Notes from West Ealing Neighbours public meeting on Thursday 25th June at St John's Church in Mattock Lane  

1. Recent WEN activities

David Highton, Chair, introduced the meeting and gave a brief update on some recent WEN activities; 

SEAL - the Council's work to refurbish and install the Edwardian lampposts in the Heritage area continues apace. 

Green Man Passage - the derelict pocket park has been bought by the Serbian Church next door.  Their initial planning application was rejected and WEN is trying to find out more and talk to the church  (Petar Gledic from the church attended the meeting and spoke to David Highton later about a meeting to discuss the site)

Local history - the local history group has had its first meeting.  There is a possibility of a project with the Council to use the widows of the old Richer Sounds building, on the corner of St James Ave and the Uxbridge Road, as a site for a display about local history.  One reason for this display is to try to bring more people in to the ‘dead space' as the top of St James Ave which has become used by drug dealers and drug users.

David asked for anyone else interested in joining the group to let him know.

2. Abundance

Diane Gill gave an update on the Abundance project.  Its most recent activity being a very successful Baking Day which 33 people attended.  The next project will be preparing produce for the annual Arts and Crafts Fair at St James Church later this year.  This year Diane is keen to hear from people with spare fruit such as blackberries, pears, plums etc and ensure they are able to collect enough of the right sort of cooking apples for chutneys.

She also explained about the newly launched Abundance blog which already features a variety of tried and tested recipes - ttp://westealingabundancew13.wordpress.com/ 

3. West Ealing Festival

Eric Leach proposed the idea that there should be an annual festival in West Ealing.  We have the Hanwell Carnival, the Northfield Ave Fun Day, the Ealing Jazz Festival but nothing in West Ealing.  The Council is interested in the idea and he suggested WEN brings together a group of local stakeholders to form a steering group to take the idea forward. 

4. West Ealing Forum

How can we tackle issues such as the Lido Junction and Green Man Lane development which affect everyone in West Ealing when our ward forum structure seems unable to cope with these cross ward boundary matters?  Eric suggested WEN and other organisations and groups get together to form a West Ealing wide Forum where such matters can be discussed. 

5. Regeneration

Nick West-Oram from the Council's Regeneration team explained what the Council is planning to do to help regenerate the West Ealing shopping centre:

Melbourne Avenue - new paving, new entrances to the pedestrian areas, new lighting, new planting, replacing some trees, green walls, new seating, reduce street clutter and a new library frontage.  Architects have been commissioned and aim to complete works by mid-Autumn.

Dean Gardens -plans for larger entrances, larger and improved play areas, more planting.  A planning application has been submitted and hope to start work in mid-summer.

West Ealing Traders Association- first meeting held recently and 20 or so traders attended.  Three traders agreed to from a committee to take the association forward.

CCTV Cameras - three in place with two being mobile, so can be moved to problem areas.

Shop and Stop study - this study has been commissioned to review what is already available and where new bays might go. Study will be completed by autumn.

St James Ave -new, lower level planters installed to discourage anti-social behaviour etc

Farmers Market -market regularly promoted

Hanging Baskets -in place along the Uxbridge Road

New Signage and Maps -being planned

Shop Fronts - grants available to improve look of shopfronts and train staff in customer care skills.

6. Green Man Lane Estate development

David Highton explained that the Council has chosen the developer, Rydon A2/Dominion.  There will be a public consultation about plans for the development, probably in August/September time and the Council would like the developers to put in their formal planning application by the year end.

David said WEN had asked for someone from the Council's housing team or the developers to come to this meeting but no one was available and no alternative names were offered.  It appears the Council will only discuss this during the formal consultation.

David then went on to give the WEN view on this development.  WEN sees this as the most important development for West Ealing in a generation.  WEN's concern is that this development is seen by the Council as a housing project and no more.  Clearly, the Council must re-house the 450 or so families on the current estate but the plans for the new estate will almost double the number of families in the 10-acre site: a site that is larger than Arcadia and Dickens Yard put together.  

WEN believes it must be seen as far more just a housing project.  We need to think about community facilities, health services, policing and much more.  For example: 

• Should there be some form of visible police presence such as a shop as in South Ealing?
• What car parking will be available to shoppers and workers?
• What leisure facilities for young people?
• What services and facilities for older people such as a lunch club venue?
• Why not a doctor's surgery with parking?  -Grosvenor House, a nearby surgery, has no parking 

There are examples across the country where a much wider vision has been taken of this sort of development.  He gave the example of Caterham Barracks in Surrey where the community itself set the objectives to use the Section 106 planning gain money

and the Council signed up to these objectives.  The Caterham development was a 366 home one compared to the 800 or so planned for Green Man Lane and worth £60m compared to about £125m for the Green Man Lane development.  At Caterham they were able to include in their development:

• A supermarket on site
• Offices
• A vetinary hospital
• Indoor skateboard
• BMX centre

This was all achieved by the local council forming a Local Group to act as a forum for discussion on the site's use.  The group included council officials, community representatives, local residents and other groups. At the end a Community Development Trust was set up to run manage the leisure and business facilities and use its assets to create jobs for local people - it was run by local people for the benefit of local people.

He concluded by saying that in April the Council took the brave and bold decision to knock down the Green Man Lane estate and start again.  This was the right decision.  This is a once in a generation chance to transform West Ealing.  The chance to engage with all aspects of our local community and work together to make this development one that benefits everyone and be a development of which we can all be proud.  Please can our Council once again be brave and bold and decide to work in a way that involves all the local community.

7. The Lido Junction

Arthur Breens, a member of the working group (of three local residents groups) on the Lido Junction, explained the work of the group.  This includes data collected from 2 hours counting traffic on a morning and an afternoon.  This data will underpin any proposals the group puts forward.   Before going to look at the model of the junction Arthur asked for questions and suggestions about improving both pedestrian safety and traffic flow at the junction:

• Could follow the example of Oxford Circus and install a diagonal crossing
• Tony Illey said he had produced a design for this junction a while back which was well received and entailed some demolition of buildings on corners
• One person could remember there being push button controls on all four arms of the junction when he went to school
• Northfield Avenue needs to be wider
• Need filters to turn right up Drayton Green Road and down Northfield Ave
• Suggest having ‘countdowns' on crossings to show how much time left to cross
• Reminded that the Lido Junction falls within the catchment area of St John's School so is used by schoolchildren going to and from school at St John's.

The meeting them moved in to the vestibule to look at the scale model and leave their comments and experiences with Arthur for inclusion in the group's work.

Watch our video of the Lido discussion - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFuT1tFzXx8

8. Q&As and open forum

There was a question about the junction of the Uxbridge Road and Church Road in Hanwell where there are no pedestrian lights at all.

There were various views on drinkers and safety in Dean Gardens.  Some people were angry at the drinkers ruining the Gardens whereas other people did not feel threatened by the drinkers. 

Questions were asked about the Council's alcohol licensing policy and why shops could get a 24 hours liquor licence. Cllr Ann Chapman replied that a valid objection would help in a licensing hearing for a 24 hour licence but central goverment legislation made it almost impossible to deny an alcohol licence.  It is possible to limit the hours but that's about all unless the terms of the licence are infringed.

Concerns were raised about the extended hours licence application by the Gospoda Vita restaurant beneath Craig House. Residents there were already suffering from anti-social behaviour and wanted to object to any extensions of licensing hours.  Objections must fall in to the categories specified in the legislation - prevention of crime and disorder, public safety, prevention of public nuisance, and prevention of harm to children.

A questioner who aksed about blocked gulleys was given the Council's customer services number and details of the volunteer Streetwatcher programme.

The failure of the Council to consult residents living very close to the Green Man Lane estate was raised and there was a petition to sign about this for anyone interested.  Concern was raised over the impact on residents of Felix Road if St John's School was rebuilt further in to the estate and its existing site used for three-storey houses.

David Highton

27th June 2009