This is re Simon Hayes’s 9 August post in which he quotes from an email I sent to a few people. On reading the words I’d written, I realise they were not have been written with the precision they would have been had I known they would receive wider circulation. As I’ve been informed, LBE’s situation is that they will not now present any of the conservation area reviews to the Council for sign off in September, as they had previously said they would. It remains unclear when, if at all, they will be signed off as they need to be before they come into force. Since ideas for amending the CAs were first put to the Council’s Development Plan Advisory Committee in July 2021 and have been twice consulted on since, protecting Ealing’s heritage clearly does not feature high on Ealing’s list of priorities. This is borne out in Ealing’s new local plan which is devoid of heritage policies. In this it is unlike all other London Boroughs I know whose plans don’t just talk about the need to conserve local heritage but carry policies for doing so.But, to avoid misunderstanding, while after 5 years nothing has changed, as far as I know Ealing has not dropped the idea of including East Lodge within the Ealing Green CA (not, as suggested elsewhere, the proposed Northfields CA). If and when they get round to doing so, the Lodge will be protected from demolition without the Council’s active consent. But until that time the Lodge is unprotected and may be demolished. Those with longer memories will recall this was the fate some years ago of the Firestone Building on the Great West Road.
Will French ● 8h