Councillor's news
Dear Residents,
The next South Acton Ward Forum will be on Tuesday, 5th January, 2010, at Acton High School at 7pm; we have around £12 thousand still to spend; there may be a report on Twyford sports ground.
The forum meeting on 15th October approved the request to the leader of the council to approve the crossing on Uxbridge Road bt Tesco's, parking in Church Road was discussed; the expenditure on hiring the hall has exceeded the budget so the leaflets advertising the meeting have been cut so that publicity had to be by email and word-of-mouth. However, a leaflet should be coming out around Christmas.
We had two replies to the request from officers for views on existing controlled parking zones or suggestions for new ones which have been passed on.
The ward has been offered funding for improvements to Berrymede field and the play areas at South Acton Rec and Avenue Road. What do residents round those areas think?
We are waiting for the alterations to the High Street bus stops to move the one at McDonald's, TfL wants to terminate the 427 at Acton Town Hall and officers want to make some changes to parking in the High Street; we have asked the officers to minimise the desruption after all the closures this year.
As John was going to Ealing for Remembrance Sunday he found the police had cordoned off part of Twyford Avenue for a gas leak. Did anyone have problems?
South Acton Ward Councillors:
Liz Brookes liz.brookes@ealing.gov.uk
John Gallagher j_gallagher@btopenworld.com 020 8993 0017
Yvonne Johnson yvonne.johnson@ealing.gov.uk 020 8993 4166
Candidate: Mik Sabiers Mik@south-acton.org.uk 07867 538646
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Dear Residents,
I have been away so the report is shorter than usual.
Next Saturday, 11th July, is Acton Carnival. The times have been altered so the procession from Woodlands Park assembles at midday and the event begins in Acton Park at 1pm.
On Friday night there will be a public meeting at Acton Baths at 7pm to discuss a response to the council's proposals for their future. The main meeting organised by the council last month about the refurbishment of the town hall, library, baths and Priory Centre overwhelmingly rejected the option to build on the "Redbricks" and favoured restoration of the present buildings rather than their wholesale demolition.
There is a problem with vermin in a large part of the ward from Gunnersbury Lane along the Piccadilly Line and the North London Line to the High Street, especially on South Acton Estate. Unfortunately, there is some sort of dispute between Ealing Homes and the Pest Control Service about money, which we are trying to cut through. It is causing great distress in some areas.
Residents present at South Acton Ward Forum voted fairly convincingly for the option to have the Tesco crossing nearer Twyford High School. We will be going to look at Twyford Crescent to see how best to implement it shortly.
There was not much enthusiasm for Jason's £50 council tax give-away at the forum but plenty of suggestions as to what he can do with spare £50s, such as a more ambitious regeneration of Acton.
Thames Water will be excavating 29-53 Acton High Street until October to complete the flood alleviation works.
Jonathan Goodall has taken over the alley-gating scheme at Ealing Council Community Safety Team. Residents might like to contact him for further details about the scheme.
Sgt Danny Williams has emailed me to say the South Acton Police Safer Neighbourhood Team can now only be contacted on 020 8649 3574 so please make a note of the number.
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Dear Residents,
This is late because there have been problems with a virus in the town hall system and I wanted to make sure my computer was clean before sending a mass email. It is also an edited version of a personal one from John for the sake of time so it might come out in technicolour and refer me.
The next South Acton Ward Forum will be on Thursday, 18th June, at Acton High School at 7pm.
There will be a public meeting in Acton on Wednesday, 17th June, at 7pm, venue not yet booked, organised by the council to discuss redevelopment of the town hall, baths and library, either where they are now (which means selling the Priory site) or in the "red bricks" between High Street, Church Road, Avenue Road and Crown Street and, presumably, to explain why Acton will only have a twenty-five metre pool.
There is a new government initiative: the "Councillor Call to Action". It means that councillors will now have the power to ask scrutiny panels to examine major issues affecting the wider community in their wards raised at a residents' meeting or ward forums. I have a number of issues residents might like to consider: recreation on the estate; grounds maintenance on the estate; Twyford sports ground; street lighting; vermin infestation east of Gunnersbury Lane and south of the High Street; planning enforcement in conservation areas; noisy parties in West Acton.
Unanimous support for the Gurkhas was expressed at the last council meeting and you probably know Steve Pound left the government as a result of supporting them in Parliament. All three Ealing MPs have now resigned as parliamentary private secretaries on points of principle.
I attended an exhibition of modern Flemish art at Pitzhanger Gallery; I prefer Van Eyck and Van Dijk is all I can say.
The Armenian Centre has lost its London Councils' grant, which is a very short-sighted move. I had to defend them in 1997 at the London Grants Committee and was surprised how low officers seem to regard the useful work they do.
The latest farce is the traffic lights outside The King's Head. The eastern-facing ones have become loose and swing in high winds; I have been reporting it since November to Ealing officers, who say they have told TfL, Richard Barnes, GLA, who has told them, and even one of their engineers on site, but all I have received is further enquiries from TfL for more information on the case. I wonder when the accident will happen. On other High Street matters, I have invited Ealing, the police and TfL to consider prosecuting McDonald's for the continual nuisance of the evening deliveries: they brought the High Street to gridlock at 8pm in the rain last Friday.
Some confusion seems to have arisen from an article in The Gazette which seems to have put two cabinet reports together. There is going to be an experiment with the signalling systems at Creffield Road/Twyford Avenue and Acton Town station. Councillors have been assured that the public and South Acton Ward Forum will be consulted before anything happens.
Has anyone noticed the pathetic and pointless propaganda posters the Tories have hung from the council lamp posts? They are about as informative and useful as the Carmen Miranda hanging baskets.
There will be a consultation on new loading bays in Uxbridge Road near King Edward Gardens.
Apparently Acton town hall staff are being given parking rights in Priory car park to the exclusion of the users and people hiring it for money, who have to run the risk of receiving tickets for parking in the street. I have protested vigorously on their behalf.
Age Concern's Acton day centre has finally moved to Michael Flanders Centre after four years of council dallying.
1400 hoseholds have been randomly selected throughout the borough for a housing stock survey so some residents may be interviewed.
Acton High and Berrymede Junior Schools are working on allotments by Jerome Tower to show that food does not just come from shelves in Morrison's.
Liz Brookes liz.brookes@ealing.gov.uk 07732 357496
John Gallagher john.gallagher@ealing.gov.uk 020 8993 0017
Yvonne Johnson yvonne.johnson@ealing.gov.uk 020 8993 4166
Councillors for South Acton Ward
Dear Readers,
South Acton Ward Forum met on Moday, 23rd April, at Acton High School. There may now be a good possibility we will get the crossing at least near Tesco's but we are still trying to put it where residents and school students think it will be most effective rather than where the officers want it and it might require changing the positions of some bus stops.
Residents expressed the view that the regeneration proposals for Acton town centre are far too timid but the good news is that Marble Close has finally been adopted as a road. Liz gave a report on Gunnersbury Park and said the proposals for a school, luxury accommodation or a hotel have been abandoned and they may opt for selling some of the land but there will still be a possible £30 million shortfall.
A few days after the forum, Yvonne and John attended the meeting of the Planning Committee, where she spoke against the application for housing on the Rosemont Road industrial estate and it was deferred for the developer to consider reducing the density. She spoke in favour of the reserved matters application for the next phase of South Acton estate redevelopment, which was granted, although it was bitterly opposed by residents of "North Chiswick" as they call Acton Green, on the other side of the railway and their Liberal Democrat councillor.
Councillors have been sent the locations of the "stop-and-shop" points along Ealing Common and Uxbridge Road. We hope this is correct because the council map did not have all the road names and we had to check with The London A-Z so we are not accepting responsibility if anyone gets a ticket without checking. The locations appear to be just past the entrance and exit in Fordhook Avenue, the east side of the entrance to Granville Gardens, either side of the entrance to Woodgrange Avenue, the west side of the entrance to Hart Grove, either sides of rhe entrances to West Lodge Avenue, King Edward Gardens and Hillcrest Road, the west side of Hale Gardens and two either side of the entrance to Twyford School on Twyford Crescent.
The two non-residents who attended the forum as patients of Hillcrest surgery demanding increased parking hours have continued their campaign, although officers have been asked about a compromise.
Thanks to Creffield Area and Bollo Bridge & Ramsey Road residents' associations identifying major fly-tipping and littering points in the ward, ten have been submitted to fulfill Jason Stacey's request in his Top Ten initiative for attention in each ward. The associations also found some areas in Acton Central and Ealing Common wards as well, which have been passed on to officers, who are trying to sort them out.
The planters the Labour Government paid for to put in Crown Street will be removed by the Conservative Council because they say they have not got the money to maintain them although they have the money to install the dead-bird eating spiders dressed up as Carmen Miranda now hanging from all the lamp posts in the High Street which the majority of residents at the forum meeting in November said they did not want.
The bus stop outside McDonald's in the High Street may be moved but it will require altering the positions of some others.
There may be some improvements to the High Street paving but possibly only between Crown Street and Church Road.
There has been flooding in Fordhook Avenue and Creffield Road, which we have noted. There is a major problem after the prolonged cold weather so please let us know where any occurs.
Whether it is due to Boris being delayed travelling along Uxbridge Road or not, the pedestrian traffic lights along the High Street seem to have been re-phased. It now requires the agility of a sprinter to cross at some points. Has anybody had or witnessed any interesting experiences recently?
Happy Easter everybody.
Liz Brookes John Gallagher Yvonne Johnson
March 2009
Dear Residents,
Yvonne, as shadow cabinet member for Finance, welcomed the frozen council tax for 2009/10 at the budget meeting, but put forward an amendment to retain some of the services being cut such as the environmental health and trading standards specialists, the specialist and ethnic services librarians and the Somali home-school co-ordinator by making reductions in the publicity service.
Acton councillors from all three parties met Cllr David Millican, cabinet member for Regeneration & Transport, and agreed to recommend some alterations to traffic in Acton. The recommendations for South Acton cover changing the lights at Acton Town Station and the junction of Twyford Avenue and Creffield Road, improving pedestrian safety at the junctions of Uxbridge Road and Gunnersbury Lane, Acton Lane and the High Street and Acton Lane and Bollo Bridge Road and increasing enforcement at the bus stop by Mcdonald's in the High Street.
John asked a question at the council meeting about gritting the streets during the snow. The council spent £360 thousand from budget and another £284 thousand from contingency and sold grit to surrounding boroughs; that is one way to maximise income but not much of it was seen in Acton according to reports.
Pavement accidents have become a talking point all over Acton. The Conservatives are claiming to have put more money in for repairs but judging by experiences like Birch Grove improvements will take a year before anything is done or, like the High Street when the resurfacing was done last year, one or other utilty company will then rip everything up again. We are still awaiting news of the repaving and improvements to the shopfronts in the High Street after two years of meetings and walkabouts.
Although the first meeting of South Acton Ward Forum showed an overwhelming reluctance to have hanging baskets in the High Street, the council has put them in. As John put it when he first saw them, "They look more like a collection of dead bird-eating spiders than a visual improvement to the High Street".
Liz reported that consultants have recommended to Gunnersbury Park Trust that they should not build a school, hotel or flats in the park but that the shortfall in refurbishment will be around £30 million.
Residents have commented favourably on the higher level of PCSO visiblity in the High Street and surrounding areas.
John took the interim chief executive of Ealing Homes round part of South Acton estate to show him how necessary it is for urgent repairs to be done to the public areas in and between the blocks.
John visited the Anne Frank exhibition in Acton High School and praised its content.
John went to Age Concern's going away party at the old Acton fire station in the High Street but they are still there because the ramp at Michael Flanders Centre has not been finished.
The South Acton Ward Councillors,
Liz Brookes John Gallagher Yvonne Johnson
