Eco-villagers are keeping their lips sealed about a planned move to a new home ahead of the arrival of the site’s new residents – diggers and bulldozers.
Members of the sustainable community, on the former Scottish Widow site by Kew Bridge, have been in surprisingly good spirits since Hounslow Council’s sustainable development committee gave developer St George the go-ahead to turf them out.
The development will replace tents with 164 residential units, a fitness suite and business centre, retail and office space and a cafe or restaurant.
According to 20-year-old villager Cindy Southall, the eco-activists are content to “carry on as normal at the moment”, but the Strand on the Green Association has wasted no time in taking action against the controversial development.
Its chairman, Robert Colvill, has already written to London Mayor Boris Johnson in the hope he might halt the building plan, which was approved last week despite objections from several groups and organisations, including nearby Kew Gardens.
In the letter, he asked Mr Johnson to use his powers to either issue “direct refusal” to the development or “take over the application so that you can consider it afresh from a London point of view and hear the strong objections to this application from a local, London, national and world heritage perspective”.
Miss Southall said villagers have yet to hear when they are to be given the boot by bosses at St George but that they would back the mayday call to Mr Johnson.
She said: “I think one of the things we are definitely going to do is try and contact him.”
In the meantime, Miss Southall confirmed that a few alternative eco-village sites were being looked at, with at least one believed to be within the borough.
She added: “We will probably find a new site but we can’t tell you where because it would get us into trouble.”
Last June, eco-protesters scaled a wall to get on to the Brentford site before clearing the land and setting up a kitchen and tents – and receiving a warm welcome from the neighbouring community.
St George has not responded to repeated requests from the Hounslow and Brentford Times for comment since last week’s front page story.
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