Monthly Archives: May 2021

New Ealing leader and LTN

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Original email from Cllr Peter Mason, is after my comments.

Thank you very much for your email. Indeed, many residents have tried to encourage as many individuals as possible to send to your office their thoughts. I am not surprised you have received a few emails, not many of them, considering that Ealing population is almost 345,000.

It is with careful consideration that I have read your comments and it would be nice for you to explain to the community about “active travel”.  This was a proposal by ‘Public Health England’, taken on board by TFL, that was covered by a May 2016 document titled “Working together to promote active travel”.

Their very narrow minded proposals are suggesting the following:

  1. physical inactivity directly contributes to 1 in 6 deaths in the UK and costs £7.4 billion a year to business and wider society [source and proof would be necessary]
  2. the growth in road transport has been a major factor in reducing levels of physical
    activity and increasing obesity
  3. building walking or cycling into daily routines are the most effective ways to increase physical activity
  4. short car trips (under 5 miles) are a prime area for switching to active travel and to
    public transport
  5. health-promoting transport systems are pro-business and support economic
    prosperity. They enable optimal travel to work with less congestion, collisions,
    pollution, and they support a healthier workforce

There is not one single point above that cannot be challenged on various grounds. Therefore the problem is at source with those that have probably lived a sheltered life and have absolutely no idea how the world really works. Those individuals that Claire Fox calls: “lacking experience…. do not have a legitimate claim to that identity”; from her book – I find that offensive.

They certainly cannot be inspirational for a better society and yet we are asked to follow their lead. Digging our own grave comes to mind.

You wrote: “West Ealing and Hanwell has been the most controversial”. It might have escaped your consideration but by closing almost all the roads in Hanwell, you have created, on the Boston Manor side, a very modern Ghetto.

It would be great to understand what you or, maybe, the residents mean “Many residents have contacted me about the huge impact this would be likely to have”!? Huge impact on what and whom? The word huge fascinates me.

Another explanation would be also needed for: “the restrictions have worked well and there is genuine resident support for them”. How did they work well and for whom, again!? If there is so much support for them why are the supporters a minority?

While your words may sound comforting for some, I really hope that the new administration will not be committed to promoting active travel and tackling the climate emergency by following the dictates of asinine agendas.

It would be crucial to understand why you keep referring to: “sections of LTNs areas have been successful”. You are still giving more credit to the minority pro-LTN-supporters, while ignoring the majority of the residents’ wishes. Why have these areas been successful and what does successful means in this context?

Trial periods, via a Controlled Parking Zone style consultation, can only be seen as “Divide and Rule” based on the old Latin motto “Divide et Impera”. The feeble-minded will not understand this policy. In reality it is a simple one. The way it works is by forcing one street residents, the most keen in the area, to accept CPZ.  By doing so you deliberately moved traffic and parking to other streets, thus causing nuisance to those streets that didn’t want CPZ in the first place.  A simple approach which allows to force residents to accept your policies. A technique that works every time.

With reference to ‘rising traffic volumes’, the only ones to blame are the Government and Local Authorities. In reality there are no rising traffic volumes apart from those extra 112,000 mini cabs that have recently been given a licence. And if climate emergency is so crucial why are more runways considered to be built at Heathrow airport? What is good for the goose is not always good for the gander!

I don’t find your email reassuring, to the contrary I find it somewhat patronising and making a fool of the residents with window dressing comments.

I close my reply with a famous quote and one that I am sure you will like.  > But after all it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or fascist dictatorship, or a parliament or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.

 

EMAIL FROM EALING COUNCIL

Thank you so much for writing to me about Low Traffic Neighbourhoods in Ealing. I’m sorry I can’t reply in detail to your email at this point.  I have received over 1000 emails in the last week alone on LTNs.

I’m very grateful to you for taking the time to let me have your views. This is an issue that I know many residents feel very strongly about and I have committed to leading an open and transparent council that listens to everyone’s views and experiences. Since it was announced that I would become the new council leader, I have received in excess of 500 emails about LTNs, expressing every possible shade of opinion from strong opposition to strong support.

Unfortunately, the pressures of time mean it will not be possible for me to respond directly to everyone who has emailed me about LTNs. I hope, therefore, that you will forgive my responding in this way for now, as I wanted to let you about the steps we have taken so far. Since the new administration was elected on Tuesday, the new cabinet member for Climate Action, Cllr Deirdre Costigan, and myself have met with and listened to groups on both sides of the argument about LTNs – OneEaling, CAMTAG, Better Ealing Streets and the Ealing Cycling Campaign. We are very grateful to them for meeting with us, for sharing their stories and experiences and to discuss how the council can work more closely with them on promoting active travel in the future.

I know that LTN21 in West Ealing and Hanwell has been the most controversial of the nine trial LTNs installed last year. The decision by Hounslow Council to close Swyncombe Avenue eastbound for two months from Monday in order to carry out roadworks means that we need to act quickly at this location. Many residents have contacted me about the huge impact this would be likely to have. I agree that the temporary closure of Swyncombe Avenue would make LTN21 unworkable. For that reason, we have decided to end the trial of LTN21 early, and have removed it over the course of the weekend. Enforcement of the filters in LTN21 has now stopped.

I know this will be welcomed by many, but also come as a disappointment to other residents. I know that in parts of LTN21, the restrictions have worked well and there is genuine resident support for them.  The new administration remains absolutely committed to promoting active travel and tackling the climate emergency, but we also know that we need to take residents with us if we are to make real progress on these issues. Over the next couple of months we will therefore be coming back with proposals for smaller sections of LTN21 in areas where residents have told us it has been successful. Residents in those areas will be consulted before implementation, and nothing will be implemented without a majority of residents supporting them.

In line with this commitment to listening to residents, the future of the other trial LTNs in the borough will be decided, at the end of their trial periods, via a Controlled Parking Zone style consultation in each area, keeping schemes that work and are supported, and removing those that are not. The collection of data on traffic volumes, congestion and air quality is well underway at these locations and will be published before the end of the trials to help residents make an informed decision.

I know from many conversations with residents that people in Ealing want a cleaner, greener borough with less traffic and congestion. Rising traffic volumes on our roads is an issue that isn’t going away. Our commitment to tackling the climate emergency and enabling active travel and cycling remains unchanged, but I know that we must take people with us and not be afraid to be honest about what works and what doesn’t.

Thank you again for letting me have your views, and we look forward to working with you and other residents who are passionate about their neighbourhoods to find a way forward that can command the support of our communities.

Yours sincerely,

Cllr Peter Mason

Leader, London Borough of Ealing

LTN in Ealing

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I am strongly opposing LTNs and I am also aware that the majority of residents oppose it too. It is a scheme that was started without any consultation, it was imposed on the residents and it was supposed to be a trial that should have already have ended and removed.

These new LTNs, that have ‘conveniently’ appeared during the Covid lockdown, are a huge nuisance to communities and commuters alike. They are certainly not delivering what they are officially being implemented for. Cyclists only make up less than 10% of the daily commute around London. While their needs ought to be considered, they are still a minority and not the ones that must be prioritised over others.

The ‘strategy’ behind LTN is nonsensical and asinine at source: ”By removing through traffic from networks of minor roads, LTNs reduce the space available for traffic. Just as adding an extra lane to a motorway leads to an increase in traffic (induced demand for driving), removing neighbourhood streets from the strategic network leads to a decrease (reduced demand for driving)”. Maybe the Council and TFL might like to explain why over 111,092 minicabs have recently been approved to operate in London.

Maybe, an analogy within the field of medicine will make more sense: Plaque (fatty deposits) build up in your arteries. (We can call it traffic). As plaque builds up, the wall of the blood vessel thickens. This narrows the channel within the artery – reducing blood flow. That lessens the amount of oxygen and other nutrients reaching the body. In other words traffic (pollution) is a recipe for early deaths.

The scheme was based on dangerous lies – In September 2020 Julian Bell reassured the residents that all emergency services had been consulted before the road shake-up began. Cllr Bell and transport boss Mik Sabiers apologized on Friday, September 25, admitting that, in fact, the London Ambulance Service had not been involved in talks just like they had not talked to the Metropolitan Police and the London Fire Brigade.

There is nothing positive about LTNs and it is causing my family and I a lot of aggravation. Shopping for the family or for the pets cannot be done on a bicycle. Most of the shops are in South Ealing (bakery, butcher, chemist) and even the laundrette is over there. Our weekly washing consists of four very big and heavy laundry baskets. Driving and shopping at Waitrose or Iceland or Wilko takes a lot longer now. We are now wasting much more  time and money by sitting in traffic jams or by finding uncomfortable alternatives by bus or tube. Not everyone can cycle, by the way.

Within the last few months the traffic on the Boston Road has been particularly heavy. I started coughing but only if I sit in the lounge, which is at the front of the house. Pollution could very well be the cause.

Research has shown that Heathrow pollution can travel up to 20 miles from the airport. Traffic gridlock in Boston Road is causing heavy pollution that can easily travel all the way to the residential streets all around. Thanks to LTN we are now breathing in more pollution.

Surveys of the general population suggest that approximately 12.7 million people in the UK (approximately 1 in 5) have a history of asthma, COPD or another longstanding respiratory illness. Some is due to smoking but a 2015 study published an updated by King’s College London shows that in 2010 there was the equivalent of up to 5,900 premature deaths across London associated with NO2 long term exposure. Nearly half the health effects of long term exposure to air pollution were caused by pollution from outside London, as well as 75% of cardiovascular hospital admissions associated with PM2.5. (Yet there are strong efforts to open bigger runways at Heathrow airport ??).

On several occasions I need to go and pick up my daughter at Northfield station as this is very late at night. Thanks to LTN you are obliging me to take longer journeys.

In a few days, thanks to your policies, Hounslow Council is closing the only minor road still open to go to Northfields and South Ealing. What is the traffic going to be like then? One of the Ambulance depots is also on the Boston Road. How can you not think that you may end up being responsible for someone’s death?

Deliveries and suppliers are being affected, with couriers getting lost, taxis unable to pick up or drop off their clients and lorries unable to drop off supplies because the road blocks are taking up parking spaces. It’s not safer if cars and lorries are stuck, and having to reverse back out on to the main roads, and in areas without cars going up and down, you have effectively created mugging hotspots.

LTNs will cause an increase in prices because the plumber, the builder, the delivery company will take longer to reach us. LTNs are the last straw for some small businesses that have already been affected by the pandemic. There is also the issue that our roads as less safe, no cars in the side streets, darkness and no people about makes it an ideal ground for criminals.

One small (one lane) road work at the end of Boston Road caused three miles of traffic queues only a few days ago. Bus stops and refuse collection also slow traffic down. Boston Manor is becoming completely isolated, making this, probably, the best modern version of a Ghetto.

The question to ask is – what is LTN for?

Making money for the Council it seems. As the Congestion Charge was created to keep pollution out of Central London, why from 2025 all electric cars will have to pay for the Congestion Charge?

Ealing Council is only interested in collecting fines from those that “jump” the LTNs restrictions. Lies and propaganda, for many years, have made us believe that 20mph speed limit is safer (but pollutes more) when studies have revealed that it is not safer at all. Electric cars pollute less, they say. Another massive lie as mining for lithium and disposal of batteries are causing more pollution than current vehicles.

Cycles lanes – they want! Over £1 million spent on the cycle lane in Boston Manor Road and cyclists are mainly using the road. In fact, cyclists are now preferring the pavement and that goes for scooters too. Just more accidents waiting to happen.

Mini-Holland is another big lie. Studies want us to believe that the Dutch scheme is better and safer for everyone. Holland has the highest death rate in Europe for cyclists. This part of reality is conveniently left off. Residents prefer to believe in lies than seeking information.

People don’t use their cars for cruising and LTNs are simple stupidity in any shape or form.

cyclist

Ealing would build flats on a roundabout if they could.

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Re: Construction single storey, part two storey building comprising 9 new self-contained apartments (Class C3 Use)  | Garages /  Rear Of 10-24 Byron Court Boston Road Hanwell London W7 2AY

[Statistics published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) put the number of empty homes in England in October 2019 at 648,114. This represents a 2.2% increase on the previous year’s total. These figures are still going up]

 

I think it is important to understand who we are dealing with in Ealing.

An ‘inspirational’ quote states: “Tell a lie once and all your truths become questionable”. I am certainly questioning Ealing Council’s not so impartial intents in their decision making.

Sir Gerard Cowper-Coles [Group Head of Government Affairs at HSBC Bank and Director of HSBC Bank Egypt] is also Chair of the Trustees of Pitzhanger Manor and Gallery Trust (PMGT) in Walpole Park in the London Borough of Ealing, as is Julian Bell, Leader of Ealing Council. PMGT, a charity, banks with HSBC. In Walpole Park there was a cafe’, Spencer’s Cafe’, run by Alan Dillon and his partner Sarah. Alan had run the cafe’ successfully for 10 years, and had built up the business to become a very popular local amenity. However, Ealing Council decided to put the running of the cafe’ and another restaurant within the park out to tender. Alan submitted his tender, but without being told of the result, discovered that he had been unsuccessful when a second tender process took place. Thousands of people signed a petition to save Spencer’s Cafe’. The winner of the tender was Social Pantry. Social Pantry is bankrolled by Cowper-Coles’s bank HSBC, who have a fixed and floating charge over all assets of Social Pantry. There are also questions surrounding the social/family relationships of Alexandra Head, owner of The Social Pantry, and the Chair of the PMGT and family. (Despite the Trust’s denials, there is plenty of interaction on social media).

On another note – Responses to Freedom of Information requests reveal that in May 2012 Cllr Bell sent an urgent email to officers asking them to make out a cheque for £10k to A&H Events Ltd. The money was said to be for a community Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Party in Southall Park. Oddly, Ealing Council did just that and Bell arranged for A&H Events Ltd to come to Ealing Town Hall the next day to collect the cheque. A&H events Ltd (now dissolved) was run by Harry Randhawa, otherwise known as Harry, a mate of Bell’s boss, Ealing Southall MP Virendra Sharma.

In March 2020, MP Virendra Sharma and Ealing Council leader Julian Bell were named as co-defendants in a court claim by a local restaurant for a dinner that the Ealing Southall CLP (constituency Labour party) new treasurer and new auditors had refused to pay as organized without proper consultation. Legal costs and interest increased the amount claimed from £5600 to £6877. The Labour Party, at the end, paid for all costs.

About LTNs – In September 2020 Julian Bell reassured the residents that all emergency services had been consulted before the road shake-up began. Cllr Bell and transport boss Mik Sabiers apologized on Friday, September 25, admitting that, in fact, the London Ambulance Service had not been involved in talks just like they had not the Metropolitan Police and the London Fire Brigade.

Worth noting that Julian Bell bought a five bedroom property in West London several years ago while staying on as a housing association tenant in another property despite the purchase. Apparently he is keeping the property for a family member. Five bedrooms houses are not so big after all.

In 2017, around £4.2bn of suspicious money is believed to have be laundered through the London property market. In the same year Ealing Council approved the award of a large contract to Rydon, the main contractor of the Grenfell Tower development, weeks before the fire broke out.

A couple of years back there was a petition that received 10,000 signatures to keep the Art Deco Woolworth facade in place on the Uxbridge Road but it was rejected by Ealing Council.

Only the persistence of a group that wanted to save Warren Farm made it possible to keep it for the use of local people. Ealing Council wanted to give it to QPR on a 200 years lease for… free (free they say).

I objected to the above planning application. Why raise a “containers” style residence in the backyard of Byron Court? Byron Court does not need those flats in such close proximity. Those flats will not fit in with the area and they would be an over development. A clear example of over development can be seen at No. 94 Boston Road corner with Osterley Park View Road, where there used to be a small garden in front of a little block of flats at such address, now there is a cube that is a flat or flats. Allowing these unsightly over developments creates dangerous precedents. Why is Ealing Council allowing such monstrosities? There is no parking on site and servicing the flats will be a problem. What would happen in case of fire? Also I don’t see any foundation slabs in the plans and there could very well be an increased risk of flood and subsidence.

What else is there that we don’t know about? Many planning applications approvals by Ealing Council are very questionable, with no apparent benefits for the existing residents nor for the overall amenities of the borough.

I sincerely hope we will be able to instigate change at this coming next local elections.