Diary
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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 3rd December | 14:00 - 16:00
🚩 Room F3 70 Cowcross St, EC1M 6EJ (map)
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Planning, Environment and Transport committee meeting
📅 Thu 10th December | 14:00 - 16:00
🚩 Room B1 70 Cowcross St, EC1M 6EJ (map)
‘Floating’ bus stops opposed
London TravelWatch is the official consumer body for transport users, so when it speaks people in positions of power and authority should listen.
It has issued a striking statement about the re-engineering of roads and pavements to create so-called floating bus stops, designed to facilitate the movement of cyclists.
However, London TravelWatch has concluded “in trying to improve safety for one set of users, these initiatives have increased risk (and, importantly, the perception of risk) for another set of users with fewer transport choices”.
Grey to Green depaving
Forming a group of people with the same goal can be the first step in the successful planning of a depaving project. The group can oversee the project and take part in planting events and longer term maintenance.
There is plenty of useful information to help people on their way in the Mayor of London’s ‘Grey to Green Guide‘ for community projects.
Also, small unused areas can be turned into wildlife flower beds, as done by Abundance London with their gardening and guerilla projects.
London River Health Map
The map here is presented by the GLA City Intelligence Unit on the state of London’s rivers.
It follows the launch of the Mayor’s Clean Rivers and Waterways Plan in July 2026, as in our update of 5th August.
The map will help you understand the health of your local river.
Development of this map is ongoing, so please send any feedback to the GLA Environment team.
Misconnected sewers is one of the causes of river pollution and activity on that since 2025 is described [more…]
Draft London Plan response – linked policy by policy
The GLA’s consultation on the draft London Plan 2026 closed on 15 October 2026, London Forum submitted a 39-page response. This is the short version: the main points, then in ‘Our Comments policy by policy’, a one or two-line summary of key comments on each, with links to the GLA’s original text, and to the relevant section of our full response. 
Why the draft Plan falls short
We agree strongly that the Government’s 85,000-a-year target for new homes is unrealistic and that a lower target is needed. But the draft Plan that follows is built on housing evidence that does not stand up, and on growth that depends on infrastructure nobody has committed to provide. In our analysis it risks failing the NPPF soundness test.
- The housing target doesn’t stand up. Projections made ten years ago [more…]
Key policies in the NPPF
The following is a blog recently written by the lawyer Simon Ricketts which is intended to help developers to get a planning application approved. It is helpful for London Forum’s members to understand parts of the new NPPF and for considering its content when assessing whether or not a proposed scheme for their area has been designed and presented in a way that takes account of the key NPPF policies identified in the blog. We reproduce the blog by kind permission of the author.
Simon Ricketts
To maximise the prospect of securing planning approval, scheme promoters need to ensure that their schemes press as many of the relevant buttons in the new NPPF as possible.
I have counted 21 of them, which I set out below. [more…]
Garden Annexe, Caravan, or Mobile Home?
Tim Catchpole of the Mortlake and East Sheen Society writes…
Our Society has had a recent experience which we would like to share with other London Forum members who may or may not have had a similar experience.
As a rule we do not normally make comments on planning applications for any development that is not visible from the public realm. However, the application in question was for planning permission for the ‘construction of a granny annex ancillary to the main house.’ We were not going to comment until neighbours approached us and drew attention to the size of the annex and the loss of trees. So we sent a representation to the Council recommending refusal in accordance with its policies against back-garden development and, sure enough, permission was accordingly refused.
However, a few days later a new application arrived for the same site, this time for a certificate of [more…]