by FitzWest admin | Jul 4, 2024 | AGM, CIL, Consultations, Environment, Greening, Our Neighbourhood
Thank you to everyone who attended our very successful AGM last Wednesday 26th June at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre on Howland Street – we appreciated you choosing to spend a gloriously hot evening with us rather than in the park! You can
read the full minutes of the meeting here.
As well as all the usual business of the AGM, we had several interesting presentations. These included an update from Jordan Scammell from the Soho Poly Theatre about their development plans and how the CIL funding has been spent.
You can have a look at the presentation here.
Lee Lyons from The Fitzrovia Partnership and Lucy Mitchell from the New West End Company discussed how they are dealing with issues of crime and anti-social behaviour in Fitzrovia. Councillor Patrick Lilley also shared some of the complex challenges the police are facing and how they are working to deal with it. Greening and outdoor space is always a very popular issue for our members and Mark Gazaleh told us about tree planting and plans for future greening in the area. You can look at this presentation here.
Consultation – chance to have your say
The Fitzrovia Partnership is co-designing a sustainability strategy and action plan for the area and has been engaging the community on its environmental, social and economic priorities to make Fitzrovia a better place to live, work and visit for all.
There was an exhibition and consultation about this at the AGM and residents and businesses gave their opinions. Join The Fitzrovia Partnership for its final sustainability strategy co-creation session on 10th July ay 12.30.
This session will include a wrap-up of insights gained during the recent sustainability drop-in sessions and survey, including feedback from local residents and businesses on how they would like to see better social and environmental value delivered in the area. The session will also provide an opportunity to provide final feedback on our Sustainability Strategy and Action Plan.
by FitzWest admin | Oct 31, 2023 | CIL, Environment, Greening, Our Neighbourhood, Public Space, Rubbish
We are delighted to announce that the long talked about and frequently delayed planters have finally been installed on Hanson street, Great Titchfield Street, and Gosfield Street at the junctions with New Cavendish Street.
These planters are funded by Neighbourhood CIL and the Tesco Bags of Help scheme.
Rebecca Heard of Fine Line Garden Design has done a wonderful job of sourcing hardy and attractive British plants and creating a very appealing planting design. It is designed to look great now, but also to grow and fill in as the months go by.
Lots of volunteers worked hard to get the planting done – including planting lots of bulbs which will come up in the spring.
We are very conscious that maintenance of these planters is incredibly important to keep them looking as good as they do now and we have a whole roster of volunteers who are watering , clearing rubbish that might appear and doing any other maintenance.
Children from All Souls School will be helping as well and it’s great to see all ages keen to be involved.
If you would like to help out and volunteer, then please do email us: info@fitzwest.org
The various locations for the planters were chosen after a public consultation. They needed to be in places where there was space away from utilities and that didn’t get in the way of passersby. It was also hoped they will serve an additional purpose of discouraging on-street dumping. We are aware this may take a little while to settle in but hope that residents and businesses will help by only putting their rubbish out at the time and in the place stipulated by WCC. The times are available here.
Hanson Street Planter
Thanks again to the many people who have helped and supported this project.
by FitzWest admin | Oct 19, 2022 | AGM, CIL, Consultations, Environment, Greening, The Plan
The Fitzwest Forum AGM last week was a great chance to hear about ongoing and future projects funded by the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and to hear Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg speaking about the Fitzrovia environment and how the Council are dealing with environmental issues.
You can read the minutes here.
We were treated to interesting presentations on the following CIL projects:
- All Souls School Playground Renewal
- Carburton St Greening
- Soho Poly Theatre
- Market Place Greening and Development
- New Cavendish Street Planters
More details are available on our website: CIL Projects
For those who couldn’t attend or didn’t get a chance to leave their ideas, we would very much like to hear from you. These further ideas will be added to the suggestions from the AGM and the public meeting earlier in the year.
Ideas for funding should align to the Fitzwest Neighbourhood Plan and the recently amended priorities of Westminster Council which are:
- Affordable housing (enabling)
- Green transition
- Sustainable and active travel
- Community facilities
- Accessible and inclusive public spaces
Please email us with your ideas on info@fitzwest.org
by FitzWest admin | Aug 26, 2022 | CIL, Greening, Our Neighbourhood, Oxford Street, Public Space
As this long, hot summer draws to an end we wanted to update you on the progress of various CIL (Community Infrastructure Levy) applications and awards.
We also wanted to tell you a bit more about CIL and how important it is for as many people as possible to have a say in how it is spent.
What is CIL?
The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) is a charge paid by developers (not householders) when beginning a new development. FitzWest has access to 25% of CIL generated in our area and this means the Forum can submit projects it wishes to see implemented as well as endorsing projects submitted by other charitable organisations based in the area. Projects should meet the following criteria:
- They should provide infrastructure which benefits those living and working in the area;
- They should provide additional infrastructure for defined sections of the population where facilities and services are insufficient or lacking;
- They should be non-discriminatory and meet all other legal requirements in the way they are delivered and operate;
- They should meet policy objectives as set out in the Council’s City Plan 2019 – 40 and the Neighbourhood Plan 2020;
- They should conform to guidance provided by the Council as set out on the website above.
A few projects have already been successfully applied for and accepted by Westminster Council for CIL funding. However, there is a constant supply of cash form new developments and it is really important that as many people as possible – residents, businesses and organisations – have a say in how this money is allocated.
This is your chance to be involved in making these decisions! We are looking for volunteers to be on our CIL Committee. This committee meets every couple of months and members also receive emails and applications to look at and comment on. It is up to you how much you would like to be involved and this is an important way to really influence and contribute how projects are funded.
If you would just like a simple admin role then we also need a secretary for the committee This would involve organising meetings and creating the agendas and minutes.
If you, or anyone you know would like to help make sure this funding goes to the right places, then please get in touch on info@fitzwest.org
Greening Around New Cavendish Street – together with funding from Tesco, a selection of planters will be positioned in areas to deter rubbish dumping and will be maintained by local residents and businesses.
University of Westminster Archive
Soho Poly Theatre – a contribution to funding the renovation of the theatre on Riding House Street.
Greening Carburton Street – a resident-led project for funding to continue planting around this street and the planting will be maintained by local residents.
Full details of all CIL projects are available on Fitzwest Forum website
by FitzWest admin | Feb 23, 2022 | CIL, Consultations, Environment, Greening, Our Neighbourhood, Public Space
Thanks to everyone who attended the public meeting on 15th February 2022 at the Fitzrovia Community Centre.
The purpose of the meeting was to hear ideas and to inform residents and local organisations about the Community Infrastructure Levy and how it works.
We were delighted to see lots of people there and to hear many ideas of how to improve the infrastructure of Fitzrovia West using the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL).
Amit Mistry, Principal Policy Officer from Westminster Council addressed the meeting and took questions about CIL, the kind of projects it funds and how it works.
There were lots of suggestions for projects from people at the meeting and via email beforehand. A summary of the subjects is here:
- Cycle racks modelled on Banja Luka
- Planters with cycle racks attached
- Planting around the tree on Carburton Street
- Replacing the planters near Holcroft court.
- Upgrading the cycle racks near the Almost Saturday cafe.
- A children’s playground (if a location could be found)
- Green walls
- Benches with green walls built into them (solar powered)
- Small on-street waste bins
- Rain gardens
- Trees on build outs
- Cultivation of tree pits
- Opening up the school for the benefit of the community
- A corridor through the Fitzrovia Centre to the garden behind
- Refurbish the old swimming pool behind the Fitzrovia Centre (expensive)
- Notices on bollards giving the times of collection of rubbish
- A study for a low traffic neighbourhood
- An air quality survey
- Refurbishing local benches
- Road bollards.
- Pop ups of various kinds
The full minutes of the meeting are available here – CIL Public Meeting 15.2.22
The time scale to come up with a project and apply for CIL funding is ongoing. The Westminster Council CIL committee meets every 3 months to assess the applications, so there are plenty of opportunities for people to create an application. All details are here:
https://www.westminster.gov.uk/planning-building-and-environmental-regulations/neighbourhood-community-infrastructure-fund/applying-neighbourhood-cil
Any comments or suggestions then please email us on info@fitzwest.org or leave a comment here.
by FitzWest admin | Jan 7, 2022 | CIL, Consultations, Greening, Public Space
Thank you to all the residents and businesses who responded to our consultation about planters in Fitzrovia.
The response was overwhelmingly supportive and included lots of great ideas for other places and greening initiatives. And also many offers to help look after the planters with watering and weeding.
100% of respondents were in favour of greening generally in the area and 94% were in favour of all the suggested sites. Click here to see the full report.
We really hope that if we are able to successfully achieve this small amount of greening, then we can begin on other projects.
We have made some adjustments to the proposal, taking into account feedback and concerns (for example the corner planters at locations 2 and 5 will be a smaller rectangle shape not the larger square shape in the photographs – which means there will still be space there for people to wait at these spots when the pavement on New Cavendish Street is crowded.)
Funding Application from CIL
We had anticipated having enough money to complete this project using the Tesco funding, but costs have increased because the planters are on the public highway so we now need safety checks, traffic impact assessments etc. As a result we are now applying for further funding from the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and will know by February 7th 2022 if we have been successful and are able to complete this project.
