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What’s happening on our high street? WEN public meeting and AGM on Tuesday 28th May 7.30pm at St John’s Church in Mattock Lane

Notice of 2013 Annual General Meeting of  West Ealing Neighbours – all welcome.

[Click here for pdf version ‘Notice of WEN’s AGM MAY 2013’]

Date: Tuesday 28th May

Venue: in the lounge at St John’s Church in Mattock Lane starting at 7.30pm

This is to give formal notice that the seventh Annual General Meeting of West Ealing Neighbours will be held on Tuesday 28th May at St John’s Church in Mattock Lane starting at 7.30pm.

The theme of this year’s meeting is What’s happening on our high street? It feels that West Ealing is on the edge of change. We have two major housing developments in the heart of West Ealing, Green Man Lane and Sherwood Close, which will bring in many hundreds of new residents. At the same time Crossrail is already having an effect on housing prices and is one of the reasons for the proposed new 60-bedroom Continue reading “What’s happening on our high street? WEN public meeting and AGM on Tuesday 28th May 7.30pm at St John’s Church in Mattock Lane”

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What do you think about night flights? Deadline April 22

The Government is consulting on night flight regulation for Heathrow and other large airports. The deadline for response is Monday 22 April.

If you are disturbed by flights late at night or early in the morning, take this opportunity to tell the government and influence the new rules which will come into force from October 2014.

Current rules
Under the current regime, the night period extends from 11pm – 7am but the night quota period, where most flying restrictions apply, is shorter: from 11.30pm – 6am. About 25 flights are scheduled to take-off from Heathrow between 6 – 7am. No flights should take-off after 11.30pm but delays during the day result in planes often flying over Ealing later than this, sometimes much later. Heathrow operates at 99% capacity, so there is little contingency.

Consultation process
This is the first stage of a two part consultation. The government is gathering evidence at this stage in order to develop proposals which will be issued for consultation towards the end of the year.

Key points to make

  • Question 2 of the consultation asks ‘Do you have any comments on our assessment of the extent to which the current objectives [to minimise noise disturbance during the night] have been met?’ This is an opportunity to write about your personal experience of being disturbed by planes at night (eg how frequently you are disturbed by night flights, whether this has worsened over time, any other patterns you have noted).
  • Question 4 asks ‘Do you have any views on whether noise quotas and movement limits should apply only to the existing night quota period or to a different time period?’ Many groups representing overflown communities believe that there should be a ban on night flights between 11pm – 6am and the phasing out of flights between 6-7am. This would give residents the 8 hour respite from flights recommended by the World Health Organisation.
You can submit your response in one of three ways: 
  • by using the response form on the Department for Transport’s website. 
  • by emailing night.noise@dft.gsi.gov.uk
  • by post to Department for Transport, Great Minster House (1/26), 33 Horseferry Road, London SW1P 4DR.
For more information, the ‘HACAN Clearskies’ group has produced a short guide to the consultation and an assessment of the economic cost of night flights. The Ealing Aircraft Noise Action Group website has links to the consultation and reports on the health effects of noise disturbed sleep.

You may also be interested in a rally against Heathrow expansion on Saturday 27th April, 9.30 – 10.30am at Barn Elms Playing Fields, Queen Elizabeth Walk, SW13 9SA. This has been arranged by the Richmond MP Zac Goldsmith, and speakers will include Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, and Justine Greening, who was Secretary of State for Transport until last year’s re-shuffle.

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David gets the T-shirt

david and tshirtIt’s not smart, it’s not clever – but it is BIG and also unique and imbued with  a huge thank you from local members of the West Ealing community.

WEN’s chair David Highton was cited in this year’s New Year Honours for his contribution to our community in West Ealing which, as most of us know, is considerable.

So local neighbours and tradespeople signed a logo’d T-shirt and thanked him and toasted him in a small local celebration. No royalty were present and he maintains he’ll wear a smart suit and shirt when he receives his well-deserved British Empire Medal later in the year.

 

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‘Under her skin’ – great show at the Drayton in January

singingLaurel Swift (the one with the double bass) teaches her long-running folk workshop to local folkies at the Drayton on Monday nights, and now offers to West Ealing:

‘Under Her Skin’

Directed by John Wright

The Drayton Court, The Avenue, West Ealing  **   15-17 January 2013  **  7:45pm  **  £5

An epic tale, a modern twist, two voices, four feet and eight strings.

Debs Newbold and Laurel Swift bring a rich and innovative collision of forms to their first full-length collaboration – a story of loss and regret that is also funny, irreverent, moving and dripping with streetwise credibility. Combining dynamic performance storytelling with the effusive energy of traditional dance and music, Under Her Skin sweeps audiences into a rich imaginative landscape.

 “…a glorious, raucous, joyful show which manages seamlessly to combine the raw energy of dance, the earthiness of social realism and the magic and wonder of myth into an entirely integrated, expertly realised evening’s entertainment.”

GILES ABBOTT

This is storytelling crafted especially for adults. Based on an ancient British Selkie (seal people) folktale and set firmly in the here and now, it is an integrated show, inventive and theatrical yet with no fourth wall to get in the way of any mischief!  Debs Newbold’s highly acclaimed and charismatic storytelling voice joins the double bass, fiddle and clog dynamism of Laurel Swift to create an explosion of joy.  Under Her Skin plays freely with the conventions of storytelling and gives an ancient British folktale a strong contemporary retelling.

 

Laurel Swift is an Associate Artist of the English Folk Dance and Song Society

www.debsandlaurel.co.uk

www.morrisoffspring.co.uk

www.gadarenemusic.com

www.gloworms.org.uk

 

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Anyone else having problems with waste collection?

Hi, I’ve phoned Ealing Council about 20 times since April to report missed collections and have had 4 letters acknowledging my complaints but nothing improves. About 25% of the time all the recycling and black bag rubbish goes on the right day. About 50% of the time, one or two categories (varies which ones) are not picked up; when I report it to the call centre the next day, whatever didn’t get collected is then collected. About 25% of the time, two categories are missed and the recollection only picks up one of the missed categories and the other one stays till I ring again or the next collection day.

I spoke to one of the recollection gang today and they said it was because the new contractors, Enterprise, had reduced the number of waste vehicles available by 16, and increased the size of the remaining ones – and this means they can’t get round some of the street corners.

Thinks: if that’s the case, why don’t the operatives move the rubbish up to the nearest accessible street corner and collect from there?

The recollecters said that they had hundreds of tasks on their log-sheets – and they think it’s more expensive to recollect than collect correctly the first time.

I asked the call centre at Ealing council how I can escalate my complaint but have heard nothing yet (only rang yesterday).

Is anyone else having problems?

Gill

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Programme for music at the craft market, December 22nd 2012

Our final craft market of the season takes place as ever outside Blockbusters in West Ealing Broadway (the western end on the south side of the Uxbridge Rd) from 10-3pm on Saturday December 22nd, 2012. Pick up some last minute presents that no one else will have from our local artisans. Subscribe to this blog or email westealingneighbours@gmail.com to stay informed about ‘next steps’ in the market.

December 22nd has music in the music gazebo. We will host carolling from the Ealing Churches Winter Night Shelter and local man ‘Ralph’ of King Ralph,  will sing us out…till next time, probably the first Saturday in March 2013. Stay tuned.

Craft market music programme for Dec 22nd:

12-1pm: The Ealing Churches Winter Night Shelter carolling crew sings for us. ECWNS http://www.ecwns.org.uk/home/ helps some homeless people to get off the streets and begin the journey to finding their own home. It also enables people who are on the edge of rough sleeping to avoid hitting the streets. ECWNS stands in the gap by providing for the most basic and essential needs for homeless people – sleep and food. A person who has been made homeless faces enormous risks as a rough sleeper including substance abuse, poor physical and mental health, and acts of criminality.

king ralph greenford 2012

1pm-2pm: Ralph of King Ralph will sing us out. ‘King Ralph are an acoustic trio from the Brentford borderlands. They can usually be found at local festivals and other events in the area playing their original punk-folk and other people’s songs in similar style.  Sometimes they let Ralph out on his own, where he can be found in local pubs like the Grosvenor singing for free a pint, or the Brewery Tap paying for his beer like everybody else. You can hear some of the songs at myspace.com/kingralphmusic. Contact Helen Martin Promotions (philandhelenmusic@gmail.com) for bookings and info.’