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I can't speak for Southall but I have lived in and around Acton for three decades. While it hasn't been a straight line improvement and somethings have got worse, I can say with confidence that there has been an overall improvement in that time.Not sure about the numbers but it certainly feels a lot safer than it used to 30 years ago. At that time there were parts you wouldn't even drive through let alone walk through particularly the South Acton estate. Now, I pass through parts I used to avoid regularly.Although the High Street shopping choice isn't much better over the years (with casinos a definitive negative) and the banks gone, there is more to do along here than there ever was in the past. The big change has been ActOne which is a fantastic addition but if we are talking over the last few decades we have a modern and affordable swimming pool and a very high quality library.Churchfield road may take one step back for every two steps forward but continues get gradually better with a really good array of cafes and restaurants. It doesn't have the hipster chic of a place like Camden or even Kensal Rise but it will be packed with people this sunny weekend.There has also been big leaps forward in our local parks over this period which were characterless dog toilets but now places like Acton Park and Gunnersbury Park are unrecognisable. I'd rather there weren't quite as many events in the latter but it does give Acton a bit of cachet that so many big name acts perform here and perhaps people complaining the most bitterly weren't around when there wasn't the money to maintain the park.It's true we don't have a Waitrose or a Marks but, in these straightened times I am thankfully for Lidl and a Poundland. I started to cook more during lockdown and it was only then I found out how amazingly stocked some of the stores on the High Street were particularly Safa and Hakkikat. For anyone with an Ottolenghi cookbook, they are a godsend.Yes there are gripes - the traffic on the High Street seems to get worse and worse and there are far too many delivery riders congregated in front of McDonalds.If all of this makes me a crawl arse (whatever that is) so be it but I really do resent people talking down the place where I live which I have come to love more and more year by year.

Mark Evans ● 59d

I don’t spend much of my life talking to councillors but I do have a relative who serves as one and a good friend who spent many years as a ward representative. In addition, I have encountered socially or professionally others and spoken with them. Acknowledging the limitations of this pool of evidence, what I can say is that the picture they present is very different from the dystopian view you have which seems to be based on nothing other that your very bleak view of the human condition. People who serve on the other hand present a very different picture and seem regularly to credit their most bitter political opponents with the virtue of diligence. Councillors who swing the lead and just stick around to collect allowances do exist, but they are necessarily in the minority because they are deeply unpopular with colleagues who have to pick up the slack. Some councillors do need allowances to make end meet and some don’t fully earn them but most spending an amount of time on council business that effectively means that their hourly rate is well below the minimum wage. I don’t monitor the activities of every councillor in the borough and I doubt you do either (if you did that would be really strange), so just because you don’t hear from a councillor doesn’t mean they are inactive. Most casework will be relating to housing, adult social care and, increasingly special needs education for which privacy considerations prevent councillors posting about what they are doing on social media. If you have personal experience with a councillor who has proven to be not worthy of office in your view, we should hear about it. Nobody is disputing that they exist but if they aren't put in the spotlight then they will continue to get elected.

Gordon Southwell ● 61d