No to the Pier

A meeting was held on Thursday 24th March to discuss Fulham Football Club's planning application to build a large pier 85m out into the river at Bishop's Park for the purposes of landing large passengers vessels. The impact of this proposal on all recreational waters sport on the Thames Tideway cannot be understated.

Below is a summary of the main issues discussed and actions agreed in the campaign meeting.

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There are four urgent actions:

1. Sign and share this petition
Please share the petition as widely as possible with members, on social media, in your club WhatsApp groups – and any other way you can think of.

2. Put up a banner
Please also find attached the great banner artwork which James has organised which contains a QR code which links to the petition. Also a flyer.

3. Attend the Port of London public meeting about the Thames
Tuesday 29^th March at 18.00 at the London Rowing Club where this issue should be raised.

4. Contact NASH Maritime
If you have not been involved in the Navigational Risk Assessment and share your concerns for inclusion in the assessment – this does not have to be a long email, but a lot of emails could be influential.

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Contact details for the "No to the Pier" campaign:

• james [at] hayward1.co.uk.
  James Hayward of Ranelagh Sailing Club (RSC) has kindly offered to have his email as the central email for the campaign for now, until we set up another system. Please do let James know if you would like to join up to either of the small groups or lead on any action, or you know anyone who would. It would be great to get as many brains as possible working on each of these smaller action groups. If you have any further ideas, points, or would like to get involved, please do email James at the above address.
• fleur.anderson.mp [at] parliament.uk
  Additionally, if you would like to get in touch with me regarding this campaign or to add your name to the list of supporters who receive email updates, please do email me

For each group we have:

Campaign Group: Organising events and campaign publicity

• Sarah Bennett (South Bank)
• Allan Munro Faure (South Bank)

Technical Group: Researching and organising navigational risk and environmental assessments

• Luke Dylan
• Allan Munro Faure (South Bank)

Additional roles:

• Filip Ljubicic has also kindly offered to help make sure the campaign is connected to the Thames Regional Rowing Council and other regional rowing councils.
• James, Jan and other people from Ranelagh Sailing Club have kindly taken on many tasks such as leading on the petition, press release, and banners.
• Paul Lorenzato has agreed to provide information and advice to the campaign regarding the impact on rowing clubs.

Meetings so far:

• Several clubs have been involved in the NASH Maritime Navigational Risk Assessment which has been commissioned by Fulham Football Club and will form an accompanying document to their planning application.
• Fleur organised a meeting with the CEO or Fulham Football Club and which James attended and made concerns very clear.
• Fleur organised a meeting with the Harbourmaster and Planning officer of the Port of London Authority which James also attended.
• Fleur raised this by letter with the Leader of Hammersmith and Fulham Council. Planning permission has not yet been applied for but a consultation has been held with residents on both sides of the river. Fleur has also met with the CEO for Wandsworth Council and made concerns clear. Wandsworth Council will be an important consultee to H&F and to the PLA.

Issues raised and agreed upon:

• If the pier is built there are clear risks to life and to the future of the river clubs.
• The main planning authorities are Hammersmith and Fulham Council and the PLA and they can submit their applications in parallel or one after the other. We want to make the case as strongly as possible now that this application is dangerous, will stop sport on the river, with reduce the number of river users and shouldn’t be accepted.
• The clubs in attendance were unanimously opposed to the pier proposal and did not believe there could be any realistic compromise involving the pier’s construction. Any pier and any amount of use would pose an existential threat to river clubs.
• Any scenario regarding compromises on the piers opening times would be open would be extremely vulnerable to mission creep – involving a gradual expansion of the use of the pier.
• It is very important to try to make additional submissions to the Nash Maritimes Navigational Risk Assessment (NRA) for the PLA. The NRA has not consulted anywhere near enough clubs and was carried out when many clubs were still closed due to lockdown. It is not thought that the NRA has been finalised yet.
• The PLA will be a key body to lobby due to their responsibility for the safety of river users.
• It will be desirable to obtain some degree of funding for a technical analysis of the threat posed to river clubs by the pier. Financial support might be available from the Thames regional rowing council. It might also need to be fundraised from local river clubs.
• It is important to act as soon as possible to ensure that the campaign is taking place as early as possible in the planning application process.
• The pier would impact the boat race, and local youth clubs and the local economy.

Actions:

• Petition – RSC created a page, link above.
• Banner – RSC and other clubs have designed and will put them up soon in the local area.
• Press release – Myself and RSC are working on this and aim to have this out by tomorrow.
• Research to be done into how best to lobby the environment agency.
• Aim to get the planning application escalated to the GLA.
• Get Wandsworth and Richmond Council involved due to its impact on the clubs on their patch.
• Get Wandsworth Council involved also due to its ownership of river clubs.
• Fleur to coordinate jointly signed letters to Fulham Football Club, Sport England, H&F Council, Richmond Council, Wandsworth Council, the PLA, the Secretary of State for DCMS, and the Marine Management Organisation.
• Chris Winnington (Corinthians Rowing Club) to get in touch with an effective PR worker who previously helped save a boat house from redevelopment by Hammersmith and Fulham Council to ask if she could provide PR advice and support to the campaign.

Please do let me know if there is anything I have missed from this summary, or if you have any further suggestions. Thank you all again.

Best wishes,
Fleur Anderson

Member of Parliament for Putney, Roehampton and Southfields
Shadow Cabinet Office Minister

Sign and share the petition now! https://www.change.org/p/save-our-sports-on-the-river-thames-stop-the-pier