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More than1,000 march through Ealing to save local hospital

Saturday 15 September 2012 may well prove to be a red letter day as far as cuts to local NHS healthcare services. I, with my wife and eldest son joined some 1,000 people who marched from Southall to Ealing Common along the Uxbridge Road. There we were joined by some 400 people who had marched from Acton to Ealing Common. The 1,400 or so people who attended the rally on the Common enjoyed speeches for all three Ealing MPs, Hammersmith’s Labour MP Andy Slaughter, Ealing’s Council Leader and senior Trade Unionists. As ever the most rousing and passionate speech came from Steve Pound Ealing North’s Labour MP. Not surprisingly Ealing Central and Acton’s Conservative MP Angie Bray got a mixed reaction from the crowd.

This is the largest protest march and rally I have ever seen in Ealing – and I have lived here more or less continuously for over 40 years.

Many of the marchers waived placards, blew noisy horns and one of them was banging a very loud drum. Young and old, rich and poor, Tories, Labour supporters, LibDems, Councillors, MPs, socialists, NHS staff, teachers’ unions, and many Southall residents took part. Southall is the most deprived part of the borough and has the highest prevalence of diabetes, tuberculosis and coronary heart disease in Ealing.

Ealing Conservatives were very active in distributing copies of the 80 page NHS NW London consultation document along with a simple guide on how to ‘legally’ express your view to retain Ealing Hospital’s Accident and Emergency Department.

Eric Leach

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Where has all the fruit gone?

WEN Abundance is having a lean year for the first time since its inception 5 years ago with very little fruit on offer so far. We are by no means the only group suffering from a lack of Abundance, groups across London and the rest of the country are scaling down activities.  A mixture of a bumper year last year and mixed weather earlier on this year has resulted in fewer yields to date. 

Luckily for us we made lots of produce last year – including delicious new chutney recipes. All of which will be on sale at West Ealing Family Day on Saturday 22nd September.  Come along to our stall outside St James Church, St James Avenue from 10am – 4pm (providing stocks last!).

If anyone knows of any suitable fruit going spare, particularly apples for our fruit press to use at West Ealing Family Day please contact wenabundance@gmail.com

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Get ready for West Ealing Family Day on Saturday 22nd September

 

This year’s West Ealing Family Day is fast approaching. This year we have more activities for children including:

  • drumming workshops and magic shows in St James Church
  • painting and other children’s activities in the famers’ market in Leeland Road
  • arts activities for children with OPEN Ealing in St James Avenue
  • football in Dean Gardens

We’ll again have hot food and live music in Melbourne Avenue, a craft market in St James Avenue and, for the first time, specialist food stalls and community information stalls in Canberra Road alongside Sainsbury’s. Watch out too for our Abundance stall and apple juice pressing in front of St James Church.

Full details of activities and timings will be on our website

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Face painting for kids, natural skin care products, free teas and coffees and more at this Saturday’s West Ealing Craft Market

Alongside the 16 craft stalls selling locally made goods, St James’ Church is offering free teas and coffees at this Saturday’s craft market in St James Avenue ( by entrance to Sainsbury’s car park). The market runs from 10am – 3pm and you can buy a selection of jewellery, home-baked cakes, natural skin care products including soaps, bath salts, body butters, hand creams, as well as original drawings and paintings, handmade beaded bracelets and there’s also face painting for kids.

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West Ealing street filmed for end of the world! Well, not quite but local traders to feature in new short film

I was just about to turn into Melbourne Ave on Tuesday afternoon when my way was blocked by a young girl in a bright yellow hi-vis jacket.  Peering up the road I could see an ambulance so first thought there had been an accident. Then I thought, no, that’s not right and looked more carefully and saw filming going on.  I didn’t have time to stop and find out more but bumped in to Tony Luckhurst (who owns Luckhurst’s butchers) and he told me all about it. Apparently the film is called  Dregs and is about the world being saved by heroin addicts ie the ‘dregs’.  Here’s the blurb off the website (http://la-fin.com/dregs/):

 

DREGS

If the beginning of the world started with a bang then it ended with a very different sound. A sound so powerful that it made everyone tear their ears off in agony and roll their eyes back into their heads as the last traces of humanity were forced from their bodies. Now they stand frozen to the spot; ‘Statics’, controlled by the last sound they ever heard. Unless anyone or anything around them makes a sound, whereupon they turn en mass to destroy it, tearing at it with their bare hands until nothing remains, before reverting to their static state. This happened to everyone, everywhere, in that same final moment – everyone except the heroin addicts; the ‘Dregs’.

Watch the film to get sight of Billy Luckhurst ( above photo) and local hairdresser Nico Neo playing….Statics.

 

 

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Air ambulance in Dean Gardens – incident in Chapel Road

I’ve just walked back from OPEN Ealing and passed police cars and ambulances all over the place. Then I saw an air ambulance in Dean Gardens. It looks to me as if an incident took place in Chapel Road, location of a major fire last year, and someone was taken by road ambulance to the air ambulance which had landed in Dean Gardens. More information when we have it… think I’ve just heard the air ambulance fly over our house.

UPDATE – Saturday from Ealing Today website

Seems a man in his 30s was attacked in Chapel Road and left in a serious condition and then airlifted to hospital in east London.