Working together to make West Ealing a better place for residents, businesses and visitors.
Friday 8th February at Cafe Zee Ealing Broadway – Ramon Goose and his band. Tickets £10. Start 7.30pm
Friday 15th February at the Brentham Club, Meadvale Road W5 1NP
Louise Marshall and The Brethren. Tickets £20. Start 8pm
Lots more information about the bands and how to book tickets here
One by one the banks are closing in West Ealing. A few months ago the NatWest closed and now Santander is closing on 9th May as one of 140 branches the Spanish owned bank is shutting in response to the changes in how many of us bank. That leaves Barclays and Nationwide as the two main banks/building societies left in West Ealing. Not good news for those who need to see someone or have to bank actual cash.
The Council has is consulting on major plans to redevelop the Gurnell leisure centre site. These plans include:
About 600 new homes with 20% affordable but no social housing
Buildings up to 17 storeys high
A 10-lane 50 metre pool, BMX track and skate park and a range of related leisure facilities
The development with be funded through the commercial residential housing.
The next public consultations are on:
A follow-up drop in event will be held on:
These events are open to everyone; however, space is limited and will be offered on a first come first served basis.
More information about this can be found on two websites – http://www.futureofgurnell.co.uk/ and https://www.ealing.gov.uk/gurnell
Following their successful ballot, West Ealing Business Improvement District (BID) have advertised for a new manager.
The full page advert in the Ealing Gazette ( 11th January) gives a very detailed job description and person specification for this post. With a salary of £40-45,000 let’s hope it attracts some first class candidates who can help West Ealing develop a resilient and attractive high street which mixes retail and community activities as proposed in a number of recent reports on the future of high streets such as The High Street Report by John Timpson. .
The true scale of the potential problems with Crossrail are laid bare in an article on the New Civil Engineer website. It’s long and detailed but well worth a read.
The new Chief Executive Mark Wild gave a bleak review of the current situation to a recent London Assembly meeting. It seems the contracts for new stations at West Ealing, Ealing Broadway and Acton Mail Line have yet to be placed.
The key points are:
This comes out barely a few weeks after a Network Rail public meeting at Ealing Town Hall where we were told Crossrail/Elizabeth Line would be fully open by the end of this year!
There’s a story on the Ealing Today website about a Council proposal for seven of the borough’s 13 libraries to be run by the community with no paid staff as part of the next round of budget cuts. One of these libraries would be West Ealing’s library in Melbourne Avenue. Other councils are successfully using volunteers to run libraries. It’s increasingly clear that volunteers will have a key role to play in helping deliver some local services.
This and a range of other cuts to children’s services and senior management at the Council will come up for discussion at next week’s cabinet meeting.
It’s probably fair to say many residents have never heard of ward forums let alone been to one. However, these two public meetings a year with each ward’s three councillors are some of the few chances residents have to raise questions and concerns with their elected representatives. Ealing Council appears to be planning to scrap these meetings as part of a future round of cuts.
As well as reducing local democracy, the plans are also to take away the annual allocation of about £40,000 to each ward which it has been able to spend on local priorities and projects. So, for example, in the Walpole ward the forum has helped fund WEN’s annual SoundBite Festival and Christmas Fair, OPEN Ealing, the redesign of the pigeon-attracting corner near Sainsbury’s, improved lighting, traffic calming measures, new street signs and much, much more.
If this plan goes through it will mean an even greater democratic gap between residents and councillors and the likelihood that small community projects and events will no longer happen. Both of these are bad for the local community and we will all be the poorer as a result.
If you are concerned about this then the Ealing Liberal Democrats has set up a petition to save ward forums. It needs 1500 signatures to get on the Council’s agenda for discussion. Your name and address will be included on the petition.
With a few days to spare the plan for the West Ealing Community Cultural Quarter is up and running thanks to pledges from 169 people and organisations reaching the target of £34,021. The West London Islamic Centre in Singapore Road made the final contribution to reach the target. Congratulations to everyone involved in helping this idea get off the ground.
This now gives the go-ahead for OPEN Ealing and the Ealing Centre for Independent Living to ‘ reopen a closed shop in West Ealing and create an amazing diverse retail and artistic space offering a range of community engagement art activities accessible to all – promoting inclusion, mental and physical wellbeing and independent living within the area. It will be a place where we can meet old friends, make new ones & express ourselves.
We’ll be able to learn about the area’s diverse culture via exhibitions, classes and events curated by the community for the community. The front will be a retail unit selling affordable mobility equipment, refurbished on site by our team of apprentices under the guidance of a qualified mobility engineer. The shop will be the first of its kind in the area.’
Watch this space as further developments are under discussion for the West Ealing Community Cultural Quarter.
Almost five years ago the shops and businesses in West Ealing voted to be part of a Business Improvement District (BID). The BID provides services such as waste collection and training courses for businesses along with helping fund events such as the Avenue Vintage and Antique Market, the SoundBite Festival and the Christmas Fair to bring more shoppers to West Ealing.
A vote was held in November on renewing the BID for another five years and the answer was a resounding yes. Of the 134 votes cast 96 were in favour.
Congratulations to the BID and we look forward to hearing about their plans for the next five years.
Tuesday 4th December 16:00 – 19:00, Telfa Room Ealing Town Hall
Drop in session to talk about construction progress and upgrade works at Crossrail stations across Ealing.
“Opportunity to talk to some of the team responsible for the work on your new stations and hear about our planned Christmas works”