The magazine “Altogether better” was first published around 2008 (only few hundreds copies) and it was then circulated not around the borough but among the business community in order to attract companies to move in Ealing and fill up all the empty office spaces which had been left empty for a long time. This was at a time when Ealing was acclaimed to be the best run council in the country and we were right in the middle of revamping all our major and minor shopping centres, our roads and pavements were being resurfaced at the tune of over £6M per year, our parks and roads were free of litter, rubbish, graffiti and full of flowers. This result of this exercise proved to be quite a success and along the Uxbridge road offices were once again being occupied and new one built.With regards to Around Ealing, what really gets to me is that, whilst in opposition, the Labour group kept criticising us time and time again, both in and out of the council chamber, about the money we were wasting in “advertising ourselves” questioning time and time again how much this “propaganda campaign”, cost the ratepayers and they committed themselves that, once regained power, they would slash the publication of Around Ealing. It is worth to remember that during their previous administration they were publishing Around Ealing once a month as well. We proved time and time again that because of the income that we have managed to generate from advertisements, the cost was less than a can of coke. When they took control, truth to their words, they did ‘slash’ the number of publication from 12 to 4 per year, only to increase it again to the current 12.Once again the famous say: “do as I say but don’t do as I do” spring to mind here and hipocrisys reigns suprime.
Rosa Popham ● 4964d