SEBRA - Bayswater group marks 40 years of community work

Published: 09 July 2010
by JAMIE WELHAM

A DISTRICT of seedy tourist hotels ringed by a racetrack is one of the more dystopian descriptions of Bayswater in the 1960s.

The area’s fortunes have changed since then – its tree-lined terraces are now some of the most sought after in the capital – and this upward trajectory could not have happened without the South East Bayswater Residents Association.

This year SEBRA is celebrating its 40th anniversary, revisiting past victories, remembering old faces and setting out some future battles.

Among the early milestones, a resolution to halt the rampant hotel building that had exploded in the early 1970s because of a government-backed tourist drive, where landlords were given incentives to turn their properties into hotels. 

SEBRA, which had formed in response to the threat, won the ear of the then MP for Paddington South, Nicholas Scott, and it continues to represent a bulwark to soft planning enforcement.

As it grew in stature, the association was officially recognised by Westminster Council, broadening its base and merging with the Bayswater and Paddington residents’ association in the mid-1970s.

SEBRA helped see off the threat of a Greater London Council proposal for a controversial one-way system, before fixing the ever relevant issues of litter and refuse firmly in its cross-hairs. The victories notched up, and the group has grown into an influential organisation, respected for voicing the concerns of its members.

But SEBRA is about more than just blocking and stopping, the modus operandi of so many residents groups, because of a duty to review planning applications. In 1986 it began producing a quarterly newsletter, packed with local news, illuminating interviews and a lively letters page. 

Recently members helped save Lancaster Gate War Memorial. A number of founding members are still active in SEBRA, among them the current President John Walton, Joanna Buxton MBE and Pauline Sitwell.

Writing in the commemorative newsletter, Mr Walton said: “It is strange to look back on the last 40 years, and to realise just how far things have come. Bayswater has changed from a neighbourhood of 

run-down rental properties to today’s vibrant and colourful conservation areas, where property values have soared and the quality of life has improved out of all recognition.

“What part SEBRA has played is hard to say, of course. We can’t claim all the credit but we have certainly made a difference in many ways pioneering the consumer revolution which has transformed the relationship of the population at large with central and local government. 

“We are a very early example of a group of ordinary people who banded together to influence policy and to make bureaucrats listen to the voice of those whose lives they affect by their actions.”