More reports are coming in about residents failing to obtain copies of the eight document 232 page Ealing LDF 2009 Core Strategy. A local West Ealing residents’ group Secretary read the statutory advertisement in the Ealing Gazette and drove over to Hanwell Library on Saturday morning just to look at the LDF documents. The lady in reception in the library had no knowledge whatsoever of the LDF documents and the resident left empty handed. She tried again today at Perceval House. She was allocated a ticket and sat and waited in the ‘Environment’ queue for an hour. At this point she got a little irritated and interrupted one of the Customer Service personnel. Eventually the resident was shown the 232 pages of LDF papers and told to go to a nearby room and study the documents. She said that didn’t work for her as she wanted to purchase a set of documents so she could review the 232 pages at home. The Customer Service lady telephoned Planning but got no answer, so our residents’ group Secretary left Perceval House empty handed – yet again.
Is this incompetence by Ealing Council or is this a planned process so that residents won’t get to read the LDF documents? Under the banner of ‘PLANNING AND COMPULSORY PURCHASE ACT 2004’ the statutory advertisement in the 4th September 2009 issue of the Ealing Gazette states ‘Copies can be obtained from the Council’s reception area…’ ‘There is a charge for some documents’. This statement is patently untrue and as such it suggests that Ealing Council is breaking the law.
It’s interesting to speculate that the Arcadia Planning Application (applying to just over 4 acres) period of Public Consultation was 90 days. However for the planning of 20+ square miles of Ealing borough – for half a generation – Ealing Council allocates just 42 days.
It will also be interesting to see what the residents of Greenford make of Ealing Council’s 2011 to 2026 spatial plans at a Greenford Area Meeting in Greenford Town Hall on Wednesday 16th September starting at 7:00pm. I wonder how many of the 40,000 Greenford residents know about the meeting; how many have read the eight LDF documents; and how many will turn up on the night? I’ll certainly attend and find out what residents think of the plans and the meeting itself.
Eric Leach
14th September, 2009
By chance I was in Ealing Central Library on Sunday and noticed that the LDF documents are all tucked away in a corner upstairs. There is no publicity downstairs regarding this. Surely there’s enough space in our new library for them to be displayed prominently on the ground floor?