Sheen Gate Gardens, East Sheen will be closed whole road for carriageway resurfacing on 27/10/2025. Contact: FM Conways 01732 600 771.
Richmond Council would no doubt wish to brush this bit of waste under the carpet.
But the sad fact is that it has made the Council a laughing stock. When matters reach national news outlets, you should know you have fouled up – no pun intended. And you should know you need to do more than hide away a half apology.
The changes listed below will come into effect by 1 November 2025. Policing responsibility for Richmond Park will be taken over by the Richmond Borough Safer Neighbourhoods Teams.
There are three wards with such teams bordering the Park. The South Richmond and Ham, Petersham and Richmond Riverside Teams will relocate their officers from Twickenham police station to the current office at Holly Lodge. This will mean that 10 officers will be based there and regularly seen travelling through the Park to and from their wards.
The East Sheen Team will remain at their current base opposite the East Sheen library. All three Teams will share responsibility for attending to Park criminal incidents as reported on 999, 101 or online. The split of geographic responsibility in the Park has still to be decided.
Royal Parks Regulation infringements, as reported on 999 etc, will be triaged and attended to as necessary.
The oversight of police performance, as currently handled by ward Police Liaison Groups, has yet to be addressed. The next East Sheen Police Liaison Group meeting is on 11 December 2025.
BBC News reported today that Richmond Council has. within hours, reversed its decision to fine a woman £150 for pouring the remnants of her coffee into a drain.
The local resident said she thought she was acting responsibly when she poured a small amount from her reusable cup down the drain – rather than risk spilling it on the bus she was about to catch to work.
She was stopped by three enforcement officers at the bus stop near Richmond station and given a fine under Section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, which makes it an offence to deposit or dispose of waste in a way likely to pollute land or water, including pouring liquids into street drains.
Richmond-Upon-Thames Council has now said it had cancelled the fine as it was “likely” that Ms Yesilyurt’s appeal would have been successful. The council also said the contravention was “minor” and the resident had “agreed not to repeat it”.
“As soon as I turned around, I noticed three men, enforcement officers, chasing me, and they stopped me immediately.” The resident said the encounter was quite intimidating and she was left feeling “shaky” as she went into work. She said she had asked the enforcement officers if there were any signs or information warning people of the law but received no response.
A Richmond Council spokesperson said the body-worn footage of the incident had been reviewed and the council was satisfied the enforcement officers acted appropriately. Three of them?
This is a truly outrageous story. Is it really an offence to pour coffee down a drain? The regulations were patently designed to deal with polluting substances. What if it had been water? Does the Council have guidance for their enforcement officers? And if it was an offence the guidance on section 33 states that the standard responses are a warning or a formal caution.
The Council backs down saying the ‘offence’ was minor and the resident had agreed not to repeat it. This sounds very much like blackmail. Would she have agreed if she had been advised by someone other than a council officer. The threat of a fine intimidates most people, especially when it will be increased if not paid promptly. And if the saga had not featured on BBC News would they have backed down?
The Council of course still defend their enforcement officers – does that suggest they were indeed following council policy rather than being merely jobsworth?
Would these enforcement officers not have been better engaged in warning people they are committing an offence if they cycle on the pavement or keeping an eye on shoplifters?
Hallo Hallo who is that making a ghostly appearance at BHGA?
The planes have returned to East Sheen after a short respite. That means noise and pollution.
Roger Mason from the Kew Society has written a report noting this and discussing just how much worse it could get with a third runway.
A third runway would result in 260,000 more flights p.a. than currently, which equates to approximately 700 additional flights per day.
It seems inevitable that the area around Heathrow will experience increased aircraft noise despite advances in the design of engines and air frames which may enable new planes to fly less noisily than in the past.
Aircraft noise causes annoyance and sleep disturbance and, importantly, is also associated with cognitive disturbance in children and cardiovascular disease. Aircraft noise is already a big issue for residents under flight paths in West London71 and could become worse for many in the future. Not only will they be exposed to many more flights with a third runway, but flight path revisions are also planned which will see the traditional arrival flight paths using radio beacons replaced by performance-based navigation (PBN), a form of GPS, and changes in air space use.
One analysis reports that “1.6m people living under sections of the proposed flight paths closest to the airport are almost certain to be overflown and to experience noise levels at or above 65 decibels.They could be overflown by up to 47 flights an hour as flight paths become more concentrated closer to the runway, experiencing near constant noise disturbance”. For comparison, local authorities usually impose restrictions from construction site noise in residential areas during daytime hours, typically limiting it to 55-65 dB (Google AI overview).
https://www.kewsociety.org/environment/heathrows-third-runway-whats-at-stake-for-kew/ and one might add much of West London.
See also the House of Commons Debate promoted by Sarah Olney MP on 14 November 2024 at
and
Roger’s report also looks at pollution and traffic problems.
Previous posts about LuLu have been here on 5 October 2024 and 22 January 2025. See https://childlawobserver10.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=1672&action =edit
She is well known in East Sheen and across south west London as singer and songwriter LuLu Ash. Why Ash you might ask? With typical artistic thinking she combined the fallout from the Phoenix, one of her early songs, with the H of her surname Hunt. Rising from the ashes encapulates one of her guiding principles on overcoming adversity.
In May 2024 LuLu released her album A Trick of the Light, songs written by her, which can be found on all streaming platforms and at Luluash.bandcamp.com and YouTube. They came from a series of poems entitled Enduring Love, her own life experiences (the Ballad of LuLu Ash), as well as the life stories of others.
She had another two singles for release early in 2025, Break the Horizon and Bonnie & Clyde , but her schedule proved difficult. Break the Horizon has now been renamed as the Red Thread and will be released on 31 October 2025.
LuLu has continued to perform with Fox Haus, a five piece band which performs covers of other artists’ material. They are always looking for new gigs!
She has also joined as their singer the Far Meadow Progressive Rock Band, https://thefarmeadow.com , which has been going 20 years, playing at festivals and she will be part of their writing team.
Just to fill her time LuLu is also considering doing a Psychology Masters Degree wishing to study the psychology of women’s health in ageing.
This Saturday 25 October LuLu is performing at the Pheasantry, a PizzaExpressLive, at 152 King’s Road, as support for the Decibelles, a close harmony trio.
Don’t forget if you want to comment on this application for opening hours extending to 3am and 4am at 160 Upper Richmond Road SW14 8AW you need to do so by tomorrow.
Go to licensing@merton.gov.uk quoting reference WK/202520213
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