Forum Topic

From Detached Ealing House to Nine Flats?

Ealing Today reports plans to replace a house on St Stephens Road with 9 flats.  This is just one of a growing number of similar schemes across the borough.  Over the past 9 months, within less than a mile of one another in central Ealing similarly extravagant plans have been put in for 1 Westbury Road, 33 Amherst Road, 77 Madeley Road, 59 Eaton Rise, 107 St Stephens Road, 88 The Avenue and 98 Gordon Road - most of which lie in Conservation Areas. Every application has generated strong local opposition with angry letters, petitions, and threats of legal action. The picture seems similar in residential areas across the Borough.  Ealing’s planners used to refuse such proposals as being out of keeping with the area, and their decisions were usually supported by the Planning Inspectors. But things have drastically changed recently with little publicity. A draft New London Plan has set out to solve the capital’s housing shortage by imposing a target for Ealing to build 10,740 new homes on small sites (mainly back gardens) over the next 10 years. Why Ealing was given this target has not been explained, but the Borough does not seem to have objected to it. Similar boroughs to Ealing have far lower targets - Hounslow for instance is expected to build 6,800 homes, Richmond 6,340 and Hammersmith and Fulham just 2,980.There's been very little discussion of this new policy. What will people make of its impact on the places where they live and its affect on services like schools that are already overstretched?

Will French ● 2870d4 Comments

As bad as it get's with this mob

Harold John Ward ● 2860d

Cllr Yvonne Johnson cares about the enviroment in Acton and has shown willingness to put a stop to Garden grabbing. She unfortunately is only a handfull of good quality Councillors we have. The rest are only in it for self interest and money... And until people realise what is going on large family houses will be demolished, gardens turned in to more houses/flats... and like sheep we just follow on moaning about how bad its got!!

Nicolas Ozegovic ● 2861d

Sadly the houses in the Acton Hill area are  being sold to developers and turned into flats. After hours and  hours of time taken up with petitioning  , losing then petitioning again and again we finally won. Two houses have been saved. Many thanks to Yvonne Johnson who backed us all the way and voted against these monstrous proposals. She brought all the planning officers down several  times , herself on crutches too , to look at the horrors already started without permission . Thanks to her last plans were rejected. It takes time and tenacity and almost wears you down. Developers  hoped we would give up. We oldies in my area are a feisty lot. World  War 2 taught us never ever give up.

Beryl Bashford ● 2862d

Will, what about Peacehaven a locally listed building in Acton lost a large stretch of its garden after a long battle with Planners and the offshore Israeli Developers, who eventual got planning permission to build on this magnificent Victorian House and garden. The Conservative Committee members on the night voted it through on the promise that for “every tree felled a new one will be planted”. I have counted 12 such TPO trees gone. And David Scourfield has approved the discharging of Condition 9 with a plan showing only 1 new tree... without any new application made. To date I have tried to get answers for both David Scourfield Head of Planning or the Conservative Councillor who raised the point with the Labour members on this, I get nothing back..Clearly having a London Plan etc.. is one thing, but when you have incompetent Planning Officers running the show and Developers who can manipulate the whole planning process then every bit of Ealing green space is up for grabs!!!

Nicolas Ozegovic ● 2865d