Category: David Highton

Most of us have probably never come across the Solace Centre in West Eaing.  It’s tucked away at the end of Bowmans Close and well off the beaten track.  Yet, this mental health drop-in centre is suddenly at the centre of a storm with the Council threatening to close it as part of budget cuts.  This decision has been put on hold following the recent death at Ealing Broadway station of one of its users.

The Council’s plan was to close the centre and give users their own personal budget to purchase appropriate care and services. However, I’ve walked past this centre hundreds of times on my way to the allotments across the road and have always been struck by the groups of people sitting outside talking, laughing and just relaxing together.  The people have always been friendly and seem happy there.  I cannot see the logic of closing it down as how can a personal budget replace the opportunity for users to meet, socialise and feel safe?

My colleague Eric Leach has written this about the Solace Centre:

‘On the face of it if the centre is providing a valuable cost effective service why can’t it be funded by the NHS West London Mental Heath Trust (WLMHT)? WLMHT currently provides £47,000 annual funding for the centre which pays for the weekend opening of the centre.

Alternatively why can’t funds be found from Ealing’s £29+ million 2015/16 Better Care Fund (BCF)? This pooled fund is operated by LBE and the Ealing Clinical Commissioning Group. BCF exists in order to facilitate integrating health care and social care. The budget has not been finalised but should be in February 2015.

Maybe WLMHT and the Ealing BCF could jointly fund the $151,000 annual running cost of Solace?

More on Solace and to sign the Save Our Solace Centre petition ‘

There’s more about this story of the Ealing Today website

Photo of Jimi Hendrix from Marshall Amplifiers website

British rock music owes much to Jim Marshall and his amplifier shop in Hanwell.  Dubbed ‘the father of loud’ he came up with an amplifier that combined volume and distortion.  Marshall amplifiers were used by all manner of 60s rock guitarists  from Pete Townsend, Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page to Ritchie Blackmore, Eric Clapton and many, many more. Make a date to  watch Jim Marshall’s story  ‘Play it Loud – The Story of The Marshall Amp’on BBC4 this Friday at 10pm.  Have a look at Marshall’s website for more about their history.

The hugely successful Hanwell Hootie is now an annual celebration of Hanwell’s proud contribution to British rock music and it’s sponsored by Marshall Amplifiers.

The need to make hefty cuts in Council expendture has been flagged up for some time.  The Council needs to save £96 million by April 2019 as a result of reduced central government funding.  This will affect every single one of us from fortnightly waste collections and reduced road gritting to possibly closing the Solace mental health drop-in centre in West Ealing and 400 redundancies amongst Council staff.

We’ll come back to this in more detail but for now the Ealing Today website has a useful summary of some of the cuts that may be made.

A view along Radbourne Walk

As an allotment holder on the Northfields site I have an interest in this.  The Northfields allotments are now self-managed – by the Ealing Dean Allotment Society (EDAS)  – and it needs support to get a grant to make a little hidden gem of green space called Radbourne Walk even better!  Radbourne Walk is the name now given to the footpath that runs along the back of the allotments parallel to Northfield Ave. If you’ve walked down it in the past 12 months or so I hope you’ll have noticed  some changes with weeds cleared, poppies and other wildflowers giving a splash of colour in spring and summer.  This work was all done by volunteers and organised by EDAS. It now wants to make Radbourne Walk even better by putting in a new surface to replace the current rutted, muddy one and installing low-level solar lighting. They also want to plant new trees and fill in the gaps on the hedge with native species such as hawthorn, buckthorn, spindle, hazel and elder plus dogwood, dog rose and more which are ideal for wildlife.

EDAS wants to apply for a grant from the Council’s share of the Capital Clean Up Fund. Your help is needed for them to have a chance of success getting a grant. All you need to do is visit their website and leave a mesage of support. The more support they get the more likely they are to get a grant. Here’s just one message of support so far:

‘Many families use this as their ‘country walk’ at the weekends. I think this work would definitely raise the standard of this forgotten footpath, for everyone’

You can find out much more about Radbourne Walk here.

Thank you for your support.

I remember being told that for an area to thrive it needs good schools.  A few weeks ago I drove past St John’s Primary School in Felix Road and a banner caught my eye.  The banner proudly declared the school had a ‘good’ rating from its recent Ofsted report. So, I thought I’d ask the school about it and here is their reply:

‘Staff and pupils at St John’s Primary are celebrating a very positive report by Ofsted following an Inspection on the 1st and 2nd of July 2014. The school was inspected under Ofsted’s more rigorous framework for inspections during the two days, where the inspectors observed lessons, interviewed staff, governors, children and parents. The school secured a judgement of “Good” in all four categories including achievement, teaching and learning, leadership and management and behaviour and safety. “We are proud our Ofsted Report which recognises sustained improvements and has judged it to be good in all areas.” said Head Teacher, Marilyn Borlase.’
Highlights in the report include the comments that:
‘Behaviour is good and this is greatly valued by the pupils and their parents. Pupils say that they always feel safe in school’

‘Teaching is good. Teachers use information about pupils’ progress to plan work which challenges them well’

‘The school is a happy and lively community’

‘Teachers manage their classes well and very good use is made of additional adults to help all pupils do their best work’

Ofsted 2014

Congratulations to Marilyn Borlase, all her teachers and team at St John’s.

In case you want to check on the Ofsted rating for any other local school you can start here and follow the links to the particular school you want.

Out of interest I checked other local primary schools and all had ‘good’ ratings from their last Ofsted report  – Drayton Green, Fielding and Oaklands. Also,  Elthorne Park High School, on the back of its recent GCSE results, is the most improved high school in Ealing over the past two years. Congratulations to them too.