Forum Topic

South Ealing Scheme: Do NOT Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth

The old adage about "not looking a gift horse in the mouth" comes to mind about the TFL (Transport for London) scheme for South Ealing Tube Station local road layouts. The whole schebang is being for by TFL (i.e. The Mayors Office, The London Assembly, etc.) Ealing Council has done very little for South Ealing in living memory other than terrorising its inhabitants with hordes of roaming envirocrime officers-even one of our local councillors David Millican prefers to drink in the Rose and Crown, well NORTH of South Ealing rather than in any of his "local" pubs. No one cares about South Ealing. If TFL has graciouly stepped in with this scheme, lets take everything that we can get and then make a few modifications afterwards: close a road here, put in a one-way sign there. For years residents have been asking for traffic calming on the South Ealing Road and the last Labour administration spent £50K on a study done by Mouchel Parkman (I think) on the Popes Lane/South Ealing Road intersection and failed to implement any of its findings.Walking past South Ealing Tube stations today I noted the rubbish in the hedges outside the Maytrees Park, the ancient bicycle frame abandoned and chained to the cycle rack for months, the cracked and heaving pavement. Let's take what we can get! It has got to be better than what we've got!A voter, Maggie.

Maggie Tomlinson ● 5537d6 Comments

No, I do not have a shop there and hardly use the local shops since HSBC closed.But I do have a flat in the mansions and can tell you that a delivery truck cannot get through the service road.Ealing used to use a special 7'2" wide refuse truck but the larger ones cannot negotiate the access so usually reverse as far as the entrance at the north end.I think the shops have become a bit tatty and need a bit of restoration. Modernising as some have seems to sit uncomfortably with the architecture and dates really quickly.I don't think shopkeepers are lazy, you have to remember that most are sole traders and this is Britain 2011. A delivery at the back means having to close at the front or risk losing your stock or takings. Deliverys are 90% by logistical companies and they use light trucks and are on tight schedules, everyone want it yesterday.I would like to see the shopkeepers take a bit more pride in their shop fronts and frontages. When PK Hardware were here when I first bought the flat, They washed down the paint work every week and swept the front every day, right to the gutter as did the newsagents clarks and the shoe shop.

Oliver Gregan ● 5535d

I've seen the Post Office van turn around in the road beside the Post Office and drive over the pavement in the process.  (Came up South Ealing Road from Brentford direction and returned in that direction.) No wonder the pavements need attention.

Philippa Bond ● 5535d

The service road behind the mansions will accommodate an Ealing Council refuse truck. Most "vans" that try and deliver are smaller, it is just laziness on the part of shopkeepers along there. The London Underground types are less than "considerate" and just cannot be bothered to park beyond "staggering distance" from the underground station; the police have to write to then regularly and ring South Ealing Tube Station regulalry to try and get them to respect the law. I have seen delivery vehicles to South Ealing's (awfull) Post Office/alcohol shop pull up right onto the pavement in front of the post office instead of parking in a side road and bringing the stuff in via the back. In facr, I will not go into shops like Euro's and Carpet Class because of the piles of rubbish behind them. Are you one of the "lazy shopkeepers" in South Ealing, might I ask, sir?

Luther Brown ● 5537d

Maybe you should get to know the area a bit better. This is also one of the problems TfL and planners also are none too clever at.The 'Service' roads are only one and just serve the back of the mansions.Built for an era when vehicles were much smallerThis access is now barely wide enough for a small transit van and cannot accommodate a standard modern delivery truck. They would also have to access and exit via residential roads (Temple and Airedale Rds) The access road belongs to the owners of the mansions. Also rubbish from the flats and shops is stored there.The small service are at The St Mary'e end is the same and the other is for residents and has a headroom restriction.Tube Contractors cannot park in residential roads  as they arrive late when streets are full and leave in the small hours. This would result in a lot of noise outside yours or my home. TfL and the contractors signed up to a considerate contractor remit and this is part of it.Funnily enough, the TfL scheme was under the banner of " Bus Plus" and was a project to free up the much delayed 65 bus service as part of a drive to increase useage. Useage of the 65 has gone up hugely since 2000 and is still rising, hence the recent introduction of larger Scania buses. The Bus Plus street improvements were though never completed with only 60% of the plans carried out. Which included a parking ban around all of  the Popes lane junction, full resurfacing and anti skid surfacesBy creating congestion, pollution levels will rise as very slow or stationary traffic increases pollutants dramatically. Do we seriously want that?But other roads in Ealing have speed reducing measures that are effective that do not require lots of costly roadworks or create new problems . None of those have been deployed in South Ealing which is rather strange.

Oliver Gregan ● 5537d

Maybe you should get to know the area a bit better. This is also one of the problems TfL and planners also are none too clever at.The 'Service' roads are only one and just serve the back of the mansions.Built for an era when vehicles were much smallerThis access is now barely wide enough for a small transit van and cannot accommodate a standard modern delivery truck. They would also have to access and exit via residential roads (Temple and Airedale Rds) The access road belongs to the owners of the mansions. Also rubbish from the flats and shops is stored there.The small service are at The St Mary'e end is the same and the other is for residents and has a headroom restriction.Tube Contractors cannot park in residential roads  as they arrive late when streets are full and leave in the small hours. This would result in a lot of noise outside yours or my home. TfL and the contractors signed up to a considerate contractor remit and this is part of it.Funnily enough, the TfL scheme was under the banner of " Bus Plus" and was a project to free up the much delayed 65 bus service as part of a drive to increase useage. Useage of the 65 has gone up hugely since 2000 and is still rising, hence the recent introduction of larger Scania buses. The Bus Plus street improvements were though never completed with only 60% of the plans carried out. Which included a parking ban around all of  the Popes lane junction, full resurfacing and anti skid surfacesBy creating congestion, pollution levels will rise as very slow or stationary traffic increases pollutants dramatically. Do we seriously want that?But other roads in Ealing have speed reducing measures that are effective that do not require lots of costly roadworks or create new problems . None of those have been deployed in South Ealing which is rather strange.

Oliver Gregan ● 5537d

I am right in understanding that you are trying to say that the whole South Ealing traffic scheme is being paid for by TFL and not by Ealing Council? If so, why is anyone against having nice new pavements and some control over the motorisits who speed up and down the South Ealing Road given a chance?The overtaking issue is an interesting one as the only need for overtaking is caused by lazy shopkeepers and delivery people on the South Ealing Road who cannot be bothered to use rear service roads and rear access to their shops. not to mention the London Underground contractors who insist on parking on the white zig-zag approach lines by the pelican crossing at South Ealing Tube station, in the bus bay, and on the taxi areas.By the way, Cllr David Millican is showing good taste in going to the Rose and Crown pub (by St Mary's Church). It is about the only pub south of the Uxbridge Road which has not sold out and provides good customer service. The Northfields ward itself has some real dives which is probably why Cllr Millican drinks outside of it.

Luther Brown ● 5537d