Event on Saturday offers family fun and a chance to discuss development plans

The West 12 Shopping Centre is hosting a community event on its first floor on Saturday 14 September, from 1pm till 7pm, where visitors can discuss plans for the centre's revelopment and join in some fun family events.

The highlight of the event, which is being organised by award winning community charity Petit Miracles, will be Drone Taster sessions, offering hands on drone flying opportunities for everyone aged seven and up.

There will also be model building, painting, videos, music and refreshments.

Visitors can also visit Petit Miracles' hub, offering products and services from a number of local traders and find out out the charity's regular worshops, where participants can learn about furniture upcycling, using power tools and upholstering stools.

Find out more about these workshops here.

Landsec, owners of the centre on the south side of Shepherd's Bush Green says this event is part of its wider consultation for the W12 and provides an opportunity for people to discuss its redevelopment plans.

Earlier this year, Landsec revealed radical plans for the site including demolition of half of the building and closure of the businesses within it, including supermarket Lidl and the Vue cinema.

Landsec says: "We are thinking about the site in two halves: the back half containing Vue, Fitness First, Lidl and part of the car park; and the front half containing Aroma, Poundland, Argos, Bush Doctors, Wetherspoons and the Shepherd’s Bush Green frontages.

"When the back half is developed, all retailers there would go e.g. Vue, Fitness First, Lidl. We will definitely bring a supermarket back and are currently in discussions to see who else would want to return.

"The plans for the front half the site include proposals to improve and refurbish the frontage facing onto Shepherd's Bush Green. "

In documents unveiled during an earlier public consultation, Landsec said the benefits of its proposals would include:

Reducing anti-social behaviour by remove off-licence and betting shop, removing unused elements of the car park which operate as a hub for anti-social behaviour,
improving character and openness to the streetscape along Rockley Road and improving lighting to all spaces

Creating a new, safer, open air pedestrian route through the site to Shepherd’s Bush Station / Westfield, increasing natural surveillance from new residential and retail elements and adding
24/7 CCTV coverage across the site

Recreating the original feel of the Concorde centre by taking the roof off the main mall to create a more welcoming and open feel with new public spaces at the heart of the scheme providing a welcoming environment to be enjoyed by all including space for pop-ups, local events and performances

Improving the local service offer for all locals – not Westfield, retain the local doctors' surgery and retaining a local supermarket

Providing 700+ new affordable homes which would be high quality, well insulated, heated and
powered homes using renewable energy

Creating a variety of retail jobs, plus workspace for hundreds of new jobs, affordable workspace
provision for small businesses and 500+ construction jobs

New community hub space such as a community café offering healthy food, new, high quality,
multifunctional facilities for events and community gatherings and provision of local training,
volunteering and development opportunities for local people, the unemployed and those
living with disabilities

New street planting, trees and small parks to provide places to sit and breathe, children’s play areas to encourage safe play with better air quality, new enlarged doctors’ surgery, improved air quality through pollution-absorbing planting and materials, limited number of parking spaces for electric and shared vehicles

Explaining the reasons for the proposed redevelopment, Landsec says much has changed within the local area since West 12 was opened in the 1970s, but the centre has remained largely unchanged and has struggled to fill the empty shop units in the last few years.

The company added that in a consultation held in 2018, of the 700 respondents, 72% felt either neutral, negatively or extremely negatively towards the site as it is.

However, Landsec added: " We were also told that there is a unique local convenience offer still enjoyed by many residents."

You can find out more and offer your views on the plans on the West 12 website and you can see more details of its current proposals here.

You can also share your opinions with other local people on our forum.

September 12, 2019