Three West Ealing Neighbours committee members attended this Council-led meeting and we had quite different experiences.  Rather than try to somehow amalgamate these views we decided to put publish bothg views.

The first is from Diane Gill and David Highton who sat together at one of the 15 tables.  The second is from Frank Proud who sat on another table which had its focus as West Ealing.

GROUNDHOG DAY AT THE PUBLIC MEETING FOR REGENERATION - 19TH JUNE

Myself (Diane Gill) and David Highton attended the public meeting on the long-running episode of the regeneration of Ealing (let's not forget this includes
West Ealing too) This was well attended with around 130 members of the
public sitting in groups of round tables.

Cllr David Millican, Cabinet Minister responsible for Regeneration
kicked off the meeting with a short introduction which was quite
difficult to contextualise.  It wasn't helped by technical issues with
his microphone.  Brendan Walsh (Director For Regeneration) then
followed to highlight some of the challenges Ealing faces as well as
its advantages.  He pointed out an alarming fact - and that is only 35%
of us actually choose to shop in Ealing, preferring to get in our cars
and take our well-earned money elsewhere.

The challenges he highlighted were - the quality of the retail, leisure
and arts, quality of the pedestrian environment, quality and capacity
of arrival points and modal interchange, lack of identity and image and
strong and increasing competition (White City)

The advantages of Ealing are its location and accessibility
(particularly when Crossrail comes in), the quality of the built
environment, large and diverse population and opportunity development
sites.

Cllr David Millican then took the now working microphone back and
highlighted five areas that he wanted us to focus on;

1. Haven Green/Station approach
2. Bond street/Ealing Green
3. West Ealing
4. Community infrastructure - health, education, housing
5. Community infrastructure -  sports, parks, open spaces, leisure.
   

Without too much explanation of what he wanted us to
do he handed the meeting over to us to seek our ideas on what to do
with these areas.  (For some reason our table did not have a facilitator).

This predictably resulted in some outspoken views
 from the public on that fact that we already have had the same sort of
meeting prior to the publication of the Tibbalds report and what else
was to be gleaned from the whole proceedings.

I sat glumly round the table viewing the familiar faces whilst
furiously writing yet the same information I had written before on
yellow stickies (at least use a different colour folks) whilst the rest
of the table were attempting to map a vision for Ealing.  I spied David
to my left doing the same thing.  Yet again West Ealing was lost as a
topic that the table wished to discuss and yet again a derogatory
comment or two was made about West Ealing.  By the time 8pm came I had
another meeting to attend and gladly left.

The facilitation of the meeting was poorly handled and there was too much to cover in a short space of time.  I also question the format of the meetings, as
mentioned before I see the same old faces attending and the average age
is post-retirement with very little presence from the younger
population (I am no spring chicken myself). If we are to build a future
for Ealing and WEST EALING then please find a different format and obtain views from a cross section of the community that is Ealing.

After Diane left, I continued writing down my comments about West Ealing and adding one or two comments to the rest of the table's discussion about the future of Ealing Broadway.

At the end of our allotted time the table had summarised its views for Ealing Broadway as:

• No high-density development
• The Council needs a tall buildings policy
• No development, office, retail or housing, over 8 storeys (absolute maximum circumstances)
• Encourage independent shops along the lines of Chiswick and Richmond
• Must have a proper transport hub and connections for Ealing Broadway.
• Need new arts/community facilities to cater for existing and proposed new residents
• Need an overall town centre plan 
  

At the end each of the 15 tables summarised its ideas and there was unanimous agreement on all the sort of points that we discussed on our table.  Two of the 15 tables looked at West Ealing (one led by Frank Proud a WEN Committee Member) and ststed the importance of the Green Man Lane development, better north-south access for both pedestrians, bicycles and transport, need to improve access across the railway line via Jacob's Ladder as well as recognise that West Ealing is a different centre to Ealing Broadway but one that has potential, especially around its ‘value' and ethnic shops.

Lastly, Arthur Breens of Kingsdown Residents stood up and said he hoped the results of this consultation would be noted and not binned.  He also asked that the people who attended be kept properly informed of progress and their contribution recognised and not ignored.

On a personal note, I don't think the Council staff and councillors who attended could possibly miss the level of anger and frustration expressed about the lack of a town centre plan and the unhappiness at the current and recent  proposals for redeveloping major parts of Ealing Broadway. My worry though is that West Ealing will once again be swamped by its bigger neighbour if we aren't constantly vigilant and push again for meetings about West Ealing to be held in West Ealing.

Diane Gill and David Highton

22^nd June 2008

Here is the view from Frank Proud:

I unfortunately missed the early part of the meeting and walked in on what seemed at first a bit like an exam - 130 people sitting round tables, writing away fevourishly.  I eventually worked out what was happening and joined a table, which was discussing West Ealing.  It was facilitated by Tom Stanworth who is on a contract with the council to get things going. 

His objective was to get views on four of five very specific points.  These included (from memory):

• The green access through the Green Man to an upgraded Jacobs ladder (everyone liked when explained) 
• The idea of cutting off a 20-30 yard square from the NW corner Dean Gardens to make a town square (everyone thought daft / not worth talking about)
• Making upgraded entrance arches for Dean Gardens (yes - current ones are tired)
• Having a cafe in Dean Gardens (might be ok but hardly short of cafes nearby) 

Some in the group wished to discuss other issues (rightly feeling that the above were mostly not the most pressing), and Tom was open to that.  For example everyone said that taking out the railings around Dean Gardens was barmy and would lead to kids using it for motorbike practice.  Most wanted the shops to be encouraged to open their back doors again on to Singapore Road to improve that environment.  Tom asked about issues with rubbish at the backs of shops.  I set out my own views which are that West Ealing needs to have better connections:

• Green Man is an important part - must be integrated not a new ghetto
• Jacobs ladder - I told Tom that a road would be perfect, cycle access great, upgraded and safe pedestrian access essential
• Lido junction - needs to be improved and allow right turns into W.E
• North - South buses - Argyle Road to Northfields.