A message to Shanta from the residents of west Chiswick

‘Shanta’ 

Hoping for a Christmas miracle

Members of the West Chiswick and Gunnersbury Society residents’ association  have sent a letter to Shanta.

That is not a typo.

‘The Groundlings say that they have been very good’, they tell the man in the red suit, adding: ‘even this week they were busy planting bulbs in their Meanwhile Garden’.

To de-code their letter, you need to know that ‘the Groundlings’ are those who live in the vicinity of Chiswick Tower – about to be redeveloped.

A ‘Meanwhile Garden’ is a garden on borrowed time, on land that is about to be redeveloped, and the ‘Shanta’ in question is the Leader of Hounslow Council, Shantanu Rajawat.

(L) How the repurposed Chiswick Tower will look; (R) How the upgraded station platform could look if TfL, Network Rail and Hounslow Council find the money

You also need to know that ‘CIL’ in local government parlance is a Local Infrastructure Levy – the money paid by developers as a tax on their building projects to fund other projects the local Council cannot afford to fund by itself.

They are hoping, in essence, that the Council will put some money towards an upgrade for Gunnersbury tube station.

Gunnersbury station

The letter continues:

‘The Groundlings wish is for Shanta to get his little helpers – the Cabinet elves – to deliver some parcels of CIL to their station.

‘They already have two train sets, some tracks and a platform but they have run out of Lego to build stairs and a lift.

‘The fat and thin controllers say that they will build these if someone can find them some bricks.

‘Locating some CIL bricks shouldn’t be too difficult for the elves. There is plenty of elf storage in the big grey and red shed around the corner – Shure to be some CIL there’.

Shurgard storage facility on nearby Power Road

They would like to know how much CIL money has been allocated from each of the recent developments in East Brentford – the Brentford Stadium, Capital Interchange Way, and how much will be allocated from the proposed developments at Holly House and B&Q, all adding more people to the area, to pay for the station upgrade, which Transport for London and Network Rail say they cannot at the moment afford to do.

(L) Capital Interchange Way; (R) The Duffy site – latest phase of the development around Brentford FC’s Gtech stadium

At a recent meeting of the Planning Committee their chair Marie Rabouhans asked the Council to show leadership and commit to spending money on it.

READ ALSO: Chiswick Tower Co-living conversion gets the go-ahead

Chiswick Business Park; Photograph Jennifer Griffiths

Part of the problem is that Chiswick Business Park, directly across the road from the station, attracts thousands of workers every day. At the Planning Committee meeting several of the Labour Committee members agreed that it was dangerously overcrowded.

Their letter ends:

‘Delivery is also at hand as Rudolph has been seen in the Chiswick Business Park – enjoying-a-break before enjoying-work on his big night’.

The Chiswick Calendar has stuffed the letter up the relevant chimney and awaits Shanta’s reply.

Santa and his reindeer at ChiswickBusiness Park

Read more stories on The Chiswick Calendar