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MAY 2013 NEWSLETTER

A great opportunity for West Ealing

Congratulations to West Ealing Centre Neighbourhood Forum (WECNF) which was formally designated by the council last month. WECNF will now work on presenting a detailed 15-year spatial plan for the centre of West Ealing which could affect all our lives. It will be a plan that comes from the people who work and live in the centre of West Ealing: that's unpaid volunteers who care deeply and personally about the space we all share. West Ealing Neighbours looks forward to working with WECNF whenever appropriate.

I think the next few years are crucial for West Ealing. It feels as if the impacts of the regeneration of the Green Man Lane and Sherwood Close Estates, along with Crossrail, are starting to change the shape of the centre of West Ealing. At this key moment it is essential that the voices of local people and local businesses are heard. The big developers are well able to make themselves heard. WECNF can play a vital role over the next five years to ensure that the impact of these and other developments enhance the lives of everyone not just a few.

West Ealing Neighbours encourages all its members to get involved in the Forum as it needs plenty of help to research and write this detailed spatial plan. Details of their meetings and how to contact them can be found on their website http://wecnf.wordpress.com/ .

David Highton

Other topics covered in this newletter

The bees are back - Abundance Update
Pop-Up Shops coming soon...Watch This Space.
Is it lawless out West?
West Ealing Hub Feasibility Study
Goodbye shoplocal, hello ‘Make it Ealing!'
‘What's happening on our high street?' - WEN public meeting, Tuesday 28th May 7.30pm
West Ealing station book swap needs you (to take books!)
OPEN Ealing returns
Ealing Health Self-Help Directory
More doctors needed for West Ealing

Last Updated ( Wednesday, 08 May 2013 )

March 2013 Newsletter

MARCH 2013 NEWSLETTER

Our high street is changing

I keep coming back to the topic of the future of our high street. I think it's one of the most important issues we face as residents and change is coming to our high street over the next few years. West Ealing needs change and, if properly thought through and managed, it will be welcome.

David Highton

Click the read more link to see the full details..

Last Updated ( Monday, 11 March 2013 )

JanuaryNewsletter2013

JANUARY 2013 NEWSLETTER

Just when you thought it was all over - West Ealing man earns a medal

David Highton centre with Council leader Julian Bell and Nick Pearson of OPEN Ealing

You may think that 2013 could only be an anti-climax after the Jubilee and Olympics of last year.

But the chair of West Ealing Neighbours has just learned that he's 'won' the British Empire Medal in recognition of his services to the community.

David has successfully parented West Ealing Neighbours through the last six years and helped give birth to West Ealing Arts Project OPEN, so who better to be one of the few hundred to receive this newly resurrected honours category? It recognises those who give something extra to making our communities better.

David says he accepted the award on behalf of everyone who's been part of these local projects. He would say that. He's a modest, self-effacing man - which is why he isn't allowed to write this piece for our newsletter. We say he's done us proud as someone who always thinks positively, listens to others, takes opportunities when he sees them, doesn't waste time mourning what doesn't work or laying blame, but puts his energies and vision into the next task. And he doesn't get paid a penny for doing all this.

So, we're lucky to have him. And lucky, too, to have such a great community.

Thanks, David - and congratulations

Gill Adams

Other topics covered in this newsletter:

Jubilee Children's Centre - the place for families at the heart of West Ealing
Law and Order
Crossrail - planning now underway
What's on tonight at The Questors Theatre - one of Creative Ealing's founding members
West Ealing Centre Neighbourhood Forum
Missed the live music at the craft market?
Healthcare in West Ealing
Help needed for Facebook page
The expansion of Drayton Green Primary School

Last Updated ( Friday, 11 January 2013 )

Newsletter November 2012

NOVEMBER 2012 NEWSLETTER

High street Special

Where to next for our high street?

‘Taskforce to tackle empty shops' was a headline in one of this week's papers. On the same page was ‘Way ahead for the high street is much more than smart new shops' The future nature of our high streets is a hot topic. West Ealing shopping centre reflects the current dilemma for this future: some boarded up empty shops and the growth of discount and budget shops. Do we hope the economy will finally pick up and then the high street will fill up again or do we look at how we can start to re-invent our high street? This isn't just an idle question. The Council has riot recovery funds to spend on our high street (see later) so it really matters how it gets spent.

Topics:

The views of two retail experts on spending the high street funds:

Bill Grimsey ‘A perfect storm'
Mary Portas -‘need to deliver something new'

Create social capital in our high streets
Riot recovery fund for West Ealing
A major opportunity for West Ealing
Buy local crafts and hear local music at our monthly craft markets
Debt Slavery - Where is Today's William Wilberforce?
Pop-up shops
Woolies needs some TLC
Neighbourhood Forum Activities Gather Pace

Last Updated ( Thursday, 01 November 2012 )

SEPTEMBER 2012 NEWSLETTER

Come and join us for West Ealing Family Day - Saturday Sept 22nd

Lots going on see details in the newsletter...

Other topics:

Ealing Council's Local Plan
Monthly Craft Market
West Ealing Centre Neighbourhood Forum
Charles Lee & Sons - West Ealing's Victorian Plant Nursery
Friends of Hanwell Flight
Where has all the fruit gone?

Last Updated ( Friday, 07 September 2012 )

At last - Lido Junction now safe to cross

Last Friday (15th June) marked the successful end of 5-year effort by WEN and many others to make it safe for pedestrians to cross at the Lido Junction. The lights now have an all-red stop phase to allow safe crossing in all directions.

West Ealing Neighbours and its partners the Five Roads Forum and Kingsdown Residents Assn thank everyone involved in Lido Junction Project Group and many others for campaigning for, negotiating for and finally implementing a safe crossing at this notorious junction. Thanks to the Council and TfL for their hard work to reach agreement on this and we now hope everyone will feel confident that they can at last cross this junction safely.

David Highton

21st June 2012

Last Updated ( Thursday, 21 June 2012 )

Ealing vicar riding through the night

Rev Peter Mackenzie

Last Updated ( Thursday, 07 June 2012 )

May 2012 Newsletter

MAY NEWSLETTER 2012

Work starts on Lido Junction

Despite a few last minute changes to the schedule, work has begun on installing pedestrian crossings at the Lido Junction. The work will last for eight weeks so we should see it completed mid-June. We realise there will be disruption to traffic at the junction but we join the Council in asking for everyone's patience over these next weeks as the end result will, at last, give us a safe crossing.

I look forward to meeting the elderly lady who spoke to us at a WEN stall at the farmers' market last year and said she was too scared even to try to cross the junction. Instead, she had to get a bus the one stop from her home to Dean Gardens to go shopping in West Ealing. Her life and that of many others will be made so much easier by these improvements.

Ideas for improving West Ealing

At our Annual General Meeting in February we talked about 2012 being a year of transition for West Ealing Neighbours. We all felt it was time to look at how we are run and in what ways could we widen our appeal. For any residents' group to thrive it needs to stay firmly rooted in its community and be open to new ideas, new people and new ways of working. At our follow up meeting in March, we welcomed a number of new members and spent a stimulating couple of hours looking at what we liked and didn't like about West Ealing. We ended the evening talking about what we would like to change. Here's the list, in no particular order, and see if you agree or disagree with our thoughts:

Proper cycle lanes
No high rise buildings (Westel House)
Dangerous to cross the road at the junction of Northfields/Drayton green & Uxbridge Road
That the newly developed neighbourhood forums have ‘real teeth'
Better shops on High Street
Uxbridge Road traffic - more pedestrian friendly
People to try to put more effort in keeping their street and front of property clean and tidy
See some serious investment in the area
More pleasant green spaces
Reduce activity of drug peddlers
Change of governance - council/officers not working for the people
Better quality shops
Bigger library
Make the area in front of Sainsbury's and the library more attractive, like a piazza with coffee shops and trees etc
Public toilets for shoppers not used by drug addicts
Green wall in Melbourne Avenue shopping precinct
More support for independent shops
Sports centre
Stop allowing people to turn their front gardens into car parks
More culture
Fewer new blocks of flats
More varied independent traders
Care for trees / stop council whacking trees
Alcohol closing times on the 24 hour shops - this abused by drunks and gangs

Our next meeting is on Tuesday 15th May at 7.30pm at OPEN Ealing. Everyone is welcome.

David Highton

Other topics covered in this newsletter include:

Monthly Craft Market up and running
The bees have finally arrived at Walmer Gardens
Planning By The People For The People
AEC of Southall

Last Updated ( Sunday, 06 May 2012 )

February 2012 Newsletter

FEBRUARY NEWSLETTER

We need your help

Five years on and if I do for a moment stop and, as they say, smell the roses, I'd say we've made a pretty good start. We helped save some of our traditional lampposts; started the annual Family Day celebration; launched our Abundance project; will soon start a monthly craft market and are within touching distance of helping make the Lido Junction safe to cross.

Now though we need to plan for the next five years and that's where we need your help to answer a vital question: what shall we do with WEN? We need to decide. On Feb 21st we have the fifth AGM and my tenure as Chair, Eric's as Vice, Andy's as Treasurer and Gill's general membership of the committee - well, our time is up. We decided five years ago that we didn't want WEN to stagnate.

So, the question is, what shall we do now? It's your organisation and it's a democracy so we all need to decide. No one has so far come forward to hold any of the posts - can we continue as an un-led organisation?

I think we are at a crucial moment for West Ealing. We have the major development at Green Man Lane, the forthcoming redevelopment of the Sherwood Close Estate and the possibility of creating a Neighbourhood Forum, under the new Localism Act, to propose a design for central West Ealing (see Eric Leach's blog of 3rd January 2012 for full details). This is an exciting time for West Ealing and WEN needs to be at the heart of it and helping shape our future and not just letting it be imposed upon us.

Here are some of the aspects of WEN that we feel are important but what do you think?

• an information hub for West Ealing

• a think tank

• an incubator for exciting new projects like WEN Abundance, OPEN Ealing, SEAL - the lampost project, the book swap, and much more

• a people resource - we've 400+ members

• a social network

• full of potential for becoming an integral part of the re-shaping of the local governance of our neighbourhood

• holding Ealing Council to account

At the moment the floor is open wide - do we re-form as something different? Do we each go our separate ways into our different projects? Do we put ourselves into a holding position until we work out what's best? Or is there someone/some people out there right now longing to lead WEN into the next phase of its life?

If you'd like to stand for any of the main officer posts - chair, vice-chair, secretary, treasurer - please let us know before the meeting. Otherwise, please come along, bring your neighbours and let's talk about our town and ways in which we can make a difference.

If you'd like to talk to any members of the committee beforehand, let us know.

Please do come along to our Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 21st February at OPEN Ealing starting 7.30pm.

David Highton, Chair

Notes from West Ealing Neighbours committee meing 2nd February 2013

Action Notes from West Ealing Neighbours committee meeting on Saturday 2nd February 2012

Last Updated ( Sunday, 03 February 2013 )

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