The FunFair is Back 6-22 April - Good/Bad News?

The funfair is back, from 6 to 22 April. Good news for some, but not so welcome for many local residents, especially those who live on or near Shepherd's Bush Green and hate the noise and disturbance.

George Irvin's Funfair is a regular visitor to Shepherd's Bush. In recent years they have stayed for up to a full month, but following neighbourhood complaints our Council have now scaled them back to 2 1/2 weeks, which seems like a reasonable compromise.

Macfarlane Road Residents' Association Meeting 7 May

Mark your calendars - the Macfarlane Road Residents' Association is back, and meeting up again on 7th May.

The Macfarlane Rd Residents's Assocation is a local residents' group that gathers quarterly in Shepherd's Bush to try and improve our local neighbourhood. We work with the Council and the police to try to make improvements to the sort of problems that confront local residents, such as parking and anti-social behaviour. If you're a local and you'd like to get involved, come along and have your say.

Doyle's Opticians Opens in West 12 - With a Secret

Doyle's Opticians - not what it seems

A new optician has opened in the West 12 Centre but, rather oddly, they aren't open for business.

Doyle's Opticians, next door to Lidl, are not actually open to the public. When I knocked on the door yesterday afternoon, I was politely told to come back with a reservation. How to make a reservation? "Online".

What sort of optician won't open their doors to a customer? The answer, of course, is an optician that isn't an optician.

One Less Pointless Phone Booth in Shepherd's Bush

Props to our local council for the removal this week of one of the old phone booths on Shepherd's Bush Green.

Once upon a time we needed phone booths - because hardly anyone had a mobile phone. But now, since almost everyone has a phone, they are dinosaurs, their vandalised skeletons decaying in our busy streets.

Mostly nowadays they seem to be used as public urinals, or as advertising for local fast food restaurants.

Shepherd's Bush Green can feel like a bit of an obstacle course at the best of times, so one less phone booth is surely a good thing.

New Playground in Sight at Hammersmith Park

The children's playground at Hammersmith Park has been closed and fenced off, suggesting action at last after the children's climbing frames were removed in February and March of last year.

Despite promises that replacement would take "a few months", a year has passed and local parents are still waiting.

The poster apologising for the closure suggests that the works will be completed "by the end of March 2019".

Past experience suggests that we can take that estimate with a pinch of salt, but at least we can be reasonably confident that the new playground should be in place before the summer.  Hopefully.