URGENT: Views on Chelsea Bridge Meet

We’ve been approached by a TV network for help on a piece they’re doing concerning the Bikers vs Residents issue of Chelsea Bridge. They would like to know about the stunting, what goes on at the meet, why people go, why the residents are upset and how we police ourselves as a community.

If you have any views on this, or history on the bridge meet, then please post up here and if we can, we’ll include it in what we say. Time is a critical factor here, it’s for air’ing this evening.

Does anybody know how long the meet has been going on for? Why it was started, who attended and the like?

this evening? i thought i had tight deadlines!

I grew up on the other side of the river in Pimlico and my brother used to go out on his Z250 in the late 70’s to meet his mates on Chelsea Bridge on a Friday even back then.

There was always a bit of an edge as the srea was always a bit run down.

The area was always an industrial one - with transport company being based on the site of the flats until the 80’s it was then used as an overflow parking area for National Express Coaches. All this time Bikes and the Chelsea Cruise used to congregate there on a Friday.

The flats are obviously a recent addition and I struggle to understand how the meet was such a surpirse to residents. This thing has been a regular event for over 20 - 25 years so you could say it’s almost part of the fabric of what makes that part of Battersea the place it it.

Back to my brother (now a Train driver for Southern) he says its even more daft in that trains go past on the other side of the development more or less 24 hours a day - but the residents aren’t trying to stop that are they?

Just my thoughts…

Yes, a few hours! Thanks Weaver, looks helpful…

I heard something about it being a perfect quarter mile but that is probably utter bollox !

I don’t give “the bridge” long…

Yes, the residents are trying to stop it and they know big people and are moving their sticks, lol
Some of them without high conections are using more unconventional means, like the eggs, lol
That’s not funny guys it’s what is happening and we have to deal with that. They want us to behave ,the problems is the noise an the stunts, no news there eh? I guess tht the ace cafe will be only public place for the it pretty soon…

Hey Jay, Beware! Just my opoinion but … if you approached the TV company and they were interested and pro your cause … its probably cool. If the TV company approached you, then they were probably recruited by the Residents who have an agenda. For me, nice as they will be to your face all the good bits can easily end up on the editing room floor. Order of the day is Clean cut, calm, reasonable and articulate plus consimately cool to the forefront please.

http://www.boxhill.co.uk/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=8776

HTH…

If I paid like £350,000 for a shoe box flat and had to put up with bikes every friday till early in the morning I would probably complain myself.

I only started checking the bridge out about 3 years ago and as soon as I saw blocks going up I knew its days were numbered.

True … where is the nearest deserted WW11 Airfield and who has a mobile catering unit !!!

Can they not come to an agreement, maybe allowing bikers to meet, but not allowing the stunts?

maybe put a (ahem) chicane in the road or something…

that way they couldnt use the stunts/ danger as an excuse

The fact bikers have been meeting there for yrs, and those flats are just recently built, does that not mean anything?

The reason people bought them is cause the area prob wasnt very safe at night, so they never went to see the bridge at night (Fri)

its the developers we have to blame for that…

The same thing happens in Northern Ireland with the parades, theyve been going on hundreds of yrs, and only recently have “Resident commitees” been set up to try and stop it

There has to be a compromise (such as above) and we cant be beaten just because someone who can afford a stupid amount of money on a flat has a friend in high places.

Its not just a case of motorbikes, theyre worried the bikes will somehow lower the tone of the area, and reduce the value of theyre property

maybe someone should suggest to them that they aint gonna be able to sell them after it goes on air and half the country sees it later!!!

you do needa watch out what you say though, as said above they can cut bits out and have you saying something like “we dont care, were bikers”

also, any statements you make if they aint satisfactory for the biking community, will have people on both sides claiming you as public enemy number one…

once again, northern ireland…

We are well aware of that mate, see my previous replay. Unfortunately things have now moved a step forward on a direction that is not good for us. The minority will make us the MAJORITY loose our meeting place… It’s not for absence of advice and warning.

I hope they won’t succeed!

One bedroom flat there is well over 500k mate! I been looking there when my step son was due to leave home and the same speed we went in, we came out! They are tiny and overpriced

Looking at Google Earth they were still building two years ago.

When did the rules come in where the seller had to declare issues in the area affecting the property. Bikers have been there more than two years. So if the issues were declared they bought knowing about the meetings ???

But … how many times have race tracks been sanctioned or closed down by a new nearby resident?

In English law it should be written in as a coventant or something that they have accepted the situation and are not allowed to protest against something already taking place provided it does not develop into something greater than it was … thats what planning committees are for, isn’t it?

500 k? higher…

http://www.foxtons.co.uk/properties/uk-london-battersea-14/apartments-for-sale-in-battersea.html

though, do you reckon theyd take an offer of 500 k if i reminded them that loads of hooligans congregate there every week?

I place the blame for the current situation squarely on the developers and the estate agents. How many people go view new properties on a Friday night? And how many sane people (bikers included… actually bikers especially) would buy a flat right next to a bike meet? I don’t think any of those residents had any idea about the bike meet before they moved in.

Good point!

Ooops, canceled, due to dodgy transmission at the bridge. Oh well, guess it’ll be a one-sided affair now Still, a good discussion none-the-less.

I didn’t want to chock peple as they were thinking that 350 was too much, lol! Yes that’s the prices around there, over a million for 2 bedroom and 750k for one bedroom flat!