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

Unleash your inner art critic – for radio

THURSDAY DECEMBER 1st. 2011, 6.00 – 9.30pm. Cost: £25

At OPEN Ealing Arts Project, 113 Uxbridge Road, London, W5 5TL
Refreshments and course materials will be provided. Numbers are limited so please reserve a place by emailing chrissie.kravchenko (AT) btinternet.com with your contact details.

Find your VOICE and make your CHOICE

 Estelle Lovatt is a freelance art critic for broadcast and print including BBC Radio 2’s flagship arts programme `The New Arts Show With Claudia Winkleman’ and `Art of England’ magazine. In this workshop she will coach budding art critics how to write art reviews specifically for radio. Art criticism for radio involves a specific way of both looking at and describing a work of art. The workshop will look at how the spoken (versus the written) critique is presented, script layout and writing for the programme host. The venue for the workshop is the OPEN community art gallery, where there will be an exhibition to inspire you.

To criticize art properly on air, you need to understand the work and its importance and relay that to the listener, who cannot see it. This  involves description, analysis and interpretation of the artwork.

We will also look at how critics decide what they really think about the artwork. Do you like or dislike it? Why? And how do YOU feel about  whether the artist was successful in conveying an idea? You will present your own style arts programme review, where you’ll talk about whether an artwork is successful. This will involve looking at the use of formal compositional elements and principles of design and how  these interact. The feelings invoked by each work of art will be based on your own personal experiences and judgement! The aim is that listeners  will follow and trust your opinions and you can build up a following.

www.womeninradio.org.uk

Charity Reg. Number: 801473
Company Reg. Number: 2340282 

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.

Government Examines Ealing’s 15 Year Plan – Final Day

DAY 8 – Wednesday 23 November 2011

As part of an ongoing series, Eric Leach reports from the Independent Examination of Ealing Council’s 2026 Local Development Framework Core Strategy (LDF CS).

Elizabeth Fieldhouse, the Government appointed Planning Inspector, today concluded her examination of Ealing Council’s 15 year land use plans. Her public examination hearings, which lasted eight and a half days, have considered Ealing Council’s Local Development Framework Core Strategy (LDF CS).

Hard copies of the latest batch (200+!) of the Inspector’s suggested changes and the Council’s responses were handed out to attendees. There were many queries on the detailed Council responses and none more so than on heritage issues. Representatives from the Ealing Cricket Ground Area Panel (CGAP), Ealing Civic Society (ECS) and the LibDems all made various attempts to make the LDF CS more heritage friendly but met stout resistance from Ealing Council. ECS strongly questioned why there was no explicit protection for Ealing centre’s heritage assets.

Continue reading “Government Examines Ealing’s 15 Year Plan – Final Day”

This week’s gigs at Ealing’s historic blues club

I have a bit of a personal interest in this post. My taste in music was heavily influenced by my brother who is five years older than me. He was a teenager living in London from mid-1964 onwards and he was an avid fan of blues music so was always going to the Marquee Club , Eel Pie Island and many other clubs and venues, though not The Ealing Club as he told me its heyday was over by 1964. So, Ealing’s central role in the development of British blues music in the early 1960s was indirectly crucial to my musical education. Alistair who is raising funds for a blue plaque to mark the role of The Ealing Club has dropped in to OPEN a couple of times to promote his special fund-raising blues nights at the club and I hope he succeeds with his efforts to get greater recognition of the role played by Alexis Korner and The Ealing Club. I couldn’t get to any of the previous blues nights in the summer so I hope this time I can manage to get along to one of the nights. Details of the three nights are below.

(You can listen to a BBC Radio 6 programme about Alexis Korner and his contribution to British music which talks about The Ealing Club at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b008tt3x/Alexis_Korner_Rhythm_and_Blues_Champion_Juvenile_Delinquent/ )

 

The Ealing Club Blue Plaque Gigs

To raise the final funds for the Ealing Club plaque, we have managed to put together three nights of music, featuring many musicians who realise the importance of the venue and are offering their time and input to help celebrate it.

The club, now called The Red Room, is diagonally opposite the station by the set of stairs that goes down to the footpath that brings you out on the Uxbridge Road almost opposite the entrance to the Ealing Broadway Shopping Centre.

(The photo shows Ealing Broadway station in the 1960s looking across to The Ealing Club.)

22nd November:

The Hubcaps
Blues Covers and Original Material, with a very accomplished Harmonica Player at the helm.

The Bolaji Blues Band
Searing Blues Guitar will be on offer from this local band, who are rapidly sealing a reputation for their interpretation, of well known blues classics.

Brace Yourself
Following their brushes with Banksy in their former guise as Exit through the Gift Shop, this band entertained and went down a storm at their last Ealing Club Fringe performance. Guitar covers of 70′s/80′s 90′s classics.

23rd November:

Live music on Wednesday, will have a tinge of Jazz with the band Fallen Heroes, who ave already graced the Liverpool Jazz Festival and Ronnie Scotts. Cyril Davies may not have approved of the brass section but maybe Alexis would have given it a go.

The night will be hosted by Swamprock Dj’s Carol Lateman and Nigel Bewley. Sure to be lively, upbeat and of the highest quality. http://thefallenheroes.com/

24th November:

The Blues Tribute night on Thursday will serve up the Blues ……Robert Hokum/Guvnors, Norrie Burnett (British  Blues pioneer who even played with Cyril Davies) Doc Stenson (Singer, Guitar and Harmonica player, who played with Alexis Korner and entertained audiences at the July Ealing Fringe Gigs) with Ramon Goose and Geoff Garbow

Please e-mail us to reserve a place on the door, as we will limit the audience to 100 per night – ealing-club@hotmail.co.uk

More details available on the websites:

www.ealing-club.com

www.facebook.com/ealingclub

 

David Highton

Update on dealing with anti-social behaviour in Dean Gardens

There has been considerable activity over the last month, the police, council, and charities have been working together and overall the general view is that the area is returning to normality. Current evidence shows that some of our known suspects have responded to the coordinated pressure over the last few weeks and are dispersing.  This is excellent news.

To give you the flavour of the work in hand: retail outlets, off-licences and cafés in the Dean Gardens area have been visited and encouraged to join the responsible retailer programme.  Many are cooperating fully.  The aim is to stop retailers selling to people who are in no fit state to consume – this applies particularly to both alcohol and khat.  In addition, a massive body of evidence has been accumulated and some ASBOs will be put in front of the courts very shortly and we expect to be serving these orders immediately when they are granted.  These will further curtail the known suspects and deter any new suspects on whom intelligence has been built in recent weeks.  We are pleased to report that following the increased police resources on the ground has resulted in over 40 arrests and 176 searches being made.

In summary – considerable progress towards the rehabilitation of Dean Gardens is being achieved.  We are now planning for returning to normality as the intense joint action programme winds down.  We look forward to the area becoming a safer place – day and night – a green space in West Ealing that is a central part of the neighbourhood.   If you are aware of any anti-social behaviour or drug related incident, you can report it by ringing 101 (this number is for all calls to the police other than emergencies – for which please ring 999).  101 will get you through to the Metropolitan Police who will pass the details to a duty officer in Ealing for collation by our intelligence team.

Thank you.

Patrick Chapman,
Walpole SNT Focus Panel Chair

18th November 2011

 

 

New Restaurant to open in W5 – TUK CHO

If you know where Edwards used to be and have noticed the re-furb, then you may be interested in a new restaurant that will be opening in 38 days time (according to their website!) called TUK CHO. It’s based on ‘asian market eating’.

You can discover what TUK CHỢ has to offer at lunch or dinner on Wednesday 21st, Thursday 22nd and Friday 23rd December, or lunch on Saturday 24th December. They are offering 50% off all food on these four days.

Check out their website too http://tukchoealing.co.uk/

Government Examines Ealing’s 15 Year Plan – Phasing, delivery and monitoring and UDP

DAY 7 – Wednesday 16 November 2011

As part of an ongoing series, Eric Leach reports from the Independent Examination of Ealing Council’s 2026 Local Development Framework Core Strategy (LDF CS).

I missed the morning session on Maps but attended most of the afternoon session on phasing etc.

The Government Inspector Elizabeth Fieldhouse asked the Council to make explicit reference in the 15 year spatial strategy plans (the Local Development Framework Core Strategy – LDF CS) to the fact that the delivery schedule would be updated annually.

Ealing Civic Society (ECS) argued that parts of the delivery schedule (eg education) were not up to date or consistent and the Inspector asked the Council to bring the schedule up to date in the final LDF CS submission document.

The Inspector emphasised that although there were quantitative targets for some aspects of the LDF CS (eg office space, industrial space, new homes, and retail space) such targets were missing for other aspects of the plan. The Inspector also wanted to see more attention given to phasing in the delivery schedule. In order for the LDF Annual Monitoring Report (AMR) to be effective there had to be quantitative reporting against delivery milestones.

Continue reading “Government Examines Ealing’s 15 Year Plan – Phasing, delivery and monitoring and UDP”

Government Examines Ealing’s 15 Year Plan – Protecting and Enhancing Ealing’s Green and Open Spaces

DAY 6 – Tuesday 15 November 2011

As part of an ongoing series, Eric Leach reports from the Independent Examination of Ealing Council’s 2026 Local Development Framework Core Strategy (LDF CS).

Inspector Fieldhouse began today with examining Ealing’s Local Development Framework Core Strategy (LDF CS) with respect to protecting and enhancing Ealing’s green and open spaces over the next 15 years. The afternoon session would cover Climate Change and Sustainable Development (see below).

This was a better attended session with some 20 objectors and five Council Officers. We even had our first Ealing Councillor attend – Conservative Nigel Sumner from Hanger Hill Ward.

A representative from Twyford Abbey argued hard and long that the 5 hectares of Abbey land should become primarily a public park, with the Abbey converted to residential use and some other residential development on the site. Ealing Council was not convinced.

Continue reading “Government Examines Ealing’s 15 Year Plan – Protecting and Enhancing Ealing’s Green and Open Spaces”