West Ealing Neighbours Blog

Saturday 9th September 1-9pm in Dean Gardens

Music line-up

13:00  Ealing Rock Choir

13:30  Chasing Deer:  an exciting and energetic three piece with a fun pop/rock band style.  Think Beatles, Bowie and Lumineers. They perform a mix of original material and classic cover songs

14:15  Mariachi Las Adelitas:  Mariachi musicians will stroll around Dean Gardens to entertain while the next band sets up on stage

14:30 James Knight Trio:  Led by saxophonist James who has played alongside Kylie Minoque, Kirsty Macoll and many more, this trio play quality funk.

15:15  Mariachi Las Adelitas: as above

15:30 TJ Johnson and The Preachers:  Expect a blistering set influenced by Chicago Blues, Johnny Guitar Watson style Funk and Hendrix style RnB.

16:30  Mariachi Las Adelitas: as above

16:45  Born of the Sun:  Heavy Blues Rockers and the children of the generation that witnessed the birth of the British Blues Explosion at the Ealing Club in the 60s. Musically educated on their parents STONES & WHO records, the Ealing born power trio unleash gutsy sonic flare, fused with lyrical tales of lands of rising suns

17:30  Mariachi Las Adelitas:  as above

17:45  Scarlet Kite:    An acoustic band big on folk and blues.  They bring strong harmonies interwoven with an uplifting, melodic wall of sound.  They produce punchy guitar rhythms, fine finger-picking, solid piano bases, a soaring fiddle and an ethereal flute, packing masses of spell-binding atmosphere.

18:15 King Buster Blues Band:   Described as the hypotenuse of blues, King Buster play their melodic catchy songs around a blues format with two drummers, lap steel, harmonica and guitars to soothe the soul then get you on the dance floor.

19:00 DJ set

19:15 Namvula Rennie: Her Scottish & Zambian Roots have helped inspire her song writing, tracks that combine African and Jazz influences are propelled to audiences with accomplished musicians

20:00 Ramon Goose:  An English guitarist, singer and producer known for his work with the West African Blues Project.

21:00 End

Full details of the SoundBite Festival are here

West Ealing Centre Neighbourghood Forum (WECNF) has launched a petition to save the old Woolworths art deco facade from demolition as part of a planned redevelopment of the site by A2Dominion housing asociation.  WECNF has produced a spatial plan for the centre of West Ealing which includes a list of key heritage buildings/features it wishes to see preserved. The Woolworths facade is on this list.

You can read more about this story on this blog

You can sign their petition via their website.  

 

 

I’m sure you all know this little piece of green on the corner by Sainsbury’s. It is home to dozens of pigeons, frequently covered in bits of bread and, sometimes, black bags of dumped rubbish.  It seems such a shame that it’s become an eyesore. What can we do to make it look better? If we can come up with some ideas WEN can put them to the Council and talk to them about these ideas.

I’ve heard a few ideas suggested such as cycle racks, artwork/sculpture and flowers, herbs and  shrubs (that can withstand the pigeons). I’m sure there are lots of other possibilities. Could you please spare just a few minutes to give us your ideas and comments so we can put these to the council. I can’t guarantee what the Council will decide but I’m confident we can put some really good ideas to them.

Pease email your ideas to us at westealingneighbours@gmail.com

Many thanks for your help.

Local housing association A2Dominion revealed its plans for the old Woolworths site in West Ealing at a public exhibition last Saturday.  Key points in their plans include:

• 118 homes with 35% affordable (of the affordable homes 60% will be affordable rent and 40% shared ownership)
• 11 storeys at front on Uxbridge Rd and 15 at the back on Singapore Rd
• The art-deco facade will go as it is in poor repair and very restricting on how the new building could be designed making in financially unviable
• the facade on to the Uxbridge Rd will compliment the proposed next door BHS site development
• No parking but 172 cycle spaces
• retail outlets retained on ground floor

A2Dominion is already developing the nearby Green Man Lanes Estate and the next door site, the old BHS building, is awaiting development with up to 135 homes.

A2Dominion want to hear your views on their plans. The detailed plans and how to have your say are on their website.  February 2020 – this website no longer works.

Ealing Council is looking for views on of introducing a regular market in Northfield Ave – on the pavement between Kingsdown Ave and Elers Rd. There’s been a series of monthly pilot markets to test this idea with the last to be held in August. If you have any thoughts then there’s an online consultation form with more information where you can give your views. Closing date is 31st May.

West Ealing residents have voted by a large majority for a CPZ in the area south from Uxbridge Rd down to Leighton Rd and across from Northfield Ave to Grosvenor Rd and Seward Rd.  With just over 600 votes cast some 64% were in favour of introducing a CPZ. Full street by street details will soon be available on the Council’s website.

Next week’s public enquiry in to the planning application for 9-42 The Broadway has been cancelled following the last minute sale of the site by Benson Elliott to British Land.   Consequently, the planning application has been withdrawn.

 

Reflections on the Inquiry Cancellation

I would dearly love to tell you that the land owner Benson Elliot got cold feet at the last minute – realising it would lose – and withdrew its Planning Application. However the reason for the withdrawal /cancellation is apparently much more prosaic. It’s all about money. Seemingly on 5 May 2017 British Land (BL) finalised the purchase of 9-42 The Broadway from Benson Elliot (BE). This led to BE withdrawing its planning Application. No doubt in the fullness of time British Land will come up with its own design and submit its own Planning Application. All this is so very late in the day. It was on 11 January 2017 that ‘Co-Star’ leaked that BE wanted to sell and BL wanted to buy!

So all the massive volunteer work carried out by SEC – especially Will French – and Ealing Civic Society (ECS) and local Conservation Area Panels will go to waste. Goodness knows whether SEC’s barrister and Historic England’s barrister will be able to recoup their fees from BE. It would be very cruel if the £29,433 raised by SEC from local residents has to pay for barrister’s fees relating to a non-event.

The awful prospect of this cycle of ownership change, Planning Application, Application granting, objections, SoS call-in and Public Inquiry happening all over again is entirely possible.

Ealing Council is ultimately to blame for this ten year long Arcadia/9-42 The Broadway fiasco. The Council has never really in recent years got a grip on creating, managing and maintaining a coherent town centre plan. The Council has also done little to help and much to hinder the creation of a Central Ealing Neighbourhood Plan. The Council is seemingly been happy to let landowners and developers do what they want to.

Eric Leach

6 May 2017

Historic Public Planning Inquiry on Ealing Centre to Begin on Tuesday 9 May 2017

This is the first of Eric Leach’s daily entries about this enquiry and refelct his personal views and not those of either West Ealing Neighbours or Save Ealing’s Centre.

‘It’s quite rare for the Secretary of State to ‘call-in’ a planning application. It’s even rarer for the Secretary of State to do this twice for the same piece of land. This probably unique process has resulted in a Public Planning Inquiry at Ealing Town Hall from 9 to 27 May 2017.

The land in question is bounded to the north by mainline railway lines, to the south and east by The Broadway and to the west by The Arcadia Centre (that was) itself bounded by Springbridge Road. In 2009 when the first Planning Inquiry took place the area included the Arcadia site. The inquiry, dubbed the Arcadia Inquiry, was won by local stakeholders who ‘beat’ developers Glenkerrin and the London Borough of Ealing (LBE). I wrote a daily blog on this inquiry.

The Planning Application in question is P/2015/3479. It relates specifically to 9 – 42 The Broadway and 1 – 4 Haven Place. It’s a dense, mixed use development involving wholesale demolition. The land owner/developer is Benson Elliot (BE). The two main objectors (so called Rule 6 participants) are Save Ealing’s Centre (SEC) and Historic England (HE). SEC are being supported by Ealing Civic Society (ECS) and local Conservation Panels. The application supporters are BE and LBE.

The timing of the inquiry is significant for a number of reasons. Firstly, the ownership of the land is likely to change as strong allegations exist that BE has agreed to sell the land to British Land. As is the habit of new owners, they will have their own ideas about how to develop the site – so whatever the outcome of the inquiry we are likely to go through yet another planning application cycle.

Secondly, we are about to hear whether the Planning Inspectorate will allow LBE’s illegal encroachment onto the Common Land at Haven Green. This issue was the subject of yet another public inquiry in Ealing Town Hall in March 2017.

Thirdly, we have the imminent departure of LBE’s regeneration supremo Pat Hayes. Mr Hayes became LBE’s Planning and Regeneration boss in 2007. Since then he has been responsible for the chaos on the unbuilt cinema site, our inadequate Crossrail Stations, the retail disaster at Dickens Yard, illegal Haven Green encroachment, gifting 61 acres at Warren Farm to QPR, lack of support for Neighbourhood Forums, Conservation Areas and heritage assets, annual inappropriate junkets to MIPIM in Cannes and, of course, the 2009 Arcadia development failure.

I will attend every day of the inquiry and at the end of each day I will be writing a blow by blow report. David Highton has kindly agreed to post the reports here in the WEN blog. The opinions expressed in my reports will be personal ones and not WEN or SEC opinions. As for the outcome of the inquiry, I anticipate a unique victory for SEC, ECS, local residents, Historic England and for common sense.’

Eric Leach

29 April 2017