Ealing group bids to set up arts centre in town hall

Ealing group’s arts centre bid

Campaign group CEPAC has made a bid for a performance arts centre to be set up in Ealing’s Victoria Hall, which is covered by a charitable trust.

CEPAC’s proposal was lodged with the Council last week, to meet the deadline for bids for Ealing Town Hall under the Assets of Community Value rules. These rules have so far delayed the Council from agreeing a deal to sell the whole building to Mastcraft, a ‘boutique’ hotel developer.

The Council must now consider all the options for the future of the Hall and its related areas. It also has still to get permission from the Charity Commission if it wants to sell any of the Trust property.

The Council’s own figures show that the Trust’s Halls have been producing a profit, which is meant to be retained for charitable purposes. Chair of CEPAC John Hummerston said:  “Studies by our professional consultants show that a properly run arts centre could generate an income at least 50% higher than the Council has managed to achieve, while meeting a long-felt need in the local community.”

Work will need to be done on the Grade II listed Hall to put it into a better state and make it fit for a stand-alone arts centre.  “A new set of trustees should be appointed without delay”, says John. “An independent charity would have access to funds that are not available to the Council, and we know the public will be eager to back a separate Trust as an alternative to the present council-run committee.”

Micro-living planned for centre of West Ealing

Binfield Property Investment Trust’s Planning Application for Chignell Place, a short cul-de-sac off Broadway in West Ealing centre, proposes 63 flats rising to eight storeys. 59 of these flats are one bedroom flats and many of them look to have a Gross Internal Area (GIA) of about 24sq m.  Both the new Draft London Plan and The Mayor of London’s 2010 Interim London Housing Design Guide specifies a GIA (minimum space standard) for a one person dwelling of 37 sq m. For a bedroom alone the Guide specifies a GIA of 6.2 sq m and for ‘adequate bed space’ 8 sq m GIA.

The flats will be available to rent.

No flats for the disabled are planned and only four of the flats will accommodate a wheelchair. There are no public or disabled car parking space and no able-bodied car parking places.

There is a ’Laundry’ on each floor, with a GIA of 3 sq m. Presumably this would house one washing machine for 10 -12 flats. There are bike stores on each floor but only one small, all purpose lift. A small café is also on the plan.

The plans are perhaps suitable for a student hall of residence, but the Planning Application is not couched in this way. One does wonder whether this 24 sq m living space will become a West Ealing centre standard should this application receive Ealing Council approval

Attached is a section of one of the plans – this shows Apartments 46, 47 48, 49, 50 and 51 on the fifth floor.

It’s quite hard to get a good sense of how the site will look once complete but the image directly above clearly shows the actual area to be developed and the one at the top of this article and below  gives some idea of how it will look from the Uxbridge Road.

The Planning Application reference is 184490FUL and the Planning Application website is here. The deadline for comments is 30 November 2018.

Eric Leach

Vice Chair

West Ealing Neighbours