Can’t sleep at 2.10am – Riots in West Ealing email exchange

 

Allan,

I agree about having a public meeting.

I can’t relax either.

I can’t compare this to anything that has happened in the whole of my life.

Surely troops will have to be deployed soon if this is repeated later today.

Anger? Just who do we get angry with? The government. The previous government. The Police. Ourselves – for allowing things to get in this kind of mess.

I guess the bankers will still get their £million bonuses.

Eric

PS I’m 67 today – it’s going to be a low key birthday

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There is a police presence now, so that is good. People are still making their way past them.  Some of them caught buses and carried their goods away with them.   The problem with this situation is that I don’t know what’s happening just a few buildings down the road so can’t relax and go to bed. Can we have a public meeting in support of the local people? It is all right for some for the youth to be angry, yet what about people like us? How do we get to express our anger?

Talking about Ealing on the news now.


Allan,

Yes awake.

Tesco Express is (or was) on the north east corner of Haven Green.

Sad to say I’ve been predicting rots in the streets for a while but in my wildest dreams I never expected this.

Very very worrying.

Take care  – you are much nearer to this than I am. I spoke to my son near you to stay indoors.

Eric

 


Hi, Eric. Are you awake and following what’s going on on the high street? Several hours ago bunches of police cars were flying past, mainly towards the east. But once the hordes started coming down the roads carrying their goods from Blockbuster etc and since – a couple of hours now, I don’t know if there is a police presence in West Ealing or not. Now the Panasonic shop has been ransacked. There still seem to be young guys turning up in the side streets, covering their faces and then heading onto the main street or easy pickings. I would just like to know if there are any police in West Ealing. I haven’t bothered phoning anyone because what’s the use. Just keeping a lookout for break-ins and fires nearby.
Tesco Express Ealing Broaway gone. Where’s that? Think I saw some of the kids carrying bottles past mine. ONLY 5 POLICE ON SCENE IN EALING!!!!


Riots hit ‘Queen of the Suburbs’

Woken up by my 5 year old son at 3.00am this morning saying ”Mummy there are helicopters everywhere” the reality hit me that the rioting had come to the ‘Queen of the Suburbs’. I held my son in my arms with my heart beating fast genuinely scared at the thuggery and wanton organised violence that has now spread to West London.

West Ealing high street badly damaged in night of looting

I walked up to the West Ealing shopping centre about about 6.45am this morning to see rubbish and glass strewn everywhere. The main targets seem to have been banks and shops with goods that were deemed worth looting and that’s what it was – looting.

I couldn’t count the number of shops with smashed windows and one of my favourite shops, run by one of the nicest men in our community, Seba Electronics had had its shutter ripped down so the looters could get in and steal the goods.

I just hope that the looting isn’t the final straw that finishes off any of our local businesses. Times are more than tough enough without looting by people who don’t care about our neighbourhood or anyone’s else’s neighbourhood.

David Highton

 

 

Success at WEN Abundance first blackberry pick

A small team of us went out to pick blackberries on what was a very pleasant Sunday evening.  Bitterns Field, Brent River Park did not disappoint.  Lots were ripe and a lot more to come. Plenty for jam making and I’m sure we will be going back to get more soon.

Some pictures of the evening..

Pauly and Gill
Veronica and Deb
Deb, Veronica and Pauly

Volunteers and musicians needed for OPEN Ealing

OPEN Ealing is looking for volunteers to help on its reception between 11am and 5pm daily in August and then also between 5-9pm from September. We are also looking  for musicians who are interested in playing at our monthly lunchtime events starting in September.

This month we are busy with our 5 weeks of children’s workshops each weekday between 11am and 5pm. Then from September we will launch our autumn schedule for adults which includes a range of evening activities on most evenings in the week so need help on reception between 5pm and 9pm.

Reception is the public face of OPEN Ealing and the role covers:

  • registering children attending the workshops
  • registering adults attending classes and workshops
  • booking in people wishing to attend the workshops and classes
  • dealing with enquiries from the public both in person and on the phone

We are also looking for musicians who are interested in playing at our forthcoming series of monthly Friday lunchtime events. We can pay expenses and provide lunch. We are keen to have a wide range of music from classical, folk, jazz and more.

If you’re interested in volunteering please call us on 020 8579 5558 weekdays from 10am to 5pm or just drop in and visit us at 113 Uxbridge Road (opposite Ealing fire station). We’d be very happy to show you round and explain more about OPEN Ealing and the reception role.

David Highton

 

Pirates invade West Ealing

Sand castles, spectacularly coloured fish and a pirate ship  – all a result of OPEN Ealing’s first week of summer holiday worshops for children.

With the beach theme for our first week we started off with a bang when we were oversubscribed for the first afternoon workshop which saw sand and PVA glue come together in weird and wonderful ways to create some imaginative sand sculptures.

Then on to elaborate and beautfully deocorated fish which would grace any aquarium and we faced fierce rivalry with two teams beavering away to become pirates for the afternoon. They ended up with their own pirate ship painted with a skull and crossbones on our specially constructed indoor beach.

Our only disappointment was that no one turned up to our two interactive storytelling sessions  for under 6-year-olds. I think that may be down to us not explaining that it was much more than just storytelling. It would be mixture of storytelling and making all sorts of beach themed items like starfish and shells.

Anyway, I for one welcomed the sight of a cool glass of wine as we relaxed at the end of a busy but enjoyable first week of summer workshops.

David Highton

 

 

Abundance goes out to the local community

The Abundance team  were contacted by Nuria Rodriguez from Catalyst Housing about a foraging and jam making event for residents of Windmill Park Estate, Southall.

Our resident expert, Elizabeth went along with the group to pick blackberries to turn into delicious blackberry jam back at the community centre. Everyone had a go and the children loved the tasting at the end!

We will be looking forward to more events this year.

Here are a few pictures of the day – Click on the pictures to open them.

 

Residents’ concerns about drug dealing in West Ealing are being addressed by police and Community Safety team

Following up on West Ealing Neighbours’ recent public meeting a West Ealing resident writes:

The young man had a limp and looked uneasy. As my neighbour watched him from an upstairs window, he crossed and re-crossed Mattock Lane several times, hovering near St John’s Church. After 20 minutes a car drew up, the man got into the front seat. A minute later he stepped back on to the street and headed for Dean Gardens.

A drug deal? Probably. Certainly when I told the police about this incident, and another that had taken place near St John’s Church a few days earlier, you could see the police sergeant’s ears prick up. He wanted to know what time these deals usually happened? What time of day should he send his officers on patrol?

My conversation with the police was at WEN’s recent meeting about drug dealing on the streets of W13. While grateful to WEN for organising the event, privately I doubted that it would achieve anything tangible. Like most opportunities to meet officials, it would be a PR job, a chance for the police and local councillors to tell the public how well they are doing, to pat us on the head and send us home.

I am pleased to say that I was wrong. Of course there was some PR – the police were keen to tell us that their work at the St John’s Church soup kitchen has been effective, which it has. But what I liked about this meeting was that local police officers and a former Met officer, Paul Dunn, now working with Ealing Council’s Community Safety Team, didn’t just pontificate, they listened to the concerns of residents and offered to engage with the community to address the issue of local drug dealing.

I pointed out that the area around St John’s Church attracts addicts for three reasons: the availability of methadone at the chemists on St John’s Parade, the soup kitchen, and the privacy offered by the footpath behind the nearby allotments. Surely the area should have some compensatory policing?

Within days I noticed uniformed officers cycling through the area. I hope this will continue and believe that it will be most useful if the patrols are at random times. Paul Dunn offered to join me and a fellow resident on a walkabout of the area so we were able to show him the footpath, and he could see that it is out of sight of houses and businesses. “I’d like to see a CCTV camera here and signs saying ‘Smile, you’re on camera,’” he suggested. So would we.

We showed him a hedge where drug-taking equipment has been hidden, and he observed the proximity of the chemist, the soup kitchen and a poorly lit alley where there is sometimes anti-social behaviour. We suggested other people in the area to whom Mr Dunn might talk, and he has been as good as his word in meeting them.

I wouldn’t wish to exaggerate the level of drug dealing in the area where I live. But it happens, every resident here is aware of it and we want to stop it becoming a major problem. And now I feel that someone in authority who has relevant expertise is listening and prepared to work with the community. Success will depend on two-way communication but a dialogue has begun
and that can only be helpful.

If you see any suspicious activity, phone 101. This will get you through to
police near you. If you wish to remain anonymous, call Crime stoppers on 0800 555 111. You can also e mail: XB-WARDWalpole@met.police.uk

Let us know what’s on your mind with our new forum and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Email and RSS

Our revamped blog is growing in popularity by leaps and bounds, and there’s lots of ways you can follow what’s going on in West Ealing, and let us know what you think about your local community.

We’ve recently created a new online discussion forum to talk about everything in West Ealing. We want to hear from you about what’s on your mind, from restaurant reviews to local planning. Have a look at what’s being said already, and start a topic of your own: http://www.westealingneighbours.org.uk/WEN-blog/wen-forum/

Continue reading “Let us know what’s on your mind with our new forum and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Email and RSS”

Demolition of Sherwood Close Estate gets closer

209 homes built and maintained by Ealing Council make up this estate. Many of the homes are what we used to call council houses but some are privately owned. The estate fills almost four acres and is bounded to the north by Tawny Close, to the west by Seaford Road and to the south and east by Sherwood
Close/Northfield Avenue.

The Council, effectively, admits it designed and built an inadequate estate and has failed to maintain it properly. Now it wants to knock it down. We’ve heard all this before at Green Man Lane Estate and at Copley Close. (For reasons not immediately apparent the Council has abandoned its current plans for Copley
Close).

The Council says that it’s consulted the Dean Gardens Estate residents who say they want the estate demolished and a new estate built. The Council pulled this stunt with GMLE residents. What is now being built at GMLE is actually fewer Social Rental homes than existed in 2010 (from 369 to 334). Best estimates are that at the completion of the new development less than half of the current 799 residents (ie around 400) will be part of the new community of 2,000 residents.  Those who owned their own homes are being driven out by the use of Compulsory Purchase Orders which value their homes at very low levels.

This week local residents in the area and WEN received a letter from the Council seeking our views on the redevelopment of Dean Gardens Estate. No proposals were included in the letter. So I called the Council and was told that there are no development proposals and no design requirements that might be included in an Invitation to Tender document. I then asked whether a short list of developers had been assembled. I asked who they were and was told that there is a short list of developers but that their identity was confidential. Now all this is very strange. At the same stage with regards to GMLE, WEN was told that there was a design specification but that we couldn’t see it as it was confidential. As to the shortlist of developers the Council told us who they were.

The most idiotic part of this Public Consultancy process is that WEN and local residents are being asked their views on an unknown set of requirements and designs. All we do know is what is in the as yet unapproved September 2010 Local Development Framework Development Sites DPD. It proposes ‘Council-led housing regeneration involving redevelopment and replacement of existing dwellings with a mix of new dwelling types and tenures’. It is proposed to demolish 209 homes and build 290 new homes and if the GMLE model /template is applied we will finish up with fewer Social Rented homes here than we have now.

So I guess the question we are being asked here is do we want this estate to be redeveloped. My answer is no, I want this estate to be refurbished and caretakers installed to run and maintain the estate effectively. Both national and local government keep on telling us that we have huge debts and we need to make swingeing cuts. Here’s a great opportunity for no-one to take on more debt. The cost of refurbishment, insulation and improved maintenance of the existing homes will be nothing remotely like the £50 + million needed to build these 290 new homes.

If you want to inform the Council of your views you should address them for the attention of to Mumta Ganatra at deangardens@ealing.gov.uk  You have until 22 August to do this.

Eric Leach