Agenda
This agenda listing shows events scheduled for the next six weeks.
Scroll through events with the large next/previous arrows. Hover your mouse over the month grid adjacent [touch dots on mobiles] for event details.
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Member Services Committee meeting
📅 Thu 7th May | 14:00 - 16:00
🚩 Room B1 70 Cowcross St, EC1M 6EJ (map)
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Planning, Environment and Transport committee meeting
📅 Thu 11th June | 14:00 - 16:00
🚩 Room B1 70 Cowcross St, EC1M 6EJ (map)
Additional rules for Neighbourhood Forums
Those involved in neighbourhood planning should know that there has been a relevant decision of the First-tier Tribunal Information Rights (the FTT).
The FTT ruled that a Neighbourhood Forum is a public authority for the purposes of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR).
In a blog, James Maurici KC explains the Tribunal’s reasoning and the implications for neighbourhood planning groups which will be obliged to make available any environmental information they have.
![Garden Court [ Photo: Kew Society ]](https://i0.wp.com/www.londonforum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Garden-Court-Kew.jpg?fit=344%2C258&ssl=1)
Tenants facing eviction in LB Richmond
Residents of a block of flats in Kew, many of whom are elderly or vulnerable, are facing eviction after the owner sold the block to Westminster council which has said it needs the building to be empty in order to house the growing number of homeless people in its borough.
Richmond Leader Gareth Roberts wrote to Westminster council, accusing them of showing “disturbing disregard for residents’ well-being” and having responsibility for the “displacement of an entire community”.
The sources of this story are TheLondoner and member Kew Society
What Happened in Southall?
There is a resident-led analysis report in ‘Community Powered Reporting’ (www.communitypoweredreporting.co.uk) which the authors claim reveals a consistent pattern of decisions by LB Ealing’s leadership that have concentrated disadvantage in Southall’s most deprived communities.
The report is stated to have been reviewed by a legal team to ensure research validity and ethical standards and nothing in it should be understood as an expression of personal opinion.
London Forum members may be interested in it for the depth of analysis it shows and the implications.
Densifying the Suburbs – A presenter’s Insight
Our President, Ben Derbyshire, provides his Insights into our recent Densifying the Suburbs event.
I welcomed the invitation to speak at an open meeting of the Forum, ‘Densifying the Suburbs’ alongside Professor Tony Travers of UCL and local planners, Paul Lewin and Justin Carr from Waltham Forest and Brent councils respectively. My challenge – most people who have time to participate in their local civic societies will already be well housed, so what, I asked, should be our collective response to fellow citizens who are not?
I talked the sell-out audience through the full range of possibilities for housing development in the face of the collapse of home-building in London. As ever, architects are out there flying kites for some radical alternatives.
100 mile city – Peter Barber [more…]
![London Bus [Unsplash]](https://i0.wp.com/www.londonforum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/jonathan-chng-uIsygO87jtM-unsplash.jpg?fit=1920%2C1280&ssl=1)
The rise and fall of bus passenger numbers in London
Bus passenger numbers in London reached a peak of 2.4 billion in 2014, but since then have fallen to 1.8 billion in 2025. This decline is now exercising the Mayor and GLA Transport Committee, but it is not a new phenomenon. From 1958 to the early 1980s there was steady decline in bus usage. In the ten years to December 1969 the scheduled fleet fell from 7756 to 6900, if Country buses and Green Line services are included. Scheduled red buses fell from 6451 to 5785.
This decline reflected a growth in private car ownership and poor industrial relations. A prolonged strike in 1958 precipitated the decline; dozens of routes were withdrawn from January 1966 in response to an overtime ban. The increasing number of private cars added to congestion and also to bus journey times, especially at peak periods. A record was set on Maundy Thursday, 1972 when a number [more…]
![Statutory consultees jigsaw - inspired by image by Markus Winkler [Unsplash] and made with AI](https://i0.wp.com/www.londonforum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Statutory_consultees.jpg?fit=1536%2C1024&ssl=1)
Statutory Consultees
Statutory consultees play an important role in the planning application process by providing expert advice on significant environmental, transport, safety, and heritage issues. There are currently 13 organisations that local planning authorities (LPAs) must consult about specialist issues when they receive relevant planning applications, from the Environment Agency and National Highways to Historic England.
Their role is very important, but there is widespread agreement that the system is not working well, causing needless duplication of effort and delays in making decisions. Hence the Government issued in November a consultation document about ways to make the system more efficient and effective. One of the key aims is to reduce the amount of statutory consultation and follow up requests that are required, and it is difficult to argue against the proposition that there are currently too many needless referrals to the consultees.
The most eye-catching proposal is to remove Sport England, the Gardens [more…]