The PNF Steering Group is pleased to report that Westminster City Council has now engaged with the ideas submitted by the Forum for a temporary transport scheme in the Warwick Way / Wilton Rd area to help local business recover from the Covid-19 lockdown.
In May the Council sought ideas to help the bounce back from lockdown. Our suggestions (23 May) were well received by the local community and our local Councillors have supported the sense of urgency about needing to widen pavements and reduce traffic to provide better conditions for shops and restaurants, customers, residents and local businesses.
On 16 June, the Council came back to the Forum with proposals that take into account and build on our ideas with their own plan: they want to remove one lane of motor traffic from Warwick Way between Guildhouse Street and Upper Tachbrook Street, allowing larger pavements for shops and the hospitality sector.
We welcome the move and look forward to a rapid roll-out of a scheme that helps Pimlico. We understand that in stage 2 of the Council’s Movement Strategy, which aims to help the hospitality sector recover from early July, there may be further developments and improvements across Westminster.
Supporting local businesses
Now more than ever it is important that we give the independent businesses that make up the Pimlico Village our support. Many restaurants and cafes have takeaway or delivery options and the market stalls and shops have stepped up to offer home deliveries. The most comprehensive local website with details of what’s on offer is here (scroll down to the shops). We also encourage businesses to sign up for the Shop Local map.
For the Steering Group
Peter Ruback, Chairman
Temporary transport schemes for Pimlico
– Our Draft Neighbourhood Plan has already identified that improving public realm in the Warwick Way and Wilton Road business area is a priority to help the area best meet the needs of residents, shoppers and diners. The lockdown is likely to end in early June for “retail” and early July for “hospitality”, but social distancing means action is needed even more urgently to help shops and restaurants reopen successfully and businesses and the community to bounce back.
The Department for Transport has helpfully set the way for local authorities to fast-track temporary measures to accommodate growth in pedestrian and cycling traffic. Westminster City Council has already published its thinking about the general steps it might take, but there are no specific proposals in Pimlico as yet.
The Pimlico Neighbourhood Forum Steering Group has put forward its own ideas, based on feedback when we consulted last year on our draft plan. We are very grateful for help from a Forum member who is a professional Transport Planner and modeller.
We wanted to tell members about this idea and seek your support and ideas on how to move it forward.
Temporary scheme proposal
The main idea is making Warwick Way one way – allowing only eastward journeys between Guildhouse St and Upper Tachbrook St (or Vauxhall Bridge Rd) for motor vehicles – and widening the pavements for pedestrians and restaurants and shoppers, perhaps separated from the road by planters, while allowing space for loading/delivery and cycling which is bound to increase. Wilton Road pavements, which are narrow near the junction, would also be widened. This would deal with the pressures from social distancing in our area as well as reducing through traffic (both starting and ending outside Pimlico).
This is not a final worked up scheme, but we think something like this could help deal with what will be serious pressures on public realm in the coming months.
We have sent the attached proposal to Westminster City Council officers so that Pimlico’s voice is heard as they develop their strategy and would be delighted if you could let us know what you think so we can continue to ensure input from our area. Please email us: contact@pimlicoforum.org.
We were just about to write to our members with a “save the date” for early May for our Annual General Meeting…. that now seems premature in the light of the latest Government advice, so…..
First of all, we hope that you and your families are well and coping with these exceptional times.
Secondly, we will in the next few weeks be finalising and circulating the reports including an update of progress in the last year that we had hoped to be able to present to you at the AGM. In particular, we wanted to share with you how we were dealing with the responses we received in our consultation last Summer and the updating of the Neighbourhood Plan.
Thirdly, we recognise that many of our members are in those groups who have been asked to take particular care to avoid contracting Covid 19/Coronavirus and that some of you will be limiting your contacts. Westminster has a web page with more information and contacts should you need help or be concerned about anyone who might need help. There are also links to the NHS pages containing advice on who should stay at home and what that means in practice.
We know that many of the residents’ associations are organising their own contact arrangements and setting up networks to enable assistance with shopping and other matters should the need arise. This newsletter can also be found on our website, and we may update this 18 March 2020 Announcement with other useful links.
Pimlico’s special quality is that it is a village and we are sure that the village will want to offer both practical and moral support, so do please volunteer if you can or ask for assistance for yourself or a neighbour if you think it may be needed.
For the Steering Group
Peter Ruback, Chairman
We have received over 100 responses from local residents and from statutory consultees: thank you!
Our consultation on the draft of the Pimlico Neighbourhood Plan started on 31 July and ended on 10 October. We delivered postcards to residents in our area and posters in shops and public places helped to raise awareness about the plan. Thanks go to the shopkeepers and other local businesses for putting up our posters. Members of the Steering Group also held briefing meetings with local residents’ associations.
The overwhelming majority of the responses supported the preparation of the Plan and the vision for our area developed by the Neighbourhood Forum.
The Steering Group is now considering the detail of the responses and how they will be reflected in the Plan and the policies contained within it. We will report back early in the New Year.
We are also pleased to announce that as a result of the consultation, we now have 50 more members of the Forum. Welcome to all!
This is to confirm that the first statutory consultation on the draft Plan is open until Thursday 10 October 2019.
Comments can be made by emailing to email@pimlicoforum.org.
It would be helpful if you could input either to the draft Plan in general and/or by reference to the such of the specific Policies on which you wish to wish to comment.
Thank you for your interest and support!
We are delighted to be able to launch our first formal consultation on the Pimlico Neighbourhood Plan today.
We have been working since 2016 on a Plan for our area which sets out our proposals: see this page for more details. We want to see our area keep its village feel with its fine architecture of all periods, while enabling the shops and other business based here to prosper.
We need to know your views about our priorities and about the policies set out in the Plan (browse or download the 68 pages document here)! The consultation lasts until 10 October and responses should be emailed to: email@pimlicoforum.org
We look forward to hearing from you!
Since it started in 2016, Pimlico Neighbourhood Forum has been hosted by the independent community network 5Fields.org. The Steering Group would like to thank 5Fields’ editor Ken Sparkes for his help and support in the launch of our Forum, letting us use his site, developing our membership and promoting our activities.
The Forum is opening a new chapter with the publication shortly of its draft Neighbourhood Plan and a formal consultation. It now seems the right time to launch our own website pimlicoforum.org.
For convenience, articles and posts about the Forum previously published on 5Fields.org are shown in the Announcements section of this website. Forum Members and others will continue to receive updates from the Forum by email as well.
In the meantime please have a look!
Dear Members,
We look forward to seeing you at 7.30 on Wednesday 1 May for the 4th meeting of the Forum at St Saviour’s Church Hall, St George’s Square and to update you on progress withe developing a Plan for our area. Please find our documents on these links:
- Agenda
- Minutes of the previous meeting
- 2018 Annual Report and
- 2017-2018 Accounts.
Best wishes,
PNF Steering Group
The 3rd meeting and Annual General Meeting of the Pimlico Neighbourhood Forum (PNF AGM) was held in St Saviour’s Hall, Pimlico, on Wednesday 25th April. 37 members of the Forum and local Councillors were present.
The Chairman gave a report on the work on the Forum in the past year and the full PDF is available on Google Docs.
The principal activity of the Forum is to produce a Neighbourhood Plan that will set out Westminster Planning policy specific to our area. The Plan will aim to have policies that preserve the quiet village feel, while facilitating a more vibrant local economy and enhancing the local environment.
The steering group has come up with the idea of “Key Business Areas” in which the small local shopping centres in the residential areas should be preserved for retail activity or other commercial activity, rather than being lost to residential. Otherwise residential areas should be protected.
The steering group has also been thinking about how to improve the public realm generally, especially in the area around the Warwick Way/Wilton Road junction. This needs improvement because it is the principal commercial centre of our area, but does not present an attractive face.
We will also be proposing a greater degree of scrutiny of the design for major projects to enable review earlier in the planning process.
We’ve received funding from central Government and from the Ward Budgets of all 3 Council Wards and expect to be able to have sufficient consultancy support for the drafting of our Plan.
We hope to go out to further consultation in the Autumn with more detailed proposals for planning policies.
Mair Garside
Following the PNF AGM, which she attended, the Steering Group is very sorry to report that Mair Garside died suddenly on 28 April. She had been a wonderfully supportive and active member of the Steering Group, and a Pimlico resident for over 60 years. She will be sorely missed. Mair’s funeral takes place on 6th June, 2pm at St James the Less church, 4 Moreton Street, SW1V 2PS. No flowers please.
Peter Ruback
Chairman, Pimlico Neighbourhood Forum
The Pimlico Neighbourhood Forum will be holding its 3rd meeting (and Annual General meeting) on 25 April at 7.30pm at St Saviour’s Hall, St George’s Square in Pimlico (Entrance on Pimlico Academy side of St George’s Square).
The meeting is open to all members of the Forum and Councillors of Churchill, Warwick and Tachbrook wards.
Please come along to hear about the work we have been doing to develop a Neighbourhood Plan for our area and to take forward our Vision for Pimlico. The Plan will deal with such things as housing, transport, the environment, public realm and design and heritage issues.
We look forward to seeing you on 25 April.
Please find here the meeting papers:
In addition, as you know, we had an exhibition and consultation in November and December 2017. The Online survey results are here. The consultation leaflet is here.
Peter Ruback
Chairman, Pimlico Neighbourhood Forum
