Working together to make West Ealing a better place for residents, businesses and visitors.
Author: David
David has lived in West Ealing since 1978 ,has been an allotment holder on the Northfield Ave site since 2000 and chair of West Ealing Neighbours since its early days. He is most interested in finding solutions to problems whether its rubbish on the streets, improved pedestrian safety at the Lido Junction or how we can keep the shopping centre as the heart of our community. He recently helped set up West Ealing Arts and its OPEN Ealing community arts project.
The community arts project OPEN Ealing, run by West Ealing Arts, has launched its first arts classes and workshops for adults:
Watercolour painting on Tuesday mornings and afternoons
History of 20th century art on Thursday evenings from 2nd June
Silk painting on Saturday afternoons from June
Life drawing soon to start on Wednesday evenings
For details of times and costs visit www.openealing.com or call on 020 8579 5558 or drop in at 113 Uxbridge Road on corner of Culmington Road and opposite fire station).
If you were caught up in yesterday’s (Wednesday) traffic chaos at lunchtime on the Uxbridge Road in West Ealing and Ealing Broadway and wondering what happened, I can tell you as I happened to be there at the time.
I was volunteering at OPEN Ealing, the new community arts centre for West Ealing, and a few of us were talking when we heard the unmistakable sound of a car accident. We rushed out and almost in front of our office at 113 Uxbridge Road a car trying to turn right into Culmington Road had collided with one coming along the Uxbridge Road. There was a large eastbound lorry stopped at the accident so may have had a part in it.
I rang 999 to report the accident, though the odd thing was that no-one seemed to come out to look from the fire station which was 50 yards from the accident. Some minutes later a fire engine turned on its siren and rolled out the 50 yards to the accident scene. In fairness though it probably had to be called in once the police assessed the situation. As it turned out the fire engine was vital as one of the drivers had to be cut out of their car. The other driver was able to get out and she seemed unharmed.
It took quite some time for the driver to be released from his car and I hope he or she soon recovers. It must have been at least an hour for the road to be re-opened.
Pamela Howard School of Dance: One of the new shops on our high street
The recent opening of the British Heart Foundation’s new shop (see previous post) made me think again about the changing nature of our high street. Yes, you could just say it’s yet another charity shop and we already have eight. But, it struck me that this shop is something rather different for West Ealing. Almost every time I go in to one of the charity shops it seems busy as I try to manoeuvre my way between the shoppers and the clothes rails. What BHF seem to have noticed though is that there is a complete gap in the market for a charity shop selling household goods such as electrical appliances and furniture.
Much has been written about how Britain’s high streets are changing. I
have lived in West Ealing since 1978 and, like many others, can all too easily reminisce about how West Ealing’s high street used to have a Marks and Spencer, a WH Smith, Mothercare, let alone the department stores such as FH Rowse and Daniels. But that time has gone and in the last few years the twin impact of the recession and the growth of internet shopping have undoubtedly left their mark as shops have moved out or closed down. In a recent article in the Financial Times Liz Peace, chief executive of the British Property Federation, said ‘Given the structural nature of these changes
there is no point harking back to the old high streets we all claimed to love. We need to be creative in looking for new roles and uses for these empty shops.”
I think BHF has been creative. We have seen new shops move in and Lidl and Poundworld are now part of our high street. They have been joined by some rather different businesses – British Immigration Solutions and The Pamela Howard School of Dance. West Ealing Arts has opened a community arts project in an old office building a short walk away from the main shopping centre (see later article). The London Residents Forum is hoping to open the old Oxfam shop as a borough-wide resource and drop in centre for tenants.
Yes, our high street is changing, it has to, but I see these changes as a sign that the high street still has a purpose for our community. It is still trying providing goods and services that we need and want. Please let’s just make sure we cherish and use our high street and other local shopping areas.
Following on from his recent post about Jacob’s Ladder Eric Leach follows this up by saying ‘We have been campaigning for improvements to Jacob’s Ladder for over three years. For those who don’t know, Jacob’s Ladder is the ancient footbridge which crosses the railway line from the western extremity of Waitrose’s car park to Manor Road. The bridge is a vital link between Green Man Lane Estate, St John’s School and the centre of West Ealing and Drayton Green, Drayton Green School and the Berners Drive Estate.
The bridge is rusting badly; the southern staircase is somewhat unstable; and the lighting is extremely poor. In 2008/9 for long periods only one of the three lights was working.
After much toing and froing involving the Cleveland Ward Forum, money was allocated by Ealing Council to replace the poor lighting system with a much improved one (featuring five lights). Network Rail (the owners of the footbridge) eventually and reluctantly agreed to the upgrade – but only after it was agreed to pay them a fee for the privilege. That was in Summer 2010.
Ever since Ealing Council have been trying to get formal permission from Network Rail to actually carry out the work. Lawyers and paper pushers at Network Rail have held them up now for over eight months. How ironic that at a time when financial cuts are being made we have this funded project with cash allocated and a large company’s intransigence is preventing the project from going ahead.’
British Heart Foundation opened the doors of its new shop today and it set me thinking about charity shops and our high street. I thought first off I’d better count how many charity shops there are along the street between the Lido Junction and the junction with Eccleston Road. I counted 8 (including the Salvation Army) plus the mystery Storefair which threatened to open back in September but has remained resolutely shut for months.
In my experience most of these shops are usually busy and you have to manoeuvre your way round them between the clothes rails and the shoppers. So, I think the BHF shop, which sells electrical goods and furniture, is a clever move as it fills a gap in what charity shops usually offer. Most charity shops won’t touch electrical goods as they have to be properly checked for safety etc. When I went in this morning it was packed both with goods and people and looking at what is on offer in BHF I was impressed. I think it will do well.
There’s a much wider question raised not just about charity shops but also about what sort of future we want for our high street? But I’ll leave that for another time.
Vice Chair Eric Leach reports that according to ‘Property Week’ magazine would-be Ealing centre developer Glenkerrin is facing collapse.
Grant Thornton is expected to be appointed on 10 May as Administrators to the company’s five London properties. Irelend’s National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) is the instigator of this action. NAMA also appointed Grant Thornton as Receivers to the Irish Glenkerrin properties.
Glenkerrin bought up the existing Arcadia site and other properties immediately west of Ealing Broadway Station and proposed a retail and residential development , including a 26 storey residential block, in 2008. Ealing Council agreed to the Planning Application but the Government eventually turned it down in December 2009. WEN as part of Save Ealing Centre spoke at a Government Inquiry on the application and you can read Eric’s personal blog of the daily twists and turns of this Inquiry here).
It appears that Glenkerrin is in debt to the tune of 650 Million Euros.
WEN is not surprised at Glenkerrin’s collapse, but we are surprised that it has taken so long for it to take place.
Eric Leach reports on the demolition of a local landmark.
Here you can view the on-going demolition of St Helena’s Home, which overlooks Drayton Green. Built in 1896 the home was a refuge for fallen women, run by Protestant nuns, for over 50 years. The women, many of them single mothers and prostitutes, worked hard in the home’s laundry and were effectively incarcerated. However the home must clearly have saved and extended the lives of many women who for one reason or another were excluded from society.
Ironically the organisation which is demolishing the building was founded by a Protestant vicar – Rev Bruce Kendrick – in 1963. He founded Notting Hill Housing (NHH) to help squatters find places to live with improved security of tenure. NHH is now a property development company whose Chief Executive according to ‘Private Eye’ earns £146,000 a year.
NHH refused to re-use the building and convert it into flats. It wanted to demolish it and build a block of 26 flats in its place. Planning permission has not been granted for NHH to build its legoland architecture residential block – but it’s smashing St Helena’s Home to pieces anyway.
Eric Leach
21 April, 2011
PS There’s a more background to the story of 51 Drayton Green in our July 2010 newsletter here.
Eric Leach questions Council ‘regeneration’ on The Avenue in West Ealing.
Way back in February 2010 we reported that the Council planned to spend £280,000 on regenerating The Avenue retail strip. Over a year later workmen are taking up lots of quite serviceable paving stones from the wide pavement on the eastern side of the road and replacing them with new paving stones. This must itself be costing thousands of pounds and there is no obvious regeneration benefit here. At a time when £millions are being cut from Council budgets it seems quite obscene to spend money unnecessarily.
We still await the conversion of the mixed Stop and Shop and Pay and Display kerb side car parking arrangement into ‘free-form’ 30 minutes free parking controlled by car registration numbers. Although budgeted to cost £8,500, the new arrangement is not scheduled to increase the number of cars which will park there. These new parking slots will continue to be dominated by mini-cab car parking – an arrangement that the Ealing Broadway Councillors are quite happy to tolerate even though it works against the best interests of Avenue traders and shoppers.
What with this work underway and the conversion of The Drayton Court pub into a hotel in full swing, car parking on the Avenue is even more of a shambles than usual. When the 27 bed hotel opens in June we are promised 18 hotel car parking spaces – 6 in front of the hotel and 12 in what was part of the garden at the back. However the access road at the back via Gordon Road is terribly narrow and will be just one way.
Chair of WEN, David Highton reports on the beginning of the end for the Green Man Lane Estate.
Demolition began yesterday as the 10-year redevelopment of the Green Man Lane Estate kicked off in earnest. Council leader Julian Bell was joined by representatives from housing association A2Dominion, builders Rydon, architects Conran and GML residents as the bulldozers finally moved on site. Whatever your views, and West Ealing Neighbours’ views are fully documented on our website this development marks a huge change for West Ealing. When completed the development will house some 2,000 people as compared to the curent 800. This ‘densification’ will be repeated in a year or two when the Sherwood Close Estate (aka Dean Gardens Estate) is similarly redeveloped. Add to these two developments the 100s of new homes at Sinclair House (opposite West Ealing station), the Daniels development, the Waitrose development, the newly completed flats on the old Groveglade indoor market site and many more smaller developments and the changes are having, and will continue to have, a profound impact on West Ealing.
This policy of ‘densification’ lies at the heart of the Council’s plans for the next 15 years as detailed in their Local Development Framework. You can read more about this on our blog by clicking on the LDF category on the right hand navigation and on our website
Chair of WEN, David Highton, reports on the growing problem of street rubbish in West Ealing.
There’s no doubt that our streets are much cleaner than they were, say, 5 years ago. The last Conservative council put cleaner streets as one of its top priorities and the new Labour Council has done the same. I think almost everyone recognises the considerable improvements that have been made. Yet, one problem still remains which I see almost every day and find very annoying – fast food debris littering our streets. The above photo is one of three lots of fast food rubbish I saw this morning within 50 metres of my front door. Maybe I’m imagining it but it has got worse over the last couple of years. This makes me sound like a grumpy old man and in this case I think I am!
One of three lots of fast food rubbish on my local streets this Monday morning
I live within 150 metres of the Uxbridge Road and West Ealing’s main shopping centre and it seems that there’s the fast food equivalent of a high tide mark whereby fast food rubbish and drink cans left on walls are a regular feature of streets within fast food eating distance of the local fast food shops. Get 200 metres or so away from the high street and the problem fades away.
One aspect of this problem seems fairly new. I keep noticing fast food rubbish left in street gutters rather than on the pavement. I’ve been wondering why this is? My personal theory is that it’s left by people who eat it in their cars and then just leave the rubbish behind in the gutter. Mind you, I’ve never seen anyone do this so I could be completely wrong.
Whatever the reason, it’s a problem. The streets are swept regularly so this rubbish is soon cleaned away ( and the three lots I saw this morning have already been swept up) but that makes no difference to the fact that fast food rubbish litters our streets. What can we do about it? Anyone any ideas?
David Highton
PS One thing I’ve done, some years ago, is become a volunteer Streetwatcher who, for want of a better term, act as the ‘eyes’ for the Council with flytipping and graffiti etc. We can help clean up the rubbish but not prevent it in the first place.
The community arts project OPEN Ealing, run by West Ealing Arts, has launched its first arts classes and workshops for adults:
