Author: Phil

I see that West Ealing Neighbours have picked up on the old fat cats story too. Eric Leach and David Highton seem to be unhappy:

Yet, WEN senses, anecdotally and from some of our own dealings, that there is growing frustration with some aspects of the Council’s practices and a feeling that our local democratic dealings are becoming increasingly confrontational. It’s as if you have to shout louder and louder just to be heard let alone to see any action.

They seem to want quick replies to letters and emails and to have questions or problems speedily and efficiently dealt with and resolved but don’t seem to want to will the means. They are perhaps being unrealistic.

Take for instance their pay comparisons. The place to go to for earnings information is the National Statistics Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings here. Eric and David are right to point out that “the national average wage is around £24,000”. The 2008 survey says that average (mean) gross weekly pay is £471.90 per week or £24,538.80 per annum. It isn’t much use trying to pay national average pay rates in Ealing. The average also includes part-timers which is not a typical characteristic of senior staff like head teachers and other senior managers. If you look further in this data you will find information by place of work by local authority. Average (mean) gross weekly pay for full-timers resident in Ealing is £670.20 per week or £34,850.40 per annum. It is not hard to see how we end up with 172 £50K plus people running the council.

How much do the guys think some of the senior social workers get paid? They can’t praise the children’s services and then look askance when we pay people reasonable money to take responsibility for keeping children safe. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.

West Ealing Neighbours needs to sort itself out. It needs to work out whether it wants to be a grown up organisation or be seen as a bunch of maverick activists howling in anger, unwilling to deal with the world as it is. The following comments today about last night’s SEC meeting from Eric Leach published on the WEN website are out of order:

The content, tone and approach of this public forum was sharply in contrast to the two recent hugely unpleasant Council Planning Committee Panel meetings concerning Dickens Yard and Arcadia and the recent Northfields, Ealing Broadway and Elthorne Council Ward Forums. These latter forums were all poorly researched; badly run; and significantly contributed to alienating local residents – especially those who generously give of their time trying to improve their local environments and communities.

Does WEN refuse to acknowledge that current planning law is framed as it is? Does WEN think we can run planning committees the same way as an informal public meeting? Does WEN want to pick up the bills when our decisions get overturned on appeal because we have not observed the law? Planning committees have a quasi-judicial decision making role which is apolitical. This role is hosted by the council and involves councillors of all parties to ensure that planning decisions are made by accountable local politicians.

I can’t comment on the Ealing Broadway and Elthorne meetings but I take exception to Leach’s characteristion of the Northfield ward forum as “alienating local residents”. Leach attended the Northfield ward forum so his comments about it are perplexing to say the least. The meeting was not tightly chaired and was perhaps overlong but it is hard to let people have their say any other way. The ideas presented were modified as a result of the feedback recieved from residents and the final decision confirmed by a show of hands. It was messy but that is democracy: sometimes chaotic, feeling your way forward, trying to please most of the people, most of the time whilst trying to do the right thing.

On the night Gazette journalist Paloma Kubiak told me how “positive” she thought the meeting was. Tonight at a follow up session with stakeholders to discuss our allocation of £30K for Blondin Park one of the other residents’ association representatives told us how pleased she was with the “enthusiasm” that the ward forum had evinced.

Leach’s characteristion of the Northfield ward forum is just plain wrong. Does WEN want to repudiate it?

I have just been on the Westside Radio 89.6 FM Community Show to promote the two Ealing parks that have been shortlisted for Boris’ Help a London Park scheme. I showed what a parochial local councillor I am when Matthew asked me who are we competing with. I knew that our parks were competing with 7 other parks in north west London but not the names of the other borough’s parks. Doh! The list is below. Two Ealing parks made the short list: Brent River Park and Southall Manor House Grounds.

If enough people vote for our parks then they will get up to £400K each for improvements. We already spend £8.8 million a year maintaining our parks but this boost will allow us to make them even better. If we don’t vote, we won’t get.

In case you haven’t seen the SEC flyer for tonight’s meeting here it is above. The Save Ealing’s Centre meeting tonight at the Town Hall (from 7.30pm) will probably be a long session. Ostensibly it is called to launch SEC’s vision document, see here. Judging by the flyer’s “mugged by developers” line the meeting will also be an opportunity for people to comment again on the Dickens Yard and Arcadia developments in the town centre.

I have been through the document in detail and will comment on the “Arts, Culture, Entertainment and Leisure” and “Community” sections which raise various issues I am responsible for later in the week.

In the meantime I thought it would be constructive to say what I like about it:

• Firstly, it is great that SEC are joining in the debate. The council has been undertaking a large project since September 2007 to produce our Local Development Framework (LDF) to replace the Unitary Development Plan (UDP). This work is the Ealing masterplan that SEC has been calling for. The project included commissioning the Tibbalds work which is referenced repeatedly by SEC.
• Secondly, the idea of using existing facilities in the town centre for cultural and leisure purposes, in particular the Town Hall, is very attractive. I for one think that the Town Hall is underused. The related idea of a cultural quarter should be developed to link together and enhance our cultural assets.
• Finally, the document is right to point up the inadequacy of the access arrangements at Ealing Police Station. This was one of the first things I blogged about in February 2006

You may say I have missed rather a lot of the good points off my list. That was either because I didn’t think they were good points because they are just plain wrong, or they are easily fixable, or it is a case of no amount of saying you want lots of free loveliness will get it for you. For today, I will restrict my criticism of the document to one key point, it is too much of an uncosted wish list – I will return to this later in the week.

I have a meeting already booked for tonight but will try to pop along later. Hopefully local LibDem party chairman and joint author of the vision document, Tony Miller, won’t hiss at me like he did when I started to speak at the Arcadia planning meeting.