Town Centre Manager Talks About Plans For Chiswick
Markets, parking and business start-ups on Rachel Victor-Sampson's agenda
A regular market for Chiswick, extending the 30-minute free parking and improving the conditions for traders and business in Chiswick are some of the issues currently on the radar of y Town Manager Rachel Victor-Sampson.
Ms. Victor-Sampson attended last week's meeting of the Chiswick Area Forum and outlined the projects she has worked on recently.
A regular Chiswick market, similar to the recent one held in the car-park outside the police station had been suggested by a number of people and she was currently getting feedback on whether this was possible.
However, when the Town Manager mentioned a suggestion that Turnham Green be used more for events Cllr Adrian Lee said he did not agree with this. The Green was for local community use and he would oppose any proposal for holding commercial events and he did not want it to be a "cash cow" for Hounslow. There had been an Ombudsman's ruling on this matter in 1998.
Ms Victor Sampson explained that her role is to support and promote the Brentford and Chiswick areas and she holds regular meetings with business leaders from both areas, on improving the general business conditions and urban regeneration. Ms. Victor Sampson said that these were not her ideas but were suggestions made by other people which she would get feedback on and report back.
Councillor Felicity Barlow said that she was concerned that a regular Chiswick market might lead to parking being displaced to residential areas. She was concerned about disabled parking. She also felt that the current 30 minute free parking in two streets of Chiswick was not enough and it should be extended to 45 minutes. The Town Manager said she would look into the matter of disabled parking in the context of the street market.
A member of the public said that there had been a Chiswick Town Centre Action plan in 1994, followed in 2013 by a Character Study and he was concerned that there was no overall plan for Chiswick at present. The chair of the West Chiswick and Gunnersbury Society, Mrs. Marie Rabouhans asked if Ms Victor-Sampson had any comment to make on the recent growing practice of office space being changed to residential.
The Town Manager said that her role was in intervention and the Local Plan was the reference for developments. The loss of office space was a planning matter.
Her key tasks include promoting, marketing and supporting the development of the two town centres and being an advocate to local businesses and stakeholders. She was involved with supporting retailers and business groups, met with the Chiswick Co-Working space group to discuss small start-up industries, and in the Supporting the Great British High Street project with a focus on developing underdeveloped spaces.
Ms. Victor-Sampson began her career in housing development in the 1990s, and moved into urban regeneration in 2005 as the Millennium communities national programme manager with regeneration quango English Partnerships.
July 24, 2015