Future of the Golden Mile

Several members of Brentford Chamber Executive attended a business meeting at LB Hounslow this month to discuss the planned regeneration of the Golden Mile.

LBH have several proposals that will improved public transport to the Great West Road, seeking to link nearby rail stations (Brentford, Syon Lane and Hounslow) to the HS2 and Cross Rail at Old Oak Common.

Proposals to link the Hounslow loop to the proposed west London rail hub will have huge benefits for the Golden Mile stretch of the Great West Road.

Urban Initiatives consultant director Kelvin Campbell described an exciting range of projects that could be delivered along the 2.25 mile-long stretch of the A4, now dubbed the Golden Mile:

• Sky Line – an overground route from Southall to Chiswick Park via BSkyB’s headquarters, on existing rail infrastructure, using a DLR-style shuttle.
• Golden Link – making use of existing links from the Great West Road to Old Oak Common to connect Hounslow to HS2.
• Boston Boardwalk – travelators or walking routes, perhaps even  a cable car, linking Chiswick Park to Boston Manor.
• Improving a range of links to create a strategic network and make routes more coherent.

Suzie Betlem, President of Brentford Chamber of Commerce commented: “While we support the regeneration of the Golden Mile and the potential transport development, it’s imperative to retain existing business and provide land space for new small and medium scale light industrial and manufacturing companies.

“We need to create more employment potential to balance the growth in residential development. Companies such as Brompton Bicycle and Octink amongst many other established smaller companies, need room to grow.

“It’s vital to make available plots of land off the A4 that don’t command the frontage to these small enterprises. The state of the Allianz and Mille buildings demonstrate the lack of need for generic office space and have been somewhat redundant for a number of years. We deplore the use of invented descriptions of existing areas like Kew Gate, and North Gate and wish to celebrate Brentford”.

Slides from the event are available in a 75MB pdf here.