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British Waterways plan a housing development on an industrial estate in Brentford. In doing so, BW has not consulted in good faith with the local community and wants to get rid of a wharf that has potential to reduce London’s carbon footprint.
British Waterways have completed three property developments around the Grand Union’s Gauging Locks close to the centre of Brentford, and are planning yet another development in Commerce Road opposite the island. Gearing up for this, BW have been purchasing canal-side properties on Commerce Road for the last ten years.
The problem, as far as most people, including Hounslow Council, are concerned, is that Commerce Road is an industrial estate and will remain so whatever happens to the BW planning application. It was designated an industrial area by Hounslow Council as far back as the 80’s, and the Council want it to remain an industrial area. British Waterway’s planning application was refused and is now going to appeal.
 If BW get their way, the Commerce Road industrial units alongside the canal will be cleared and five large blocks rising from 5 to 15 stories of residential flats will be built – a housing development on an industrial estate. In doing so, one of the few remaining sites where barge cargoes could be transhipped to rail or road in West London will be lost.
At the planning enquiry, BW claimed that barge transport into Commerce Road is not viable, citing the West London Canal Network (WLCN) Study as the basis for their assertion. This was a disingenuous claim. The study only looked at the viability of canal transport from the Grand Union into Brentford, not the greater potential of water freight from the Thames, for example, from ports to the East of London such as Charlton or Dartford. A cross-capital water transport link from these ports to Brentford in the West may well have considerable potential for reducing road transport, particularly given that the most recent 2005 Port of London Authority analysis shows that there has been a 47% increase in freight transport on the Thames from 1.25 million to 1.84 million tonnes within the Greater London area, much of the traffic to terminals as close to Brentford as Wandsworth and Battersea.
 Further, the WLCN study did not consider either the added value effect of waterway transport (for example, councils and private sector contractors able to get better utilisation from their refuse collection vehicle fleets) or the effects of increasing environmental tax on diesel fuel over the coming years. In ten years time, in the face of increased global warming with oil and road transport prices to match, the WLCN report’s conclusion that Grand Union canal traffic to and from Brentford is not economically viable may well be completely incorrect.
If British Waterways are as committed to freight transport as they claim, did they not owe government and taxpayer an unbiased and in-depth analysis of Brentford’s true freight transport viability before making their planning application?
 ISIS, British Waterway’s ‘waterside regeneration’ arm, produced a “Statement of Community Involvement” with BW’s first failed planning application. This included references to ongoing ‘dialogue’ with Brentford Waterside Forum (made up of thirteen local organisations), with a bullet-pointed list of sixteen issues, but with none of the related discussion. The document’s concluding paragraphs gave the impression that BW had received largely unqualified approval in the ‘dialogue’, whilst failing to note, beyond a bulleted list of catch-all blandishments, that any of the issues had actually been addressed.
Brentford Waterside Forum were probably wasting their time. Two years ago, a British Waterways spokesman was challenged about the effect that BW’s Commerce Road scheme might have on freight at a Parliamentary Waterways Group meeting. His reply was that Brentford was no longer suitable for such use because of the residential developments that had already taken place. The spokesman wasn’t the Chief Executive of a housing development company, it was the Chief Executive of British Waterways.
Brentford’s Commerce Road site could combine the best elements of transport and housing - to everyone’s benefit, not least British Waterways, but only if BW practice the principles of ‘dialogue and accountability’ that they claim to be committed to on their website. If BW continue to work without respecting the views of the local community, they run the risk that, just as at Jericho in Oxford, their planning application will fail. This will be reflected in a much reduced value of the land they have purchased using public money. How much better it would be to have the local community and planning approval behind them.
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