Working together to make West Ealing a better place for residents, businesses and visitors.
Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) are coming to West Ealing starting this week. West Ealing Neighbours will be running three polls across the six-month trial implementation period to gauge residents’ views and whether views change over time.
Our first poll is here and will stay open until Sunday 6th September. Once all three polls have been completed we will use the results as part of our submission to the Council about the Low Traffic Neighbourhoods in West Ealing.
With over 4,000 signatures on the online petition to stop the introduction of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) in the borough, this is a controversial issue.
The arguments against the LTNs are laid out alongside the online petition and on the Exposure Box video.
On the Council’s side an update has been issued on the Live West Ealing website which gives more detail on the thinking behind the LTNs south and north of The Broadway. The update gives some information about how to comment on the schemes once introduced.
The end of August is the deadline to complete the survey, or give your comments about, the Council’s plans for 53 new homes in the Dean Gardens/Maitland Yard car parks.
There were two online Q&A sessions on 5th Augsut which contain some useful information about the plans. These should be available to view on the special website for these plans in a few days. Some key points:
There will be three blocks of flats moving from 4-storeys by the Salvation Army building to 8-storeys at the corner of Leeland Terrace and The Broadway
The homes will be built to passive standards to minimise their carbon footprint.
The homes will be mostly 1 and 2 bedroom. On the Q&A session there was a question about whether 1 and 2 bedroom were the right sort of properties to tackle the housing waiting list. The answer was that it is difficult to address local housing needs on such a small site.
There will be a mixture of homes for private sale and to rent at London Affordable Rent rates
The two pedestrian routes through from The Broadway will be retained and the lighting improved to make these routes safer and more attractive
There will be an overall loss of about 20 parking spaces across the three car parks – Maitland Yard, Dean Gardens and Leeland Terrace – leaving some 36 spaces.
The Farmers’ Market stallholders will still be able to park on Saturdays for the weekly market
There will be a public seating area roughly where part of the Leeland Terrace car park is now
There was a question about the importance of tackling the anti-social behaviour that plagues this area, especially Maitland Yard. The architects were aware of this problem but clearly need to talk to the police and Council anti-social behavior team to fully understand the problem and how their design needs to deal with this. This needs stressing as the residents of Leeland mansions and Pioneer Court have had to put up with years of anti-social behaviour – drug dealing, drug taking, street drinkers and so on.
Sunday saw a number of street meetings and protests against the Council’s planned series of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (see story below for full details of the plans). The LTNs will be operational by early September with a six-month review period. It seems certain the Council will go-ahead with these LTNs despite the protests.
Once these LTNs are in place residents who still wish to object will be able to give their views to the Council during the consultation. The Council is due to write to all residents in the LTN areas explaining the reasons why the LTNs are being brought in and how to make their comments. We will follow up about the consultation once details are available but one obvious step is to notes and photographs any problems that result from the LTNs to send as evidence for the consultation.
Wednesday 5th August: The LTN south of The Broadway is due to be installed on 24th August.
Photo: Gill Shaw
The petition objecting to the proposed plans for the Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTN) has reached over 3,400 signatures. The LTN for the West Ealing area (map above) south from The Broadway to Blondin Park and west from Northfield Ave to Boston Road is due to be implemented mid-August. Some residents will be in favour of this LTN and others will be opposed. if you are concerned about this LTN then the statement below is from the petition and explains the reasons for objecting:
‘As local residents, we object to the proposed plans for the local Ealing LTNs. We intend to unite to oppose these plans and demand an opportunity to be consulted so that the final plans benefit all residents. Whilst we support the overarching objective of reducing traffic & improving the environment, we don’t believe this proposal is fit for purpose.
The essence of our objection is that:
The closure of local Distributor Roads will divert traffic onto narrower, quieter residential roads. This will add traffic onto these minor roads, reduce air quality and add dangers to residents and their children going about their lives.
The proposals have not been officially published for consultation and therefore the residents have not been afforded the chance to consider the matter. We deem this to be undemocratic, non-transparent, and a failure of the Council to serve the community responsibly.
We believe this lack of transparency has created much fear and anger in people.
We require the council to share with us the following:
*Objectives to the scheme
*Timelines of the overarching plan
*Maps of all proposed impacted areas
*Evidence based Data on traffic in roads in question.
*Impact assessments & Risk assessments which should include statements & assessments from London Fire services, emergency services & St John’s Ambulance
*Success criteria & measurements pre & post trials
*Consultation period dates & timings
Many proposed plans for the area we consider to be totally impractical and contravene the LTN objectives. Should the proposed plan be submitted and accepted in its current form, much of the traffic will struggle to flow bi-directionally, as many of the routes are too narrow. This is likely to create significant congestion which will increase engine idling and increase fuel consumption, thereby delivering a negative impact on the quality of air.
We are also concerned that congestion/road blockages may cause problems for emergency service access. We have many elderly, vulnerable residents in poor health, with an increased dependency on emergency and medical services during this COVID 19 pandemic, when timely interventions can be critical. We believe this plan to be completely ageist & discriminatory against at least 20% of Ealing’s residents. Along with our concerns for the emergency services (fire & ambulance), we worry the impact this scheme will have on our public services and the access they require weekly to conduct their duties. The current scheme makes no provision for an alternate route for traffic to enter or leave the area. Thus, at least every week, when said public service vehicles perform their duties, all impacted residences will be placed in gridlock with little or no vehicular access.
We also object to the plan to implement this without proper consultation. We have been informed that there will not be a consultation period before this trial starts, but a review conducted post trial. This is totally undemocratic and will cause 6 months of stress and chaos for a huge proportion of residents at a time (Covid-19) when many are already suffering hugely. We do not accept that it is democratic for consultations to start only after the scheme/trial has been implemented. We believe that you are abusing emergency measures which were intended to solve far greater problems than local ‘rat-runs’.
In summary, whilst we support the overall objective to reduce traffic and improve our environment, we demand an opportunity to have all plans for the area (8 LTNs) shared with us and resident’s agreements sought, prior to implementation.’
Over the past few years one bank after another in West Ealing has closed. Now it’s the turn of Barclays. It is due to close on Friday 30th October. That will leave just the Post Office and Nationwide. Needless to say the reason for closure is the move to more and more online banking services. All very well, but I suspect quite a few people in West Ealing don’t use online banking. So, let’s hope there aren’t plans to close Nationwide and the Post Office.
Electric vehicle charging points are coming to:
Brisbane Road
Cleveland Road
Eccleston Road
Milford Road
Seaford Road
Sutherland Road
The full story is on the Ealing Today website
This is the map for the Council’s Low Traffic neighbourhood area south of The Broadway. Here’s a link to our story about this.
The Council’s Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) plans are causing considerable concern amongst some of the residents in the affected areas. The Ealing Low Traffic Neighbourhood Action Group has been set up and their Facebook page is here.
Much of the concern centres around the disruption the LTNs will bring for local driving by pushing traffic off local distributor roads and on to quieter residential roads along with the impact on businesses , emergency services and deliveries. An online petition has been set up for people wanting the Council to have a consultation with residents before any action is taken. To date over 3,250 people have signed it. As it stands, the consultation will take place during the six months from installation of the LTNs.
Walking up Melbourne Avenue this sight caught my attention. It seems to capture West Ealing at the moment.
If a picture speaks louder than words then this photo shouts out build high, build big. The demolition of Woolworths allows us to see the extent of the building on the old BHS site with an even bigger one coming soon to fill this gap. And before long we will know the fate of the 19-storey tower planned for Manor Road which may soon be followed by the planned 25-storey tower opposite the station on the Majestic Wine Warehouse site.
As we suggested in our post last week, Ealing Council is developing plans to build 54 new homes in five and seven storey blocks on the site of Dean Gardens car park. It looks like there will be some public parking spaces left though how many is unclear.
The website for this development is due to launch today (Tuesday 21st July) . There are online Q&A sessions planned for Wednesday 5th August 1pm or 6.30pm.
Sunday 2nd August
It looks like there will be an overall loss of about 20 parking spaces across the three existing car parks of Maitland Yard, Dean Gardens car park and Leeland Terrace car park. The spaces will come down from 57 to 38.
We will continue to update this story as we find out more about the plans.