ‘This imaginative and policy lead (sic) planning application, takes advantage of London historic waterway and designs it to meet the needs of contemporary Londoners and the work/life/leisure balance that only the river offers. This waterway scheme is only possible on the foreshore and it has been designed “from the water” to meet the strictest environmental standards.’
It goes on to claim, ‘By any account this is the most exciting waterway prospect in London, setting the standard of the use of the waterways for Borough across London.’
Paul of Active360, a paddleboarding club based in Kew Bridge Arches has already given feedback to the PLA. As well as pointing out the vagueness of the application as it stands, he also raises a safety issue saying, “It looks like at the start of ebb tide this will provide some excitement for novice canoeists, kayakers, DSUP paddlers launching on the drawdock as they will have to take care to avoid being pulled by the current into and under the moorings.”
He also raises the issue of plastic pollution at the site and asks how the development would be managed so as not to add to the problem. However, he adds that the added risk of the development might be worth putting up with if Section 106 funding from the plan could be used to create a much needed causeway across the mud at the drawdock.
We have asked Hounslow Council for a statement on the proposal.
The PLA have asked for comments which can be sent to Jackie Evans (telephone 01474 562588 or email jackie.evans@pla.co.uk) before 26 December 2017.
November 30, 2017