I recently asked the Council for a progress report on “decluttering” the streets in the borough. This is an important objective to make life easier and more pleasant for pedestrians.
So far, in this financial year, we have removed 38 posts, 24 guard rails and three bollards. In the rest of the financial year we are due to remove 14 posts, 29 guard rails and 69 bollards.
That is welcome. But it is far too little.
Hammersmith and Fulham has 150 miles of road and 310 miles of pavement. In that context removing 174 bits of clutter is very modest.
The Mayor of London has removed 20 miles of guard rail. Often cyclists have been crushed by cars against guard rails.
Kensington and Chelsea Council has made great progress at decluttering – in Exhibition Road and Kensington High Street. Safety has improved as well as the appearance of the streets as personal responsibility has proved more effective than nannying.
If you know of a redundant bit of street clutter your would like removed please email me the details (including if possible a photograph) to harry.phibbs@gmail.com and I will see what can be done about it.
Hammersmith and Fulham Forum 
I would like to see better control of estate agents’ boards. Now we have To Let boards as well as For Sale ones it feels as if our streets are one long advert for these agents. It detracts a lot from the streets’ attractiveness. In Aynhoe Rd. we suffer a lot ….several tel. calls are needed to get them to take the boards down and they think up any excuse to keep them there.
What controls exist …..how can I achieve what Sinclair Rd did ….no boards are allowed there and the street looks so different as a result
Completely agree about extending board bans. We have them in my neighbourhood (Brackenbury) but only the odd street such as Hammersmith Grove. There are regularly between 10 and 14 in Overstone Road where I live and it would look at lot better if they weren’t there. This is a cheap, easy and uncontroversial way to improve our borough.