Updated Friday 20th December
The two-storey art deco style building above Morrisons on the corner of the Uxbridge Road and St James Ave looks likely to become an integrated drug and alcohol recovery centre if planning permission goes through. A while back when I was with OPEN Ealing we negotiated a deal to take the lease on this property to make it OPEN’s permanent home. It’s a bit of a long story but the money never came through to complete the deal and this building has remained empty for a couple of years.
The service is currently sited in Leeland Road in West Ealing and the charity CRI has put in a change of use planning application to take on the 8,500 sq ft St James Annex . Their website describes CRI as follows:
‘CRI is a social care and health charity working with individuals, families and communities across England and Wales that are affected by drugs, alcohol, crime, homelessness, domestic abuse and antisocial behaviour.
Our projects, delivered in communities and prisons, encourage and empower people to regain control of their lives and motivate them to tackle their problems.’
The centre is planned to be open from 8am – 8pm weekdays and 10am – 6pm on Saturdays.
The application can be found here by typing PP/2013/4403 in to the reference number box at the top of the form. The closing date for comments is 3rd January. It’s a little odd that the list of consultees does not include anyone living in St James Avenue which is barely 50 metres away.
Clearly there are no plans to help wheel chair bound substance abusers as no lift is planned for the recovery centre.
Also the western end of the centre of West Ealing is in danger of becoming a specialist health care spot with two mental health rehabilitation centres up and running already here. I’m not sure whether local stakeholders actually want their town centre to be the new location for St Bernard’s Hospital, which is soon to be demolished.