This will be our second Family Day and it will be even bigger and better than last year! We have managed to secure Opera Viscera who will be at St James Church running a children’s workshop at 1pm and later on that day at 3.15pm there will be a performance by this exciting collection of young artists.
The Family day will stretch from St John’s Church on Mattock Lane to St James Avenue. There will be food, live music across several locations, an extended farmers market, children’s activities, WEN Abundance will be selling our popular jams and chutneys and for the first time our very own apple juice!
This is a great way to celebrate life and the community in West Ealing after the shock and destruction of the recent riots.
What Does Ealing Council Have Against Felix Road Residents?
Felix Road runs east /west to the immediate north of Green Man Lane Estate (GMLE) and with the Paddington to Bristol railway line to the north. For years and years traffic congestion, rat running, residents’ parking problems and road rage have all been common along the road.
Famously in 2009 Ealing Council built two new portacabin classrooms stacked on top of each other overlooking houses and flats at the road’s eastern end without going through any public consultation. Now, again without any consultation or notice a huge amount of the road has been yellow lined, making residents’ parking impossible.
Four Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) Public Consultations have been held in the area in recent years. The latest one, completed months ago, voted 61% in favour of a CPZ. However no timescale for implementation has been given to residents.
Finally Ealing Council granted planning permission in 2010 for the 700+ new homes development of GMLE along with increased access to Felix Road. Over the next eight years another 1,200 GMLE residents will attract even more traffic along Felix Road.
Just why isit that Ealing Council consistently wants to pour grief down on Felix Road residents?
Eric Leach
OPEN Ealing launches its autumn season of classes and courses for adults
OPEN Ealing has launched its autumn season of activities for adults. Coming up soon are:
5-week course on introduction to photography
12-week course in creative writing
12-week series of talks on the history of 20th century design
6-week course on printmaking
Alongside these are all sorts of dance and exercise classes for all ages from zumba and pilates to Glee Club, breakdance and ballet.
Visit our new website at www.openealing.com for full details.
David Highton
Uxbridge Road in West Ealing closed due to shooting
The Uxbridge Road between Culmington Road and Broughton Road is closed this morning (Sunday) following a shooting incident at about 5am this morning.The road is likely to be closed until at least midday. More news when we have it.
Update at 11.10am
Shooting took place at an internet cafe. Three van loads of police have just arrived at the scene so I doubt if the road will be reopened for a while yet.
Update at 1.15pm
The Uxbridge Road has been opened for westbound traffic.
Open Day at OPEN Ealing 11am-5pm today
Drop in today to OPEN Ealing any time between 11am – 5pm and find out about our autumn season of classes for photography, printmaking, creative writing, ballet, zumba, yoga, pilates and much, much more.
OPEN Ealing is at 113 Uxbridge Road (opposite the fire station).
Fancy volunteering for some apple and pear picking?
WEN Abundance are coming into our exceptionaly busy phase with apples and pears coming out of our ears ready to be picked. If you are free, particularily during the daytime this week or next I would love to hear from you.
Most of our picking takes place in private gardens, we have equipment for you to use and will offer safety guidelines too.
We use the fruit in a variety of different ways from juicing through to making our own jams and chutneys. Any money we make from the sale of the produce is ploughed back into the project to help us buy equipment.
So if you want to help us reduce waste please offer up some of your spare time.
Contact me on here, or by email to wenabundance@gmail.com
Street drinkers in West Ealing move to Green Man Passage
Well it looks like the Police have been successful in moving the drinkers out of Dean Gardens; instead they seem to have taken up residence in Green Man Passage. For those of you not familiar with this cut through, it is accessed via Alexandra Road by Waitrose and takes you in-between the Cancer Research shop and Seba Electronics in West Ealing Broadway.
There are two Happy Child Nurseries based there which makes the experience even more unsatisfatory for those of us that drop of and pick up our children. I often walk in to the entrance of the Nursery passing groups of drinkers sat on the wall by the entrance. Rubbish is often strewn along the route and in a small passage near the baby Nursery.
At our recent public meeting Paul Dunn talked about potential solutions to this growing problem – including gating and locking this area at night. This can only be a good idea, but still doesn’t tackle what goes on here during the day, pretty much everyday.
Yesterday at the Alexandra Road entrance I witnessed addtional activity that I won’t go into to detail on here, but leads me to think that it’s not only drinking that is the issue.
If anyone has any ideas on what can be done, I would love to hear them.
Diane Gill
Free live music from singer songwriter Robert Lane 12.30-1.30 this Friday at OPEN Ealing
OPEN Ealing launches its first ever First Friday Music event this coming Friday with an hour of free live music from Midlands-based singer songwriter Robert Lane. Come and join us on Friday (2nd September) between 12.30 – 1.30pm for an hour of relaxing music during your lunch break.
David Highton
Watch West Ealing butcher Tony Luckhurst try to identify meat with his feet on BBC1 tonight at 5.25pm
Buying my eggs from Tony this morning he told me he’s on TV tonight – Epic Win on BBC1 at 5.25pm. His challenge is to use his feet to identify different types of meat! Can he do it? We’ll find out tonight. Good luck Tony.
Council helps riot-hit West Ealing traders
I attended a meeting of local traders last night at St James Church called by the Council to help those traders affected by recent the looting and destruction. It was well organised, well thought through and well attended not just by West Ealing traders but also by traders from South Ealing.
Council leader Julian Bell introduced the meeting and said over £100,000 had been paid out so far in the £1200 grants to affected shops and businesses across Ealing. He also talked about West Ealing being somewhat overlooked in the reporting of the looting and damage of that night. He gave a powerful description of the CCTV images of the determination of the looters to break into Seba Electronics and other shuttered premises. He said he has also asked the Borough Commander that the large screen just put up in Ealing Broadway displaying images of the rioters to help identify them be moved to West Ealing when possible.
The heart of the meeting was a mixture of Council staff and independent advisors talking about some of the key isues of concern to traders. Aileen Jones , Head of Planning Services, looked at any planning issues that might arise from traders changing their shop fronts to put in new shutters (Council leader Julian Bell said think about toughened glass – Sainsbury’s in West Ealing survived because the looters couldn’t break through its toughened glass front windows). There was useful information from an insurance expert on claims made under the Riot Damages Act of 1886 under which the Metropolitan Police may be liable to pay some of the costs involved. This one is a bit tricky because the Act is old and simply talks of loss and it’s not clear if that is just physical loss of goods and property but also loss of trading income if a shop has to shut for repairs etc.
Paul Dunn of the Community Safety team gave a very good overview of their work going round talking to the local traders and residents affected. He told of some residents of the sheltered accommodation just off the high street packing their suitcases for fear of having to be evacuated if the shops were set alight. His talk gave a very moving insight in to just how far the impact of the looting and destruction reached in to our community and what he and his team have been doing to alleviate people’s concerns and come to terms with what happened that night.
The final presentation was by Michael Sylvester, chair of the West Ealing traders group (WEB) and myself as chair of West Ealing Neighbours. Michael urged all the West Ealing traders to come to the next WEB meeting on Monday 5th September 6.30pm at St James Church. By working together local traders can have a more powerful voice and be more effective in working with the Council right across a range of important matters. I followed Michael and gave a brief run down of the plans for West Ealing Family Day on Saturday 24th September and how WEN will do all it can to encourage its members and all other residents to shop locally.
David Highton