THE FIRST pictures of the controversial tower block development planned for the vacant Scottish Widdows site next to Kew Bridge were unveiled this week.

The plans have raised fears from Hounslow's representative on the GLA, Cllr Tony Arbour that they could jeopardise Kew Gardens bid for World Heritage Status.

Following a meeting of the Brentford Community Council to view the plans, Cllr Arbour, who is also the leader of Richmond Council, said: My principle worry is the effect it will have on Kew Gardens, and it's campaign to be made a UNESCO world development site. This kind of development would put that at risk.''

He added that many at the packed meeting were opposed to the plans: Local residents seemed to feel it wasn't a very distinguished design, with some fearing they'd live in perpetual shadow from the tower.''

Richmond Council has a right to be consulted, but can't veto the scheme, only Hounslow or London Mayor Ken Livingstone can put a stop to it. Mr Arbour believed The Mayor may object on the issue of homes for London workers on a low salary. He has previously said he would like to see 50 per cent of all new developments contain affordable housing, but only 30 per cent of the homes in St George's plans fall into this category.

The plans were also slammed by a top architect from Brentford for being horrendously condensed''.

Jelena Tomic, from Green Dragon Lane, who works for a Covent Garden based architects firm said the plans were totally unsuitable for the area: It looks horrendously condensed, everything is congested. Kew Bridge will be 100 years old soon and this is not a very nice birthday present.

We're surrounded by three top parks, Gunnersbury, Syon and Kew, but what we keep on getting in Brentford is low quality basic developments, like the Travelodge hotel. We're heading very fast in the wrong direction.

But this building is unsuitable due to scale. It's very much double the size of anything else in the area. They claim it's a mixed development but what they're proposing is only a couple of shops.''

May 1, 2003 16:00