West Ealing – Page 3 – West Ealing Neighbours

February 10, 2025April 25, 2026

St James Church reinvigorated

St James Church has been unoccupied since the summer of 2018. All manner of ideas have been proposed for its use but it looks like the Church of England wanted to keep it as a religious venue.

Just before Christmas we suddenly saw scaffolding going up and builders’ trucks coming and going. It didn’t take long for information to emerge about the building being taken over by the Assyrian Church, St Mary’s Cathedral, which was until very recently in Hanwell.

Their website has full information about their faith and all their activities in the community.The formal opening will be on the weekend of the 15th and 16th February so no wonder there’s so much work going on to be ready in time.

It’s a relief to see the building brought back into use, so we welcome the new church to our local community.

October 29, 2024May 10, 2026

Notes from West Ealing Neighbours meeting on Thursday 24th October 2024

Some of the topics addressed in the meeting:

WEN’s evolving role
Anti-social behaviour
Possible closure of the library
New, major housing developments
Commuter congestion
Electricity and water supplies
Lammas Park

Click here to view the meeting notes.

1.Chair’s report

David Highton, chair, gave a brief report on the past year. He started by saying that when WEN started in 2006 there was very little time spent on considering major developments. In the first years, WEN got involved in activities such as preserving the heritage lampposts, improving pedestrian safety at the Lido Junction and helping establish the arts centre OPEN Ealing. Now, most of our time is spent on major developments – many of which are on tonight’s agenda.

There are two other recent activities he wanted to highlight. Firstly, the efforts made to tackle anti-social behaviour within the O’Grady Court sheltered flats (above the library) which has spilt over on to Melbourne Avenue. A number of agencies were involved and the result is that Peabody Housing which manages the flats has employed security guards to prevent non-residents getting in to the building. Secondly, the library was facing possible closure as it was proving too much for OPEN Ealing to run alongside their arts centres. Neither the Council nor OPEN wants to close the library but a way forward needs to be found. In response to this, WEN helped bring together some dozen interested groups and residents. They met on Monday (21^st October) and out of this came a group willing to look at the vision and appropriate governance for the library. This is an encouraging first step towards finding a solution to keeping the library open and enabling it to be at the heart of our local community.

WEN has also been active in supporting efforts to save Victoria Hall, secure the future of Warren Farm and play a part in Save Ealing’s Centre’s work. Finally, WEN has an active book club and an Abundance project selling its own apple juice through a local deli.

Accounts

Thanks to our treasurer, Andrew Cazalet, for producing the accounts. As at the end of December 2023 WEN has £1324 in the bank. With the cost of this meeting and the one held in February there will be very little left in the bank. Contributions towards the cost of this meeting would be very gratefully received.

Election of committee members

David Highton said the three existing post holders of Chair (David Highton), Vice Chair (Eric Leach) and treasurer (Andrew Cazalet) were silling to stand again. Ian Potts proposed the three and Gillian Brown seconded this.

New committee members

Finally, David Highton thanked all the current members of the committee for their hard work over the past year. He stressed the importance to WEN’s future of new people joining the committee to bring new ideas, enthusiasm and energy.

2. Public Meeting

This part of the meeting was chaired by Eric Leach.

Leeland Terrace

This a part completed development in Maitland Yard/Dean Gardens car park off Leeland Terrace. The builder Henry went bust some time ago. Cllr Manro said the Council is still looking for a builder to take over. In response to a question, he said there are no plans to demolish and start again. No time scale yet for the works to re-start.

Green Man Lane Estate

Phase 4 will be 396 homes and is still being reviews by the GLA. After the first contractor went bust the new contractor building the town houses on Felix Road is nearing completion with the first residents having moved in.

Gurnell

Plans include 295 homes in five towers. The new planning application should be submitted by the Council early next year. Cllr Polly Knewstub spoke about the plans and was confident that a top quality project, including a new swimming pool, would be delivered. She also talked about the different ways funds could be raised to cover the costs.

Kwik Fit

This development is for shared living ( a bit like student accommodation) for people of all ages. It will be 134 co-living studio flats in towers up to 9 storeys. Eric Leach raised questions about how this would work in practice and mentioned a similar development where this idea had not worked and had been dropped.

Cllr Manro said the developers for this site are ones which do get on with the work so likely to start soon.

Faulty Towers

This refers to the three tower blocks being built within close proximity of each other – Waitrose, Manor Road and the Majestic Wine site. The councillors didn’t comment on the likely traffic chaos caused by the three simultaneous developments in Manor Road (tower next to station), Hastings Road (Tide Towers) and Alexandria Road for Waitrose.

Tide Tower

This is the old Majestic Wine Warehouse site. Plans are for 448 student bedsits in four towers up to 13 storeys high. The demolition phase has been completed and building work has begun.

Waitrose

The planning application is for 428 homes in six towers – the tallest approaching the height of Big Ben.

The planning application for this development was not determined by the Council within the required timeframe. As a result, John Lewis Partnership has taken it to the Planning Inspectorate to rule for a decision. The Council has decided not to contest this. However, Save The Towers is contesting it and is seeking funds to help it cover its costs.

In response to some strong views on the Council’s decision not to contest this , Cllr Manro explained that the Council required a minimum of 30% affordable homes on this site. The plans had only 20%. The council believe it was negotiating in good faith with John Lewis only ‘to have the rug pulled from beneath it’ by John Lewis. He went on to say that the cost of contesting this application could run in to some £100,000s and this was considered to be too much and not a good use of the Council’s limited resources. He also added that another John Lewis development had proposed just 10% affordable housing and this had been accepted by the local borough, so this would not have helped Ealing Council’s case.

Cllr Manro then made a wider point about how difficult it is for the Council to meet its own targets for affordable housing. They are only managing to reach half their annual target of 2,000 affordable homes a year. The period of austerity and inflation had pushed a number of builders in to bankruptcy and this had slowed down building these homes. In addition, the costs to housing associations of both the fire remediation work post-Grenfell and repairing existing stock because of mould and damp mean that housing associations have much less money for new builds.

Stop The Towers

Justine Sulliivan, co-chair of Stop The Towers, outlined why they were willing to represent Ealing residents in opposing John Lewis’s plans for the Waitrose site. She was strongly of the view that if this case was lost then the whole borough would feel the impact of these massive style developments and would be powerless to stop them. The Government Inquiry starts on 19^th November. Save The Towers needs financial help to pay its lawyers. Visit their website https://stopthetowers.info to find out how you can help.

Commuter Congestion

Eric Leach commented that the rush hour trains of the Elizabeth Line are already crowded by the time they reach West Ealing. The pressure will only increase with the 7,000 or so new homes being built in Southall on the old gas works site along with the towers by West Ealing station. He put in a plea for the Council to lobby for more trains on this western branch of the Elizabeth Line.

Old Woolworths site

Still a pile of rubble with no sign of action. Cllr Manro believed this site is still for sale and so no timescale when this site will be developed.

Manor Road Towers

144 flats in two towers – 12 and 18 storeys high. Work is back underway after the initial building contractor went bust.

St James Place

144 flats with towers up to 16 storeys. This is the same developer as for the Kwik Fit site so work should start fairly soon.

Electricity and Water Supply

There were some strong views on the potential problems and likelihood of a shortage of these two utilities. A question from the audience highlighted the impact of data centres on electricity supply (one data centre requires on average enough electricity to supply 50,000 homes). What was the Council doing to secure adequate supplies of both water and electricity? Cllr Manro’s argument was that building would continue and the supplies would have to be provided. The Council could not stop trying to build the homes required for the borough because of this.

Lammas Park

A lot of concern as to just what is happening with the drainage works, the lack of information on the scale of the works and the worries about children’s safety near the newly created ponds. Cllr Gareth Shaw explained that the project was being undertaken with the Environment Agency and was about capturing and slowly releasing excess water from the surrounding area. Work has stopped as a new planning application is required to complete the works. Once complete the works will be connected to the Thames Water system. In terms of safety, Cllr Shaw explained that the planting around the edges of the ponds would act as a deterrent to children to stop them getting too close to the water. There were concerns expressed about loss of green space and a lack of consultation.

David Highton for the WEN committee

29^th October 2024

June 1, 2024May 6, 2026

June 2024 newsletter

Contents:

Is this a plan? An overview of the new Local Plan
Coming face to face to face with the planning committee
Live West Ealing update
Discovering Ealing’s green spaces
How long does it take to repair a Sainsbury’s lift?

The newsletter can be viewed here.

March 25, 2024April 25, 2026

Information and suggestions on responding to Live West Ealing’s consultation

Draft response from West Ealing Neighbours to Live West Ealing proposals.

The deadline for comments is 31st March 2024 and the survey can be found here

General points:

There are no reasons given in the proposals as to why £8.6 million is to be spent on these ‘designs’. There are no explicit references to problems which need to be solved. What is more, no evidence is presented to support these changes to be made to deal with ‘unknown’ problems’. Finally, there is no evidence presented as to how these design changes will perform both quantitatively and qualitatively.

These plans will potentially create new areas for anti- social behaviour as detailed below. How do the police fit in with this plan in terms of dealing with anti-social behaviour?

With the creation of new seating, green spaces and play spaces, what are the long-term maintenance plans for the upkeep of these? How will the immediately local community be encouraged to get involved to ‘oversee/supervise’ these new spaces?

Singapore Road and Witham Road are basically service roads and they, and the nearby areas, are frequently very badly littered despite the efforts of the volunteer litter picking group LAGER Can. If this littering isn’t tackled these areas will stay deeply unattractive and no amount of attempts to enliven them with seats and greenery will encourage anyone to stop and enjoy the new spaces. How can the buildings along these roads have more active frontages to deter flytipping, littering and anti-social behaviour?

What analysis has been undertaken to assess the impact of the loss of car parking spaces, e.g. Leeland Road and Witham Road car park, on local shops and businesses?

1.Broadway

It makes sense to align road crossings with main north-south streets to improve and speed up access for pedestrians

WEN supports plan to stop parking and loading on Broadway as long as this can be enforced and there really is access for deliveries on parallel roads such as Leeland Terrace, Singapore and Witham Road.

2. Lido Junction

Will pedestrians still be able to cross in all directions on the red-light phase?

3. Dean Gardens

The widened shared cycle and pedestrian paths should be segregated with markings to keep the two groups separate and avoid possible collisions. Some cyclists travel fast, too fast, along the existing route.

With the proposed one way traffic on Leeland Terrace – with eastbound vehicles and westbound cycles – will cyclists from the west use the eastbound vehicle route to enter Dean Gardens and on across to Mattock Lane? If so, is this desirable? Westbound cyclists can simply ride through Dean Gardens and continue westbound along the cycle route.

Good that area taken by new and/or wider cycle paths to be compensated for by path removed from south-west corner.

No commitment to major improvements to the lighting in the park.

4. Green Man Passage

Will the proposed new planting and greenery need maintenance? If so, who will do this as it’s unlikely the Council will do much maintenance. What efforts will be made to encourage nearby business and residents to ‘look after’ the area? Green Man Passage can get very badly littered. What plans are there to keep the area clean and tidy?

Improved lighting is essential along the full length of Green Man Passage.

What is happening to the seemingly derelict piece of land next to the Serbian Church? This has been empty for a good few years since the church’s plans for it were rejected.

5. Witham Road Car Park

As above, what plans are there to maintain the public seating area so it does not attract anti-social behaviour? Again, this area can get very badly littered, so how will this be tackled?

This is a well-used car park. A loss of five spaces for yet more cycle stands is not ideal. Nor is the loss of some parking on Witham Road. These spaces are vital for the survival of local businesses.

6. Jacob’s Ladder

Again, how will the play features/area be maintained? This area has great potential for anti-social behaviour. How will this be managed?

What has happened to the original plans for a pedestrian route from Jacob’s Ladder, through the Green Man Lane Estate, to Singapore Road? This should be a key pedestrian route but it is currently blocked and no sign of it being opened up.

Funds would be better spent improving the fabric of Jacob’s Ladder and the route to the north where there is poor visibility between the bridge and the road.

7. Manor Road

Plans seem sensible

8. Leeland Road

Priority here must be ensuring pitches for the weekly market. Allied to this, what are the plans to ensure the market traders will have access to enough parking spaces on Saturday mornings? They have lost parking in Maitland Yard and no immediate prospect of that returning. Will they be able to continue parking in the library car park? Will adequate power supply points be made available for stall holders?

Yet more parking spaces lost to the detriment of local businesses and local residents.

9. Green Man passage (south of Witham Road)

This alleyway can get badly littered, not least by charity shop donations being there for the Cancer research shop. Improved lighting is essential.

10. Singapore Road

Is this cycle route one that cycling organisations have called for? Is there any evidence Singapore Road is used as a ‘rat-run’ – it seems unlikely? It’s not a very convenient short cut to avoid the Broadway. The loss of 24 parking spaces looks likely to be a major problem, not least for the West London Islamic Centre for Friday lunchtime prayers.

11. Leeland Terrace

Makes more sense as a safer cycle rote than Singapore Road as it links to route through Deans Gardens and on to Mattock Lane. Even so, what evidence is there that it is used as a short cut to avoid the Broadway.

Funnelling all Sainsbury’s traffic along Leeland Terrace from the junction with Coldershaw Road is a questionable move as it is likely to cause jams at the junction of Leeland Terrace and the Broadway with traffic wanting to turn right in to he Broadway. Much local traffic from the streets to the south wanting to go west will also end up in this queue or start using alternative routes via side streets to reach Coldershaw Road or Boston Road to avoid likely queue on Leeland Terrace.

12. St James Avenue

Again, how will the proposed seating and play area be maintained? This plan could be widened if an agreement is reached with the church authorities to use its green spaces in front of and to the side of the church.

13. Melbourne Avenue

One major problem for Melbourne Avenue is the poor drainage. The narrow gulley is never cleaned so quickly blocks up and the area is easily flooded when it rains.

Better lighting is essential as the area is dark late night.

This is an area plagued by anti-social behaviour almost all day long. It attracts street drinkers and drug dealing. The police know this but little ever happens to tackle this problem.

Once again, who will maintain the planters and seating? The planters are largely full of rubbish and do not often get cleaned by the street cleaners.

There is already public art in the form of a mural on Sainsbury’s front wall. I suspect most people aren’t aware of it. Any new public art should be managed by OPEN Ealing – soon to be running the library. It would be more of an attraction for the area for the public art to change of a regular basis – could tie up with SET in St James Ave?

14. Walsingham Road, Bedford Road and Brownlow Road

Again, seating in Bedford Road will need maintaining.

David Highton

March 25th 2024

February 19, 2024April 26, 2026

Notes from West Ealing Neighbours’ public meeting on 15th February 2024

Background to Ealing’s housing needs

Cllr Shital Manro, Cabinet Member for Good Growth and New Homes, outlined Ealing’s situation. The borough has a major shortage of housing. It is not meeting its housing target of 2175 homes a year in the London Plan. There are:

169 families in hotels
300+ in bed and breakfasts
2500 families in temporary accommodation
7500 on the waiting list
The Council seeks 35% (going up soon to 40%) affordable homes in new developments

1.Major developments in West Ealing

Arden Road – a legal dispute with the next door church over access to parking spaces so work delayed until this resolved

Chignell Place – quite a few applications put in but none have been acceptable to the Council so far. Awaiting a decent proposal.

Maitland Yard/Dean Gardens car park – Builders Henry have gone bust. The Council is putting the work out to tender again.

Felix Road – An A2Dominion development as part of the Green Man Lane Estate. Again, the builder Real has gone bust. It is the responsibility of A2Dominion and Rydon to find a new contractor.

Complaints about blocked pavement on south side of Felix Road due to stalled development. The Council is trying to resolve this to re-open footpath. Also a complaint about rubble dumped on children’s playground. Cllr Manro not aware of this but will look in to it. (WEN to track these actions)

Green Man Lane Estate – development stalled due to rising costs and builder Real going bust. Complaint about Bramley Road being blocked which Cllr Manro will look in to. (WEN to track this action)

Gurnell – Cllr Polly Knewstub, Cabinet Member for Thriving Communities, said this is the Council’s own site. A new 50m swimming pool will be part of the redevelopment of the leisure centre. The Council will be submitting a proposal for the whole site, to include housing, in mid-March.

Kwik Fit – the developer has now bought the site next door so has submitted a new application. Comments due by 7^th March

Majestic Wine Warehouse– an application is in for student accommodation. Questions asked as to why students and not housing for residents?

Manor Road – builder Henry has gone bust. Whilst looking for a new contractor MTVH have amended the design to include a 2^nd staircase. Aware it’s a difficult site next to railway line. Hope to start work again in about two months. Question about site hoarding blocking footpath – MTVH to check on this. (WEN to track this action)

St James Church – awaiting information from local diocese about its future

St James Place/Artist’s Corner – application in and comments deadline is 21^st February. No comments yet received. Query raised about building over part of St James Ave and creating an unsafe area at night similar to Melbourne Avenue

Waitrose – original application was not supported by the Council as not enough affordable housing. Awaiting new application but doubts raised given the change at top of John Lewis. Will the new management team continue with their housing plans?

Shops near Costa in high street – no application received but suggestion from owner of nearby shop that it will become a special needs school

Woolworths site – long empty and now bought by a new developer

2.Dean Gardens – part way through construction of a rain garden funded by Thames Water. Much unhappiness with its current waterlogged state. A handout made available explaining the next stages of its development

3. Electricity supply

West Ealing has had a series of recent power cuts and a major fire at the Dean Gardens sub station. SSE not able to send a representative to the meeting but have given an update. Cllr Manro explained what the Council has been doing to try to alleviate the pressure on power supply, especially given all the housing development across the borough.

Later: see below for information provided by Scottish and Southern Energy Networks about power supplies.

4. Uxbridge Road – Cllr Polly Knewstub said there will not be a segregated cycle lane as not enough room, She recognized the need for better enforcement on the question of cars parked on yellow lines and hoped this would improve soon with the new in-house enforcement team starting in a few months

5. Leighton Road/Elthorne Park Road

Cllr Paul Driscoll said rumours of road closures and £1.5M to be spent on redesigning the roads are false. He has been talking to a residents group on this road about the problems of the 1 Million plus vehicle movements a year along these roads. Still early days and no plans or proposals yet and no plan to close the road altogether. Worth noting that Swycombe Ave was closed by Hounslow Council and Ealing Council has been unable to persuade them to re-open it.

6. Policing – this was raised by a number of people. A lot of dissatisfaction with the current state of policing in the area with anti-social behaviour and drug dealing a common problem. Cllr Knewstub aware of these concerns. One suggestion is to attend the Safer Neighbourhood police meetings held in each ward. (WEN to publicise these)

7. West Ealing Library

Cllr Knewstub announced that OPEN Ealing is in final stages of negotiation to take on the library from start of April.

8. Section 106 and Community Infrastructure Levy

Cllr Manro admitted that the Council had not had the systems in place to track where Section 106 moneys had been spent. However, this will soon change with new systems coming in. Also, later than most other London Boroughs, the Council will start to charge CIL on new developments.

David Highton for WEN

19^th February 2024

Power Supply – information from SSE provided by Regional Customer Relationship Manager for Scottish and Southern Energy Networks

‘Thank you for inviting us to attend the meeting on 15th February. Further to our conversation last week, we are unable to attend however would like to provide an update below on the issues you raised and discussed.’

Dean Gardens substation

We would like to thank residents of West Ealing for their patience during the disruption caused on January 19^th when unfortunately, one of our assets failed in the Dean Gardens area causing a power outage to some of our customers. We have since replaced this asset and are undertaking a thorough review to understand the cause of the failure alongside a review of our network circuits in the area to see what further reinforcements may be required.

Constraints

Regarding concerns around constraints on our network and connection timelines we have been an active driver of industry-wide connections reform which is aiming to accelerate investment in the grid and cut queue times.

In addition to this collaborative response to this challenge, we have also been trialing an innovative solution in West London which has helped several projects progress. This involves using a ramping approach to connect developments in increments to allow projects to progress whilst capacity becomes available.

We are working closely with both Government and industry to implement recommended solutions and approaches that will make the connections process more efficient and free up existing capacity on our network.

Local Authority engagement

We reached out to Ealing Council last year to engage with us on their net zero plans. We are planning on hosting in person workshops this Spring to support our local authorities on local area energy planning and will be in touch shortly with details on how to register for these. As part of our distribution operating area, representatives from Ealing Council will receive an invite and we would encourage them to attend if possible. This is part of our wider offering to local authorities within our license area to provide support to develop a coordinated and effective delivery strategy for the whole system and net zero initiatives that interact with our network, as part of Local Area Energy Plans. More broadly as part of our wider engagement we have been in regular conversations with the Greater London Authority.

We’re currently rolling out our new tool Local Energy Net Zero Accelerator (LENZA), for local authorities in our network area. This software provides data on network constraints, empowering planners to make better informed decisions about where to install new energy assets in their local area. We’ll be rolling this out to our local authorities in the south of England including Ealing.

If you have any questions on the above or anything else, I am more than happy to organise a meeting to discuss any of the above in more detail.’

January 19, 2024May 6, 2026