EastSheenMatters

Save the date – The Big Sheen Clean on 17 May 

Spring has sprung so please keep your diaries free for the annual Big Sheen Clean on Sunday 17 May.

East Sheen residents of all ages will be coming together for the morning to give the streets and green spaces of our community a thorough spring clean.

Love Sheen? Let’s keep it clean!

The Big Sheen Clean is organised by local charity Habitats & Heritage. 

For more information please contact cleansheen@habitatsandheritage.org.uk

Hammersmith Bridge closed to traffic seven years ago this month. The subsequent saga and the consequences of closure are well known to local residents.

Sarah Olney MP reported in her Richmond Park News this week on a Commons Committee debate about future funding for the Bridge.

She noted that two months ago the Local Transport Minister, Simon Lightwood MP, stated that Hammersmith Bridge would be a ‘good candidate’ to receive funding via the government’s Structures Fund. In the Debate he stated that deliberations regarding the direction of funding via the Structures Fund are ongoing, while decisions will be partially contingent on identifying a practical and cost-effective engineering solution.

Keep an eye out for spending announcements to be made at some point in the near future. Let us hope they will include the Bridge.

The Fixery is a community repair and reuse hub. It welcomes residents to repair, reuse and swap items, helping them reduce waste, save money and strengthen community connections. It looks to be a novel new idea, developed by Richmond Council and Habitats & Heritage.

You can:

• Repair it – Repair bicycles, clothing or small electrical items
• Swap it – Swap clothes and refresh your wardrobe
• Refill it – Refill your empty household cleaning and laundry products
• Purchase pre-loved teddy bears or small craft materials – Fabrics, buttons, ribbons, and more
• Connect with others – Sit and relax at our on-site café with delicious coffee and snacks available for purchase

Open Fridays and Saturdays, 11am to 4pm. All services will incur a small fee or expected donation. 

Repairs are done by volunteers from Twickenham Repair Café. You can bring small items for repair: electrical appliances, clothing, furniture, crockery, housewares, bicycles, toys. If it’s broken and you can carry it, there’s a good chance it will be repaired.

Large items are excluded: the site is a small-scale community venue. If you wish to check that a specialist repairer will be available on the day, please email info@twickenhamrepaircafe.org.

A community space for swap, share and repair at Grove Gardens Chapel in Richmond TW10 6HP

For more details see The Fixery – London Borough of Richmond upon Thames

All Saints Concert Series #2 – Sunday, 24^th May – 6:00pm. 

Young artists from the Jazz course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama will be welcomed back.

The concert will be devoted to The Great American Songbook – music from the great eras of MGM Musicals, Broadway and Tin Pan Alley.

Tickets will be available at All Saints after the 10am Sunday services and through Eventbrite.

Use code HGMEMBER2026 for your member discount!

Maybe in the 1987 cup cap?

In a final goodbye the Trust confirms it has now been removed from the Companies House Register. See post on 30 March 2026.

The Trust also states that Cllr Vollum, the current Richmond Deputy Mayor and Councillor for Kew Ward, sent an email on 7 April 2026 to acknowledge that there was no excuse for the Council not engaging with the Trust first before terminating our lease to see if a compromise could be reached.

“Termination of the lease before this could happen was WRONG.”

The former Chair of the Trust comments: ‘Grateful as we are for this acknowledgement, it really is the Leader who needs to explain the Council’s inaction as he was the one supposed to contact us in the first instance, according to an internal Council report dated July 2024.’

EastSheenMatters will be avoiding politicking over the next fortnight until the local elections on 7 May, Other than to encourage voting! But there is one issue which must be addressed: the Stag Brewery.

Let’s look at the facts in relation to a site, in respect of which there were lengthy hearings eighteen months ago and the Inspector’s decision granting planning permissions published twelve months ago.

In respect of one of those permissions we now know that there will not be central Government funding for a secondary school. It is safe to assume that there will not be funding from elsewhere. Even ignoring the question whether a 1200 pupil school was needed giving falling rolls, that size of school was in any event too large for the available footprint. The traffic problems should also have dictated that the site was not suitable.

The decision contained obscure provisions for what might happen in the event that the secondary school did not go ahead, but there is no evidence that they have been acted upon.

Clear conclusion: No secondary school. But no-one wants a brown field site lying empty.

The only option under discussion. as far as we know, is a transfer of Thomson House School, a primary school, from Sheen Lane and Vernon Road. The Council is silent on the issue, saying only that the school is free to have dicussions with the developers.

From a planning point of view there is no reason why the other planning permission in respect of residential units should not be acted upon. But a year on the public has not been made aware of any progress. All that we have been told is that Reselton Properties would like to sell the site or at least obtain co-funders. But rumours seeping out of Malaysia suggest that backers may not be happy even with co-funding. It is hardly surprising given that a substantial part of the evidence at the Inquiry related to the economic difficulties created by having bought at a high price with development costs having rocketed since then.

The film studio on the site has produced two series of 1000 Blows, a part of the Disney portfolio. Would they be interested in expanding that usage?

Local residents must be better consulted on local development than hitherto. So a question for all your candidates. What should happen on this site. And ‘wait and see’ won’t wash.

This follows an introductory piece on EastSheenMatters on 29 March 2026 and response at Sheenites in the Spotlight: Thank You East Sheen Matters | East Sheen FC

See also Matthew Evans at Https://eastsheenfc.com

Matthew comments: East Sheen FC is one of the oldest football clubs in the world, originally founded in 1873 and revived in 2026. In our first Victorian era we produced two England captains, won the Surrey Senior Cup twice, and competed in some of the earliest international club tournaments in European history. That history is the foundation, but this is a club built for now.

We are building a club across 10 squads spanning men’s, women’s, youth, futsal, and esports, based in East Sheen, South West London, affiliated with Surrey County FA. Our men’s first team will compete at Step 8 of the Non-League pyramid. From the outset we have prioritised building a digital audience alongside the football, generating over 60,000 organic views within two weeks of launch with zero paid spend.

Our objectives are to become the most recognisable grassroots football club in South West London, to provide clear pathways from U7 through to senior football, and to be genuinely self-sustaining as a community organisation.

Central to that is securing a permanent home pitch in East Sheen. We have contacted Richmond Council to open discussions on that and are awaiting a response.

Something of a mystery. It was seen recently in Palewell Park. But who is operating it? What is it doing? It has a Council logo so it cannot be police?