West Ealing Neighbours' 10 Point Plan For West Ealing Regeneration
Review of Consultants' Studies Commissioned by Ealing Council and Ideas and Proposals Flowing from the Studies.
Studies:
- Green Man Lane Option Study and Urban Design Framework, Stage 1 Report May 2007 by Urban Initiatives
- Ealing Metropolitan Centre Development Framework: Background Report: 1: Urban Design and Public Realm and 2: Movement Strategy. Undated. Authors are Tibbalds Planning and Urban Design, GVA Grimley LLP, JMP Consulting and Space Syntax.
These are well researched and well presented geographic studies. From WEN's perspective they flesh out the information we already know. What they tell us is that the Council's consultants are now well aware of the problems and issues. These studies deal primarily with Ealing centre and West Ealing centre. They don't deal with the whole of W13 .
Separately we have discovered that Ealing Council gains no grants for the W5/W13 ‘centre' being designated a GLA Metropolitan Centre. What this status allows is the possibility of much grander ‘development' than is the case with centres with lesser designated status. From West Ealing's perspective it means that an Arcadia type development could be proposed and implemented in the centre of West Ealing.
Perhaps there is some unstated axiom that if one ‘fixes' the centre of communities then the rest of the community will then ‘come good'.
On the subject of status, WEN is still actively lobbying for West Ealing to attain 'District' status within the borough. We first made a written submission to the Council about this on 18th September, 2006. It is only those communities with District status that enjoy the local democratic mechanisms afforded by a dedicated Area Committee.
We are only going to deal with West Ealing issues.
The studies have made WEN focus hard on what actually needs to be done to regenerate West Ealing. What we are proposing below is designed to make people think about the future. We have introduced many radical suggestions in this paper because I feel that the whole consultants' ‘discovery' process needs to be confronted with some radical down to earth proposals at an early stage. This is in order that we don't lose sight of solving real problems on the ground, when confronted with reams and reams of urban design jargon, endless annotated maps and beautiful full-colour glossy townscape photographs.
If our ideas turn out to be impractical or ‘technically' unfeasible then let's discover this early on. If money, or not enough of it, as a key issue then let's find that out now. We have had too many false dawns in West Ealing. So let's hope the sun really will rise.
These below are the lines of enquiry we would like to pursue at the 5th September public meeting and at any future public and private meetings which involve the regeneration of West Ealing.
1.Green Man Lane Estate
The transformation of this estate, with its poorly designed and inappropriate buildings, into one which is happy and enables residents to build a strong sense of community is probably the key factor for West Ealing centre's regeneration. The studies accept this notion.
WEN sees that the redevelopment of this area into a mixed use area as essential. By mixed use we mean incorporating homes, shops, businesses and small workshops no doubt returning the use of some of the land to what is was in Victorian times. We'd even like the return of the original Victorian street names with ‘Hope Road' and ‘Albert Road' being our favourites.
With 70% single occupancy across the whole estate, ‘tarting up' what's already there will achieve very little.
The public perception of the estate has been coloured by the stories of drug dealing and anti-social behaviour and the poor design of the estate has contributed to these problems as has been highlighted in the reports. Apart from architectural ‘solutions ‘ to these problems no social or personal ‘solutions' are hinted at. This may be because this is not part of the consultants' briefs but it needs to be part of someone's brief. Architecture alone cannot help to alleviate residents' personality, mental, financial, substance abuse, employment status and social problems.
With PM Brown/GLA/The Mayor/Ealing Council massively committed to building more homes then this land is an opportunity to build hundreds of flats in blocks with residential and pay on exit non-residential car parking underground. This could be accomplished - with land left over. Direct underground access to West Ealing Broadway from this car park would make shopping there much more attractive. In order to have even more land for regeneration, both the surface and the multi-storey Singapore Road car parks could be removed, and their few, safe ‘working' car parking places replaced underground.
The very pedestrian unfriendly Jacob's Ladder bridge over the railway line seen from the Green Man Estate side
Part of this left over land could accommodate a new road which would link West Ealing Broadway with (ultimately) Western Avenue. Jacob's Ladder would be replaced with a road over the railway. This road could proceed north along the edge of Drayton Green and meet Drayton Bridge Road. Access to the A40 from this point could be effected by travelling either east or west. The road would be used by pedestrians, cyclist and vehicles. The road would enable much improved green space access from the centre of West Ealing
A serious deficiency in the current estate is any proper, long-term funded leisure provision for children and teenagers. This must be addressed. The rest of the land could be green space. It could be designed as a town centre square. Alternatively or additionally land could be used to create a West Ealing Community/Arts Centre.
This new centre/north transit would relieve north/south transport problems in West Ealing; would transform the northerly access to the centre of West Ealing; and would, of course, cost a small fortune. However, if more people are to be housed in W13 and the retail centre is going to attract more shoppers, there has to be a major investment in new access infrastructure.
West Ealing desperately needs its own Police Station. For a community of some 32,000 people we certainly deserve one. Currently one of the crime hot spots is the Green Man Lane Estate. As part of the rebuild of the estate a Police Station could be built there. Providing this Police Station may be outside the scope of the consultants or the Council, but community requirements' definition should not be constrained by implementation details. At the very least, the Elthorne Ward Safer Neighbourhood Policing (SNP) Station should be located into the estate rebuild and it must have a front-of-house presence so the public can access SNP officers face to face. The new Station's close proximity to West Ealing Broadway would also deliver enormous benefits.
St John's Primary School, on the northern edge of the estate, has had a poor reputation but the recent Ofsted inspection revealed some improvements. The school is a significant stakeholder in the rebuild of the estate and must be actively engaged in the redevelopment of the estate and we believe this to be the case.
2.Improving the main North/South Road Through West Ealing
The main north/south road transit through West Ealing is the Argyle Road/Drayton Green Road/Northfield Avenue road system. The north/south transit through the Lido Junction is the major area of traffic congestion in West Ealing.
Car parking should be banned on the east, south running carriageway of Drayton Green Road.
The Five Roads community should be opened up so that vehicular traffic can flow east/west along Hastings Road linking Argyle Road/Drayton Green Road/Alexandria Road with St. Leonard's Road. The removal of the Hastings Road barrier would also probably necessitate the erection of barriers at the Hartington Road /Hasting Road and Broughton Road/Hastings Road junctions so as to preserve the bulk of the Five Roads protected parking scheme.
This would relieve traffic congestion north/south as well as east/west along problematic the Alexandria Road/Felix Road transit. If the rumoured hotel development is to go ahead in Hastings Road this east and west road access to the hotel will be necessary. Both hotel and non-hotel car parking space could be provided underground. This will help to solve the upcoming car-parking crisis which the occupation of the 191 West Ealing Station flats in the Waitrose/Luminoscity building and Sinclair House twin towers will create in 2008.
The right turn by south running vehicles on Drayton Green Road at the Lido junction should be re-introduced, in order to allow easy access by northern West Ealing residents to drive to West Ealing centre.
Northern running vehicles along Northfield Avenue wanting to turn left into West Ealing Broadway must be given a non-traffic light controlled filter. Widening on this road here to enable the flow of traffic will involve ‘shaving' off some of the Dean Gardens land and the remodelling of the fence and pavement
3.Bus Service Linking Perivale and Brentford
There is no public bus service which can transport people from the north of W13 to the south of W13 - nothing to get swimmers from Northfield to Gurnell Pool or to efficiently transport commuters from Cleveland to Northfields tube station. Reducing the congestion on the north/south transit which crosses the Uxbridge Road at the Lido is a major priority. Providing a bus service to transport people will likely reduce the car traffic.
Waitrose - opportunity for a pull-in for a new bus route?
A pull-in and turn-round area at Waitrose in Alexandria Road would also be sensible. In fact there is wide pavement room on the north side of Alexandria Road by Waitrose not only for this bus pull-in but also for a West Ealing Station drop-off and pick-up area for cars/taxis. I understand that John Lewis' original plan for the new Waitrose included plans for a bus pull-in, but were rejected by the Labour Council at the time. No doubt owners John Lewis might support this resurrected plan financially.
As there is no Arts Centre in Ealing, routing the bus to terminate near the Watermans art centre in Brentford would provide much needed cultural access.
4.West Ealing Broadway and its Environs
Significantly improved car parking facilities close to West Ealing Broadway will provide the customer capacity for existing shops to survive and flourish; and help to attract new retailers.
We propose a one/two floor addition is built on the existing car park in Leeland Terrace and the facility converted to pay on exit.
Creative ideas must be applied in order to attract new retailers to the Broadway. We propose the formation of a West Ealing Broadway Retail Study Group, whose brief is to work with the Council's retail consultants to come up with a preferred retail profile for the Broadway. The members of this group should be ‘stakeholders' in the community. After this group has defined a retail profile, the profile must be publicised for public review. When a profile is agreed, research must be conducted to identify actual preferred retailers and what is it they want that might persuade them to set up in the Broadway. (Maybe existing retained consultants
eg Grimley's can answer these questions already). Some residents have expressed the desire for Primark to open up in West Ealing for example.
The success of the Farmers' Market in Leeland Road should be recognised and lessons learnt from it. Any ideas of relocating the market should be dropped as it has survived and flourished where it is for over five years. The idea of creating of a non-food market in the paved area between Sainsbury's and West Ealing Library or at the top of St James Ave should be seriously explored.
Canberra Road and Singapore Road are both desolate, featureless areas whose main function is to be the back/delivery entrance to numerous retail businesses. It would make a lot of sense to create shop units in these roads and to add trees and greenery to the footpaths.
The wide pavements on the south side of West Ealing Broadway, which abut Dean Gardens is an ideal location to host specialist stalls such as handicrafts, collectibles, second hand books and community advice/information.
5. East/West Transportation
Now that the Tram is dead, we need to discover what deal or conversation was entered into by our Council Leader and the London Mayor about bus service improvement along the Uxbridge Road. It has been WEN's consistent view that the current 207/607 bus services are adequate to meet today's needs in West Ealing.
We must cherish the hope that in the Autumn Prime Minister Brown will give the go-ahead to the £15 billion Crossrail programme. If this happens we must be eternally vigilant about West Ealing Station actually becoming a Crossrail station. As part of this Crossrail programme we must lobby for drop-off and set-down facilities for cars/taxis at West Ealing station probably where the new bus service pull-in and turnround could be located outside Waitrose (see 3. above). Crossrail may make the case for Sunday opening of the station a much stronger one. However irrespective of whether Crossrail happens or not, WEN feels that continuous lobbying for Sunday station opening is essential.
The provision of segregated cycle lanes throughout the whole of West Ealing is poor and with cycling being the fastest growing transport modality in London, more effort, creativity and monies need to be invested in making cycling safer and more attractive to residents.
6. Northfields Avenue Retail/Business Strips
Any major, meaningful changes to the nature of West Ealing Broadway will have some impact on the other two shopping strips in W13 Northfield Avenue and The Avenue. Arguably Northfield Avenue retail/business strip is bigger than West Ealing Broadway strip and has an equally legitimate claim on regeneration monies and initiatives as West Ealing Broadway. It also has an active trade association Northfield Avenue Businesses and Traders Association (NABTA) - with over 60 members. It would seem entirely sensible for NABTA to be involved in the regeneration of West Ealing as it represents the largest, local pool of small business retail knowledge in W13.
More sensible and consistent car parking provision would greatly assist the survival of out of area retail staff jobs and their employers continued existence, as well as making it easier for more customers to conveniently and inexpensively shop along this strip.
7.The Avenue Retail Strip
The Avenue retail strip is about to receive its biggest boost for decades with the arrival of the 400+ new residents in the new Waitrose/Luminoscity and Sinclair House site Twin Towers on their door step. The arrival of a hotel in Hastings Road within the next five years could also expand their trade even more. Adding in the smaller Manor Road and Drayton Green Road retail strips, it's possible that the nature of the retail profile of the West Ealing Station environs might change. In fact if the rumours are true the Drayton Green Road shops across the road from West Ealing Station may be gobbled up by the new hotel. It's important that this area's retail profile, car parking, car/taxi drop-off/pick-up, bus access and overall ‘character' are improved and aren't adversely affected by the sudden arrival of hundreds of new residents and transient hotel guests.
8. Parks and Open Spaces
The centre of West Ealing has just Dean Gardens as parkland, with Drayton Green just to the north of the centre. The north of the town boasts Cleveland and Pitshanger Parks as well as Scotch Common, and the open space abutting Gurnell Swimming Pool. In the south of the town is Lammas Park.
WEN is unhappy with the suggested removal of the historic fencing around Dean Gardens in order to ‘incorporate' park into open area. We feel it is better and safer to leave it as a distinct space for recreation separate from the hustle and bustle of West Ealing Broadway. We also feel that the historic fencing around all our heritage parks needs to be properly maintained in order to restore some civic pride around the town. The fencing around Cleveland Park, for example is crying out for repair, rubbing down, priming and top coat painting.
9. Sport, Culture and Leisure Facilities
West Ealing centre is in many ways a desert when it comes to available sporting, cultural and leisure facilities. In the north west of the town is the public Gurnell Swimming Pool, currently being refurbished, and the private £multi-million Trailfinders Sports Club. Public football pitches are to be found in Pitshanger Park. West Ealing is bereft of cinemas, theatres, Snooker Halls, Bingo Halls, and Bowling Alleys. Neither West Ealing nor adjacent Ealing Districts boasts an Arts Centre and our nearest one is the Watermans centre in Brentford.
The residents of West Ealing should be consulted as to what sporting, cultural and leisure facilities they would like to be available locally. The analysis of this research will determine how effort and monies ought to be invested in these areas.
The community also cries out for an annual festival of some sort which could be held in Dean Gardens. Recreating the donkey/pony racing of the 19th Century here may not be to everyone's liking but at least it would have some historical legitimacy! Ideas from residents could be solicited in the research proposed above.
10. Education, Health and Public OrderStrangely there is not one State secondary school located in West Ealing, which for a community of some 32,000 residents is perplexing. There's also no hospital or Police Station in the whole of W13. Given these deficiencies, the need for excellent transport facilities into and out of W13 become a primary requirement.
West Ealing Neighbours
Management Committee
4rd September 2007
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