Ealing Ignored in Mayor’s Plans Say Lib Dems

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Draft transport policy is not meeting borough's needs

Ealing Lib Dems say Boris Johnson's draft transport policy does nothing for the area.

"The Mayor's strategy for London largely ignores Ealing's needs," says Jon Ball, the Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for the marginal seat of Ealing Central and Acton.

"Ealing has not been given the attention it deserves," adds Councillor Gary Malcolm, Lib Dem transport spokesperson. "This is because our own Council has taken little interest in planning for our future transport needs, preferring to leave it to others to come up with proposals."

The Lib Dems have criticised what they see are some major gaps in the London Plan as they affect Ealing, and between the Mayor’s Transport Strategy (MTS) and its specific proposals.

“We support the MTS objective of reducing the need to travel by putting homes, services and employment opportunities together,” says Jon Ball. “But the London Plan sees a large increase in employment in central London at the expense of new employment in the outer areas such as Ealing, where housing is projected to rise at a much faster rate than in other boroughs. This defeats the aim of cutting commuting.”

Another objection made by the Lib Dems is that the strategy of improving transport round London is not reflected in the Mayor’s spending proposals, which concentrate on the network in and out of the centre. Where improvements in orbital public transport are mentioned, these are all for bus services which will do little to reduce congestion and vehicle emissions.

“Most importantly, there is no mention of the need for a full public transport interchange at Ealing Broadway station, to meet both our local need and the Mayor’s objective of better integrated systems with enhanced interchanges,” commented Gary. “This is a serious omission. Along with the lack of any suggestion on how local transport improvements are to be progressed, this must be addressed by our own Council taking the initiatives it has so far failed to do.”

January 26th, 2010