Eric Leach, West Ealing Neighbours Vice-Chair, speaks about his experiences with Ealing Council’s on planning issues and how at least one other Council responded to his request for planning information.
Ealing Transition looking for people to help it tell its story
Ealing Transition is a focal point for practical community action on peak oil and climate change. It now has 1200 members and is looking for volunteers to help it tell its story:
Telling the Transition Story
Are you a storyteller, a journalist, blogger or film-maker? Could you get Ealing Transition into the headlines? We need a team to start magnifying the effect of our work, making our website work harder, using social media to its greatest potential, making presentations to groups around the borough etc. Contact steering@ealingtransition.org.uk if you think you can help.
Local people to plan the centres of Ealing and West Ealing
According to the new Localism Act local people will soon be able to assemble a Neighbourhood Forum of 21 people or more who will discuss and propose the design of their local area. Save Ealing Centre (SEC), an alliance of 25 residents’ and community groups, has proposed the setting up of two Neighbourhood Forums – one for Ealing centre and one for West Ealingcentre. As part of these initiatives in 2011, SEC sought funding from national government, which if successful would amount to £40,000. We’ll hear soon whether this bid has been successful.
Neighbourhood Forums are required to be made up of a representative group of local stakeholders. I expect residents’ groups, community groups, businesses, faith groups, educational establishments and infrastructure providers to attend and contribute to these forum meetings.
These forum meetings are likely to be a breath of fresh air as they are likely to be the first such regular meetings in modern times at which local people/traders/service providers will be asked about how they want their town centres to be preserved, re-used and /or ‘developed’. These will be difficult discussions in which trade-offs between different needs – like quality of life, culture, healthcare, education, law and order, business and housing – will have to be thrashed out.
Unsurprisingly there are whole ‘rafts’ of planning legislation which the forums will have to wrestle with. At national level we have the newly proposed NationalPlanning PolicyFramework. At regional level we have the new version of The London Plan. At town level we have Ealing Council’s draft Local Development Framework Core Strategy (LDF CS). National government will decide whether it wants to accept Ealing’s LDF CS in early 2012.
All these planning policies contain a presumption in favour of property development, which seems somewhat out of place in a country with massive debts, a depressed construction industry and with no prospects of any significant economic growth for years to come. However it appears that no major political party wants to adopt a common sense policy of making the best use of what we’ve got.
The Localism Act will become fully enabled by April 2012. Neighbourhood Forums have a lifetime of five years. To find out more about Neighbourhood Forums and the Localism Bill you’ll find a useful briefing at www.urbanforum.org.uk/briefings/localism-act-briefing. To track progress of these Ealing Neighbourhood Forum initiatives see SEC’s web site at www.saveealingscentre.com and West Ealing Neighbours’ web site at www.westealingneighbours.org.uk.
Eric Leach
3 January 2012
Pedestrian Safety at the Lido Junction: The Public Have Their Say
On Tuesday 6 December 2011 some 50 people attended a public meeting to discuss Ealing Council’s proposals to make the Lido Junction safe for pedestrians – for the first time in living memory. West Ealing Neighbours (WEN) organised the meeting and it was WEN (along with Five Roads and Kingsdown Residents’ groups) who researched and published its findings and recommendations on the junction in 2009. This report in fact stimulated the Council and Transport (TfL) for London into action.
We are in the middle of a public consultation on the proposals and Councillor Mahfouz, the Council’s Transport Czar, answered questions posed by the audience on the proposals.
Continue reading “Pedestrian Safety at the Lido Junction: The Public Have Their Say”
Launch of OPEN Ealing’s daytime book club Wednesday 7th December 10.30am
OPEN has a coffee bar with comfy sofas and bookshelves – the perfect place to talk about books. So, we’re starting a morning book group with our first meeting on Wednesday 7th December 10.30am- 12noon. We’re at 113 Uxbridge Road (opposite the fire station)
Everyone is welcome: bring along your baby, if you like; come in after you’ve dropped the children at school or during your shopping trip; or just come along to get out of the house for a bit. And bring your friends too.
In the first meeting we’ll just have coffee and cakes and talk about the kind of books we like to read. And we’ll draw up a list of books for future discussion.
Look forward to seeing you there!
Angela
WEN public meeting about plans to make Lido Junction safer on Tuesday 6th December at OPEN Ealing 7.30pm
West Ealing Neighbours is holding a public meeting on Tuesday 6th December at OPEN Ealing as part of the public consultation about the Council’s planned changes to the Lido Junction. The changes include an all-red stop phase to allow pedestrians to cross all four arms in safety.
This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to make crucial pedestrian safety changes at this notorious junction. Please do come along to hear the details of the Council’s plans and why there are some concerns about the possible impact on north-south traffic flow. Stopping parking on the eastern side of Drayton Green Road makes sense and is as we suggested but the proposed introduction of a loading bay and five stop-and-shop parking bays on the west side of Drayton Green Road seems entirely counter-productive and likely to cause delays for northbound traffic. Whatismore, the shops in Drayton Green Road do not want a loading bay so it’s not at all clear why one is proposed. We can ask why at our meeting but if you are unable to make it on the 6th do please think carefully about these two elements and object if you feel they are likley to cause delays to traffic in Drayton Green Road.
The meeting is at OPEN Ealing, 113 Uxbridge Road – opposite the fire station and on the corner with Culmington Road.
Ealing Winter Night Shelter – sheets, blankets, helpers needed
Hi, just went to a meeting – 13 Ealing churches are opening their doors to increasing numbers of rough sleepers in the borough, from Jan to March 2012. They are short of single fitted sheets, blankets and overnight (and other) helpers. Video below is well worth watching. More info on their website: http://ecwns.org.uk/index.html
The Ladykillers, Third Man, If … cinema treats in Ealing
Can street pastors help night-time West Ealing?
This report is from Ann Clifford, about her experience as a Street Pastor in West Ealing:
‘Street Pastors have been patrolling in Ealing Broadway for two years now. I joined a year ago and as a resident of West Ealing, was extremely excited when, three weeks ago, we had our first patrol in West Ealing.
What is a Street Pastor? A Street Pastor is someone who’s main role is to make themselves available to care, listen, support and help all people on the street, particularly the young and vulnerable. We also pick up bottles so they cannot be used as weapons. You’ll be surprised to learn that amongst other things, we carry with us space blankets, spikies (a device you put on a bottle to stop it being spiked), and of course flip flops. Why flip flops? I Continue reading “Can street pastors help night-time West Ealing?”
Come along to our second Tweetup – 10 November at the Star and Anchor
It’s that time again! After our very successful Tweetup in June, West Ealing Neighbours is having another one! The Star and Anchor is hosting our the event on Thursday, 10 November from 7:30pm.
It’s a chance to have a drink and a chat with your neighbours in West Ealing, meet some new people, and maybe even make a connection or two! We’re inviting local tweeters, bloggers, foodies, councillors and personalities. There will be locals to talk to about the arts in Ealing, including local film, reading and music. Or, if you’re interested in the bricks and mortar of our community, you can talk to people about local planning issues and regeneration. Maybe there’s a fantastic local restaurant you want to tell everyone about?
We’ll also be hosting a book swap where you can bring along the books you want to share with others, and find some new ones to read!
So come on down to the Star and Anchor (they’re will be probably be nibbles!)- it would be great to see you there and have a drink with you!
Date: Thursday, 10 November, 2011
Time: From 7:30pm til late
Where: The Star and Anchor, 94 Uxbridge Road, West Ealing, London, W13 8RA
Who’ll be there: Members of West Ealing Neighbours, and other West Ealing and Ealing locals