Residents apply for first cross-borough Neighbourhood Forum in London

The proposed neighbourhood forum is made up of residents from the St Helen's Residents' Association in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) and Woodlands area residents in the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham (LBHF).

The residents' groups have submitted an application to both RBKC and LBHF to be designated as a neighbourhood forum, which would be called the St Quintin and Woodlands Neighbourhood Forum.

The group has also applied to designate a neighbourhood area, which is mostly in RBKC and partly in LBHF. If a designation is made no other organisation or body may be designated for that neighbourhood area until that designation expires or is withdrawn.

The proposed St Quintin and Woodlands Neighbourhood Forum intends to focus its proposals on stretches north from the Westway to Dalgarno Gardens, east to St Helen's Gardens and St Mark's Road and west to Wood Lane.

If designated, the new St Quintin and Woodlands Neighbourhood Forum will put its proposals to the public and will invite local residents and businesses to comment on its neighbourhood plan before submitting it to the councils for formal consultation, examination and eventually a local referendum.

The Neighbourhood Forum would seek to build local consensus around a set of detailed planning policies governing issues such as rooflights, basement development, eco retrofitting, and supporting local shopping parades and the Latimer Road employment area.

"We are great supporters of Neighbourhood Planning and were one of the first councils in the country to give the thumbs up to an application," said councillor Tim Ahern of RBKC.

"This is our second application, and it's possibly another first as it straddles two boroughs and involves our neighbours in Hammersmith & Fulham. The two boroughs must now consider the application and we will report back in due course."