Ballymore construction starts March 10th
Having cleared the site (and, yes, the trees), construction of West Hampstead Square is now imminent. At the first working group meeting between developers Ballymore, building contractors O’Hare McGovern and community representatives, Ballymore announced that work would start on March 10th and is due to finish next summer.
Work will take place 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 1pm on Saturdays.
Perhaps of more concern for locals will be the 45 lorry movements per day along Finchley Road and West End Lane, delivering materials and removing waste.
Local councillor Gillian Risso-Gill will be speaking to the council about a traffic management plan for the development. The contractor’s own report says it will have a “left turn in, left turn out” policy, so lorries won’t have to cross lanes. Sounds good in practice, though if it leads to more traffic heading up West End Lane beyond Iverson Road then it may be preferable to endure the right turns out of the site.
Having promised to look into ways to mitigate the loss of the trees by “greening” the north wall (the one that will face the Overground tracks), Ballymore came back with no suggestions, saying that there was no scope for additional planting on the north side due to Network Rail fencing. Don’t expect the campaigners to roll over easily on this one.
A great start for developer-community ‘partnership’ in the “intensification” of this small area, I think not. If they can’t think of ways to ‘green’ the area perhaps as a gesture of goodwill they could sponsor a new roadsweeper to clean visible litter & dog faeces from streets in surrounding area….given Camden quite clearly don’t care about it..
Am wondering whether
Camden or Ballymore have taken into consideration the impact of this imminent
population explosion. Current rush hour between the three West Hampstead
stations makes it hard enough for commuters to walk on West End Lane.
Unless they start forward-planning, there will be the added chaos of queues outside the stations, clogging up the pavements and as the already crowded
platforms become Health & Safety nightmares. Goes to show that
this is a profit-making exercise and not a community driven one.
http://westhampsteadlife.com/2014/12/29/new-overground-station-should-absorb-growing-passenger-numbers/15443
As for your comment:
“Goes to show that this is a profit-making exercise and not a community driven one”
Well of course it is. Ballymore, like most developers spend £millions on projects like these in the hope of generating a profit, like any business. I would say that re-developing that piece of land and giving us a new square will look great. Partnering up with Network Rail to modernise the Overground isn’t exactly a middle finger to the community either is it.