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Changes planned for Uxbridge Road in West Ealing – plans on show at St James Church on Thurs 14th March

The Council wants to hear your views on its plans for changes along the West Ealing to Hanwell stretch of the Uxbridge Road. Key proposals include:

  • New 20 mph zones in Hanwell town centre and West Ealing town centre to improve road safety
  • Replacing the traffic lights at Hanwell Clock Tower (Boston Road junction) with a mini-roundabout to smooth traffic flow through Hanwell town centre. A zebra crossing and courtesy crossings would be introduced to help pedestrians. The one-way flow on Cherrington Road would be reversed to flow towards Church Road under this proposal
  • Creating a mini-roundabout and pedestrian crossings at the Church Road/St George’s Road Junction
  • Significant streetscape improvements which include a better defined town square at Hanwell Clock Tower, wider footways, new trees, removal of street clutter, re-energising underused public spaces in West Ealing
  • Additional pedestrian crossings by Westminster Road and at Eccleston Road, Hanwell
  • Removal of the westbound bus lane between Church Road and Eccleston Road to provide cycle lanes on both sides of the road
  • More pay and display bays in West Ealing.

Work should start in summer 2013 and take place in phases over the next two years.

Bassam Mahfouz, cabinet member for environment and transport said: “This stretch of Uxbridge Road can be difficult for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists alike. Our proposals will make it safer for while also making it easier to travel through Hanwell and West Ealing.

“The proposed changes are the result of listening to residents over recent years and we are keen to hear the views of as many people as possible so we’re putting on a public exhibition as part of this consultation.”

For more information on the proposals visit the exhibitions at:

  • Our Lady & St Joseph’s Parish Church, 52 Uxbridge Road in Hanwell on Tuesday, 12 March, 4-8pm
  • St James Church, St James Avenue, West Ealing on Thursday, 14 March 3-7pm

Some of these ideas  caused quite a stir at a recent Elthorne Ward Forum meeting and the West Ealing Centre Neighbourhood Forum has done a lot of work on transport and movement issues in West Ealing. I hope we will be able to hear the Forum’s thoughts on this blog.

You can find out more and comment online

 

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Talking about West Ealing – join us for coffee on Saturday morning

If you fancy a cup of coffee and a chat about anything West Ealing you’re very welcome to join us for a coffee this Saturday morning at Silva Cafe anytime between 11.30 and 12.30.  The plans for a 60-bedroom hotel are likely to come up along with other changes and developments along the high street. If there’s anything you want to ask or need help with just drop in – we’d love to see you.

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Petition against planned 60-bedroom hotel

Building a 60-bedroom hotel on the corner of Melbourne Ave and the Uxbridge Road looks almost certain to mean that some of the traders there – flower stall, card stall – will have to move. The plans for the hotel show a floor to ceiling glass window going part way along the Melbourne Ave side of the hotel. As a result, the traders are fearful of their future. Where will they be moved to? There doesn’t look to be enough room on the hairdresser’s side of the road for them all to fit in. As a result, they have started up a petition against the planned hotel and you can easily find it at the flower stall.

West Ealing Neighbours is considering its response to the planned hotel.  We recognise that this site needs redevelopment of some sort as it’s a bit of an eyesore but is this the best option for the high street? The sort of questions we are concerned about include:

  • Do we need another hotel? There are two budget ones half a mile down the road – Premier Inn and Travelodge – plus the revamped Drayton Court Hotel by West Ealing station.
  • It’s not likely to create all that much new employment for such a central high street site.
  • There is no car park planned. Admittedly, most guests will probably come by public transport but will that bring extra pressure on the nearby roads which are currently CPZ free but getting more and more heavily parked up.
  • It will mean more lorries crossing Melbourne Ave to access the rear delivery bays and do we want this? Some years back we proposed that a new access road go through part of the library car park. This was turned down because the mobile library bus was parked there overnight. The bus has now gone so we come back to the idea of lorries delivering to Lidl’s and the other shops by this new route and not across the mainly pedestrianised Melbourne Ave.
  • Luckhurst’s the butchers will have to close for at least 6 months whilst the building work takes place. Tony Luckhurst runs one of the few traditional butchers left in the area. Will he re-open?

 

 

 

 

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Reprieve shortlived as Blockbusters in West Ealing to close

Photo0272Sadly, the reprieve for the West Ealing Blockbusters has been short. There is a large Closing Down sign now on their window. I’m sorry for everyone who works there and for the loss of what appears to be a profitable branch. It will leave a hole on our high street and it’s a challenge for us as a residents group and others to find a way to bring this part of West Ealing back to life.

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West Ealing Neighbours Facebook is nearly up to 150 – join us if you can

Even if you’ve avoided facebook up to now, it might be worth joining just for WEN Facebook which is now romping along with 148 members. I’m a recent convert thanks to others posting in a way which engages me (especially Tony Luckhurst our butcher who was on The One Show talking about horsemeat the other day and was very enlightening).

It’s a bit like local radio where you can chip in in passing, with either a comment to an existing post, or put in your own post about your own event, activities, queries. You can be funny, whimsical, serious, as brief as you like, add pictures/videos, link to other interesting websites; you can be personal or talk about things to do with our town. Think ‘neighbours chatting over garden fence or in the pub or high street’.

You do need to sign yourself up with your own page first (here: http://www.facebook.com/) and then ask to join the WEN Facebook. But you don’t have to accept all or any friend requests or become active within your own page if you don’t want to.

 

If you already have a FB page, just log on and ask to join WEN Facebook.

Here are some good guides: http://digitalunite.com/guides/social-networking-blogs/facebook .

Hope to encounter you there soon – and here’s hoping we make it to 500.

 

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60-bedroom hotel planned for the centre of West Ealing

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Site of proposed new hotel

A planning application has been lodged to redevelop the eastern corner at the Uxbridge Road end of Melbourne Avenue. The proposed site covers the area from Luckhurst’s the butchers up to the Uxbridge Road and then above the currently empty corner site and above the new Brighthouse store. The existing first floor will be retained and two new storeys added. All the existing ground floor retail units will be retained, including the new Betfred betting shop which has an agreement to take the corner unit.

Planned new hotel for West Ealing

 

 

Illustration of new hotel (ignore the Ibis sign) Copyright Milan Babic Architects

There is a host of documents online about this application and I have only managed to skim them so far. There is some confusion in the documents as the official application is for a 60-bedroom Easy Hotel though at least one of the documents refers to a 70-bedroom Ibis Hotel. I can only assume the latter is an earlier version.

Easy Hotels are a franchise operation and are part of Stelios Haji-Ioannou’s business empire and, from their website, they offer hotel rooms from around £35 a night.

It’s quite extraordinary that after years of having hardly any hotels, Ealing and West Ealing now have a brand new Premier Inn and Travelodge within yards of one another plus the newly converted Drayton Court Hotel,the boutique Hotel Xanadu in Bond Street and the Best Western Maitrise Hotel in West Ealing. Is it all down to the likely impact of Crossrail?

I’m puzzled why such a major development for West Ealing has been delegated to officers for a decision rather than going to committee. This could be a very significant change for the centre of West Ealing. It may mean hotel supplies being delivered along Canberra Road and across Melbourne Ave. There is also no parking provision for hotel guests. A thriving hotel in the heart of West Ealing may well make a significant contribution to the local economy and help improve our high street. Even so, to my mind, this is a major development and ought to go to the full committee for a decision.

If you want to comment on this application you can do so online  and the closing date is 22nd February.

 

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Join us for coffee on Saturday morning – 11.30am at Silva Cafe – and find out what’s happening in West Ealing

Silva Cafe

Come and join us for coffee on Saturday morning 11.30 am at the Silva Cafe in West Ealing (opposite Kwik Fit). We’ve had our winter break and are starting up our coffee mornings on the first Saturday of the month again. The idea is for anyone to join us and contribute to our efforts for West Ealing or come and see if we can help you with any particular problem you have. On Saturday I know we’ll be talking about local policing and community safety, ideas to improve our high street, how to improve our monthly craft market, perhaps even the plans for the new mosque and more.
If you care about what happens to West Ealing you’re very welcome to join us.

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What goes on inside our head? – free event at Drayton Court Hotel with leading science communicator on Thursday 7th February 3pm

 

 

This sounds interesting and a little challenging!  ‘A journey of recovery to the heart of his grey matter following a traumatic head injury’. It’s a free event because the people involved in staging this would like your feedback so they can fine-tune it before it goes on tour.

a4londonflyer

In 2011, leading science communicator James Piercy suffered a traumatic head injury that made this question more pertinent than ever before. Join him as he shares his at times emotional journey. Find out just what we know about what is in our heads and the effect of brain damage via tales of the brain’s structure, MRI, monitoring and the effects of trauma.

It’s downstairs at the Drayton Court Hotel on Thursday 7th February starting at 3pm.
website www.sciencemadesimple.co.uk  or blog  http://whatsgoingoninhishead.wordpress.com/