Perhaps no great surprise that Morrisons, the one on the corner of the Uxbridge Road and St James Ave, is closing down today. It must have been one of the 33 stores earmarked for closure as part of their reorganisation. It never looked very busy whenever I passed by. It’s just that block away from the main shopping area so not enough passing footfall. I hope the staff are all able to be move to other nearby Morrisons stores. It’s an odd position for a shop so it will be interesting to see what, if anything, takes its place. Could it work as permanent home for the Ealing Blueprint co-working business hub?
Fabulous souvenir guide to the Hanwell Hootie is now available
If like me you’re wondering which bands to see at Saturday’s Hanwell Hootie then head on to any of the pubs invoved (which is almost all in Hanwell) and buy a fabulous souvenir brochure for a bargain price – £1. It has info on all the bands playing and lists their websites and Facebook pages if they have them. It’s brilliant and will help you work out who you want to see and where and when they will be playing.
Being from West Ealing I’m going to start at The Grosvenor which although is geographically in W7 I think it counts as part of West Ealing!
A decision on future of Solace mental health drop-in centre due soon
We’ve covered the efforts made by users of the Solace Centre to keep it open in the face of closure in previous posts. There are various options now available and we hope the Council will agree to continue funding the centre whilst these options are explored in detail.
Ealing Council’s cabinet will consider proposals next Tuesday (24 March) to continue providing an out of hours drop-in service at the Solace Centre.
The Solace Centre is a drop-in support service for adults with mental health problems. It operates out of a council-owned building 365 days a year and is jointly funded by Ealing Council and the West London Mental Health Trust. In November, cabinet considered proposals to close the centre as part of a wide-ranging set of budget savings designed to help the council fill its £96million funding gap. Under these proposals, eligible customers would have been given their own personal budgets to buy alternative support services once the centre shut.
Cabinet gave its approval for the council to begin consulting users, staff and other people affected by the proposed closure. As part of this consultation process, the council asked voluntary sector groups to come forward with other ways to deliver the service, while still making the required savings for the council. There has been considerable interest from voluntary sector groups who have put forward a number of credible alternatives all of which now need further evaluation.
Proposals include an external group running the drop-in service from the Solace Centre building; using the Solace Centre building more efficiently; and finding another space for the Solace Centre to use so the existing Solace Centre space can be transformed into flats for people with mental health problems.
Cabinet will decide on Tuesday whether to agree to continue funding the Solace Centre while these alternatives are given careful consideration, and further options are explored. A further cabinet paper is expected in June.
Councillor Hitesh Tailor, cabinet member for health and adults services, said: “I will be making the case very strongly at cabinet for the council to continue funding the Solace Centre in the short-term, while we secure the long-term future of the service in Ealing.
“Solace Centre users have put forward some strong arguments for why a drop-in service should continue and I’m pleased that so many local voluntary groups have come forward with their ideas on how we can make this happen together. The council is in a very tough financial situation and is having to make some very difficult decisions, and this consultation process goes to show that, by working with service users and local groups, creative solutions can be put in place that allow services to continue while still making the necessary savings.”
The report will be considered on Tuesday, 24 March by the council’s cabinet.
Time to review traffic plans for West Ealing
If you live in the roads near the Sherwood Close Estate (shown on the map) then you may well have had a green coloured leaflet through your letterbox yesterday. It’s about the traffic access arrangements for the redevelopment of the Sherwood Close Estate. It’s worth taking a few minutes to read it and think about the issues it raises and whether these concern you.
Access to the new development was always going to be tricky as most of the nearby roads such as Seaford Rd and Westfield are narrow and heavily parked up on both sides. It’s already difficult for delivery lorries to get round these roads. Our worry is that the access plans for the new estate do little to improve this. With an increase in homes of some 100 or so, which means about 200-250 new residents on the redeveloped estate, logic says there will be more deliveries. Yet, access to the estate from the north or south will still have to be via the existing narrow streets or, to be precise given the current road system, via Westfield Road and then along Glenfield Terrace, Bonchurch Road or Milford Road. Access from the east and west should be better as there will be a new road off Tawny Close.
We feel there is a good case for a careful review of the traffic routes and traffic flows in this whole sector of West Ealing – from Leighton Road in the south to the Uxbridge Road in the north and from Seaford Road in the east to Grosvenor Road/ Seward Road in the west. We think it’s important not to make a decision about access to the Sherwood Close Estate in isolation from already residents’ concerns about traffic problems that already worry people living in these streets. We say, let’s step back and take a good look at this whole area and avoid piecemeal decisions.
The leaflet gives details of who to contact if you have concerns about this. These include the three Walpole Ward councillors who cover the area concerned. You can find them here.
Why it’s important that the Solace drop-in mental health centre in West Ealing survives the cuts
We’ve looked before at the efforts being made to save the Solace Centre in West Ealing, Ealing’s only drop-in mental health centre. Why does it matter? This question is best answered by people who use it and here is why they passionately believe it matters not just to them but to the whole borough:
‘Why are we so passionate about stopping this proposed closure?
Solace is pivotal in keeping us (the Solace service users) well in the community, staying away from more expensive mental health resources.
We come to the Solace Centre because we have all experienced many mental health hospital admissions (resulting in lots of personal upheaval, distress, distress and pain). What we need is practical day-to-day help, friendship, togetherness, care so we can keep independent, stable, maintained and connected within the Ealing community.
All of us (some 85 members, a total of 130 service users) who use this service suffer from long and enduring mental health problems (mainly psychotic illnesses). We all attend Solace regularly (there were 9,242 attendances last year). Staff know us very well and can tell when our mental health is deteriorating and in risk of relapse.
The Solace Centre is the only out of hours mental health resource in the Ealing borough. It’s open 265 days of the year offering a potential of 1,664 hours respite yearly (for members and carers). Open from Monday-Friday 4-8pm and Saturday and Sunday12noon-6pm (weekends for meembers only).
Our ages are between 20-76 years, with the majority between 40-59 years and from a diverse ethnicity. Unusually, half the members are women because they feel safe and accepted.
Labour can stop this proposal (to close Solace). The Council runs the Solace Centre on £104,000 yearly with the West London Mental Health Trust contributing £47,000 a year towards the weekend service. This budget is small in comparison with a re-admission back into hospital. A mental health ward bed is £350 a night. An admission is usually around two to three months and often a lot longer. It would only take two or three members to go back to hospital before this budget would be outstripped.
We are really anxious over this proposal but have been working hard to make our voices heard – we have now gained over 2,000 petition signatures, over 130 letters the Council and mounted several protests. We have gained support from carers, clinicians, professionals, friends, family and the community – all united in putting a stop to this proposal that does not make clinical orfinancial sense.
Celebrity supporters Jo Brand and Gladiator (Bullit) even attended one of our protests!
We are running out of time. A final decision is likely mid-February. We need your support now. Please support us – www.saveoursolace.co.uk
What sort of shopping centre do we want for West Ealing and how do we get it?
I went to a talk on the future of high streets at last night’s Ealing Business Forum. The speaker was Bill Grimsey and he has a strong track record of running high- street chains including Iceland and Wickes amongst others. He’s an interesting character as he is now retired and has spent most of his retirement arguing for a radical re-think in how we should use our high streets. He believes the traditional retail led high street is dead on its feet and needs to be replaced with a new vision where housing, leisure, health, entertainment and community services and activities take over from empty shops and an excess of betting shops and payday loan shops. West Ealing Neighbours has raised these issues a number of times over the past years as we have seen ever more betting shops, loan shops and their like come in to the West Ealing shopping centre. What was interesting about last night’s talk was to hear the argument in more detail. Whether or not you agree with Mr Grimsey’s view is for each to decide but what seems important to me is to get the issues aired and discussed. A key element of his argument is that despite the importance of the retail sector, with a turnover greater than even the health budget, the future of our high streets is unlikely to appear in any political manifesto in this year’s election.
So, looking at some of his key points:
- The UK retail sector has a bigger turnover than health, education or defence
- High streets are a more reliable measure of the economy than economists’ forecasts
- High streets have seen an increase in betting shops, payday loan shops, convenience stores and fast dood outlets
- Rapid growth of online shopping is irreversible and will mean major changes in the way supermarkets operate with the decline of the large out-of-town stores and an increase in local convenience stores for people to top up on their online shopping
- A great opportunity for fresh and local food outlets – ‘ fresh food emporiums’ – selling products which can not easily be provided by the large supermarkets in store or online
- Shops with no stock will be a feature of new high streets. Take fashion , you’ll be able to try out clothes in a virtual world and then order what you want. This may even mean manufacturing comes back to the UK as clothes made on demand rather than imported in bulk on spec from all across the world.
- Could Amazon start to sell food and would it mean even cheaper prices?
- Abolish business rates for small independent retailers. The revenue from these is about 6% of the total.
As I said, whether or not you agree with Bill Grimsey his views are informed by 40 years of retail experience and are well worth thinking about. In many ways, here in London and the south east we haven’t seen anything like the average 14% level of vacant shops that many other towns and cities have experienced but his arguments are just as valid. For who hasn’t been aware of the incease in betting shops, payday loan shops, fast food outlets and convenience stores in and around West Ealing.
Bill Grimsey’s closing point is that every town needs a plan for the future of its high streets. Without a plan it’s all left to market forces and failed attempts to fill unwanted space. I know the West Ealing Centre Neighbourhood Forum has this on its radar for its plan for the centre of West Ealing. The future nature of our shopping centre is something that should concern every one of us.
There is much more to his arguments than I’ve been able to capture in this post. You can find out more on his website
Pilot business hub launched in West Ealing
Having been involved in the initial feasibility study for a business hub in West Ealing I was delighted to go to last night’s launch of Ealing Blueprint – a pilot business hub working with the Chat and Meet coffee shop. Ealing Blueprint will run a free hub in the heart of West Ealing for a five month period from 4 February 2015 to test the hub model. I think this has great potential for West Ealing. Here’s a bit of background from Blueprint’s website:
‘The Ealing Blueprint business hub is inspired by the success of coworking spaces in central London, and will enable entrepreneurs, sole traders, freelancers or start-ups to work alongside one another in a collaborative atmosphere. Creative people can work flexibly in a modern and stimulating environment where ideas can be shared and enterprises thrive. Working independently should not mean working alone.
Located in West Ealing, a 3-minute walk from West Ealing station and many bus routes, the business hub is easy to access. Within the shared working space is Chat & Meet a coffee shop that will manage the hub on a day-to-day basis and will provide the opportunity to grab a coffee and have a chat with those around you. ‘
Opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 8.30am to 5.30pm (4 February – 27 June 2015)
Location: Chat & Meet @ Ealing Blueprint, 13 Drayton Green Road, West Ealing, London W13 0NG
Last night’s meeting was also the first anniversary of the Ealing Business Forum which invited high-street expert Bill Grimsey to give his views on the future of high streets in the 21st century. I greatly enjoyed his talk and it offered some compelling arguments for a radical new approach to how we should use our high streets. I’ll put the highlights from his talk in a separate post.
Plans for 300 flats on BT Telephone Exchange site in Gordon Road, West Ealing
The has been quite alot of toing and froing over this BT Telephone Exchange site in Gordon Road but the Council has designated it for residential development. The developer is Telereal Trillium and their plan is for a two phase development:
- Redevelopment of Rome House and the adjacent car park for up to 155 flats
- Redevelopment of Castle House into new terraced housing along Gordon Road and 3 new residential blocks of up to 166 new flats
- Use of the existing access on Gordon Road
- Generous communal and private amenity space including children’s playspace
The developer is holding an exhibition of their plans at the Drayton Court Hotel on Thursday 5th February 2-8pm. They want to hear people’s views on their plans. There will be feedback forms at the exhibition or you can comment online
W
Successful petition means full Council meeting to debate future of Solace Centre
The Solace Centre in West Ealing is the borough’s only mental health drop-in centre and has been threatened with possible closure – see here for previous story. The users have been working flat out to save their centre and now have over 2,000 signatures on their petition. This means they are allowed the right to a full Council Chamber debate – Tuesday 27th starting 7pm. The meeting is at the Town Hall and is open to the public.
I think most of us are well aware of the Council’s need to make some very tough decisions about cuts to services. However, this is where we need some joined up thinking and not to simply see budgets in isolation from their consequences on budget holders in another area of care. For example, what happens if the Solace Centre is closed and even just a few of its users end up in hospital or community services? What is the cost of running the Solace Centre compared to the cost to the NHS/West London Mental Health Trust of looking after someone. The cost of running the Solace Centre seems to be about £150,000 pa with the Council paying some £110,000 or so of this and the West London Mental Health Trust paying the balance.
I found the following on the BBC News site for 10th April 2014 which makes interesting reading even if it is not an exact comparison for the Solace Centre:
‘Rethink Mental Illness published the report with the London School of Economics.
The report said it costs on average £13 a day to support someone with psychosis or schizophrenia in the community.
It said this compared with the £350 average daily cost of keeping a mental health patient in hospital.’
The point about joined up thinking is that whilst the Council may save money from its budget if it closes the Solace Centre it runs the risk of passing on greater costs to the NHS at an overall increased cost to taxpayers if just a few of the Centre’s users end up in hospital as a result of the closure.
Exhibition of plans to redevelop a major part of Ealing Broadway town centre – Thurs 29th – Sat 31st Jan
Benson Elliot, which bought a large section of the Ealing Broadway town centre at the end of 2012, are about to reveal their plans for the area between Ealing Broadway and The Arcadia Centre – area outlined on the map below.
They are holding an exhibition next week on Thursday 29th, Friday 30th between 4pm and 8pm and Saturday 31st between 10am and 4pm at 7a The Broadway (a shop opposite the station).
Full details can be seen here