Category: Ealing and Northfield

I attended part of the consultation session the council ran on the Ealing Development Framework on Thursday.

In many ways this was a very positive session. For starters there were about 150 people crammed into the Victoria Hall. Tory PPC for Ealing Central & Acton, Angie Bray, was there along with numerous councillors. Many of the faces were very familiar, dominated by residents’ association diehards. The session got off to a slightly shaky start as Cllr Millican, the portfolio holder for Regeneration and Transport, explained that it was not going to be a standard public meeting, where a few people dominate the room, but that we would get everyone to work on tables of ten. Some people didn’t like the idea but in the end it worked. There were five different aspects of the plan to discuss. My table discussed West Ealing and we had a useful hour on this. I will be interested to read the output from the people who were note taking.

I was struck by the age profile of those attending. The average age was about 60 and there were only three brown faces in the room.

The dominant opinion the room could probably be encapsulated in the line “we want to be like Chiswick”. The other line that kept coming back was that there was no overweening strategy or vision for the town centre.

The Save Ealing Centre group have been making much of the running in setting the terms of the public debate on the town centre redevelopment. Over the next few days I intend to look hard at some of Save Ealing Centre’s arguments because I believe that there is another side to the story and it needs to be told.

For instance, this posting appeared on Ealing Times’ website on Friday from a chap called Alex:

These Save Ealing Centre people are the same names as those in the Save Ealing’s Streets bunch aka GORDON RD GANG. First the tram, then the Leaf and now Dickens Yard. They resist EVERYTHING that threatens change and modernisation in Ealing Broadway from public transport improvements to much needed new homes. Its always a case of they are alright Jack and the rest of us can go eat cake. They’ve got their cars and their homes and they don’t care about anyone else. They don’t care if the next generation can’t get homes here or access to Ealing Broadway station in a reasonable amount of time. They only care about residents in their own very small central Ealing area, rather than the borough as a whole. They are a backward looking bunch who block developments that would bring benefits to a great many people, especially younger people who need small affordable units near tube stations to get to work into London in an environmentally friendly way. Their intransigence blocks much needed regeneration to Ealing Centre. Time for these conservative old timers to retire to Sandbanks and let the younger generation revitalise Ealing for all its residents.

I had a great afternoon at Little Ealing Primary School’s Summer Fete today.

The Dr Who theme was slightly incongruous alongside the beer, burgers and hot dogs, but hey! The Dalek made by one of the parents was truly impressive.

I paid £4 for ten goes at the “Adult Tombola” and came away empty handed. Maybe that was for the best. After that I just settled for buying actual stuff and bought home eight fairy cakes for tea – a much better investment.

As I walked down Weymouth Avenue I noticed this illegal fly-posting from a cowboy business in Hounslow called Rowans. I have written about these creeps before – here and here.

I called Monique Nicolaides on the number on the poster. She calls herself PR & Marketing Manager and claimed, as she has claimed before, that her marketing company, A.K. Marketing, has made a mistake and they would be taken down. The woman is a brazen liar who has systematically covered large parts of West London in her illegal posters for years.

If you want to call her and abuse her on 020 8742 1649 please do. Whatever you do don’t use her miserable function venue. On Friday I noticed three sets of these posters doubled up down Ranelagh Road. Let me know of anymore and I will try to get our envirocrime people to do something.

After a couple of setbacks the Central library is due to open 29th July. See council’s press release issued yesterday. The library was originally expected to open in January, but structural problems and a fire meant it had to be put back. I’ll be knocking on the door with my library card in my hand on 29th.

After Cllr Bell’s contribution to last night’s cabinet meeting, reported below, the Ealing Tory group on the council have issued the following press relase:

LABOUR LEADER WHO VOTED FOR 48% COUNCIL TAX RISES NOW CALLS FOR SERVICE CUTS

Ealing’s Labour Group Leader, Cllr Julian Bell, stunned Cabinet last night when he called on the Council to find millions of pounds of service cuts in preparation for next year’s budget.

The remarks made by Cllr Bell are extraordinary given his record on Council Tax. During the last term of the previous Labour administration, Cllr Bell voted for Council Tax increases amounting to 48% over four years. By contrast, he has voted against the two below inflation Council Tax increases of 1.9% by the current Conservative administration. As recently as March this year, Labour was calling on the Conservative administration to increase spending and taxation in Ealing by £3.6M.

Leader of the Council, Cllr Jason Stacey said: “The last Labour administration increased Council Tax in Ealing by more than every other Council in London apart from Croydon. Cllr Bell has fought us at every turn in our efforts to offer relief to Council Tax payers, so it is quite breathtaking that he suddenly now wants us to cut services.

“This administration has made it clear that we understand people’s financial difficulties in the current economic climate, and will continue to deliver value for money with below inflation Council tax increases. However, we are committed to maintaining support for the vulnerable and will not make the kind of cuts that will put key Council services at risk.

“I challenge Cllr Bell to say exactly where he would like to see cuts and how he would protect the elderly and other vulnerable people from his axe. We look forward to seeing the outcome of his work.”

Apparently the Labour party is trying on for size the idea that it should appear to be in favour of cutting taxes. This time last week Denis McShane had a piece in the Telegraph and asked: “Can the Left be tax-cutters? Why not? “.

This evening the new leader of Labour in Ealing, Cllr Julian Bell, gave the notion a road test here. I attended my first cabinet meeting as a cabinet member tonight. The most important report we discussed was the one setting out the council’s budget strategy and process. In this report the cabinet were asked to agree to the following recommendation:

Agree that a cash efficiency target of 4.9% of net departmental budgets be set as part of the 2009/10 budget strategy and 3% across the following two years in line with government efficiency target for local authorities.

This is a demanding target and one that we will have to work very hard to meet. Apparently this was not good enough for Councillor Bell who asked that we seek to identify further savings with a view to perhaps proposing a council tax freeze or even cutting the council tax.

As you no doubt know the new Conservative administration has delivered a below inflation 1.9% council tax rise two year’s running in Ealing.

Heaven rejoices, we are told, over a sinner that repenteth but I fear that Cllr Bell’s new found tax cutting zeal is not that credible. He is one of the Labour councillors who voted through the 25.9% increase in council tax in 2003. Just to remind you in 1997/8 the Ealing Band D council tax was £585. By 2006/7, only 9 years later, it had risen to £1,309. That is a 124% rise.

Incidentally the cabinet agreed all of the recommendations of the Parking Services Specialist Scrutiny Panel.

Ealing’s combined waste and recycling services are delivered by a contractor called ECT. Today it has been announced that ECT has been taken over by AIM-listed May Gurney. See their press release here.

The council has worked hard to improve street collections and re-cycling over the last two years. Last November saw expansion of the service and the inception of same day collections and street cleaning. There is still a long way to go to meet our residents’ expectations. Hopefully the involvement of a larger, better financed group will help us to get there faster.

LibDem councillor John Ball reckons he is joining the Circle Line cocktail party tonight to mark the end of drinking on the Tube. He is reported in the Ealing Times as saying:

There is a genuine problem with alcohol on public transport, but the ban is not going to provide any sort of solution, it is just a headline-grabbing move.

The rail unions are up in arms as they fear it will cause more conflict between tube staff – who will have to enforce these measures – and drinkers. It is just an illiberal move.

Talk about being on the wrong side of the argument. The Tube is a public transport system. No-one has to use it. It is entirely reasonable to expect a certain standard of behaviour when using it and not drinking seems pretty reasonable. Smoking was banned on Tube trains about 20 years before the national smoking ban and was entirely uncontroversial. A few idiots made a show of smoking afterwards but were pretty soon shamed into compliance. The unions may not like policing the Tube but if you don’t publicly state what is expected of people how do you expect them to start to comply?

I predict that the ban will be 100% successful and 99% popular.