Westfield White City: The Verdict

"Westfield London opened in October 2008 on a 45 acre site in Shepherds Bush. At the time of completion it was the largest inner city shopping centre in Europe and the development included provision of the new Wood Lane tube station, an overground station, bus terminus and the refurbishment of Shepherds Bush station.

"The Centre offers 1.6 million sq ft of retail space with nearly 400 shops and 69 eateries. It attracts over 2 million visitors per month and supports approximately 8,000 jobs. Planning consent was obtained in March 2012 to deliver a further 600,000 sq ft of retail and leisure expansion and over 1,500 new homes.

"This report, commissioned at the request of the Select Committee, sets out to provide a summary of the impact of Westfield on the Borough across a range of issues including crime and disorder, transport, licensing, littering and street cleaning and the local economy." [More than Barnet has ever done.]

Travel predictions

"There were two significant planning applications (1997 and 2006) that assessed how visitors would travel to Westfield. The first predicted 47% would drive based on other local retail offers and the second 42% based on car ownership and traffic trends across London. The table below shows the modal split of the two predictions against the actual travel modes based on a shopper survey in 2010.

New Transport Infrastructure

"There was a significant amount of transport infrastructure delivered through section 106 agreements as part of numerous planning applications to meet the predicted demand generated from the development. Below is a summary of the infrastructure delivered by both the Council, TfL and Westfield totalling over £100m:

• Shepherds Bush tube station upgrade and new station at Wood Lane
• new overground station at Shepherds Bush and service enhancements
• two new bus stations (norther and southern interchange)
• new bus routes, route extensions and service enhancements
• local junction improvements
• local streetscape improvements
• 500+ cycle parking spaces

The public transport improvements have been very successful with continuing and substantial increases in patronage. This is considered to be one of the many factors that has led to actual car mode share being lower than that predicted."

Westfield - A High Level Impact Assessment