Community Groups Team Up to Improve River Path

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Including resurfacing footpath, painting railings and planting new trees

A number of community groups have teamed up to secure total funding of £70,000 to improve the river path in Hammersmith & Fulham.

A group called the Thames Strategy-Kew to Chelsea (TSKC) promotes the river and encourages appropriate development along its banks as it becomes an increasingly ecologically diverse, clean and more socially accessible environment.

Launched in 2002, the organisation, has developed a one hundred year blueprint that seeks to ensure that all future development along this stretch of the Thames places the conservation and enhancement of the ‘natural’, built and social environment at the heart of all decisions made.

The Friends of Bishops Park and the TSKC have worked together to secure a funding grant of £40,000 from Viridor Credits environment company  to make landscape improvements along the river frontage in Bishops Park, Fulham. This will contribute towards removing the old rotten toe-boarding, re-surfacing the footpath with a more flexible path surface, and painting the historic railings.

The TSKC has been working with the Friends of Furnivall Gardens and successfully bid for £20,000 of funding from Western Riverside Environmental Fund to plant new trees and guards and a new native hedge in the park. This work will be carried out during the Autumn.

In addition, the TSKC has also worked with the Carrara Wharf Residents group to obtain £10,000 towards raised planting beds to deter antisocial behaviour along the river and make this section of the tow path a more attractive place to visit.

A new historical interpretation panel by Hammersmith Bridge was installed in the new year and a further interpretation panel is planned for Bishops Park.

H&F Council deputy leader, Cllr Greg Smith, says: "The Thames Strategy-Kew to Chelsea does invaluable work to promote and enhance the river and I am delighted to see that their hard work has paid off with these wonderful proposals along the Thames in Hammersmith & Fulham."

Angela Dixon, who represents the West London amenity societies on the TSKC steering committee says: " When the strategy was launched we looked forward to practical improvements along the River that it would lead to. We are delighted that these projects are now becoming a reality. We hope they are the first of many."

Outside of the borough, a section of the Mortlake Towpath in Richmond has been improved with a permanent granite surface to help prevent large puddles from forming after high tides and rainfall, which often left the path impassable.

If you want to help with the work of the Thames Strategy – Kew to Chelsea please email ruth.hutton@lbhf.gov.uk.

July 5, 2013