Council proposals for public realm in the centre of Pimlico
You may remember that in Summer 2021, the Council held an informal poll on whether to continue the hospitality scheme which created more space for pavement seating for the cafes, pubs and restaurants as well as reducing through traffic in the “high street” of Pimlico. The result was overwhelmingly in favour and so the hospitality scheme was continued.
The Council has now come up with proposals for a permanent scheme which increases pavement space, keeping Warwick Way one-way westwards for motor vehicles between Belgrave and Vauxhall Bridge Roads, with no entry for them to Warwick Way at the junction with Belgrave Road. This will remove the current access for cars to Guildhouse Street from the junction with Warwick Way.
The scheme also includes plans to make Churton Street one-way northwards and to expand the public realm there.
The consultation can be accessed on www.westminster.gov.uk/warwick-way-public-realm-consultation which gives visuals for the public realm works as well as detailed plans for the road and pavement spaces, parking etc.
There is no doubt that this is a significant proposal for Pimlico which aims to improve the physical environment of the main shopping and dining streets serving Pimlico as well as a much wider area.
We would encourage everyone to respond to the consultation survey as it is important for the Council to understand the level of support and the reasons for it as well as any detailed concerns that some people may have about specific aspects of the scheme, such as the design itself, details of planting proposals etc.
The consultation closes on 9 February 2023.
The Pimlico Neighbourhood Forum and the Pimlico Neighbourhood Plan emphasise the need to do something material to improve the quality of the public realm in this part of Warwick Way (as well as Wilton Road) which has had no significant investment in the last 30 years, during which time the population of our area has increased significantly. But it is important that the details should be got right, and the decision based on the evidence.
Approved by local referendum on 22 September 2002, the Pimlico Neighbourhood Plan was formally adopted by Westminster City Council on 7 December and published in its final form (click on the picture to read / download).
The Pimlico Neighbourhood Plan becomes part of the statutory Development Plan and will be used alongside Westminster City Plan 2019-2040 and the London Plan 2021 when determining planning applications within the Pimlico Neighbourhood Area. The Pimlico Neighbourhood Plan includes policies on a range of matters including commercial and mixed-use development, design and heritage, housing and hotels, public realm and environment.
This marks the end of a 6 year long process and we would like to thank the many residents and other experts who helped us along the way. We’d also like to remember the contributions of Mair Garside and Edward Reeve, both very long standing Pimlico residents, who died in 2018 and were energetically involved in the steering group from the start of its work.
In yesterday’s referendum on the Pimlico Neighbourhood Plan, 1617 voters voted “YES” and 123 voted “NO”
There have so far been 6 residential referendums on Neighbourhood Plans in Westminster. This is the highest vote for “YES” and the highest number of votes in total, with a high turnout.
The next step is for Westminster City Council to formally “make” (that means adopt) the Plan and to apply it to planning applications in our area.
We’d like to thank everyone who voted yesterday (either way) and everyone who contributed to the debate by posting on social media or to residents groups.
Don’t forget to vote ‘YES’ in the referendum today
Voting is between 7am and 10pm. There are three Polling Stations – click on the map to see where you should cast your vote.
Vote YES if you want to:
- preserve Pimlico’s character and village feeling;
- restrict new development above the characteristic height of buildings nearby;
- protect and improve our public realm and our open and green spaces;
- ensure new housing meets the needs of families in Pimlico and
- support and enhance our retail areas.
Areas with a Neighbourhood Plan in place keep 25% of their Community Infrastructure Levy.
The Council collects money for infrastructure from new developments through the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL). This is a planning charge based on the floorspace of new developments.
Areas without a Neighbourhood Plan only keep 15% of the money and it is subject to an annual cap. In places with a Neighbourhood Plan, this increases to 25% and is uncapped.
It can be used on a wide range of local projects, for example:
- Road and footpath improvements
- Tree planting
- New or improved play spaces and facilities
- Community safety measures (eg CCTV, lighting)
- New or improved cycling facilities
- Traffic calming measures
- Improvements to school grounds and buildings
- Improvement of local facilities such as libraries, community centres or sports halls
This is the last of 5 brief posts about the content of Pimlico Neighbourhood Plan that people living in the Neighbourhood Area (only) will be voting on on 22 September 2022. Find out more:
Residents want to be able to enjoy thriving shops, cafes and restaurants and live happily alongside these.
People wanted a better range of shops so more of their needs can be met in the ‘village’ without having to leave the area but avoiding it becoming a major ‘destination’ in its own right, attracting too much traffic, parking and other impacts that are unsuitable for a primarily residential area.
The Plan aims to support commercial activities, while protecting residential amenity and avoiding any harm to heritage. Policies include limiting the locations of new businesses to existing town centres, putting strong limits on locations for new hot-food takeways, and ensuring that changes to buildings to support businesses put residential amenity, design and heritage first.
This is the fourth of 5 brief posts about the content of Pimlico Neighbourhood Plan that people living in the Neighbourhood Area (only) will be voting on on 22 September 2022. Find out more:
Pimlico has a large proportion of historic architecture that is consistently lower in height than that of neighbouring areas.
The plan ensures that proposals must preserve: protected townscape and views, the setting of any listed building or unlisted building of merit, and the setting and key features of our conservation areas (Pimlico, Peabody Avenue, Dolphin Square and Lillington and Longmoore).
The Plan makes clear that the Pimlico Neighbourhood Area is generally not suitable for buildings out of scale with those in their close vicinity and has specific policies for our area which are stronger than Westminster’s City Plan.
This is the third of 5 brief posts about the content of Pimlico Neighbourhood Plan that people living in the Neighbourhood Area (only) will be voting on on 22 September 2022. Find out more:
People like the gardens, parks and green spaces. They want them protected and ideally would like more.
Aside from their amenity and use by residents, the open and green spaces are important as they help contribute to an ‘open feel’ – they open up or contribute to views. We knew this in 2016, when we started our work, and the last two years have really proved it!
We need to protect these spaces and even smaller bits of public realm as well as creating more spaces for any larger development that might be proposed. We also need to improve public realm used by pedestrians accessing the shops, pubs and restaurants. Finally we must keep Pimlico Gardens as a crucial green space that enables locals to access and enjoy the riverside.
This is the second of 5 brief posts about the content of Pimlico Neighbourhood Plan that people living in the Neighbourhood Area (only) will be voting on on 22 September 2022. Find out more:
Residents told us they wanted to keep the village feel: the local independent businesses, the historic well designed buildings
The Plan has been written with 23 policies to achieve this: from policies about the sort of business in the central area around Wilton Road and Warwick Way, about open and green space, historic buildings, building heights and the well designed estates. It will also put the local community in a strong position to respond to future planning applications, as well as marking out why we are different from Victoria to the North.
This is the first of 5 brief posts about the content of Pimlico Neighbourhood Plan that we will be voting on on 22 September 2022. Find out more:
Our Pimlico, our Plan: a reminder
The referendum for the Pimlico Neigbourhood Plan will be on Thursday 22 September 2022.
In brief, our plan:
- sets out policies for development and use of land in our area
- reflects the wishes of the local community
- will be used by Westminster City Council to help decide planning applications in Pimlico
Reasons to vote YES
- preserve Pimlico’s character and village feeling
- restrict new development above the characteristic height of buildings nearby
- protect and improve our public realm, and our open and green spaces
- ensure new housing meets the needs of families in Pimlico
- support and enhance our retail areas
- increase our share of CIL money (the Capital Infrastrucure Levy the Council sets on new developments)
We will send a short update on each of these reasons in the run up to the referendum itself.
Read, download or print the plan at: https://pimlicoforum.org/wp-co…
More on the plan and the referendum on our website at https://pimlicoforum.org/refer…
