Category: West Ealing

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Developer wins appeal to build 20-storey tower next to West Ealing station

Sadly, the decision by The Planning Inspectorate to give the go-ahead for this tower is no great surprise. The documentation with this decision is long and detailed. These are some of the key points about the Inspector’s decison:

‘The Council’s acceptance that it cannot demonstrate a five-year supply of deliverable housing sites.’ The Council appears not to have proper records to prove it does not need this site to meet its housing targets.

The area around the site is largely non-residential.

There are already ‘buildings of significant size in the immediate area’ – Waitrose, Luminoscity, Sinclair House, Dominion House and the new station.

The proposed site itself is single -storey buildings of poor quality and under-used.

The starting point to assess the proposed tall building is ‘whether the site is worthy of the gesture. A spine of taller development is evolving along the path of the railway.’ This proposal would be seen as another part of that spine. So the site is worthy of the gesture.

The proposed building (not as high as that originally proposed) would not appear as an alien insertion into the townscape. It would be an indicator of the transition from buildings of lower size and height to the more intensive uses and buildings of greater height around the node or hub formed by the meeting of the roads, their crossing of the railway and the station.

The design, as long as the materials are of high quality, will be an exemplary piece of design that will make a positive contribution to the area.

The proposed building is well outside the conservation area and we should not equate visibility and harm.

The Council is delivering at best 40% of its objectively assessed need for affordable housing. The provision of these 144 units would be all be affordable homes.

There is no unacceptable impact on the living conditions of existing residents through loss of sunlight, loss of daylight, visual impact, overshadowing, overlooking and loss of privacy.

No Blue Badge parking will not be a deterrent given it is next to the step-free access station and the developer will give £10,000 to the Council to provide Blue Badge parking nearby.

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Dean Gardens survey results: bigger bins, better CCTV, more play facilities and community gardening

There’s a lot more to the survey than just these headlines but these suggestions feature well up the list of people’s choices for how to improve the park. What was not scored high were such ideas as re-aligning the cycle track, installing a cycle repair station and putting in distance markers.

The full results of the consultation are now on the Council’s website. It’s a detailed report, so plenty to read. It’s well worth noting that the consultation had a very good response with 843 replies which compares very well with the response to many other Council consultations.

The report pinpoints the reasons why people go to Dean Gardens. ‘ The most popular reason for people to go to Dean Gardens with almost half of all respondents walking through it on their way to another destination such as school, shops, work or the station. Cycling through the park, the children’s play area, doing informal exercise and using the park for quiet
relaxation were also popular reasons. Very few respondents use the park for team sports and dog walking and 60 respondents said they don’t visit the park. Respondents could select more than one answer from the list and could also give other reasons.

Other reasons people gave included attending local festivals and events in the park, walking through the park to avoid the busy main road, playing basketball, roller-skating and skateboarding and using the park as part of a longer walking or running route.’

Following on from this the report gives the responses to the questions asked about what improvements they would like to see from a list provided by the Council. From these responses the report lasy out what improvements will start to be made and when. The first improvements will be made this winter and include:

  • Bigger compactor style bins
  • Upgrade CCTV
  • Logs, boulders and mounds
  • Free community activities
  • Community gardening area
  • Community orchard

These will be followed in Spring 2022 by:

  • Repair cycle route
  • Remove ‘teen’ tower
  • New trampoline
  • New calisthenics frame
  • New cantilever swing
  • New gym equipment
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More development coming on West Ealing high street

Rumours about Catalyst Housing Group selling its properties on the high street either side of St James Avenue have proved accurate. Some of these buildings have been empty for a while so a sale has seemed the obvious next step. The buildings which include the Welshore Hub, the addiction treatment agency RISE, the empty corner shops on either side of St James Avenue along with St James House have all been sold to Luxgrove Capital Partners for redevelopment.

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Ealing voluntary litter cleaning group win Queen’s Award

Many of you will know about LAGER Can by seeing their blue rubbish bags around our streets. Behind the blue bags lies an ever-growing group of volunteers (including me) who are making a massive difference to how our streets look. They have worked incredibly hard to clean up some of West Ealing’s really heavily littered areas such as Witham Road and Canberra Road. As well as cleaning up all the litter and dumped rubbish, LAGER Can have been working hard to tackle some of the underlying problems such as new flats without proper bins and commercial bins being broken open by flytippers (as happens with the bins behind Gregg’s in West Ealing).

The work of LAGER Can has been recognised with a Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service. Thoroughly deserved and if you want to find out more or join the group, and there’s a local West Ealing group, here’s their Facebook page.

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Free storytelling and art event in Dean Gardens Sunday 3rd October 11am

Local actors Halie and George will perform excerpts from well-known children’s literature. Each performance will contain three excerpts after which, the audience will be encouraged to guess where the excerpts are from. Audience members who guess correctly will have the possibility of winning a special treat!

The sessions will last 30 minutes, running at 11am, 12pm, 1pm and 2pm.

Also joining us is local artist, Komal Madar. Komal will be leading a community canvas painting experience, where visitors are invited to doodle, draw, scribble and sketch what they love about West Ealing. This activity is Inspired by the Uniqlo TATE Play programme and the Gutai group of radical Japanese artists who sought to change the world through painting, performance and children’s play.

A similar session will also be run in three other locations within Ealing. The four artworks will them form an installation at a local art gallery – soon to be announced. Register to hear first!

Our free activities and events offer families new ways to get creative and playfully explore art together. This activity is open to people of all ages and all drawing materials are provided for free.

There will be an eating area right by the performance space, so grab your favourite dish or snack from the local restaurants on offer and take a seat.

Seating is assigned on a first come first serve basis but there will be plenty of space to sit around the activity. Register for updates as we confirm some of our restaurant partners.

Celebrating Ealing’s green spaces and high streets, this free event will take place in Dean Gardens with the buzz of The Broadway setting the scene.

The event is free and to register follow this link.

The event is being put on by Ealing’s High Street Task Force.

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Seaford Road residents take up the challenge

One of West Ealing’s neglected green spaces is on course for a revival. The overgrown patch of land on Leeland Terrace by the corner with Seaford Road was cleared this morning (see main image) by a group of local residents as the first step in bringing it back to life. This is one of three neglected green spaces where the Council is working with West Ealing Neighbours to encourage local residents to take over and maintain. The other two are the corner of Singapore Road and Eccleston Road and a small area near the entrance to Sainsbury’s.

Leeland Terrace before the clean up
Before the clean up

The initiative has arisen from the West Ealing Liveable Neighbourhood (WELN) project. Even though the main TfL funded WELN plans are on hold, the Council is keen to push ahead with these community greening projects. To publicise these projects, West Ealing Neighbours leafleted the local streets as well as using its blog and Facebook page to encourage local people to get involved. With each site, the aim is for local residents to come up with ideas for what they would like each site to look like and then with Council approval put their plans in to action. The transformation from being neglected to being loved will only be successful if each project is rooted in the local community where people care about how their area looks.

There has been an enthusiastci response for all three sites and today saw a group from Seaford Road and nearby streets get stuck in to clear away the weeds and undergrowth as the first step to transforming this quite large site.

There’s still time to get involved in any of the three sites. if you’d like to volunteer to help please email us at westealingneighbours@gmail.com and let us know which site you’re interested in.

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Manor Road tower and Gurnell plans update

Ealing Matters’ latest newsletter has an useful update on the developer’s appeal against the Council’s decision to refuse their application for a tall tower in Manor Road next to West Ealing station.

Planning application for 51-56 Manor Road and 53-55 Drayton Green Road (corner site next to West Ealing Station (202231FUL)

The appeal against Planning Committee’s decision to reject this application for a 20-storey tower block took place online during the last two weeks of July. The appellant employed one of the country’s most respected planning barristers Christopher Katkowski QC, to argue their case. Stop the Towers (STT), whose campaign helped to secure 2,400 public objections including one from local MP James Murray, fought hard to uphold the decision. By contrast, the Council failed to field a single officer, relying instead on a consultant who had never previously worked on the scheme to make its case.

Mr Katkowski seized on the Council’s failure to publish any information about Ealing’s house-building programme for the last six years (the AMRs referred to earlier) to argue in his summing-up that the decision should be tilted in favour of his client, and used it further to lodge a claim for costs against the Council. If successful, not only will it be we as taxpayers who will have to pay for the borough’s negligence in this case, but it will subvert our elected representatives’ ability to reject officer recommendations for other schemes for which there are otherwise perfectly reasonable planning grounds to do so.

Planning application for Metropolitan Open Land (MOL) at Gurnell (201695FUL)

After being rejected by Ealing’s Planning Committee on 17 March by 10 votes to one with two abstentions, this application was submitted to the London Mayor for a final decision. Sadiq Khan chose not to intervene, so this particular scheme is now dead. Since then Save Gurnell has been campaigning for the leisure centre to re-open. Cllr Mason appeared alongside campaigners on BBC London’s Drivetime programme on 17 August to argue that it would cost £18 million to bring the complex up to standard. We are aware that a number of refurbishment options have been considered, but that only the most expensive one has been shared with the public. Are we being softened up for a new planning application?

With thanks to Eric Leach for his contribution to this latest issue. Contributions that you think would be of interest to Ealing Matters member groups are welcome.

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St John’s Covid vaccination centre in Mattock Lane – 40,000 reasons to celebrate

On Saturday afternoon I was privileged to be at St John’s Church in Mattock Lane to join many of the 110 volunteers who have helped deliver over 40,000 Covid vaccinations in the past seven months. Their job is not yet finished but it was a well-deserved moment for them to celebrate their achievements so far.

This vital vaccination service is a collaboration between the Mattock Lane Pharmacy, St John’s Church and over 100 volunteers. Rajan Shah of the pharmacy team worked hand in hand with Mark Melluish and his team at St John’s Church to set up a Covid vaccination centre which has now been operating for seven months and looks likely to continue for a while yet, especially if there is a booster vaccination programme this autumn.

One of those 40,000 vaccinations was my second jab in late April. I can remember the calm efficiency of that occasion. West Ealing has been very lucky to have this service in the heart of its community.

Saturday’s event was a time to celebrate what has been achieved so far. It was marked by a heartfelt thank yous to the volunteers from the Mayor of Ealing, alongside Rajan Shah and Mark Melluish. The volunteers are from the local community as well as members of the church. Let me add a thank you too from West Ealing Neighbours.

The vaccination centre will soon be the main one for Ealing and it now operates a drop-in service for all those eligible for a vaccination.

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Consultation results show strong opposition to LTNs

Ealing Council has published the results of its recent consultations on Low Traffic Neighbourhoods. The results show strong opposition across most LTNs except LTN 48 Adrienne Avenue and a part of LTN 21 in Hanwell – Deans Rd/Montague Ave where the majority of residents were in favour.

The Council hopes to make its final decisions in September as it has to meet new government guidance on justifying the removal of any LTN.

The full details are on Ealing Today’s website

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Have your say about improving private rental in Ealing

Only a few days left to give your views about possible changes to private rental in Ealing. This is the Council’s press release:

‘We’re considering making some changes to our property licensing schemes, to make private renting in the borough safer and better.

Since 2017, many privately rented homes in Ealing have needed a licence to be let. Licensing has been a big success, delivering safer homes for tenants, more support for landlords, and a reduction in neighbourhood nuisance and anti-social behaviour.

The new proposals would mean that the majority of houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) and all rented properties in 15 wards of the borough would require a licence. Under the schemes, a licence holder would have to comply with several conditions relating to their property, including gas, electrics and fire safety.

But before any decisions are made, we want to hear what our residents, businesses and other interested parties think about the plans. To take part in our short survey, please visit www.ealing.gov.uk/prslicensingconsultation by Monday, 16 August.’