Forum Topic

Empire Cinema

Our Council tried.  A resident tried with a petition.  One of our MPs tried and is trying again.  What's the latest excuse?  They're 'mobilising'.  Empire are building a cinema, not restaging the Normandy landings.Empire simply don't want to invest the money in building us a cinema, do they?I tried to find an email contact for this Ribbons character but failed so I used the email on the Empire website and complained about his behaviour and the lack of cinema.  That probably had them reaching for the delete button quicker than you could say IMAX but I do think we should mobilise ourselves and start protesting to Empire and Mr Ribbons about their total lack of activity and their apparent unwillingness to tell us the truth about their plans.Any suggestions?  I quite like the idea of flooding Ribbons' email inbox on a regular basis (which will drive his Executive Assistant nuts, if nothing else) but has anyone got more grown-up ideas?

Allison Franklin ● 5190d5 Comments

No Colm,Good ideas are good ideas. This must be a first; most people don't reply to my letters let alone pick up my ideas. I am a great believer in stick and carrot. We are lent this life to make the world a better place and personally I hate waste and the cinema site is waste big time. So you do something, you don't just swan off to Cannes on your bicycles. I understand you don't even need planning permission with homes with wheels. My hero John Wayne would say,"Waggons roll!" The "Empire would strike back" quickly enough. You mention the ex YMCA site in Bond street which backs on to the Cinema site. Again temporary accommodation to house the young homeless...there is a HOUSING CRISIS.  Why else would Brendon and Pat (so called Regen Officers) wish to buy this unless to house all the displaced homeless from Inner London boroughs? A trickle now but soon to become a flood. Ummm whose initiative caused that Colm? Lucky we have such forward thinking officers.

Arthur Breens ● 5151d

ArthurYou clearly have the ear of this Labour administration. Cllr Johnson, finance portfolio holder announced at full council a couple of weeks ago that they are thinking about building social housing on the site behind the cinema which they spent almost two million buying so that the cinema was more likely to get built.  What do they know that they are not telling the rest of us. Why say one week we will compulsory purchase the site to get this built, then the next week say, well, if it doesn't get built, we could always put some housing there.

Colm Costello ● 5151d

There is a housing crisis what crisis? Some of the displaced people from the fall-out of the council's "beds in sheds" initiative (cost £250,000) could be housed in 24 mobile homes on the carefully levelled site behind the listed cinema facade. Only six for rent social housing units were produced in Ealing last year. So my suggestion beats this by a factor of 4. Come on this is only a padlock away from reality. The rest could be temporarily housed in the adjacent ex YMCA building (which cost £1,700,000) empty now and owned by the council. We seem to be paying our officers to sit on their hands.

Arthur Breens ● 5188d

why not get a lot of the ealing residents to stage a protest and contact some major tabloids to cover it. Am sure the publicity wil make them sit up and take notice. I'm in!

Emma Daniels ● 5189d

time to get Boris involved.The council are very hung ho about compulsory purchasing the whole of the Arcadia development site. (God knows what'll be left of the character of Ealing when they've finished with that)It's time for them to cough up and buy the cinema site.What's happening with the Town House site too? Another blight on the high street.

Colin Minchin ● 5189d