And in other news… Riverside councillors not re-selected

Two of the three Conservative Councillors for the Twickenham Riverside ward will not be representing the party at next May’s local elections. The Richmond and Twickenham Times reports that Sam Salvoni and Scott ‘Twick Regenerate’ Naylor have not been selected by the local party to stand for re-election next year. The third incumbent Councillor for Twickenham Riverside, Susan Chappell, will stand along with two new candidates, Benedict Dias and Tony Shoebridge.

Avid readers (as well as casual and intermittent ones) will know that “Nails” has been a very vocal critic of El Brute’s approval of Solum’s plans for Twickenham station, whilst Councillor Salvoni has garnered a few column inches in the local press for spending a good deal of time in Cornwall. We’d wager a small sum (say, £5 tops) that Scott’s off-piste antics over the station can’t have endeared him to the local bigwigs at party HQ and we all know that he loves a bit of a brawling in the comments section of this website and others. But we’ll also say that the man is passionate about Twickenham and maintains a high profile. In other words, people actually know who he is which is a useful attribute if you’re representing your local area. Could you name your three ward councillors? Or even two of them? OK, one, perhaps??

As yet we’ve heard nothing on the matter from either councillor, but then again we haven’t actually asked them. Despite that, one thing on which we might speculate is that given his ‘vocal local’ credentials we wouldn’t be at all surprised to see “Nails” transformed into an independent or even a UKIP candidate come May of next year. So, as Scott himself probably wouldn’t say, “It ain’t over til it’s over”. Watch this space.

LINKS:
* Richmond & Twickenham Times
* Full List of Richmond Councillors. (aka The Brutes?)

(And yes, there are plenty of comments about this on another item on the site but news is news… even when it’s plagiarised news)

TRAG to go to Supreme Court?

TRAG, Twickenham’s leading opponents of Solum’s plans for the station, are looking into options for taking their case to the Supreme Court. After getting knocked back by a Judicial Review and then by the Court of Appeal the group is hoping it could be third time lucky in the courts in their battle over Richmond Council’s approval of the plans back in December 2011. Quoted in the Richmond & Twickenham Times, TRAG spokesman John Watson says, “We are hoping that permission to appeal to the Supreme Court might be granted on the basis that the Court of Appeal overstepped the mark by effectively putting itself in the shoes of the local planning authority in deciding that the TAP report would not have made any difference [to the Planning Committee's decision].”

Twickenham Festival Pictures

UPDATED WITH PICTURES FROM ACROSS THE FESTIVAL:

Heave!!! And we’re off. Twickenham Festival 2013 got under way on Friday evening with the traditional tug-of-war competition outside The Barmy Arms on the Embankment. The Mayor was there to get the proceedings underway and, at her signal, the riverside was filled with the grunts and groans of groups of grown men battling it out over a piece of rope. You’re thinking, ‘errr, why?’. But we say, what a boring society we’d be living in if everything had to have a sensible and logical purpose to it. There’s wayyyy too much of dat shit going down already.

So, when it comes to #TwickFest 2013, we say ‘good on ya’ to Friday’s tuggers, Saturday’s paddleboarders and morris dancers, the Carnival goers on Sunday 16th and indeed to everybody else organising or taking part in the events throughout June. There’s more information about the Twickenham Festival and a whole bunch of other summer events on our What’s On guide, but on this item we’ll just be posting up more pictures from this year’s goings on. And if you want to share yours too, just drop us a link or email them to twickerati@gmail.com.

That’s it. Enjoy your festival. And… heeeeeaaavvvvvve!

LINKS:
* The twickerati guide to Twickenham Festival
* And if you tweet, use the #twickfest hashtag on twitter

Check out more pictures….

Honours List for Richmond?

Twickenham could soon have its own House of Lords if proposals by Council Leader Lord True receive approval. In a statement issued from York House, the Blue Baron said, “The bicameral approach to government works perfectly well for the United Kingdom. Taking inspiration from that system and introducing a second chamber to the government of the London Borough of Richmond Upon Thames would be a logical next step and one which I would be proud to take”. Lord True went on to add that if the new system proved to be successful he would consider creating a Head of State role for the borough to sit above both chambers and which would possess some executive powers. “There are several candidates that I think could be well suited to such a position,” he said, before adding, “but one name springs to mind with great regularity”.

To bring about the change, a system of honours will be introduced with local residents given ‘Borough Peerages’ enabling locals to sit in the new upper chamber and vote against legislation put forward by the existing Council. The plans are expected to come into force sometime in the future. If at all.

In fact, none of that’s actually going to happen. We promise. Or at least we sincerely hope it isn’t.

So, what is going on?
Well, it’s true that Richmond Council is launching an honours list but it’s nothing to do with a second chamber. El Brute’s “mini-honours” list, to be launched this month, is a community recognition scheme designed to give credit to people in the borough who have worked to improve the lives of others. The type of individuals the scheme is designed to reward are those who have brought credit to the borough or given outstanding service to their community either over time or in a single, exceptional event. Residents or local groups can nominate people for the award with Council Leader Lord True himself selecting the winners from a shortlist.

LINKS:
* LBRuT Mini Honours List
* Community Awards Scheme. Deadline for nominations is 11 July

The seat of El Brute power

What’s On? This is! It’s Festival Time

KERPOW!!! Twickenham Festival and a bunch of other summer fun will be coming right at you live and direct all the way from… that’s right, Twickenham. You want some? We’ve got it covered.

Tug of War

Remember that this isn’t a listings site, that would be simply too tiresome, but we have highlighted some of the great stuff going on in the area. Have a look and get some dates down in your calendar.

And remember that if you’ve been affected by any of the events contained in this item, there’s a helpline you can call by dialling 0845 100 #TWICKFEST!

Fire at Twickenham Flat

House fire

A flat in Mendip Lodge on Clifden Road, Twickenham was set alight on the night of Friday 24th May. Fire engines, police and ambulances attended the scene at around 9.00pm. Plumes of smoke were visible coming from a ground floor flat before the blaze was brought under control. One man had to be treated for smoke inhalation. The fire is thought to have been started deliberately and a man was arrested.

A local source told us, “Apparently arson, hence the large number of police! High drama on Clifden Road!” Police were outside the empty property on Saturday morning with smoke marks and smashed windows visible on the ground floor.

School Gets Green Light

After all the brouhaha over the setting up of the St Richard Reynolds voluntary aided faith school in Twickenham, it’s interesting to see the Department for Education giving the green light for the proposed Turing House free school. The Turing House brigade who started life (not literally, of course) promoting an inclusive, community-based free school for Twickenham have jumped through a lot of hoops to get approval for their plan. Their aim is to “create an outstanding and inclusive school, with a clear focus on high performance for children from 11 to 18”. Early thinking was that the Clifden Road site in Twickenham might have proved suitable for such a school but with that unavailable, the focus moved to NPL in Teddington as the preferred location. There’s still a lot more work to be done, including working with the Government’s Education Funding Agency to properly secure a suitable site, but Turing House hopes to open its doors to its first Year 7 intake in September 2014.

LINKS:
* Turing House School
* Press Release

Heathrow Poll Results Shocker*

In our Heathrow Expansion Poll item a few weeks ago we said, “So, will it be useful for Richmond Council to know that 83% of the people who voted (as opposed to say 79.2%) are opposed to Heathrow expansion? Perhaps. But then again, perhaps a quick opinion poll could have done it more cheaply”. It was just a bit of idle speculation.

Now that the results of El Brute’s ‘Be Heard’ the referendum have been published, we just wish we’d tried to be a bit more specific. Do what? Well, as said, we wish we’d tried to be even more precise. In answer to the poll question “Should a third runway be built at Heathrow?” 80% of respondents in the Borough said no. And when asked, “Are you in favour of more flights into and out of Heathrow?” 82% said no. As you can see, our April prediction of 83% or 79.2% could have been a little more finely tuned. Sorry about that.

So how many voted? El Brute say that the 140,516 had their say, an overall turnout of 41%. Although this isn’t exactly high, it’s actually not bad compared to levels of turnout in local elections. In other words, Heathrow expansion really is an issue that bothers local people.

We expect that Lord True has said something about the result delivering a clear message to those promoting Heathrow expansion that the residents of this fine borough of Richmond upon Thames do not want any truck with a third runway.

The poll was also run in nearby Hillingdon where the results were similar although not quite as strongly in the anti-expansion camp as in Richmond. The best thing about all that from the twickerati perspective is the discovery that the Leader of Hillingdon Council is called Mr Puddifoot. Yes, it’s as if a character from Dickens has stepped in to lobby against a third runway. Good day to you, Mr Puddifoot, we appreciate your correspondence in support of our case.

So, now that we officially know what we already actually knew, was the exercise worth our while? You decide.

* No shocks were dispensed

LINK:
* LBRuT Press Release

More planes Vicar?