Save Ealing's Centre home page

WE CONTINUE INTO 2020 WITH OUR LATEST UPDATES ON WHAT IS HAPPENING IN EALING!

Meanwhile just a quick note to point you at the website http://www.ealingtoday.co.uk/ which is FULL of local information including important matters like Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs), Crossrail, The Cinema site and, of course, The Town Hall sell-off. They have some adverts of course but they don't interrupt all the local stories - have a look!!

FIRST UP FROM SEPTEMBER 25th

A report on the PERCEVAL HOUSE redevelopment and reasons to object.

Perceval House, a large "spanner-shaped" building designed by Sidney Kaye, Eric Firmin & Partners was erected to the west of the town hall, as additional accommodation for council officers and their departments in 1983. Initially referred to as the "Civic Centre", it was renamed "Perceval House" after Spencer Perceval, a former Prime Minister who, before he was assassinated , lived in Elm Grove in Ealing

Stop the Perceval House Development

Urgent action is required as the deadline for objections is 20th October!

You may have seen notices for the redevelopment of Ealing Council’s offices at Perceval House. The Developer’s images are extremely misleading, as is so much else they have written. This scheme would do immeasurable damage to Ealing.

Opposing these plans will be a big challenge. They are being promoted by Ealing Council in partnership with developers Vistry, who put in the planning application. As the site owner, Ealing Council is only interested in packing as much on the site as they can, irrespective of any harm they cause. As the planning authority, the Council is supposed to assess the impact of the development on behalf of us all, but they are behaving they are behaving like the greediest developers. It is using its dual status to demand far too much from the developers - brand new Council offices, a new library and 226 new homes for their new housing company called Broadway Living. The only way Vistry can do all this and make a profit for themselves is by cramming 477 homes onto this small site in the shape of a 26-storey tower block that will tower over the low-rise homes to the north and the Grade II listed Town Hall.

Historic England has criticised the plans very strongly. They say they will destroy the character of the Victorian Conservation Areas and spoil views from Walpole Park.

The developers have held several ‘consultation’ events but they’ve changed nothing at all in their plans. Ealing Council holds all the powers it needs to wave the scheme through. What they are doing is wrong and we plan to fight them all the way. You can see the application and lodge an objection, if you follow the link on Ealing Council's website HERE

We have prepared a list of 10 reasons to object and you can see the full details of the redevelopment and how to object HERE–

please do so now.

Also the local Ealing Matters group have published a fully updated and illustrated item about the Perceval House plans which is much better at giving a quick overview of the development than the Council's page and sets out in context the reasons to object.
You can find it on their Perceval House page HERE
and their main page with Ealing news is at https://ealingmatters.org.uk/ .

The Stop the Towers Ealing website has a superb aerial tour of the site on their website HERE

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October 7th:- MORE INFORMATION HAS JUST BEEN PUBLISHED ABOUT YET MORE DELAYS TO CROSSRAIL

Ealing Broadway, Acton Mainline, Southall and West Ealing now set to open in 2021

The completion of stations currently being upgraded in West London as part of the Crossrail project is to be delayed further.

Crossrail Ltd confirmed this week that works to these stations will be pushed into next year due to the impact of the pandemic.

The company’s CEO Mark Wild told the London Assembly in a monthly report, said that despite recent progress at Ealing Broadway and Hayes & Harlington on the western section of the line, the Covid-19 outbreak had caused further delays . He added, “As a result of the temporary pause of Network Rail works due to Covid-19, it is likely that these enhanced stations, along with llford, Southall, Acton Main Line and West Ealing, will be completed as soon as possible in 2021.”

Recently Crossrail gave an update on the progress of work at the stations. For West Ealing it says most of the work on drainages is complete while the basement flooring and cabling is very close to completion.

The blockwork for Ealing Broadway’s upgrade is 90% complete with the glazing, cladding and curtain wall not far behind.

At Acton Main Line station, it has finished the mechanical and electrical pipework and ducting works along with part of the station building ceiling.

In July of this year a shortfall in Network Rail’s budget of £140 million to upgrade the stations for Crossrail was revealed. The total bill for the work on the stations now stands at £3billion, £700 million over the original budget set back in 2012.

A Network Rail spokesperson said, “To address earlier challenges in the project we have retendered some significant parts of the work and this has increased the timescale and overall cost. This has been done with no additional government funding as it is being covered by Network Rail’s own internal budgets.

“More recently we temporarily paused our station upgrade work as part of the Crossrail ‘Safe Stop’ in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. The impact of this on the timescale and cost is still being assessed but work to complete the enhanced ticket halls and accessibility improvements has now restarted.”

Mr Wild commented, “Completing the outstanding works and commencing intensive operational testing in early 2021 remain our top priorities. We will continue to work tirelessly to finish this railway as soon as possible and ensure the smooth transition to TfL.”

Thanks to the invaluable ealingtoday.co.uk for this information!

MORE ON THE VICTORIA HALL PROPOSALS
UPDATED 8th June 2020: The new group "Friends of Victoria Hall" which was set up to fight the proposals to sell off the hall to Mastcraft as part of their planned conversion to an Hotel and remove some public access have updated their information.

They report that on 7th April, The Charity Commission published a review of Ealing Councils takeover of the asssets of the Charitable Trust which owns Victoria Hall and the Prince's room and this blocks the Council's current proposals for selling the Hall and other parts so the site can be turned into a"Boutique Hotel"

There is a lot more information on the Friends site at Save Ealing's Victoria Hall
Where you will find all the latest news at https://savethevictoriahall.weebly.com/in-the-news.html

MORE ON THE VICTORIA HALL PROPOSALS
UPDATED 12th December 2019: A new group "Friends of Victoria Hall" has been set up to fight the proposals to sell off the hall to Mastcraft as part of their planned conversion to an Hotel and remove some public access.

You can visit theFrioends site at Save Ealing's Victoria Hall
Where you will find all the latest news at https://savethevictoriahall.weebly.com/in-the-news.html

Most importantly, the news site gives full details of Ealing's consultation that allows you to object to this scheme. The council consultation closes on Monday 6th January 2020 so THERE IS NO TIME TO BE LOST! You can find details at The Ealing Council site.

Also the Friends have set up a petition to be presented at the same time and it is open for your comments and objections. Please visit the 38 degrees petition site as soon as possible. We need many many signatures!

MORE and YET MORE ON THE VICTORIA HALL PROPOSALS

UPDATED 4th February 2019: Mastcraft new planning application to Ealing council

SEC is surprised that Mastcraft has now made a new planning application to convert the Town Hall into an hotel. This includes demolition of property owned by the Victoria Hall Trust to make room to build the hotel’s 120 rooms. The Victoria Hall will be shrunk through the loss of the easternmost bay and a rose window that is an integral architectural feature is to be relocated. Public access to the hall and several adjacent areas will be restricted.

The consultation on Mastcraft’s planning application runs until Feb 26th. There are over 100 documents in the full application details but the key sections are in the planning statement, and you may wish to view the relevant design and access statements – Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 and the Built Heritage Impact Assessments – Part 1 and Part 2.

Please have a look at them and submit your comments via the website in good time for the 26th February.

Be warned however that these are large documents between 2 and 4Mb each although absolutely FULL of information well worth reading.

SEC lawyers have written a second and more detailed letter to the Charity Commission questioning the Council’s deal to hand over the Victoria Hall to Mastcraft who are commercial hotel developers.
These areas were paid for from public subscription and are owned by a charitable trust. You can see the affected area on these plans The Council has no right to dispose of the Hall without the permission of the Charity Commission and SEC’s lawyers believe that charity rules will not permit the deal to proceed.

You can see some previous information on the Mastcraft plans on our special Town Hall and Victoria Hall archive page HERE.

A New London Plan is proposing massive new developments in Ealing that will affect everybody. If the plan is adopted the annual rate of flat building in the Borough will double. Over the next 10 years 28,000 new homes would be built and Ealing’s population would grow by around 25%.

Save Ealing’s Centre is concerned about the implications of such a steep rise. While the need for homes is indisputable, the Borough seems expected to provide a disproportionate number of them. There is no information where all these homes would be provided and what safeguards there would be for the Borough's heritage. Impacts on services which are already over-burdened are not considered.

SEC has asked Council leader Julian Bell whether it thinks such an ambitious programme is sustainable and where the homes would be provided. Our letter to him, the current targets and particularly his response, which raises many more questions than answers, can be seen HERE.

Save Ealing's Centre proposes to respond to the London Plans consultation. However our experience has been that the GLA pays little attention to comments from local groups. Views from our Council are likely to carry more weight so we shall be raising this issue with the Council again over the coming months. However, if the implications of the London Plan's targets concern you we would encourage you to raise your concerns with Julian Bell yourself.

The Plan’s consultation ends on March 2^nd 2018 and you can leave your comments via the box at the bottom of the London Plan page.

SEC is delighted with the outcome of the 12th October referendum. Residents and local business voted overwhelmingly to support the introduction of a new Neighbourhood Plan for Central Ealing.
The new plan will form part of the statutory development plan, and will directly influence decisions on local planning applications that affect the Town Centre. It will give local businesses and residents greater democratic influence in changes taking place here.
Thanks are due to those in the Forum who laboured long and hard to bring the plan to fruition and to SEC supporters who helped ensure the vote in favour at the referendum.

For more information about the Neighbourhood Plan visit the Central Ealing Neighbourhood Forum web page where you will find the full details and view the full Plan.

UPDATE 30th August 2017: Crossrail and Ealing Broadway Station

Work on the Ealing Broadway Station upgrade under Crossrail has almost ground to a halt. Crossrail explain this is because its plans are being redesigned and the contract re-tendered. Instead of bringing the work forward to alleviate the station's existing problems, as was once promised, it seems Ealing Broadway Station will be one of the last pieces of the Crossrail project to be completed. For more information see this full report HERE

1. You may remember that there was a planning application to replace just the (now closed) BHS store in West Ealing. Well now it has been revealed that this will also include the demolition of the old Woolworths building. The developers A2 Dominion are having a public consultation exhibition on Saturday, 15th July from 1pm to 4pm at The Lounge, St John’s Church, Mattock Lane, West Ealing, London, W13 9LA. You are encouraged to go along to see what might be in store for the future (other than more big empty shops or restaurants?)

2. There is also a current planning application for replacement of nearly all the little cottages between the gym and Lidl entrance in Hanwell (they were built in about 1715) and later with the front gardens were built over to provide the shops. The development will be of up to 10 storeys of 63 units mixed between studios and 3 bed flats. Amazingly, the scheme describes the block as Marshall house (after the designer of guitar amplifiers which were made in one of those shops)

The Planning application is ref: 172913FUL: 64-66 and 70-88 Uxbridge Road, Hanwell W7 3SU which you can see via the Ealing planning application website at https://pam.ealing.gov.uk/online-applications/ - which was broken but is now working again!

Ealing today published an report on this application a while ago and it can be seen on their website

3. UPDATED 7th July 2017 Full details have not yet been published but there are plans to replace the Wickes/Nissan site on Boston Road. There may be up to 300 residential units (including 58 "affordable units") with 83 car spaces and over 300 cycle spaces with a new "Village Square" and play places.

A2 Dominion’s PR team organised a pre-planning exhibition on Wednesday 5 July 4-7pm and on Saturday 8 July 2-4pm.

The next steps are to review the scheme and the consultation in August for a planning application to be made in September for possible presentaion to Ealing planning committe and, unless refused, to start construction in 2019. When more information is available, we will try to update this web site.

It is not known if Wickes will take over one of the proposed shops but it must be doubtful knowing how much space they need for the retail area, the service area and especially for customer parking. Is this the end of yet another useful store?

You can get a flavour of the scheme by looking at the images below and see a larger version of some of the proposed buildings by clicking on them.