It is made up of several chapters:

Inputs

• Trends - signals from the present which might point toward the future

• Visions - plausible futures based on values and experiences

Outputs

• Principles – small number of guiding ideas that shape how decisions are made

• Proposals – specific interventions, big and small to change Barnes

This post introduces the first of these: Trends.

Possible futures leave clues in the present, capturing changes already underway. While some shifts - like those in housing, travel, and demographics - are easily measured, others are subtler, found in evolving behaviours, expectations, or in the way a place begins to feel different before anyone has quite named why.

Sometimes one trend emerges clearly from the mix and you can can imagine how it might gain momentum over time. Projecting them is not just a statistical exercise. It requires judgement: about pace, direction, significance and consequence.

Some of these trends will appear in the weekly digest of news and signals about the future.

This is the first set of trends. Others will follow.

And of course, these trends should be read alongside the generational challenges.

Welcome to Barnes2050, a place-based futures project asking, how do we make sure Barnes, the place and its people, are thriving and climate-ready by 2050?

Not every global trend will feature here. Barnes has its own texture, constraints and peculiarities. Artificial intelligence, for example, may transform daily life. But much of that transformation will not be uniquely Barnes-shaped. The better question for this journal is: how do large forces play out on this peninsula, in these streets, beside this river, among this particular mix of people and institutions?

One other thing.

Trendlines are not destiny. They can be bent. Policy, design, civic pressure and practical action can change their trajectory.

As we look to 2050, the question is not simply: what is coming?

It is also: which of these trends should we encourage, which should we resist, and which should we redirect?

Initial list of trends

Today launching the first six:

• Barnes is getting older

• Extreme concentration of property value

• Heat and water are climate threats

• Energy retrofits become social divider

• Contested kerbs

• Dynamic space management

These will be brief description of each. A fuller consideration of each will follow in the coming months .

Other trends will also be added, too.

If you think this list or any element on it could be improved, then please get in touch.

Barnes is getting older

Barnes today looks more like an older, settled outer-London neighbourhood than a place being replenished by large inflows of younger adults

Census data shows that around 55% of residents are aged 45 and over in Barnes ward (ONS Census 2021 via Nomis), well above the London average. The strongest growth has been in the 50–69 age groups.

The wider borough tells the same story. Richmond’s own analysis describes the borough as having fewer people aged 20 to 34 than London, and more people in older age bands, linking this in part to affordability.

From 2011 to 2021, the ageing story strengthened. In Richmond upon Thames, the median age rose from 38 to 41, making it the joint highest in London, and the number of residents aged 65 and over increased by 24.9%. In Richmond Borough, the 85–89 age group is projected to grow by nearly 50% by 2035 .

London provides a real contrast. It has agred too but more gently. In 2021 its median age was 35, compared with 41 in Richmond, and it remained the youngest English region by that measure.

Barnes is a place where people tend to stay. That is part of its strength. It is also part of its challenge. High housing costs limit younger in-migration. The result is a community that is stable and settled, but gradually tilting older.

Why does this matter?

Fewer young families and newcomers will mean slower cultural change and fewer informal social resets.

It will reshape demand for housing, mobility, healthcare and public space. Social patterns in Barnes are already shifting towards smaller households and more single-person living, partly because of ageing, and partly because younger adults are forming households later. Nearly one in three households in Richmond borough is occupied by one person.

By 2050, this could affect the kinds of homes Barnes needs: more accessible flats, more senior-friendly housing, more support for solo dwellers, and more everyday places where people can remain socially connected without needing to join a club, own a car, or book something online.

Extreme concentration of property value

Very high property values increasingly lock Barnes into a narrow socio-economic band, reducing churn and diversity.

There are approximately 6,700 homes in Barnes.

Sold-price trackers for 2025 put Barnes/SW13 overall averages around £1.36m to £1.44m, while semi-detached homes average over £2m, amongst the highest outside central London. (Sources include HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, Property Solvers and Zoopla)

Barnes is unlikely to add much new housing relative to demand. There are three obvious reasons:

• conservation - many parts of Barnes are subject to conservation rules covering 18th–19th century buildings

• resident resistance - knocking down a property to build even a low level apartment block or flatting a large house is rarely simple

• limited space - adding to the restrictions over half of Barnes is green or blue: commons, woods, river, streams and wetlands.

At the same time, fewer people are living in each of these expensive houses. The average household size in Richmond borough fell to around 2.3 people per household in 2021 (ONS Census 2021), continuing a long-term trend towards smaller households. More people are living in couples without children, single-person households, or as older residents whose children have left home.

Why does this matter?

Barnes risks becoming London’s largest gated community.

Nothing to do with a Bridge.

No gates. No guards. Just prices.

Access to Barnes housing is increasingly determined less by income than by intergenerational wealth. Over 40% of London first-time buyers now rely on family support; in high-value areas such as Barnes, that pressure is likely to be even sharper.

A place can remain physically open and still become socially closed.

Heat and water are climate threats

Barnes2050 has supported and celebrated the Community BlueScape project: an extraordinarily far-sighted civic achievement.

Kitson Road will always provide a thrill. Not a sentence you read everyday.

Work to manage flood risk - from river and rain - needs to continue. Barnes needs to understand what, if anything, will be required after the Thames Barrier changes its approach to managing upstream flood risk after 2035.

But the same attention now needs to be paid to heat.

The Met Office has published a detailed climate report for Richmond borough, setting out what to expect as the climate warms.

This Climate Report provides high level, non-technical summaries of climate change projections for a local authority area. It uses scientific research to provide robust climate information to help decision makers plan for the future.

The Met Office report suggests if global warming levels rise between 2º and 4º, Richmond borough can expect the number of hot summer days with a maximum temperature of 30º to increase from around two year currently to between 10 and 28. Tropical nights (20º) would similarly increase from none to between three and 15.

Why does this matter?

Water destroys property, heat kills people.

That is an over-simplification, but only slightly. Older people - see the trend on the Barnes population mix - are particularly susceptible.

If we can re-wriggle a river and replant reed beds because osiers are as useful today as they were in their seventeenth-century pomp, then surely we can think seriously about shade, seating, trees, cool refuges and better-designed public space.

And then comes the awkward question: what do we do about air-conditioning?

Energy retrofit becomes social divider

Bridged2050 applauded Richmond council when it launched its guide to retrofitting your home.

Between now and 2050, most of the 6,700 homes on the peninsula will need to be retrofitted. Barnes is no different from London, or indeed the rest of the UK, which must retrofit roughly 19 million homes by 2050.

The sums involved, even with grants and loans, can be eye-watering.

Richmond council’s excellent guide included a useful breakdown costs.

Whilst it is true for many if you can afford to live in Barnes, then you can afford to retrofit over the next two decades.

It is not true for all.

Worse, house prices will increasingly reflect whether a home has been retrofitted, and how well. An area of expensive houses could become more expensive still. Meanwhile, retrofitted homes will benefit from lower energy costs: savings denied to those who cannot afford the upfront work.

So the property divide hardens. Those with capital improve their homes, lower their bills and increase their asset value. Those without capital are left with colder homes, higher running costs and fewer options.

Wars in Ukraine and then Iraq have kick-started the process of retrofitting our homes.

Why this matters?

Richmond borough has a distinctive emissions profile. Housing is the single largest source of local green house gasses, at about 46%.

Many will be looking to the market to fix the unit cost of retrofitting coupled with better-targeted government subsidies and cheaper loans.

But this is not a short campaign. It will take all the years to 2050.

A gas boiler fitted in 2025 could still be working in 2045, if well maintained. Decisions being made now will still be shaping emissions, bills and comfort two decades from now.

Contested kerbs

In the twentieth century, cars dominated kerbs.

SUVs represent peak kerb-bossing by cars. Magnificent engineering, perhaps. But not quite essential kit for most residents of SW13, unless your work actually requires it. Builders, yes. Bakery run, less persuasive.

You don’t need to be a ‘kerb nerd’ to see more claims already being made on this precious part of our built environment:

• there are more bikehangars

• there’s more provision for parking for e-bikes and e-scooters

Meanwhile the vehicle mix is changing. Every day, dozens of delivery vans zip across SW13. The expectation now is for same-day delivery, frequent drop-offs and app-scheduled convenience.

Looking further ahead, the twin stressors of heat and water will demand a physical response. More kerb space will have to be given over to shade, seating, trees and SUDS

Nature, logistics and servicing then will reshape kerb space. Streets that fail to adapt choke themselves.

Why does this matter in Barnes?

72% of households in Barnes have access to at least one car or van. Many of these are SUVs. Many of them are left parked in the street, often for days on end. Many of those streets are narrow Victorian streets.

This is where the argument becomes uncomfortable.

Richmond’s political leaders have been reluctant to engage with SUV owners, fearing pushback. That position is not sustainable. By 2050, Barnes will need a fairer way of managing conflicting demands on kerb space, including the gripes of drivers who may lose some inconveniently claimed space, or at the very least pay more for the privilege of storing private vehicles on public land.

Dynamic space management: data-driven control replaces fixed rules

London has historically relied on static road layouts and permanent signage to manage much of the public realm.

That is beginning to change. Bus lanes can operate at particular times. School Streets control access during the school run. Parking, loading and access rules are becoming more conditional.

Users of streets and spaces are already adept at managing sophisticated real-time data. Traffic apps such as Apple Maps and Waze are obvious examples. Digital bus stop information boards are still rare in Barnes, but they point to the same direction of travel.

The range of time-sensitive rules will grow over the next twenty years. Autonomous vehicles (AVs) may accelerate that shift: not only as vehicles, but as sensor-laden observers and commentators of the surrounding environment.

The critical missing feature is the feedback loop: something that connects people, data and place.

Perhaps you receive a warning, short of a fine, telling you not to enter a School Street zone. Perhaps high pedestrian numbers trigger more generous crossing times. Perhaps a road is temporarily reallocated for wider pavements during an event, a heatwave, or a flood-risk episode.

This is how it will feel as a Barnes resident to see the gradual replacement of fixed rules with responsive management.

Why does this matter?

Barnes has an unusually rich natural environment. More than half the area is blue or green. That is one of its great strengths. It also limits the space available for new activities.

Barnes will not be able to solve its problems by building more. Instead, it is more likely to redistribute space, time and access.

Done well, this could be more a elegant approach, in a data-rich environment. Done badly, it could feel intrusive, arbitrary and infuriating.

Richmond Council be warned: the petitions prompted by algorithms may be even more spirited and more common than the petitions prompted by traffic cones.

Notes & thoughts

These are six long term trends that will shape Barnes in 2050.

In time there will be deeper researching and reporting on each. There will also be more of them

Our challenge, as we think about life in Barnes in 2050, is to decide how to harness these trends to our advantage and where necessary, how to change them. The sooner we start the better.

Walk SW13 and you can already see glimpses of that future: bikehangars, rain gardens, trees planted for shade, wider pavements, better seating, more attention to the spaces between buildings.

Barnes2050’s Manifesto will suggest principles and proposals to address these trends. If you would like to contribute or have thoughts on what you’ve read, please do get in touch.

Solar panels have been fitted every three minutes in UK since Iran conflict started, according to The Times (££ paywall). 27,000 solar power installations in March, the highest monthly total for 14 years. Applications for heat pump grants also jumped.

Why it matters

• The single largest source of greenhouse gases in the Richmond borough are domestic buildings - 46% of all emissions

• Retrofitting our homes, including the roughly 6,700 in Barnes, is one of the most important things to create a climate-ready city. Richmond council wants to help.

• You can get a sense of scale of the task ahead in the next twenty four years by looking at the roofs of your neighbours’ homes as you walk the neighbourhood.

Welcome to Barnes2050, a place-based futures project asking, how do we make sure Barnes, the place and its people, are thriving and climate-ready by 2050?

Transport - Clean Cities campaigners target London’s SUV owners

The Clean Cities Campaign has written to the Mayor asking him to act more decisively on SUVs. Measures they want to see include,

• Integrating an oversized vehicle levy into London road pricing schemes;

• Ending the paradox of SUV advertising on TfL’s website and billboards;

• Supporting boroughs to incorporate vehicle size into parking tariffs;

• Delivering alternatives, including electric car clubs and cargo bike sharing;

• Campaigning for maximum vehicle dimensions and for Vehicle Excise Duty

• and to include a progressively higher tax proportional to the vehicle’s weigh

Why it matterst

• Barnes2050 appreciates the engineering but not their presence. The builders in our avenue likely need their SUVs. My neighbours? No. Oversized private cars for short urban journeys are a different matter.

• Regional acton from City Hall would be welcome. Local action by Richmond council depends on results of the elections. Only the Liberal Democracts and the Greens have published local manifestos. Of these only the Greens are explicit in their support of a change in the regulations.

Governance - Mayor to regulate the capital’s e-bike market

Meanwhile, the Mayor is getting another slice of authority.

The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill has received Royal Assent. It includes several changes relevant to London, including stronger powers over some transport functions.

The most visible local change? Transport for London is expected to gain stronger London-wide powers to regulate dockless rental bikes, including parking compliance and fleet management. Zag Daily has more detail.

Why it matters

• e-bikes are going to play an increasingly important role in Barnes’ transport mix. The Gen Z e-bike generation is already crossing borough borders as if the borders do not exist. The rules should catch up.

• By the time the Richmond council contract with Forest renews, Transport for London should have a more settled regulatory framework.

Transport - Lime bikes report record growth in Richmond borough

Interesting data from Lime about bike usage in 2024 to 2025.

Why this matters

• Hammersmith Bridge looms large in these figures. This chart chimes with previously released data suggesting the Bridge, open to pedestrians and cyclists, has become an important route into and out of Barnes.

• There is no obvious reason, from the public evidence, to assume Forest could not also generate strong use when it replaces Lime in the autumn.

• Here’s hoping Forest and Richmond council release more of data, more often.

Transport - Forest secure more funding

London e-bike operator Forest secured a further £27m in funding, taking its total Series B round to £40m. The company has grown rapidly, reaching 1.5m users and delivering 2m rides per month across 18 London boroughs

So reports Micromobility. It goes on to say,

The funding will support continued investment in cycling infrastructure, technology, and safety improvements

Why it matters

• Whatever your view of Richmond Council’s decision to replace Lime with Forest, London benefits from competition in e-bikes. A viable Forest reduces the risk of a single dominant provider in this increasingly important part of the transport mix. Forest’s status as a UK company is a useful bonus.

• More immediately, the funding includes a new strategic partnership to co-develop Forest’s fleet of bikes.

Transport - Why do cyclists ignore red lights?

Ask them?

The University of Leeds is looking for participants for a questionnaire supporting an Active Travel England-funded research project.

The questionnaire takes approximately 10 to 15 minutes to complete and will be open until 17 May 2026. Wider circulation across professional networks is encouraged.

Begin the research questionnaire here.

Why it matters

• Stop at red lights, why don’t you? I even stop at the ridiculous traffic lights in Castlenau.

• As cycling becomes more popular this is going to become more of an issue. Bike registration plates - a common reach by those used to regulating cars won’t work. Maybe facial recognition? Or maybe in some situations we follow the example of the Netherlands? A new app connects with nearby traffic lights and automatically switches them to green as you approach.

Transport - EV tide is turning

Petrol cars are losing their value up to five times faster than electric vehicles (EVs) as soaring prices at the pumps force drivers to go green, reports The Sunday Times (££ paywall)

Why it matters

• This story is bought to you by President Donald J Trump

• The EV tide is turning. Electrificantion, something we did to railways is becoming part of our homes. The domestic electric stack — solar, batteries, heat pumps and EV charging — will be part of normal life by 2050.
  
  

Transport - Lessons from .. Scotland, on parking

Current parking policy in Scotland imposes avoidable costs on public health, the environment and housing affordability, while reinforcing patterns of car dependency.

That’s the assertion of a new report, Beyond the Kerb.

Why it matters

• BikeIsBest go on to point out one in four Scots have no access to a car so ‘there’s a case case to be made’. In Barnes one in three households has no car.

• You don’t have to be a ‘kerb nerd’ to see that parking is not a settled topic in Barnes.

Transport - Lessons from .. New York, on walking

Researchers have just mapped New Your City foot traffic for the first time ever.

The model maps foot traffic across all sidewalks, crosswalks and footpaths in NYC during peak periods.

The results are striking. Turns out, more trips are made on foot than by car.

Fast Company reports the work here. The research itself appears in Nature Cities, where the authors write,

Walking is the most prevalent yet least systematically measured mode of urban travel.

And yet what gets counted, counts. In America, transport funding formulas have historically given heavy weight to vehicle movement, including vehicle miles travelled.

If cities could count the number of pedestrians that walked across their streets, they could steer more federal money into urban, people-oriented infrastructure.

Why it matters

• In London we count cars. We now count bikes, in central London. But how well do we count pedestrians? TfL’s best-known pedestrian footfall survey is a central London measure, using around 600 count sites, so it should not be read as telling us what is happening on Barnes streets. For places like Barnes, TfL’s wider active-travel counts may offer some outer London indicators, but they are not designed as a representative local walking survey.

• Wouldn’t it be useful to understand the flow of pedestrians around the peninsuala?

• The best local count known to Barnes2050 is an informal weekend footfall count of Barnes High Street, now more than 10 years old.

• Barnes2050 believes several important walking routes should be assessed for shade, seating, crossings and places to rest before summer heat becomes normal.

Transport - London Walking Festival

The weather has changed up just in time for the 2026 London Walking Festival.

Why it matters

• I was once told a listener needs to hear a radio advertisement at least ten times before she or he takes in the message. I must have used this phrase a dozen times in the last fortnight - walking is the single most important form of transportation.

• Barnes should be a pedestrian-first peninsula. This will be number one when Barnes2050 publishes its list of principles for a designing a better future.

• So anything that encourages more of us to step out and walk is to be welcomed.

Infrastructure - Lessons from .. Oxford on 15 20 minute city

A Gen Z reminder about the political fallout from 15 minute cities.

Why it matters

• Richmond council adopted this approach in March the borough’s new transport strategy. It avoids mention of 15 minute cities. Instead, it talks about 20 minutes. For example, a core objective of the 2040 vision is that most residents will be able to reach a town centre, school, GP surgery, or green space within twenty minute using sustainable modes of transport - walking, cycling, or public transport - regardless of their age or physical ability.

• The decision to duck the inevitable aggro attached to that other number makes political sense.

• Barnes2050 supports the idea regardless of the label. It is either true or very nearly true of Barnes - one to assess during the summer, perhaps.

Have a fabulous week and if you don’t live in Barnes, then why not take advantage of the good weather to jump on the train, bus or bike to come visit. You’ll love it.

Please bear with me while I work through them. If you spot an old or broken link, email me and I will fix it.

Welcome to this weekly digest of stories and signals about future Barnes.

Transport - Hammersmith Bridge

A fourth Commons debate on Hammersmith Bridge revealed more details about the UK Government’s (UKG) approach funding a potential restoration of vehicles.

Simon Lightwood MP, the transport minister, set out the timetable for the UKG’s £1billion Structures Fund. Draft applications must be submitted by 19 June, with final bids by 3 August. Funding decisions will be made in the autumn, and all successful schemes must complete works by March 2030. As FulhamSW6 reported,

added that a local contribution would still be required, but not necessarily the three-way split between the Government, Transport for London and Hammersmith & Fulham Council proposed under the previous administration.

A few other things emerged.

• The roughly £50 million already spent by Hammersmith & Fulham Council, the bridge’s owner, would be recognised in some way.

• Officials have been working with key stakeholders on viable engineering options.

• The next Hammersmith Bridge Taskforce meeting is expected after funding awards are made.

• The bridge was again described as a good candidate for the fund, but not a special case.

• the Minister repeated his remarks the Bridge is a good candidate for the fund though he stressed,

he stressed that it would be assessed under the same criteria as all other bids.

Why it matters?

• Politicians continue to frame this topic by cars and cash. How quickly can vehicles be restored to the Bridge? And who else is going to fund that? ‘Who else ‘because although all Labour, Liberal Democrat and Conservative politicians want to see it restored, no-one want it enough to fund it. The UKG are funders of last resort. With this annoucnment they are saying, we will contibrute but others will too. How much do those parties want to contribute will become clearer in the autumn?

• The other potential other funders make for an intriguing listL Wandsworth council who have previoiusly refused; Richmond council who coping with a huge cut in UKG funding; or private investment. If any of these result in tolls being required, then

• One other thing - ‘All vibe and no data’. Anecotes, rhetorical flourishes are necessary but not sufficient. The Task Force promised a shared bedrock of data. Will that feature in the investment process?

Transport - Forced experiment

Forced experiments continue to change London’s transport mix.

Bike operators Voi and Lime reportedly saw usage on Tuesday 21 April, an RMT strike day, rise by 52% and 23% respectively compared with the previous week. Transport for London’s cycle hire scheme saw a more modest 14% boost.

Carla Francome captured what this meant at a central London junction.

More widely, BikeIsBest reports that as fuel prices rise, so does active travel. A YouGov survey for Cycling UK of more than 2,000 adults found that almost 30% of drivers were walking or cycling more, with another 15% considering it.

There is a but.

Seven per cent of women had bought a new bike in response to fuel prices, compared with 13% of men.

Why it matters

• Forced experiments can have lasting effects. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, quoted by Nick Miani, provided evidence of how the London Underground strike changed some travel patterns.

They found that about 5% — one in 20 — of affected commuters permanently switched to their new route after the strike ended, and that the time saved in the long term by those who found better routes actually outweighed the time lost by all commuters during the strike itself.

• On one level, moving people from one form of sustainable transport — trains — to another — bikes — does not directly reduce our dependency on cars.

• But more bikes still matter. They make streets feel more active, visible and people-first.

• They also build habits. And habits are how transport systems shift.

• There is one huge forced experiment that should be recognised as such by the UK Government: Hammersmith Bridge being open to pedestrians and cyclists, but not to motor vehicles.

• The public data available suggests that experiment is working, at least if the measure is reduced traffic pressure through Barnes.

• The question is whether government treats the past five years as an interruption, or as evidence.

Transport - Growing bike network in west London

Meanwhile, London’s cycle network continues to grow.

This video tells the story of west London’s cycle infrastructure.

Why it matters

• With Hammersmith Bridge not allowing cars, there is a tendency to think of it mainly as protecting Barnes from 20,000 cars hurtling through the area.

• That is valid, but inward-looking.

• The bridge is also a gateway to a cycling network that is growing each year.

• This film shows that the area around Hammersmith is getting better cycling infrastructure, which means crossing the bridge and heading north or west becomes easier and safer.

• That matters because Barnes does not only look towards Richmond. Many daily journeys point north and west: to Hammersmith, Shepherd’s Bush, Fulham, Kensington and beyond.

• This is one lesson from the Richmond town centre discussion. The borough map says one thing; everyday life often says another.

• Dedicated cycleways address one of the biggest reasons people reject cycling: safety.

Other stories this week

Forest e-bikes are now expected to arrive in Barnes in June, replacing Lime bikes under Richmond council’s new borough-wide arrangement.

Lessons from Luxembourg? Probably not directly. But it is still useful to notice the lengths some places will go to when they decide transport has to change. Luxembourg became the first country to make public transport free nationwide.

Governance - More leaflets and another candidate knocking on the front door. Local elections on Thursday 07 May are edging closer. London Centric’s forecasts, based on the most recent polls, suggest the result will be no changes on either Surrey and Middlesex banks of the Thames in Barnes. Neighbouring Wandsworth may be more interesting.

Civics - The next Barnes Town Team meeting takes place on Wednesday 13 May at 6:30pm at the Barnes Green Centre. There’ll be updates on all the Barnes Community Association Ponder projects including the new Barnes website - the Barnes Hub. See you there.

The following night ..

The meeting is open to all residents but only BCA members may vote. There’ll be business and wine, which should mix well.

Welcome to Barnes2050, a place-based futures project asking, how do we make sure Barnes, the place and its people, are thriving and climate-ready by 2050?

Living Streets, the ‘UK charity for everyday walking’, gathered in Liverpool at an interesting moment for the organisation: one strategy period closing, another beginning.

260416 Living Streets Strategy 2020 25

11.2MB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

This was my first Walking Summit. I said almost nothing. I wanted to absorb it properly: the speakers, the mood, the assumptions in the room. A government minister. Regional politicians. Specialist consultants. Local campaigners. All of them, in different ways, wrestling with the same question: what would it mean to design places around people on foot, rather than treating walking as an afterthought?

Notes & thoughts

Here are my five top takeaways, , followed by a few practical implications for Barnes2050.

Barnes is pedestrian-aware

Travelling to Sydney, Australia, and Rotterdam in 2026 made me appreciate more clearly the progress already made in SW13. Liverpool - both the conference content and the city centre - had feel the same effect.

I am sometimes asked: if Barnes is already such a good place to live, why keep arguing for change?

The answer, which I hope to explore more fully in a summer piece, rests on two ideas.

The first is that the current generation of Barnes’ residents have inherited something unusually good. A recent talk at FiSH captured this beautifully. Barnes’s built and green environment is not an accident. It is the product of patient stewardship, of people over time making choices that preserved quality and character. We need to show that same level of stewardship in the twenty first century.

The second is that privilege creates obligation. Barnes has pockets of inequality in income and wealth, but broadly speaking it is prosperous. It is also facing a set of generational questions that London, and Britain more broadly, will need to answer: how to adapt to climate pressure, how to rethink mobility, how to use public space better, how to live well with trade-offs rather than pretending they do not exist. If a place like Barnes cannot engage seriously with those questions, it is hard to know who will.

So yes, celebrate the excellent — Love this, love this too - and look to improve for 2050 so we are all thriving and climate-ready. Starting with a shift to being pedestrian-first.

Impressive UK government minister

I have heard many and met several. Authenticity is one of those qualities that sounds vague until you encounter it. Then it is obvious. You hear it more than you see it. Which is, among other things, a useful reminder that voice still carries things the printed word cannot.

Lilian Greenwood MP, the Minister for Local Transport, came across as thoughtful, articulate and entirely human. No bombast. No performance of certainty. Just a clear attempt to speak plainly about how streets are experienced in real life.

She focused on women’s safety in public space and on the fact that transport policy is never just about movement. It is also about confidence, fear, freedom and constraint. She also pointed towards new work from Active Travel England, which has now published guidance to help councils make streets feel safer.

Design for difference

The minister made the case that women’s needs should shape how we think about streets and infrastructure. A later session added another layer, and made the point more tangible still.

Dr Amit Patel, a DEI consultant and trustee of Living Streets, became blind later in life and spoke about what that means in everyday movement through public space. The practical detail mattered. It shifted the conversation from good intentions to lived reality.

According to the RNIB, around 4 per cent of adults in England are living with sight loss. Once you hold that number in your head, ‘designing for difference’ stops sounding like an optional act of generosity. It starts to look like a basic test of whether a place is functioning properly.

That, for me, was one of the most useful reframings of the day. Difference comes in many forms when the default a car driver.

Autonomous vehicles (AVs)

I expected the session involving a senior London-based Waymo figure to focus mainly on safety. It did.

But that was not the part I found most interesting.

The more revealing thread came from the host, Adam Tranter, who kept returning to a simpler and more awkward question: if autonomous vehicles arrive in meaningful numbers, what happens to congestion in the short and medium term?

Maybe. Possibly. Probably. That was the gist of the answer.

The topic featured recently on Bridged2050 following Waymo’s latest announcement as they aim to be operating their first service outside of the USA in London, UK government approval permitting.

More on this topic in future.

Pedestrian-first road crossings

This was already on my long list of ideas. After hearing about its impact in Liverpool, it has moved up several places.

The principle is straightforward. At some crossings, once a pedestrian presses the button, the traffic sequence should begin changing quickly — green to amber, amber to red — rather than making the pedestrian stand there waiting for the system to catch up with the human being who has already announced their presence.

In other words, the default logic should lean more towards near-instant priority for people on foot on some roads and streets.

It is a small design shift, but one with a larger philosophical point behind it. Who is the street for, really?

Practical implications for Bridged2050

As Bridged2050 moves into its second year, a few practical lessons stood out.

Production - Walk the ground

The amateur historian in me already knows this. Reading about the Battle of Arnhem is one thing. Driving over the John Frost Bridge is another. Place turns abstraction into something physical. You understand with your body as well as your brain.

The Liverpool walkshop offered nothing especially novel in itself — SUVs, hostile crossings, no obvious trace of school-street thinking in that particular part of the city — but the discussion around it was excellent.

A senior Liverpool traffic planner spoke to me about plans to introduce e-scooters. Another participant explained how London looks from her perspective in Leeds. A campaigner described her work helping councillors in south Wales develop policy around higher parking charges for heavier vehicles, including SUVs.

That mix — place, conversation, contradiction, comparison — was encouraged by this ‘walkshop’.

Production - Storytelling through short films

Note to self: get moving on audio, if only to make a late-2026 video push realistic.

One of the strongest storytelling sessions came from Simon O’Brien, Active Travel Commissioner for Liverpool City Region. Yes, being a former Brookside actor probably helps when it comes to speaking on camera. But the session worked because there was more than polish. He walked and talked through his neighbourhood, then cycled through Paris, carrying off the difficult trick of being visibly delighted by city life while still making serious points about how it can be improved.

Production - Tools and frameworks

Regular readers will know I have a weakness for a framework. It stops the mind fizzing off in six directions at once and producing little of value in any of them.

My notes from the day are full of structures, prompts and tools. Consider that less a threat than a gentle warning: some of them will, almost certainly, find their way into this project before long.

This was a good conference in a wonderful city: stimulating, thoughtful and, at moments, properly challenging.

And if you are tempted to get involved, here are the details for either the Richmond local group or the wider national organisation.

Transport - AVs means Way mo’ cars

The headline is from StreetblogNYC and is borrowed because it makes the point in six words. Barnes2050 likes brevity.

It also felt pertinent this week in Barnes. Waymo, part of the Alphabet group alongside Google, said it is moving to fully automated driving on London’s streets. Until now, a human has been doing the driving while the company’s sensor-laden cars learned the city and gathered data. In this next phase, the human remains in the vehicle, but in a supervisory role while the car does the driving, London Centric reported.

Waymo has 100 cars in test mode on London’s roads and is still on track to launch its self-driving taxi service on the capital’s streets by the end of this year.

That is one version of the story: the technology improving, the supervision receding, the future edging closer. StreetsblogNYC points to another. It quotes an Uber corporate presentation,

Between Uber and its competitor Lyft, there are around 80,000 licensed app-based taxis currently in New York City. It’s clear from Uber’s investor materials that the company sees autonomous taxis entering the market as a chance to expand its footprint.

In other words, Waymo means way mo’ cars.

Uber points to its experience in Austin TX and Atlanta GE. According to the company, adding Waymo to a city where Uber already operated did not replace existing Uber trips. It increased them. In San Francisco CA, meanwhile, authorities have begun responding to the growth in autonomous vehicles on the streets.

Why it matters

• The claim that AVs could prove safer than human drivers remains one of the central arguments for the technology. That case was set out by McKinsey in 2019. A later piece from the Brookings Institution shows how that debate has matured, and how much uncertainty remains.

• What looks increasingly plausible, however, is that the awkward phase may be the one in which these vehicles arrive not instead of existing traffic, but in addition to it. Whether that congestion would be temporary or long-lasting is not yet clear. The technology is still too immature, even in the United States, to settle that question.

• In Barnes, where Ubers are a familiar sight, the prospect is not of fewer vehicles but of another layer of them.

Welcome to Barnes2050, a place-based futures project asking how do we make sure Barnes, the place and its people, are thriving and climate-ready by 2050?

Transport - Walking and cycling should play nice

One of the more tiresome habits of transport debate is to pretend that pedestrians and cyclists are natural enemies. They are not.

Tensions between pedestrians and cyclists are not inherent to walking and cycling, but the product of street design.

BikeIsBest neatly summarises a new report, Cycling and the Relationship Wth Pedestrians. It argument is simple:

With the bulk of streetspace allocated to motor vehicles, everyone else is forced to share the remaining space, often on pavements.

The report’s answer is equally simple. Treat walking and cycling as

.. proper transport, and not anm afterthought. And keep pavements for pavements, ideally.

Why it matters

• This is real.

• The tension surfaces in coffee-shop conversation and pops up in WhatsApp groups too.

• The harder question is what to do about it on roads in an area like Barnes where space is genuinely tight. On somewhere like The Terrace, meaningful change might require a wider rethink of the local traffic system. A one-way arrangement, perhaps. Now there is a thought.
  
  

Landscape - What we can learn from the end of market gardening

Mike Hildesley enteritained a typically large History Sociey audience at St Mary’s with his talk on market gardening and Barnes.

Why it matters

• The deeper point was not nostalgic. Barnes has changed repeatedly, sometimes slowly, sometimes abruptly. Opposition to change can feel permanent when you are in the middle of it. But more than 1,100 years of local history tell a different story.

• Take one example shared by Mike. The arrival of the railway in 1846 helped upend market gardening. A way of life that had endured for centuries was reshaped by a single intervention. That is a useful thought to hold in mind when today’s arguments start sounding as if the latest arrangement must be the natural and final one.

• Barnes2050 treats local history and identity as assets, because places with memory often make better decisions about change.

Also this week

UK government’s Structures Fund is open for bids. It part of a record £1 billion total package to enhance England’s roads. It may yet provide one possible route to restoring vehicles to Hammersmith Bridge.

The average price of a new electric car in the UK is now lower than that of a new petrol car, The Guardian reports

London’s e-bakes anti-social parking is a policy failure not a market failure, say s CAPX. ‘This is a market missing its most basic ingredient: clear rules.’

According to The Telegraph, Richmond borough is one of the UK’s closest things to a ‘Blue Zone’ – places where people regularly reach 100.

Barnes2050 will never tire of watching, hearing and reading others saying, Barnes is brilliant.

This one is more significant. Barnes2050 is a year old.

At launch the project’s goal was simple: to laugh, learn and make a difference.

Learning was not just navigating the road to 2050, but to gaining new skills and experiences. Tick.

Laughing meant enjoying the experience. Week in, week out. Again, tick. Not all 190 stories are well written or sufficiently thought through, especially the early ones. But creating them has been a delight. And it remains thrilling to see my emerging beliefs in this new space, codified in public.

Making a difference will take longer, as I will explain in a moment.

For now I am so pleased with everything that has happened, I’m committing another two years to the project.

If the first year was about foundations, the next is about testing the structural integrity: seeing if the thinking survives its first real contact with reality.

This update covers:

• Strategic clarity

• Performance

• Content settling

• Manifesto section

• 2026 priorities
  
  

Strategic clarity

The positioning of Barnes2050 shifted significantly in February 2026. Before then I often described it as a micro-think tank. That was not entirely wrong. It still is not. But it turned out not to be the clearest or most useful description.

Over the winter, in talking about the project, I found myself returning to a simpler phrase: Barnes2050 is a futures project. It is focused on one distinctive place — Barnes, London — and one medium-term horizon: 2050, the UK government’s deadline for net zero. The question is easy enough to state, even if it is anything but easy to answer: how do we make sure Barnes — the place and its people — are thriving and climate-ready by then?

What is the best contribution I can make to finding that answer?

To use my skills and experience in public service, local journalism and technical innovation to surface and develop ideas for a better Barnes. This journal is the record of that process. It sits alongside and is complementary to other local media such as The Barnes Village Bugle and Barnes Community Association Plus, trying to do something rather different.

One other thing.

Over the year I have narrowed the geographical focus to make the project more manageable. First I decided to ditch part of Putney from the original scope, then Mortlake too. I am now left with Barnes, SW13. As a result, the project has been renamed Barnes2050. This better reflects the focus of efforts as well as being more comprehensible at first glance.

The name change will take about two months to roll out across this journal, YouTube and the various other social media accounts. During that time you may come across broken links. If you do, please email me and the fix to it or them will be prioritised. Thank you for your patience during this process.

Performance

Barnes2050 has two audiences. The first is the roughly 18,000 other residents of Barnes. I want to contribute, in however modest a way, to the conversation already underway about how best to maintain quality of life in an age increasingly shaped by climate pressures.

The second audience is smaller and more specific: the people in Richmond borough whose decisions shape the place for everyone else. There are probably fewer than 150 of them. You find them in commerce and local government. They are Gen Z and Boomers. I want to get to know them, talk with them and, where possible, persuade them that some of the ideas developed here would help Barnes — people and place alike — prepare for 2050.

Given those ambitions, it is hardly surprising that there is little tangible progress to report at the end of year one. That was always the plan. I wanted first to build the knowledge base rather than draw attention to it. I wanted to start with the foundations. Arriving late to the subject, I felt I needed to earn some legitimacy through the slower work of learning.

I think that base now exists: 190-plus stories across nine themes. The journal can still feel sketchy in places. Some stories remain slight. But the intellectual scaffolding is now there, and the production processes filling it out are improving steadily.

Content settling

At the heart of this journal is storytelling. As Ursula K. Le Guin, said,

Words are events, they do things, change things.

They transform both speaker and hearer; they feed energy back and forth and amplify it. They feed understanding or emotion back and forth and amplify it.

A year of launching, learning and iterating has improved the stories told here. Here are three examples of how simplification has improved the the journal:

Navigation

• The site now rests on the nine themes visible at the top of the home page.

• An earlier version gave more prominence to Health, but the balance of stories made clear that I needed to put more weight on the built (infrastructure) and natural (landscape) environment.

• Health has therefore been absorbed into Lifestyle.

Story types

• The current structure is the third, and probably final, version.

• There are now three broad types of story:

  • Observe — background, news and factual reporting: what we can see in Barnes today

  • Interpret — commentary and analysis: why it matters, and what it may signal about the future

  • Imagine — plausible futures, gathered under the Manifesto label. More on this in a moment

• The aim now is to spend more time creating stories in that third category. These future-facing stories take longer, but they are more satisfying to produce, more useful to readers and, I hope, more likely to prove effective over

Formats

• Three formats have proved especially useful in the last year:

  • ‘That was the week that was’ is a weekly summary of news relevant to Barnes’ possible futures. It usefully caps the time spent on day-to-day news — the least important content type here — while helping me scan for signals of what may be coming.

  • LoveThis! format is designed to counterbalance the journal’s natural bias towards what needs fixing, by making space for appreciation of what already works

  • Lessons from .. has given my travels an extra dimension, whether in Sydney, Australia or Rotterdam,Netherlands. They help me see Barnes afresh.

• Other formats are still being tested, including ones that lean more heavily on images and audio.

Manifesto section

This is the most important part of this journal. It has been re-organised into four distinct sections, as I explain here:

Inputs

• trends

• visions - for example the Thames to Thames walk

Outputs

• principles

• proposals - for example, ideas for a new park and pedestrian pop-up.

The first articles outlining some of the trends likely to shape Barnes in 2050 will be published shortly. So too will the first pieces on the principles that Barnes2050 believes should guide the making of a better Barnes. Until then, here is how the current ten proposals relate to the peninsula.

The full list of proposals is here. Here are six of the best.

Also worth calling out

• Ai is embedded into my production process and now co-authors the occasional image, infographics, slide decks and my first Ai podcast. I don’t use Ai to develop the first or indeed second draft of stories. The process of writing is too important. It helps me work out what I think. More than that, I think the world is better served by authentic human voices, with all their opinions and idiosyncrasies.

• You may have noticed some names are regularly emboldened. This reflects the important Barnes2050 places on decision-making. There is no frictionless path to 2050. Every serious choice involves trade-offs. In the end, people and organisations have to decide. If they are based in Richmond borough, you will find their names in bold.

• The introduction of video is on hold. It was a step too far, too soon. Instead, expect more audio reporting in the short term, with video likely to follow in late 2026 or early 2027.

• Some initiatives were dropped after testing. Topic boxes, for example, proved too onerous to maintain.

• I am also going to reduce the frequency of these reports. They will appear every six months from here on, reflecting what should now be a slower rate of change.
  
  

2026 priorities

I will continue to publish regularly. At the moment I am working on proposals about better understanding local opinion, a celebration of the majestic postbox, and a piece about time itself: why is it still so hard, in 2026, to imagine life in 2050?

With the basics now in place, it is time to push on. Over the next twelve months I want to add three things: more engagement, online and in person; more audio and, later, video; and a broader effort involving contributors and collaborators rather than just me.

• Audio, too - I am going back to my media roots: I started my career in BBC radio. I bring more audio into the journal: interviews, reports, clips. If things go to plan, I hope to introduce video next winter.

• Showing up - More engagement with residents and experts, online and in person. I want to share my thinking on social media to see how it might be improved. I want to be in touch with subscribers more regularly, perhaps every few months to begin with. And I want to be out in Barnes, often with microphone in hand, hearing what you have to say about our future.

• Partnerships - I am looking for contributors and collaborators to join the project. More people would mean more brains, more output and, not least, more fun. There will be more on this in the summer. Until then, if you are interested in being involved, do mail me. There is no obligation attached to that expression of interest. But I would happily stand you a coffee or something stronger.

One final thing. I checked. One candle on the cake flickering for 15 minutes releases between 1g and 8g of CO₂ depending on the sort of candle. For comparison, boiling a kettle releases between 15g and 30g of CO₂.

Light that candle.

Barnes2050 will never take the puritanical path of denial .. more on this in the autumn.

Updates to this page

This article was originally published on 16 April 2026.

It was updated on 17 April 2026. The new version included:

• Stylistic improvements to the opening paragraph

• Correcting grammatical errors and spelling mistakes

Subscribe now

Transport - UKG says road traffic will grow

In less than a decade, the government forecasts road traffic will rise by 10 per cent. BikeIsBest flagged the line first. It is a sobering number.

Why it matters

• Imagine 10 per cent more traffic on the roads around Barnes.

• That is where current policy points if nothing substantial changes.

• And if Hammersmith Bridge were reopened to private cars, the increase locally would almost certainly be greater still.

• Is that the best future?
  
  

Transport - UKG supports simpler zebra crossings

The government also confirmed in its new Better Connected transport strategy that it wants to enable new, simplified zebra crossings. These side-road zebras look much like their more familiar cousins, but without the cost and clutter of Belisha beacons.

Why it matters

• There are few places in Barnes where such a crossing would bring huge benefit. Currently.

• But as the local transport network evolves over time, that could change.

• More on this later this year

Welcome to this weekly digest of stories and signals about future Barnes.

Transport - Smile

Raphael Younger points out this space outside Lowther School, Barnes used to be a space for one car. Build and they will come?

Governance - Richmond borough election profile

BBC News has published profiles of every local council up for election in May. Here is the one for Richmond upon Thames. The most striking line came from Professor Tony Travers:

Richmond is now the safest London borough in terms of Liberal Democrat control

Why it matters

• Britain may have one of the most centralised systems of government in Europe, but local councillors still matter.

• Planning, transport, housing, parks, streets and schools are not abstractions here. They shape daily life.

• If you want a say in what happens next, register to vote here.
  
  

Governance - No school at Stag Brewery

Plans for a new secondary school at the £1.3 billion Stag Brewery redevelopment have been scrapped by the Department for Education, in a move Richmond council says will put serious pressure on future school places, according to MyLondon.

Why it matters

• This is what governing looks like in practice: trying to manage long-term trends while coping with short-term pressure.

• New homes will increase demand in the near term.

• Yet pupil numbers may fall over the longer term.

• Those tensions are real, and they are not going away.
  
  

Governance - Paris, always Paris

The victory for pro-pedestrian, pro-bike politics in Paris featured here last week. This week brought a wave of reflective pieces. This essay in The Guardian was the best of them.

Why it matters

• Barnes2050 has always argued that local leaders need to show more confidence in reclaiming streets for people.

• Paris shows that this is not fantasy, nor merely a lifestyle preference dressed up as policy. It is governance.

• Change happens when leaders are prepared to lead.
  
  

Infrastructure - SUVs are making potholes worse

Scientists say the cumulative effect of more heavy vehicles on the road is one reason Britain’s pothole problem is getting worse. More dispiriting still, recent reporting in The Guardian suggested that hundreds of thousands of people have responded by buying larger cars to cope with damaged roads. A grim loop.

Why it matters

• SUVs are now a standard feature of British streets. They accounted for more than half of new car sales in the UK last year. Walk down almost any road in Barnes and you can see the shift for yourself.

• The Mayor of London has asked Transport for London to analyse the safety risks posed by large SUVs, and their wider impact on London’s roads.

• Incidentally, even bigger SUVs are on their way
  
  

Infrastructure - LTNs are popular

As BikeIsBEst reports

Low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) became a culture-war battleground but the evidence now is that people rather like them (££ Paywall), says Times columnist Emma Duncan.

LTNs have followed a now-familiar trajectory: from “Nazi experiments” and “climate lockdown” conspiracy theories to… actually quite popular bits of street design

Emma Duncan is worth quoting at length,

Low traffic neighbourhoods have replicated a classic pattern, which Everett Rogers described in 1962 in Diffusion of Innovations as the ’S-curve of acceptance.

People are hardwired to resist change, so at first acceptance grows only slowly (that’s the base of the S); then it takes off and rises almost vertically (the mid-bend of the S) until the majority are fine with the change; then it levels off (the top of the S) as a minority of diehard opponents digs in.

You can see the same pattern with the adoption of technological change (computers, the smartphone) and the acceptance of social change (female emancipation, gay rights).

Why it matters

• Hammersmith Bridge may be on a similar trajectory in terms of local opinion. Nearly every change in traffic arrangements produces resistance at first before following this predictable pattern. Barnes2050 has reported this before, here and here.

• It is not possible to say with confidence where the balance of Barnes public opinion sits. There is no single, clean and uncontested measure of local sentiment, whatever politicians may claim.

• My sense is that there is probably still a majority in Barnes and in Mortlake & Barnes Common wards for restoring cars to Hammersmith Bridge. But it feels close — perhaps 55–45 — and narrowing every month.
  
  

Housing - Plug-in solar explained

Finally a gloriously pithy and useful summary from Simon Clark on the recent UKG announcment about rooftop solar. Two minutes well spent.

Why it matters

• Not every sign of the future arrives through a grand project or a giant piece of infrastructure. Some arrive as smaller, cheaper, easier things that suddenly make adoption feel normal. That is often how change really spreads.

Welcome to Barnes2050, a place-based futures project asking, how do we make sure Barnes, the place and its people, are thriving and climate-ready by 2050?

This image was co-authored by ChatGPT.

That is why signs of a changing climate are worth noticing. Reports this week suggest this year is showing signs of what could be the earliest spring on record. According to provisional figures from Nature’s Calendar:

.. the first frog spawn was laid on average on 23 February, well ahead of the previous earliest ever average of 5 March; blackbirds were nesting by 4 March and hazel was flowering on 14 January - eight days before the previous earliest ever average of 22 January in 2024.

Transport - UK Government transport strategy

Bingo! We now have a full set of transport strategies for England, London and Richmond:

• UK Government - Better Connected: a strategy for integrated transport (2026)

• Mayor of London - Mayor’s Transport Strategy (2018 and 2022 update)

• Richmond council - Transport Strategy (2026) or download here

Why it matters

• It sounds bureaucratic but it is important these three discrete levels of government make clear their ambition. It makes co-operating easier.

• Reassuringly, the the three documents broadly align

• The deeper the analysis, the more likely it is that tensions and inconsistencies will surface. Better Connected was only published on Thursday 02 April. Adam Tranter had this quick take

Deep in the Government’s new integrated transport strategy is a truth at odds with the rhetoric: driving a car has gotten cheaper in real terms, and public transport has gotten more expensive.

• Barnes2050 will be looking at what this latest strategy might mean for Hammersmith Bridge.

• Seeing the list above prompted a thought : perhaps Barnes2050 should create a Barnes Transport Strategy?

Transport - Nearly twice as many EV chargers as petrol pumps

An electric fleet of private cars is increasingly likely. The question is how quickly the shift happens.

New figures revealing that the UK now has nearly twice as many public EV chargers as petrol pumps. The Independent reported,

More than 118,000 public charge points are now available nationwide compared with around 60,800 fuel pumps, according to new data released alongside the government-backed Electric Road Trip campaign.

The other striking statistic in the report was less encouraging,

71 per cent of adults surveyed still believe the opposite is true, underlining just how far perception lags behind reality.

What it matters

• The electrification of everyday life is gathering momentum. This week it is more charging points for cars; last week it was policy changes making home retrofits easier.

• Both shifts must still contend with public misunderstanding and a steady fog of misinformation.

• There is a long way to go yet.

Transport - Lessons from Japan

FT Weekend on Saturday 04 April reported on its front page that Japanese police are starting to issue on-the-spot fines of up to £75 to cyclists who break new laws:

Using headphones, riding on the pavement, leaving bikes in parking spots reserved for elderly drivers, holding open parasols while cycling one-handed and carrying “unevenly loaded” bags are among the new offences.

Why it matters

• Anti-social behaviour around cycling is more of an issue in the UK too, especially wiht the the increased number of cyclists and the growth of the dockless e-bikes.

• Japan’s ageing profile is unusually pronounced, but there is often value in watching what happens in more extreme versions of trends that may spread elsewhere.

• In the UK, the challenge may lie less in identifying bad behaviour than in enforcing any new rules. There may be something to learn from Japan here.
  
  

Infrastructure - Boat Race Pedestrian pop-up pilot

Barnes2050 believes there’s potential on Boat Race Day to do so much more. This proposal sets out why and how.

Why it matters

• The Boat Race is one of the biggest social events in Barnes

• At present Barnes adjusts to the influx of visitors, but only slightly.

• There is a chance to do more: not least in ways that could help the area financially and socially
  
  

Landscape - What is a Throwbag?

I first spotted this sign last week.

It is one of nine emergency panels installed along the towpath between the White Hart and Barn Elms. As Richmond councilexplains, the panels house emergency throwline equipment that can be used to help someone in trouble in the water.

Why it matters

• The council has developed a draft Towpath Strategy. Details of the discussion, along with links to the webcast are here. The strategy reflects the importance of the borough’s 17km of riverbank.

• Barnes2050 welcomes the investment in the towpaths. Only when they are consistently excellent, can the bigger ambition be met. Bridged2050 believes we should live on the river not just look at the River Thames.
  
  

Lifestyle - Changing nature of families across London

The map caught my eye.

The report from Centre for London was called, Hollowing out London? Families and neighbourhood change in the capital.

Several aspects of Richmond borough stand out in the report:

• Healthier environments — High streets in affluent areas like Richmond tend to have a more health-promoting retail mix, including cafés, gyms and social clubs, which can support healthier lifestyles and social connection.

• Residential stability — With lower rates of temporary accommodation and out-of-area placements, the borough avoids some of the disruption seen elsewhere. Families in insecure housing often face repeated moves that break links to schools and support networks.

• Reduced budgetary strain — Unlike boroughs with high homelessness rates, Richmond faces less pressure from the soaring cost of temporary accommodation.

Why it matters

• There is another side to this story. The report also points to some harder truths:

  • Polarisation and inequality — It suggests that the concentration of affluent, high-status professionals in places like Richmond risks deepening a more polarised city, with life chances increasingly shaped by postcode.

  • Barriers to entry — Richmond has one of the lowest proportions of social housing in London. That is another sign of how inaccessible affluent areas are becoming for lower-income families.

  • Wider demographic decline — Even though Richmond saw growth in its share of families, its fertility rate remains below the replacement rate of 2.1 children per woman needed to maintain a population without migration. Across London, falling birth rates are already putting long-term pressure on school budgets and maternity services.

• Barnes is a relatively affluent corner of Richmond borough. The report sharpens an uncomfortable worry: that Barnes risks becoming one of London’s larger gated communities in all but name. That would remain true even if Hammersmith Bridge reopened to cars. The real gatekeepers are the sheer number of million-pound homes.

Lifestyle - History of Barnes Bowling Club

Smaller community listings seldom feature here. This is, after all, a journal about the future. But occasionally an upcoming event triggers a reaction.

One example is the ‘History of Barnes Bowling Club’, a FiSH talk on Tuesday 07 April. The speaker is talking about the 300-year evolution of Barnes’ green spaces.

Why it matters

• It reminded me of a conversation with a fellow resident at the BCA Tuesday Local, which I wrote about here. We were discussing time. I explained my interest in imagining Barnes in 2050 and she replied that she found that difficult, ‘Such a long time ahead.’ The remark stayed with me. So muhc so, I have been thinking about a series on how we imagine time.

• Meanwhile, we live in a village that is more than 1,000 years old. And as the FiSH website puts it:

Understanding the historical landscape of Barnes helps frame modern arguments for its preservation.

It’s a reminder that our current ‘green’ assets are the result of centuries of stewardship, not just accidental survival.

Stewardship, not accidental survival. A perfect summary of Barnes2050’s ambition for navigating the next twenty-five years.

There’ll be no new stories published in the coming week. If you’ve been following this journal, you’ll know I take time out on a regular basis to reflect on progress and adjust my plans accordingly. March 2026 marked the end of the first full year of publishing here. There’s a lot to think about. The next update will be on those reflections.

Instead of HGVs, cars and buses, there would be space to promenade: to stroll, pause, meet friends, and perhaps stop at a food or drinks stall set up on the road beside the embankment.

Barnes has no shortage of community events — Christmas lights, the children’s literature festival, the duck race. But two stand apart for scale: the Boat Race and Barnes Fair.

Barnes2050 believes both offer an opportunity for pedestrian pop-ups. This article deals with the first.

At the heart of the idea is a simple question: at the right moments, could this road do something more valuable than serve as a traffic corridor?

Welcome to Barnes2050, a place-based futures project asking, how do we make sure Barnes, the place and its people, are thriving and climate-ready by 2050?

This would be a pilot: exploratory by design. The point is to find out if this feasible in the real world. The logistics, the behaviours, the benefits and the unintended consequences all need to be better understood.

The Barnes Fair version would be different. That would be a trial, because roads around the fair have been closed before. In that case, the basic idea already looks workable; the question becomes how well it works, and at what cost.

This article first sets out the case for the pop-up pilot, then explains how it might work.

The Terrace today

The Terrace is an important part of the Barnes transport network. But it also has the potential to be more than a traffic corridor, particularly one so often used by larger wagons. That is why Barnes2050 has argued for its reclamation for everyone, not only drivers.

This proposal sits within a broader shift in how road space is used. Across London, more space is being sought for people walking, wheeling, cycling and using public transport.

Barnes feels that pressure in a particular way because of its geography. There is little scope to add any more roads or streets on the peninsula. So if the area is to meet changing needs, space has to be used differently.

Roads here have already been closed for special purposes.

Recently Barnes Primary School began a School Street trial.

And the Coronation of King Charles III saw street parties in several parts of the peninsula.

A pedestrian pop-up would build on that history, but apply it too one of Barnes’ biggest recurring public events.

This proposal is part of a wider Manifesto for a better Barnes: a collection of ideas grounded in local insight, climate responsibility and a people-first approach. You’ll find the full list of proposals, along with the thinking behind them, throughout this section.

Case for change

There’s a compelling case for this pilot. It rests on six ideas:

• Pedestrian-first Barnes

• Experiment with purpose, regularly

• Economic benefits

• Belonging in Barnes

• One Barnes

• Bolsters the council’s strategy
  

Pedestrian-first Barnes

Barnes in 2050 should be designed for all people, not only for drivers.

The benefits are multiple. In Pedestrian Pound (2024), Living Streets argues that better walking environments can contribute to happier and healthier people, stronger communities and a more resilient environment.

That broadly fits the direction of both the Mayor of London and Richmond Council: more walking, cycling and public transport, and less dependence on private cars.

A pedestrian-first Barnes means looking again at old habits and inherited assumptions.

It would probably look different from today’s version:

• more shade on pavements

• more places to sit

• more room for pedestrians

• easier movement along the routes people actually want to use

And it would show more respect for moments when people choose to gather together.

The Boat Race in spring and Barnes Fair in summer are two of the biggest such moments. They invite a fair question: how might this part of Barnes become more welcoming when so many people - residents and visitors - are already on foot?

Experiment with purpose, regularly

Closing The Terrace - even for a few hours out of the 8,760 in any year - would be a significant change.

That is exactly why it should be tested.

A temporary pilot turns an abstract argument into something visible. Residents can judge what actually happens, rather than fear what might.

Discussion matters. Modelling matters. Professional judgement matters. But none of them quite matches the value of seeing how people respond under real conditions.

A pilot would help answer practical questions.

How disruptive would the closure be?

How would visitors use the space?

Would local traders benefit?

What would organisers find difficult?

How much time, cost and stewarding would it require?

How would residents away from The Terrace experience the change?

Those are the right questions. A pilot would not answer them perfectly, but it would answer them better than theory alone.

It would also test a larger civic idea: can a road beside a major event create more value, for a limited time, as public space than as a traffic route?

That is the promise of pop-ups. They can reveal hidden demand for walking, meeting, lingering and informal street life — all the things normal traffic conditions suppress.

They also give public bodies and communities permission to learn quickly, adapt visibly and change course if necessary.

A pilot is not policy. It is a way of finding out whether policy might be worth pursuing.

This proposal fits that logic. It is short-term and modest in scale. The aim is not certainty. It is insight — qualitative and quantitative.

Economic benefits

One likely beneficiary of a pedestrian pop-up would be local traders. Not only pubs, cafés and restaurants, but other shops too.

The Boat Race itself offers some of the strongest evidence. An Arup study of the 2017 event estimated that it brought 50,000 additional day visitors to London, with a direct net impact on the local economy of £2.1 million to £2.9 million and a wider net benefit of £2.8 million to £3.7 million. The same report found a simple but important pattern: the longer people stayed, the more they spent.

There is supporting evidence from elsewhere too.

The High Streets Task Force argues that footfall is the most important indicator of high-street vitality and viability, because busy places are more likely to attract confidence and investment over time.

In Winchester, festival research found that 32 per cent of food and drink businesses and 35 per cent of accommodation businesses reported some increase in turnover linked to festivals and events.

In Finsbury Park, research on major events estimated just under £3 million of additional expenditure in nearby businesses, most of it in eating and drinking.

And in a more recent London example, the GLA’s 2025 “This is Oxford Street” event reported a 45 per cent uplift in footfall, while 62 per cent of surveyed West End stores said sales were similar to or higher than on a typical Sunday.

That does not prove the same outcome on The Terrace. Oxford Street is not Barnes. But it does suggest that crowd-friendly street activation can translate into trading benefits.

The Pedestrian Pound (2024), published by Living Streets, is focused mainly on high streets. Even so, its wider point is relevant here: places that make it easier and more attractive for people to spend time often perform better socially and economically.

The report distinguishes between the physical hardware of a place — pavements, crossings, seating — and the social software that gives people a reason to come. Events matter because they can drive footfall, support local trade and strengthen social capital.

It provides several examples of creating an ‘experience economy’ by driving driving huge footfall, boost local trade and encouraging repeat visits.

In Bognor Regis, themed markets and live music events have attracted as many as 20,000 visitors. Similarly, the “Wheels of Nairn” classic car rally in Scotland attracts over 10,000 people annually

Events can dramatically increase consumer spending. In Shrewsbury, events and music helped create an experiential high street where sales growth was 25 percentage points higher than in non-pedestrianized areas. In Swansea, monthly markets attract up to 3,000 people, providing a “massive boost” to nearby permanent cafes and shops

Events have a lasting impact on town reputation. Over 80% of people surveyed at a Nairn BID event stated they would return to the town even when no special event was taking place. In Swansea, 77% of visitors said the market gave them a more positive view of the local area.

Incidentally, Richmond council has also identified the visitor economy as one of the borough’s growth drivers in its 2026 Growth Plan.

None of this means benefits are automatic. A market linked to a major event is likely to increase footfall, dwell time and local spending only if it sits where people already move and linger.

That is the local case for The Terrace. Visitors arriving by bus, train or bike are likely to pass through the High Street, White Hart Lane or The Terrace itself.

Belonging in Barnes

For Barnes residents, The Boat Race is more than dark or light blue. Although, some of the Cambridge teams take up residence in Barnes ahead of the weekend.

It is the thrill of standing among hundreds of other people at a major public event. It is the picnic optimism that sometimes ends with the flotilla wash taking out the blankets and the plastic champagne flutes of first time visitors. It is the cheerful absurdity of it all.

That feeling is familiar to anyone who has ever stood in a crowd at a sporting or cultural event. Individual moments matter. But what lingers is often the shared experience.

Many places would have to invent an event of this scale. Barnes does not. Much of the heavy lifting has already been done. The Boat Race regularly attracts crowds of more than 200,000 along the river.

So the challenge is not promotion. It is hospitality. What could Barnes offer all those people and each other, beyond a glimpse of the crews passing by?

These occasions add a layer of communality to everyday life: bumping into friends on the High Street, swapping stories at the school gates, gossiping on the allotment, then suddenly finding the whole place stitched into a much bigger public moment.

One Barnes

These may be the most challenging two words in this article.

They ask something of everyone in the area. They challenge assumptions about neighbours, habits and needs.

For example, around three in ten households in both Barnes and Mortlake & Barnes Common council ward had no car or van at the last census. They are not car-first.

Of course, ‘One Barnes’ does not mean everyone wants the same thing. Change to the usual pattern of life will bring both expected and unexpected consequences.

That is why the spirit matters. Everyone affected by a pilot like this would need to hold onto the same broad ambition: making Barnes an even better place to live.

That can be hard when a familiar route is closed, a journey takes longer or a crowd blocks the way. But Barnes has been shaped since 1086 by repeated decisions about land, streets and public life. This would be one more such decision, explored rather than imposed.

There is something else here too. Streets that prioritise people offer one increasingly scarce thing: the experience of being somewhere outside with others. Together, in real life.

That matters.

It is one small contribution to a culture that too often narrows our field of vision and weakens trust between strangers.

Bolsters the council’s strategy

Richmond council has agreed to a package of quick, practical upgrades for The Terrace. Their ambition was to make The Terrace

.. more accessible, sustainable, and welcoming public environments.

Similarly after 1,000 residents signed a petition, the council agreed to look into reducing the maximum weight limit for vehicles on The Terrace and the High Street.

The direction is clear enough. Richmond council recognises the importance of this stretch of road and has started to act on it. A pedestrian pop-up would complement those moves.

Detailed proposal

The possible scale of a pedestrian pop-up on The Terrace ranges from small and short to large and long:

• The Terrace from the White Hart or Barnes Bridge to the High Street

• The Terrace from Small Profits Dock on Lonsdale Road

• And the inclusion of the High Street junction with Station road

And the duration could vary too:

• Five hours, around the two main races

• All day

Barnes2050 believes the first pilot should be small and focussed.

If the pop-up had operated in 2026, it would have covered The Terrace from Barnes Bridge to the High Street roundabout and run from noon until 5pm. The women’s race is scheduled for 14:21 and the men’s for 15:21.

All motor traffic would be excluded during that period, including buses, commercial vehicles and private cars. With The Terrace closed, motor access to the peninsula would be concentrated via Rocks Lane and Station Road. Parts of bus routes would need temporary amendment

How to best use the space

As with the closure itself, the use of the space could be scaled.

Options include:

• devoting The Terrace entirely to walking, wheeling and cycling

• hosting a Boat Race fair with stalls

• mixing movement, trading and viewing space

Maybe Channel 4, now the host broadcaster after decades of BBC association, could establish another anchor point for its coverage. At present, the main outside broadcasts are centred on Hammersmith and the finish.

And yes, at the risk of leaning into stereotype, a neat row of prosecco and champagne stalls might not be the worst way to celebrate race day on this stretch of road. Some houses on The Terrace are already halfway there.

Essential research

The point of the closure would be to discover whether it is feasible to close such an important road, and on what terms.

That means research before, during and after.

Useful data would include:

• footfall

• traffic displacement

• air quality

• dwell time

• public sentiment

• business impact

It is important to say this plainly: the pilot might show that the idea does not work.

That would still be useful. Failure, clearly measured, is better than assumption.

If the pilot did work, it could then be upgraded to a fuller trial the following year. At that stage, the benefits and mitigations would need to be much more clearly defined.

Practical considerations

This proposal can only sketch the outline of a pilot. A real scheme would require more detailed work: barriers, planting, signage, stewarding, legal orders, diversion routes and communications.

There would also be many people to consult.

Richmond council, as highway authority, would need to decide the conditions of any closure and re-opening. It may be, for example, that one-way arrangements before or after the key hours would make access easier and crowd dispersal safer.

Local traders should be asked what kind of presence they would want.

Special attention would also have to be paid to e-bike parking.

When restrictions lift at 5pm, the aim should not be to create a vast dockless bike park on The Terrace. This could be a useful test of geo-fencing and parking controls.

Residents likely to be adversely affected would need a proper route into the process. Work on Terrace proposals through the Barnes Community Association travel group has already shown that there are organised and thoughtful residents in the Mansion House blocks south of Barnes Bridge. There are likely to be similar voices elsewhere nearby.

More broadly, this proposal needs to stay honest about who might lose out.

The Twickenham & Richmond Tribune, writing recently about a possible Richmond festival, made the point well:

For residents with flexible schedules, for homeowners whose relationship to the high street is recreational rather than transactional, (such a) transformation can feel like enrichment.

For shift workers reliant on predictable bus routes, for carers navigating crowded pavements, for independent traders beyond the immediate footprint whose margins depend on access rather than ambience, the calculus is different.

A street recast as a playground may be welcoming in principle yet excluding in practice.

That is precisely why this idea should be piloted first.

Through all of this, it is important to remember the prize.

A Boat Race pedestrian pop-up pilot would sit alongside the Barnes Primary School Streets Trial and the pedestrian and cycle access on Hammersmith Bridge as part of growing network of people-first spaces: Barnes Open Streets.

One of Barnes’s most important roads, on one of its biggest days, is exactly the right moment to test a different idea of the future. A people-first view of the future. Not in theory, but in public, in real time, with the whole village able to judge the result for itself.

Updates to this page

This proposal is a work in progress. It will be reviewed and improved on a regular basis.

The article was originally published on 03 April 2026.

It was last updated on 04 April 2026. This new version includes,

• Improved the structure of the argument to make it more compelling

• The addition of several photos from 2026 Boat Race

• Correcting grammatical errors and spelling mistakes

You can find all the current proposals listed here.

The Chanel J12 Boat Race is next Saturday, 04 April 2026. The women’s race starts at 14:21 and the men’s at 15:21.

Welcome to Barnes2050, a place-based futures project asking, how do we make sure Barnes, the place and its people, are thriving and climate-ready by 2050?

This is one of the biggest days of the year in Barnes with thousands of guests swarming along the river bank.

If you can’t, or choose not to, join the crowd, there’s a digital souvenir programme available on the official website. More impressive is the Watch Party Pack.

As well as the colouring in sheets like the one above, there’s bunting and these Cupcake Toppers.

Who knew that was a thing?

Or that we need them?

The instructions say,

You print and cut out each of the flags.

Then fold around a cocktail stick and glue together.

Poke into your Boat Race coloured icing for the perfect race day cupcake.

Enter your email address and you can download the full pack of thirteen images.

Before race day, Bridged2050 will publish its latest manifesto proposal. It explains how we might make the 2027 race celebrations even more memorable in and for Barnes.

That thought prompted a new series, LoveThis!, which has so far celebrated the changes to Barnes Green and the sign outside Nest café. Dominique Afacan, another Barnes resident, struck a similar note on her Substack, Nesting. The full piece sits behind a paywall, but the opening gives you the gist.

Still, however good, some things could be better. And some things will have to change by 2050.

Transport - Councils take different route with e-bikes

Richmond council has decided to stick with a single dockless e-bike provider. Hammersmith & Fulham council has chosen to increase the number of operators from two to four.

That contrast is striking. Two neighbouring boroughs. Two different readings of the same market.

Why this matters

• Bridged2050 remains unconvinced, on the evidence currently available, that Richmond was right to remain with a single provider for this next phase.

• Some councils have gone down the single-provider route. But many others have not. Competition, if well managed, may yet prove the more resilient model.
  
  

Transport - Richmond council’s 2040 strategy says the quiet part out loud

So much attention went to the Forest versus Lime decision that it was easy to miss Richmond council’s new transport strategy.

That is a shame, because this is one of the more important local documents published this year. It tries to explain the borough as it is, and the direction of travel the council wants from here.

A few lines give the flavour:

[Richmond borough] enters 2026 with a transport network that too often feels closer to the last century or earlier than to the demands of a modern London borough.

While infrastructure across the whole borough requires improvement, neighbourhoods such as Ham, Hampton and Heathfield experience structurally lower public transport accessibility and fewer alternatives to private car use.

The council does not control most of the transport system that shapes residents’ daily lives.

This Strategy will result in less private motor traffic.

[Richmond council is committed] to transport infrastructure outcomes that reflect a Borough of fairness, ambition and modern connectivity.

Hammersmith Bridge appears here as a warning about what happens when maintenance is delayed for too long. Heathrow appears too, with support for improved rail access.

Here’s the strategy,

260319 2040 Transport Strategy Lbrut

153KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Why this matters

• This document fulfills the need of political leaders owe to their voters an explanation to explain at least broadly what they want to achieve and why

• It is a navigational aid for Richmond Liberal Democrats and their supporters

• For everyone else including Bridged2050, it usefully frames the local transport debates to come
  
  

Transport - Cutting traffic harm

The Mayor of London has launched an updated Vision Zero action plan aimed at reducing road deaths and serious injuries still further. London has already made substantial progress.

The fuller story is here. Among the measures the Mayor is proposing

• stronger enforcement of 20mph limits

• more School Streets, like the one being trialled at Barnes Primary School

• further expansion of London’s cycle network

• a trial of side-road zebras on main roads

Why this matters

• It is a serious package, and broadly a welcome one.

• One idea in particular stood out: a possible SUV tax. BBC News sets out the argument here. Given that the Mayor does not control most borough parking policy, London Centric speculated that any workable scheme might instead draw on the ULEZ camera network.
  
  

Transport - Lessons from Paris

Emmanuel Grégoire is the new Mayor of Paris, succeeding Anne Hidalgo. The result was a win for the left, certainly. It also looked like an endorsement of the direction in which Hidalgo has taken the city: less space for cars, more for bikes, walking and public life.

As the Financial Times argued last weekend, Paris has demonstrated that reducing car dominance does not mean economic decline:

Banishing cars doesn’t hurt an urban economy.

Retailers often worry it will deter their customers. Studies repeatedly show it doesn’t. More broadly, French Hidalgo-haters need to explain why Paris is in the global top four of business-focused rankings of cities by Oxford Economics, the Mori Memorial Foundation and Kearney.

Hidalgo remains a compelling political figure, as this interview suggests.

Why this matters

• Paris is ahead of London in changing how residents move around. The chart below captures part of that difference.

• Bridged2050 keeps making the same case: political leaders at every level should show more confidence on transport and public space.

• Mayor Grégoire’s victory is not proof that boldness always wins. But it is a reminder that timidity is not the only available strategy. No surprise then, how Mayor Gregoire celebrated.
  
  

Transport - Lessons from Malta? Maybe

BikeIsBest reported

Young drivers in Malta are being offered an eye-watering €25,000 to quit driving, in a bid to cut car traffic on the Mediterranean island. Those under 30 who have held a driving license, and lived in Malta, for a number of years, will receive €5,000 instalments for handing in their license, and for each year they abstain from driving.

Why this matters

• There is always value in watching how others respond when a system is under real strain. Malta’s roads are now among the most congested in the world.

• As we grapple with how we make our lived environment more pleasant and un-gum our traffic, it is worth bearing in mind these fringe events. If sensible change is ducked for too long, stranger remedies eventually start to look reasonable.
  
  

Transport - New Forest is .. nearly full?

It was sobering to read that one of the country’s most beautiful landscapes is feeling overwhelmed. The New Forest appears to be running up against the limits of a visitor transport model still built, overwhelmingly, around the car. Its guardians are working on solutions.

Why this matters

• As with Malta, so with the New Forest: if more walking, cycling, buses and trains do not take hold, tougher forms of access management may follow.

• This is a useful reminder that both green and grey places can become degraded by too much traffic.
  
  

Transport - AV worries

Another subject likely to feature on Bridged2050 in the months ahead is autonomous vehicles (AVs). One recent report raised the prospect that AVs may increase congestion rather than reduce it. At the same time, London’s transport leadership seems decidedly cautious about whether these services will benefit the capital.

Why this matters

• There is still work to do in aligning the approach of the UK Government and the Mayor of London on how these services should operate in practice.

• The Mayor’s position, set out here, looks sensible: innovation, yes, but not at any cost.

While we want London to be the global capital of innovation, enterprise and creativity, this must not be at the expense of jobs and livelihoods, and I am committed to working with industry and unions to ensure this technology is introduced in a way that works for all Londoners.

Transport for London must consent before APS [automated passenger service] permits can be issued in London and this consent would be based on APS permit applications supporting the objectives of my transport strategy.

Infrastructure - Albert Bridge fix is a bargain

Kensington and Chelsea council has confirmed that Albert Bridge could close for up to a year while it completes an £8.5 million repair project.

This from BBC’s Tom Edwards summarises the latest on Thames’ bridges.

Why this matters

• Bridged2050 believes having two west London bridges closed to traffic makes it more difficult politically for the UK government to do nothing.

• The Standard’s reporting did raise one smile. If the £8.5m cost of fixing Albert Bridge is ‘whopping’, wait till they see the cost of restoring Hammersmith Bridge.
  
  

Hammersmith Bridge - Money, money, money

An intriguing sub-plot from the ever excellent Putney News.

Department for Transport (DfT) documents, released after a Freedom of Information request and published here and here, suggest that Wandsworth council declined to contribute to repair costs just three days after a public rally calling for action.

Why this matters

• Bridged2050 has long baulked at the secrecy surrounding the Hammersmith Bridge Task Force (HBTF). It is hard to see what public interest was served by keeping these notes private.

• It was also good to see Councillor Gareth Roberts, leader of Richmond council, make the active-travel case plainly:

Biggest win for Richmond residents use of active travel. Designing in car based approach would be retrograde.

• There was, again, disagreement over the effect of the closure on local traffic. That is why a shared data set was promised. While HBTF has yet to produce it, evidence from Transport for London, DfT and Wandsworth council has emerged in the meantime. It has not, however, shifted the position of Fleur Anderson MP (Labour, Putney).

• The importance of the Spending Review also became clearer. Without a firm commitment

.. the Bridge would be outside of the decision making process for a few more years

There was no dedicated Hammersmith Bridge commitment in the 2025 Spending Review.

• Wandsworth council’s reluctance to contribute makes sense in one narrow respect: it does not own the bridge. Beyond that, though, Hammersmith Bridge remains what it has often been for surrounding authorities — important, but not quite important enough. On Double Demo Day, Bridged2050 found a similar mood in Putney and Roehampton. Asked how they would spend £250 million to reduce congestion in their area, none chose restoring Hammersmith Bridge.
  
  

Economy - Richmond council wants 5,500 new homes by 2036

That is one of the ambitions of the new Growth Plan. Others include a 20% increase in jobs, support for 1,500 new businesses, and action to raise incomes, particularly for lower-paid residents.

The plan identifies the need for delivering sustainable housing while protecting the borough’s green character.

Why this matters

• Every part of Richmond borough will be affected differently by this Plan. Barnes has about 6,700 homes and has done for years. This is one of the defining characteristics of the area. Short of building several large twenty first century mansion blocks, Barnes will add only a small number of properties

• Other parts of the plan may be more consequential. More from Bridged2050 to follow.
  
  

Housing - Smarter Homes

Richmond council also launched its impressive Smarter Homes initiative, designed to make our homes more comfortable, ealthier, greener, and cheaper to run.

Timely then the Mayor is drafting London’s Heat Risk Delivery Plan in an effort to cool the city. The London Assembly heard,

Londoners face a unique overheating risk in their own homes due to climate change affecting a densely built environment and an outdated planning and design system.

Also related, Ed Milliband, UK government’s Energy Secretary has set out plans to make rooftop and balcony solar easier to install. These are common in parts of Europe. The expectation is major retailers will be stocking them soon.

Why this matters

• Domestic buildings are responsible for 46% of Richmond’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Retrofitting that stock will take years, perhaps decades, even in relatively affluent Barnes. These actions by local and central governament are essential.

• Meanwhile, as Met Office forecasts for this borough suggest, much hotter summer days are likely ahead. Homes are no longer just a housing issue. They are a climate adaptation issue too.
  
  

Lifestyle - waste and recycling

What we can put in our bins about to change, though not by much.

The annual Big Plastic Count was chastening. Just 32 items of hard plastic went into the bin during the week under review. That sounded almost respectable. Then came the online estimate: if every UK household did the same, the result would be 61 billion plastic items a year.

Bridged2050 tracked the lifecycle of a cigarette butt.

What it matters, in order

• Good

• Gulp

• Grim
  
  

Finally - the Boat Race

Here’s a useful summary of events on and around the river next Saturday, from Putney Bridge and Mortlake.

Why it matters

• The Boat Race is one of Barnes’ two great annual community events. The other is the Barnes Fair

• Bridged2050 believes we could do more - so much more - to welcome the visitors to our fabulous peninsula. More later this week.

For months Community BlueScapes has been reshaping this stretch of the brook as part of a wider effort to improve flood resilience across the Beverley Brook catchment, including Barnes.

As Community BlueScapes explains,

There is a high flood risk to this area caused by a combination of heavy rainfall from storms, and high tide levels in the River Thames, meaning water in the Beverley Brook cannot be released into the River Thames during these conditions.

It’s important that we increase the water capacity in the Brook and near it to cope with this extra rainfall, so it does not overflow to nearby homes.

Barnes boasts an unusually rich blue and green landscape - the Wetland Centre, the Thames and the Common. In a warming, wetter and less predictable climate, these places will matter more. They are not just pleasant scenery. They are part of how the area protects itself as our climate changes.

For Barnes Green this meant the river being

.. carefully redirected into the Green, the creation of a fully accessible island linked by a new bridge, and the addition of a dog beach with stepped access down to the brook to help reduce erosion.

The riverbank has also been enhanced with pre-planted coir rolls to support habitat creation and long-term bank stability.

The new channel will serve as the primary low-flow route, while the existing channel will be retained as a secondary overflow channel during high-flow events.

In the event there is a serious flooding incident, Barnes Green can act as a flood plain for the Brook and recover more quickly.

What had been a rather ordinary patch of managed green space now looks more like living infrastructure. The area is a reminder that climate adaptation does not have to look grim or defensive. Sometimes it can make a place look better, feel calmer and work harder all at once.

Notes & thoughts

Barnes2050 has argued that heat deserves as much attention as flooding.

Heat kills people, water destroy property.

This is not an either/or, we need both.

A climate-ready Barnes will need to prepare for both.

That is why Barnes2050 welcomes the work of Community BlueScapes. It shows what can happen when technical know-how, public purpose and care for place come together in one local project.

The next challenge is to bring the same ambition to hotter days and warmer nights: more shade, more trees, cooler walking routes, better buildings and public spaces designed for summer as well as winter.

The green bikes and their chirpy jingles look set to disappear from the streets of Barnes, at least for the next three years.

Forest has been selected as the preferred sole e-bike operator for Richmond council, subject to final contract negotiations.

At its March meeting, the council’s Transport and Air Quality Committee chose Forest over Lime. The council says the new contract offers

• Better service to users

• Reduction in anti-social parking

• VFM for council tax payers

The difference between the two bids was small. They scored similarly on quality but the Forest made the more compelling financial offer.

Recognising the significance of the decision, Councillor Alexander Ehmann took to social media to explain the decision.

Richmond is not alone in taking a firmer line with dockless bike operators.

As MyLondon reported, several London boroughs have recently pushed for tighter control over how these schemes are run.

• Hounslow Council ended its partnership with Lime after selecting Forest and Voi as its preferred providers.

• Brent Council pressed Lime hard on poor parking and abandoned bikes, before agreeing improved arrangements.

• Islington Council has also warned operators about the management of badly parked bikes.

The mood has shifted. Boroughs still want shared e-bikes. What they no longer want is disorder packaged as innovation.

What changes in Richmond

Lime has been the borough’s sole provider since Richmond council entered into a contract with the company in 2021. Last year there were more than 1.5 million e-bike trips in the borough, up by around 50 per cent on the year before.

Under the proposed new arrangement, the contractual fleet size would rise from 500 to 1,500 bikes. The real number visible on the streets may at times be higher or lower, depending on how many bikes are ridden into or out of the borough from neighbouring areas.

The number of parking bays is also due to increase sharply, from 65 to at least 150, in an attempt to reduce the number of bikes left blocking pavements.

The accompanying map of service areas also weakened one of the objections raised during the debate: that Forest would struggle to provide continuity into neighbouring boroughs. On paper, at least, the cross-border picture looked more credible than critics suggested.

Another point emerged clearly from the committee papers: the two bidders were close on quality. Price, therefore, mattered.

Public feedback also pointed in one direction. Residents wanted better day-to-day management, especially on anti-social parking.

Forest is a British company. Council officers were careful to say that this had no bearing on the decision. Even so, it is a detail some residents will notice.

If the contract is agreed, Lime will cease to operate formally in the borough. Given how many journeys start or finish locally, that would amount to a significant change in what Barnes riders actually see and use.

All of that, for now, remains subject to negotiation.

Lime pushes back

Lime was never going to take this quietly and said,

Almost all London boroughs are moving toward systems with at least two operators, giving residents a choice of shared e-bike services. That makes this decision to limit choice all the more disappointing, and hundreds of Richmond Lime riders have already written to us expressing their concern.

Ross Lydall reported on the backlash in the Evening Standard.

Meanwhile, Lime keeps pedalling

Whatever happens in Richmond, Lime remains the dominant shared e-bike brand in London and is continuing to invest.

This week it announced that around 1,500 new, smaller hire bikes will be introduced across the capital. Early reactions from reviewers suggest the redesign is more than cosmetic.

• Noora Mykkanen, Metro: “I noticed that they’ve fixed the sudden jolt that cyclists feel when you set off, making it smoother and easier to manoeuvre.”

• Ross Lydall of The Standard interviewed the Lime team: “The new bike has smaller (and wider) 20in wheels, a lower frame – making it easier for smaller riders to “step through” – and is much easier to handle, due to the battery being relocated to behind the seat post.”

Lime has also announced a new subscription model, LimePrime. The £6.99 monthly plan offers a flat rate of £1.70 for rides of up to 20 minutes, plus 30-minute vehicle reservations.

Notes & thoughts

Barnes2050’s first instinct was much the same as everyone else’s: replacing Lime seemed an odd call.

But after reading the papers and watching the debate, the decision looks more understandable than it first did. It fits with the long term thinking. It’s not possible to say the same for the short term.

Long term perspective

E-bikes are critical to transforming how we move around London. Reducing the volume of private cars—thereby freeing up the roads for emergency services, buses and commercial vehicles—becomes a reality only if more people choose to walk, cycle, or use public transport.

The ‘e-bike generation’ is making this shift possible, with the potential have a profound impact on the vehicle mix well before 2050. We are seeing a significant demographic shift: every year, a new cohort of teenagers discovers the joy of e-biking just as older generations begin to phase out of driving. Even if only some of these young cyclists skip the transition to car ownership entirely, it will represent a permanent and significant drop-off in the number of new drivers on London’s streets.

For the long term, the needs are plain enough:

• keep ridership rising,

• improve parking discipline by operator and rider alike

• and preserve enough competition across the market to prevent any one operator from establishing an unhealthy monopoly.

Richmond council’s decision is designed to deliver these.

Short term assessment

The contract is more difficult to assess for the short term.

The discussion was reduced to a choice between two operators - Lime versus Forest. Richmond council explained there were three selection criteria and Forest scored more highly.

There’s much less detail about the equally important choice of one or more operators.

Richmond council argued a two‑operator model could lead to,

• ‘double clustering’ of bikes at busy locations

• confusion for riders over who to complain to when issues arise

Whereas a single operator, they said, would,

• offer better parking management

• clearer accountability for who is responsible for the scheme

• make it easier to monitor usage and performance

• provide a unified, larger-fleet service for residents and neighbours

• and make it more likely Richmond is seen as as a ‘flagship borough’, helping drive up service quality

These judgments are always about the net benefits. Yet Richmond council did not make that argument. Instead, the issues and zero benefits with a two-operator model affect the riders. The benefits and zero issues with the single operator are felt by the council.

Does that sound credible? Zero benefits? Zero issues?

The second issue is the size of the fleet. Richmond council implied this assessment was the same regardless of the number of bikes. Is that true?

If the fleet grows in the next three years as it has in the last three, there could be 3,000 bikes in the borough. Does Richmond council’s analysis still apply at that level? If not, at what point does the two-operator model become viable?

So the decision to start negotiations with Forest makes sense for the long term but we have insufficient information to say the same for the short term.

This might be the last time Richmond council have completed control of this process.

A new era of regulation

Under devolution legislation currently before Parliament, the Mayor of London is likely to gain new powers to regulate shared micro-mobility - e-bikes and e-scooters. Not ownership. Not direct control of every contract. But something more consequential: the ability to shape the system itself. In pactiuce that would allow Transport for London, working with the boroughs to:

• license operators across London

• cap fleet sizes

• require designated parking

• set safety and data standards

By the time the new Forest contract ends, this new regime will be defining the standards.

An interesting new partner

My most recent exposure to Forest came via this episode of the Calling All Stations podcast,

You get a similar impression from reading the company’s own material. The tone is different from Lime. Less scale-first, more civic-fit. That does not make it better. But it does help explain some of the comments during the council debate.

One other thing

Barnes2050 believes one of the principles that should shape a future Barnes is ‘embrace the Lime bike generation’.

Scratch that.

Embrace the e-bike generation.

One of Barnes’s most beautiful stretches is still treated mainly as a traffic corridor. It should become a calmer, greener and more generous link between the best parts of the village.

Barnes2050 has been interested in improving The Terrace since this blog began. That interest started with my experience as a cyclist. I think it the most unpleasant stretch of road for cyclists in Barnes. I receive more abuse there, and more close passes, than on any other local road.

But cyclists are not the main focus of these proposals. This is chiefly about the pedestrian experience.

Welcome to Barnes2050, a place-based futures project asking, how do we make sure Barnes, the place and its people, are thriving and climate-ready by 2050?

Of all the key streets that thread through this corner of southwest London, The Terrace offers the greatest potential for change. It is more than a road to drive through as quickly as possible. It should be the missing link that connects the best of Barnes for anyone walking the area.

I tried to bring this to life by imagining a walk from Thames to Thames. If you have not already done so, I suggest starting there.

What follows is a set of proposed changes. Some would be easy to deliver. Others would take more time, money and political will. Together, though, they add up to a different way of thinking about this beautiful stretch of riverside.

Richmond council has begun to recognise the importance of The Terrace.

In November 2025, it approved a project the improve the walkability of this area with 10 short term changes and the possibility of three more in the medium term. Many of those ideas overlap with the list below.

Then in March 2026, they responded positively to a petition from the Barnes Community Association asking for heavy goods vehicles to be banned from Barnes High Street and The Terrace.

This proposal is part of a wider Manifesto for a better Barnes: a collection of ideas grounded in local insight, climate responsibility and a people-first approach. You’ll find the full list of proposals, along with the thinking behind them, throughout this section.

Why change the Terrace?

Encouraging walking

Let’s start with the most important. Richmond council’s long term goal ong-term goal is to increase the share of sustainable travel — walking, cycling and public transport — from 61 per cent to 75 per cent by 2041. Progress is slow.

In Barnes2050’s view, walking is the single most important form of transport for our future.

There are always chances to make small improvements to the pedestrian experience. Big opportunities to encourage more walking are much rarer. Barnes already has one in the new Hammersmith Bridge, serving only pedestrians and cyclists. The Terrace could be another.

Changes here would mainly benefit local residents. Transport for London’s profile of walkers across London is probably not far off what happens in Barnes. Renewing The Terrace would serve those everyday needs locally, making it easier for more people to enjoy leisure, local shops and the riverside on foot.

Climate change

Given Richmond council’s own forecast for the changing climate, this is a chance to make an important part of Barnes more climate-ready. By reducing traffic volumes and changing the traffic mix, greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants could probably be reduced too.

The river should also be easier to access, offering cooling relief in hot weather.

Barnes has an older age profile than London, with a relatively high share of residents over 45. Older people are more vulnerable to higher temperatures and should not be left isolated in their homes as heat becomes more common.

Ugliest main road in Barnes, visually and experientially

Walk north from The Watermans Arms and the contrast is extraordinary. On your right is one of the grandest rivers in the country; on your left, some of the loveliest houses in London. Straight ahead is a tribute to 20th-century municipal road design: concrete, rusting iron and a general air of neglect.

The clutter does not help. Signs, poles and bits of roadside apparatus have accumulated over the years, attaching themselves to walls and posts like barnacles. Much of it is ugly. Some of it is barely useful.

Removing hostile environment for pedestrians

The riverside path between Barnes Bridge and the White Hart has no lighting from dusk.

At the White Hart, the off-ramp from the riverside path drops you on to a sliver of pavement beside traffic that is often accelerating away.

And then there is the crossing. The layout encourages confusion. Someone coming up from the river and wanting to get to Orange Pekoe or The Crossing could reasonably assume that the dropped kerb marks a crossing point. Drivers plainly do not see it that way. In practice, the layout nudges pedestrians towards the zebra crossing by Rick Stein’s and then back again. That is awkward at best and unsafe at worst.

Reducing hostility to cyclists

I receive more abuse, and endure more close passes, on The Terrace than on any other road in Barnes.

Heading north from the White Hart, drivers often accelerate to overtake a cyclist and then have to pull back in sharply because of the bridge or oncoming traffic.

Heading south from The Watermans Arms, there is a different pattern: relief at having cleared the High Street, a quick burst of speed, a bus stopping, a cyclist filtering through, and then the commentary from frustrated drivers through open windows.

To be clear, I ride on The Terrace because I do not think cyclists should yield the road to motor traffic. And when I feel threatened, I will sometimes ride in the middle of the lane.

Reducing traffic volume

Traffic feels much heavier than it did a few months ago. Barnes2050 has not yet found public data sufficiently granular to prove this.

This issue is not confined to The Terrace itself. It is also about what happens further south — at Chalkers Corner, Sheen Lane and White Hart Lane. Drivers keep choosing left and ending up on The Terrace, with the great majority then turning right into Barnes High Street.

Changing the traffic mix

• Barnes2050 has logged traffic using The Terrace several times, most recently in March 2026.

• The pattern has been strikingly consistent

  • 18-tonnes heavy goods lorries (HGV) are common: never less than five in any daytime hour

  • 7.5-tonnes to 18-tonnes lorries are as common

  • Visitor or tourists coaches - in other words not school-related coaches - appear regularly throughout the afternoon

  • Most of these larger vehicles appear to be through-traffic

    • on two occasions it was possible to talk to the drivers as they queued

    • occasionally it is possible to trace the likely origin of a vehicle through its livery.

  • majority of cars have only driver
    
    

Making (walking) Barnes great again

Correcting the balance between cars and pedestrians on The Terrace would strengthen the improvements already made elsewhere in Barnes. A reclaimed Terrace would become the thread connecting some of the best bits of communal Barnes:

• Wetland Centre

• Church Road

• Barnes Green

• High Street

• The Terrace

• (The View)

• Footbridge

• White Hart Lane

Proposals for improvements

There’s a great deal that could be done here:

1. Wider footpaths

2. More trees for shade

3. More shaded benches for resting

4. A richer visual and tactile experiences for pedestrians

5. New lighting for the riverside path

6. Improved tunnel lighting

7. A zebra crossing between Orange Pekoe and the White Hart

8. A ban on heavy vehicles, backed by proper enforcement

9. Traffic calming along The Terrace

10. More e-bike storage

11. Measures to encourage cyclists to use the road rather than the Thames Path

12. Decluttering of road signs

13. Better waste management

Wider paths

The wider the path, the better. Proper promenading needs room.

From The Watermans Arms to the bridge, Barnes could learn something from Fulham Football Club’s approach at Craven Cottage.

There, public access has been expanded by building out into the river channel on piles, while leaving the river wall itself in place.

With the river wall, it was important to maintain the actual hydrology of the river, you can’t go around changing river walls because you never know if you’re going to have a knock-on implication further downstream. So the riverside deck is actually suspended out over the river on piles, but the river wall itself is not in a different location.

That exact solution may not be right here. But the principle is useful: respect the river, while making far more of it for people.

There could be another small viewing platform over the water, similar to the one at the end of High street

Or the path could be widened over the spare ledge that already runs along the edge of the road. It varies from about four feet to two feet wide. Narrowing the carriageway slightly would also help calm traffic.

From the bridge to the White Hart, the restored paths are a big improvement on the mud that came before. But they were essentially like-for-like replacements. Even an extra foot of width would make a huge difference.

More trees for shade

Water damages property. Heat kills people. Every major walking route should offer proper shade.

The trees between the White Hart and the bridge, where they exist, are welcome. There should be more of them, and they should be chosen with shade in mind.

The harder question is what can be done, even in sections, between The Watermans Arms and the bridge. But that question is worth asking.

More shaded benches for resting

The plain benches by bus stops across Barnes are popular. Spend an hour near one and you can see the evidence for yourself.

At present there is one bench near the High Street junction and then three more between the bridge and the White Hart.

There should be more, ideally every 50 to 75 metres, and they should be more inviting, with natural shade in summer where possible.

And they need maintenance. This cannot be a one and gone change.

A better visual and tactile experience

This should be a statement project for Barnes.

A mile upstream, the Stag Development will create a new neighbourhood with a clear riverside expression based on medium-rise housing. Renewing The Terrace offers Barnes a chance to make a similarly strong public-realm move — but one that feels true to Barnes rather than imported from somewhere else.

The public elements along this stretch should relate to one another aesthetically:

• a renewed Terrace

• The View at Barnes Bridge

• Dukes Meadow Footbridge

Allowing for procurement and tendering, Moxon Architects may be well placed to help shape that language. They designed the footbridge and also contributed to The View.

Extend the path’s usefulness with lighting

The built environment gives the game away. The road for cars has lighting. Even worse, some of it is on the riverside. The path for people has none.

The aim should be simple: extend the sense of safety, and therefore the usefulness of the path, by another two or three hours each day, through to dusk.

That does not mean planting a line of bulky lamp-posts.

What is needed is a discreet, Barnes-sensitive solution — perhaps something closer to floor lighting, activated by low light and powered by solar energy.

Bridge tunnel lighting

Cars do not need lighting here. Pedestrians do.

The Barnes Community Association mural is an improvement on what went before. But we could do more.

In Berlin and Paris last year, I was struck by the way artful lighting can lift dark tunnel spaces. Not harsh white strip lighting, but subtle colour and rhythm: enough to create a waypoint, improve confidence and turn a gloomy spot into something briefly memorable.

A new zebra crossing between Orange Pekoe and White Hart

The current pavement design is poor. It invites pedestrians to assume that traffic will stop.

A new zebra crossing here would make an established walking route safer. It would also work as a traffic-calming measure.

There is more on that idea here.

Managing traffic volume

Trying to understand and manage traffic without enough data is close to impossible.

There are three places where volume could be influenced for northbound traffic:

• before the White Hart, where The Terrace begins

• on The Terrace itself

• at the northern end, by The Watermans Arms

The priority should be to shape traffic before it reaches the White Hart. Add to that more traffic calming on The Terrace and the High Street, and the character of the road could change significantly.

Reduce vehicle weight limit on The Terrace

The weight limit for The Terrace and Barnes High Street should be reduced to 7.5 tonnes.

There would, clearly, need to be local exemptions.

And any new rule would need proper enforcement.

As of November 2025, Barnes Community Association are campaigning for this.

Traffic calming between the White Hart and The Watermans Arms

We need fewer vehicles on The Terrace, and all of them moving more slowly.

That means introducing more calming measures along the full length of the road, so that traffic remains slower even on a quiet day.

Building out the pavement north of the bridge would help to cramp the road slightly.

“Bike the crest, not the gutter” should be the message. Cyclists should feel entitled to ride in the middle of the lane on The Terrace when conditions require it. That is legal. It would also tend to hold speeds down. Legal e-bikes stop providing power at 15.5mph.

Road surfaces could also be changed at obvious acceleration points, especially after the White Hart and after the bridge.

Change the priority at the zebra crossing by the bridge

At present, if you press the button by the bridge, you wait. Then you wait some more.

The balance should change. Pedestrians matter more here.

In future, pressing the button should trigger a much quicker sequence to amber and then red. That would help walkers and calm traffic at the same time.

Shared e-bike storage

If the council’s current review of shared e-bike licences results in more bikes, there will need to be better parking provision. The Terrace would be a sensible place for some of it.

At least one on-street parking space should be reclaimed.

And the dead space north of the bridge should be examined properly.



Encourage cyclists to use the road, not the Thames Path

There should be clearer signage and a more obvious route from before the White Hart on to the main carriageway.

A new zebra crossing here would also mean slower-moving traffic at the point where cyclists leave the path environment.

Then there should be an easier way to rejoin the path after The Watermans Arms.

Declutter road signs

Some signs are required, often for legal reasons. But not all clutter is equal, and some of it can certainly go.

A proper audit should ask a simple question: which of these signs are genuinely necessary?

The same goes for smaller clutter. Consider the pole by the coffee shop, carrying a sign not much bigger than a mobile phone to indicate the 18-tonne rule. It is hard to imagine anyone noticing it in time.

Pedestrian pop-up trial

Barnes has several major public events each year — Barnes Fair, the Boat Race and the Barnes Children’s Literature Festival. Bridged2050 believes more could be done to support them.

The Terrace should be closed on the afternoon of the Boat Race and given over to food, activity and entertainment.

That would be a significant change. Which is precisely why it should first be tried as a trial rather than treated as a settled idea from day one.

Empty public bins more often

More people means more rubbish.

That is not a philosophical insight. It is simply a practical one.

Practical considerations

Some changes are already under way. Richmond council’s decision in November 2025 to improve walkability addresses several of the ideas above. If the council also decides to restrict heavy goods vehicles, and enforces that properly, it would be another step towards reclaiming The Terrace.

But Barnes should aim higher than that.

If The Terrace is left as it is, it is hard to imagine Barnes becoming the climate-ready place it needs to be by 2050. Reclaim it though, and this awkward traffic corridor could become one of the village’s great connecting spaces.

Updates to this page

This proposal is a work in progress.

It will be reviewed and improved on a regular basis.

The article was originally published on 04 July 2025.

It was last updated on 17 March 2026. This new version includes,

• Improved the structure of the argument to make it more compelling

• Simplified and numbered the proposals

• Updated with the latest news of relevant LBRT initiatives

• Removed some eccentric elements such as ideas rejected

• Brought the article into line with Barnes2050 house-style

You can find all the current proposals listed here.

For years the gutters were full of cigarette butts. Then for nearly two years, vape cartrdiges seemed to take over. Now, the cigarette butts are back.

The labels ‘butt’, ‘end’ and ‘stub’ are all used, though ‘butt’ is the common term in much environmental writing.

There are so many of them and they are fiddly to collect. Out litter-picking this week, I realised I could no longer properly remember why they were so bad.

The answer, it turns out, is bleak. This tiny pellet of litter leaves a toxic legacy long after the cigarette has gone out.

Welcome to Barnes2050, a place-based futures project asking, how do we make sure Barnes, the place and its people, are thriving and climate-ready by 2050?

Notes & Thoughts

This ‘environmental plague’ starts with the flick

The butts are built to travel.

The scale of the damage is startling. A single butt may contaminate up to a thousand litres of water. As the filter breaks down over many years, it can release microplastics into the wider environment.

In my litter patch, builders often means butts - cigarette butts. Since the start of 2026, four teams working on homes in Westfields Avenue, which sits within my patch. Most of the butts I am collecting are outside those properties.

Maybe I should speak to the homeowner? Ask him or her to make some provision for the worker. A simple butt bin is better the gutter.

UK government guidance is that cigarette butts should go into general waste, not onto the street or down drains. In west London, that waste will generally go to energy-from-waste incineration, which greatly reduces the risk of chemicals leaching into drains, soil and waterways.

Cigarette butts are a simple manifestatio of me versus we, one of my generation’s defining challenges. At the end of a cigarette, a smoker faces a small but consequential choice: secure it in the general waste, or start a chain of pollution that can affect far more people and wildlife than the person who discarded it.

Production note on use of Ai

Barnes2050 has used Ai for a year to do three things

• research a topic

• acting as editor, advising on sentence flow, word choice and overall style

• and generating addition content such as this Ai podcast

This article adds another two outputs types - Ai infographic and Ai slide deck. Both are produced by NotebookLM’s studio.

Barnes2050 does not possess its own editorial guidelines around the use of generative Ai. Until it does, The Guardian’s explanation of its approach has been useful.

For this article, the original idea was mine. It came while I was standing in a nearby road with my litter-picking kit, looking at what I had collected.

I drafted an article.

I used ChatGPT to flesh out this story.

I check the key facts with Google.

I completed a draft then asked ChatGPT to fact-check and suggest stylistic improvements

Once that was done, I put the draft into NotebookLM as an anchor source. I looked for others and selected another dozen.

I then used the chat window to query that newly created database. I refined the answers through further questions and saved the results as notes in NotebookLM.

I moved those notes into the Source window, deselected the rest, then returned to Studio and asked AI to generate an infographic.

This need some minor tweaks. That involved refining Notes, going through the cycle again and reviewing the output.

Once that was complete, I asked Studio to generate a slide deck. I assumed — correctly, as it turned out — that if I could remove the rough edges and inaccuracies from a single-page infographic, I could also reduce the errors in a longer slide deck.

The slide deck, including the images used in this story, took another six cycles.

output is very good — well beyond what I would be capable of creating on my own. But the extent of my control and engagement means this is AI-enabled rather than AI-authored content.

You can find all the illustrations in this slide deck, which you are welcome to download and share.

260208 Toxic Legacy Of Cigarette Stubs

16.7MB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

At present, vehicles of up to 18 tonnes are allowed in certain circumstances. In practice, that rule appears to be ignored far too often.

The issue came before the council’s Transport and Air Quality Committee during discussion of a petition from Barnes Community Association, which calls for the weight limit to be lowered to 7.5 tonnes.

Welcome to Barnes2050, a place-based futures project asking, how do we make sure Barnes, the place and its people, are thriving and climate-ready by 2050?

At the end of the discussion on Monday 16 March, Councillor Alexander Ehmann, chair of the committee, said the council was already working on the issue.

He said that followed representations from local councillors, as well as the recent audit that led to the pedestrian initiative, which had also flagged concerns about HGVs.

Councillor Ehmann said officers had already developed some options, with further work still to come. He said he hoped these could be shared with councillors, ‘partners and others’ by the end of May.

After that, and subject to feedback, he said he hoped the council would consult the community following the May elections.

You can see the whole discussion here,

Notes & thoughts

This is encouraging. Bridged2050 believes The Terrace is the most under-appreciated road in Barnes relative to its potential.

It suggests the argument about heavy through-traffic in Barnes is no longer sitting only with campaigners and residents. It is now being taken seriously inside the council too.

Two further thoughts stand out.

First, timing matters. The May elections could, in theory, produce a different controlling party. That does look improbable, given that the Liberal Democrats currently hold 49 of the council’s 54 seats, with the remaining five held by the .

Second, enforcement will be crucial. Councillor Ehmann briefly acknowledged that point in his comments. He was right to do so. Any proposal announced in May will need to say not just what the new rule is, but how it would actually be enforced.

Because without that, Barnes risks ending up with another restriction that looks firm on a road sign and feels optional on the street.

Instead, earlier this week, a traffic count lasting less than two hours recorded a dozen 18-tonne lorries using this stretch of road. This may have been the thirteenth but the make and model eluded the traffic spotter.

Unless these vehicles were making deliveries, they appeared to be at odds with the restriction shown on this sign near the White Hart.

Welcome to Barnes2050, a place-based futures project asking, how do we make sure Barnes, the place and its people, are thriving and climate-ready by 2050?

The traffic count was carried out on behalf of the Barnes Community Association (BCA) Travel Barnes group ahead of Monday’s meeting of Richmond council’s Transport and Air Quiality committee.

The committee is due to discuss the BCA’s petition for a 7.5-tonne weight limit on both The Terrace and Barnes High Street. Supporters argue that this would bring the route more closely into line with similarly sensitive roads elsewhere in the borough, including central Richmond, Kew Village, Sion Road in Twickenham, Teddington and Petersham.

That would be a meaningful change.

The current 18-tonne limit permits a much broader range of large goods vehicles to use the route. During the same count, at least six other wagons were identified that appeared to fall between 7.5-tonnes and 18-tonnes.

The issue has a longer history. An HGV ban introduced in the 1980s helped reduce heavy traffic, but the weight limit was later raised to 18-tonnes. The result is that sizeable multi-axle vehicles can now lawfully use a road that feels, and should feel, far more like part of riverside Barnes than a freight corridor.

The proposal has the backing of the two Liberal Democrat councillors for Mortlake and Barnes Common ward. Tony Paterson and Anton McNulty-Howard have supported a 7.5-tonne limit, excluding buses, arguing in their newsletter that it would improve safety, protect heritage buildings and reduce pollution.

Notes & thoughts

The Terrace is the most undervalued road on the peninsula relative to its potential. It could be spectacular.

As long as 18-tonne lorries can use the riverside, Barnes continues to offer a through-route for heavy goods vehicles that reaches beyond The Terrace and into Barnes High Street, Station Road and Mill Hill Road. That may suit the transport network. It does not suit the place.

Bridged2050 has argued before that The Terrace should be reclaimed for the people who live here. This petition is not the whole answer, but it is a serious and sensible step in that direction.

One other thing.

Councillors on Monday should remember the petition make two requests: a lower weight limit, and proper enforcement.

The Liberal Democrat majority occasionally prefer a ‘better angels’ approach to enforcement. That didn’t work for the 18-tonne limit, why would it work for 7.5-tonne?

That matters for all sorts of reasons: comfort, health, energy bills and carbon emissions. It matters, too, because the borough cannot reach Net Zero by 2043 without tackling the way we heat and power the places we live.

The council’s analysis says:

In 2024, domestic buildings were responsible for 45.5% of the borough’s carbon emissions making housing the single largest source of greenhouse gases locally.

The council appears to be responding in two ways. It is trying to prepare itself for future rounds of UK government funding, while also making it simpler for residents to understand what retrofit means in practice and where to begin.

A key part of that second effort is the Smarter Homes initiative, launched on Tuesday 10 March in Richmond. It is designed to be

.. your trusted resource for making retrofit improvements to your home that can add value, enhance comfort and reduce energy costs.

There is now both an online hub anda booklet.

This Hub guides you through the steps to creating a smarter, healthier home. You will find information about the latest technologies and best practice guidance - tailored for residents living in Richmond upon Thames.

Practical help, not vague encouragement

The most striking thing about the handbook is that it is practical.

It walks through insulation, heating and cooling systems, solar power and the fabric of the building itself. It tries to turn a hazy ambition — I should probably do something about my home — into a sequence of choices.

One example of that care is the online tool showing how retrofit options vary across different types of homes. That may sound like a small point, but it matters. A Victorian terrace is not a 1930s semi. A flat is not a detached house. The path will differ because the building differs.

Two things stood out to me.

The first was that, as good as the experts were at the launch, the case studies were better. People explained what they had changed, why they had done it and what difference it made. That gives the whole exercise a degree of realism that official guidance often lacks.

This was the story behind future-proofing a 1920s home,

You can read the case studies here. One family home, for example, was updated like this,

Richmond council - Family home retrofit case study

279KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

(I did have one gripe with the seventh Richmond council Sustainability Forum. The resident stories were compelling. Why hide them behind a Microsoft365 login? I am not the only Richmond resident without one.)

The second thing that stood out was the table on costs. Retrofitting can sound sensible in theory and forbidding in practice. The numbers help close that gap. Some are still substantial, of course. When I upgraded the halogen lights to LEDs in my home, the bill was not trivial. But the handbook is also clear that there is financial support available, along with free expert advice. That makes this feel less like a worthy aspiration and more like something a household could actually begin.

Notes & thoughts

Retrofitting still feels like an early-adoptor choice in 2026.

That may sound odd, given that one panel member said he carried out his first retrofit in 2003. But while the conversation has been around for years, the practice still feels limited to a minority of households. For most people, it remains something they vaguely intend to do one day, rather than something already under way.

Across Richmond borough, more than 80% of homes are heated with gas boilers. Mine is one of them. What this handbook made clearer to me is that there is quite at lot I could do before reaching that dramatic moment of swapping out the boiler.

The Smarter Homes approach is ‘fabric first’: focus on the physical structure of the building before adding new technology. That includes:

• insulation, to help the building retain warmth

• airtightness, using draught-proofing and testing to stop cold air getting in through gaps and cracks

• ventilation, to make sure airflow remains good enough to prevent condensation, damp and mould once a home becomes more airtight

There is even a thermal imaging camera available to borrow from the Twickenham Library of Things. For anyone trying to work out where heat is escaping, that feels exactly the right kind of practical intervention: modest, local and useful.

Only after that does it make sense for me to think about rooftop solar, battery storage and the wider electrification of the home.

Even if I kept gas central heating for the time being, there are still ways to reduce my home’s overall reliance on gas, including replacing a gas cooker with an induction hob.

That, in the end, was my main takeaway from the evening. Not that every household should rush tomorrow to install every new technology on the market. And not that retrofit is simple. It plainly is not.

It is that the route is becoming easier to see.

That matters in a place like Barnes. Bridged2050 often talks, rightly, about streets, bridges, buses, trees and public space. But a climate-ready neighbourhood will also be shaped by quieter, less visible decisions made behind front doors: better insulation, less wasted heat, cleaner cooking, lower bills, healthier air.

The future of a place is not built only in public. Some of it is built in private, one draughty room at a time.

One of the themes of the night was myth-busting. One guest described a deeply worried mother who reacted to news that her daughter was installing a heat pump by sending clippings from the Daily Telegraph warning of the supposed horrors to come. None of them happened. The point was not that every technology is simple or perfect. Rather the technology was immature, someone - often many - are threatened by change, and there’s a a touch of culture-war nonsense.

That is why Richmond council’s new Smarter Homes hub matters. It does not eliminate the hard choices. But it does make them clearer.

For Barnes, that is no small thing. A climate-ready future will not be built only through better bridges, streets and transport. It will also be built through better homes. Less draughty, less wasteful, healthier to live in and cheaper to run.

Some of the future arrives through public policy. Some of it arrives through the front door.

• Separate Schemes: School Streets and Controlled Parking Zones (CPZs) are independent initiatives with different operating hours.

• Access guidance: Restrictions only affect those entering the scheme; vehicles are free to exit the zone at any time.

• No ANPR enforcement: The scheme is not currently enforced by Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras.

• Digital permits: The letter itself serves as a resident’s permit; there is no requirement to display a physical permit in your vehicle.

The letter also provides more granular detail regarding who is eligible for an exemption.

Welcome to Barnes2050, a place-based futures project asking, how do we make sure Barnes, the place and its people, are thriving and climate-ready by 2050?

Notes & thoughts

The council’s communication throughout this pilot has been very good. From the initial local engagement to the recent mail, the messaging has been clear and useful, a process bolstered by the school’s own proactive management of the transition.

Two aspects of this latest update are particularly striking:

The council has adopted a ‘better angels’ philosophy toward this trial. The tone of the exemption list suggests a governing body providing clear direction while subtly signaling: ‘Please use your common sense and do not abuse this.’ For example, the list of valid exemptions includes,

Exceptional deliveries, such as emergency call-outs (e.g., burst water pipes, gas leaks), heavy deliveries (e.g., appliances or building materials), and emergency deliveries (e.g., refrigerated or timed medication), although this is not an exhaustive list because the council cannot predict every circumstance.

(Italics by Barnes2050)

Despite the nuance, the council still felt the need to emphasise the scheme’s primary mission, stating,

The council would like to reiterate that School Streets are a road safety scheme aimed at making peak-time journeys safer and more pleasant for pupils, parents, carers, and residents within the scheme.

Is the pilot working?

The short answer is yes.

A small number of drivers continue to ignore the restrictions in the morning, the young children in the back often give the game away. It is, of course, possible these drivers live within the zone and are heading to work after the drop-off.

Some non-compliance is more evident. One particularly distinctive car—spotted on both days that traffic was being monitored—was nowhere to be found in the area later that night or over the following weekend, suggesting it belongs to a visitor rather than a resident.

That aside these time and area-bound restrictions appear to be having a positive effect. Barnes2050 believes they will be more common by 2050 so it is important we learn from each of these interventions.

Further updates as this pilot develops