The Gas Works development, if I remember right, is, or will be, very much a self-contained development. It would include a shopping centre, cinema complex, community centres, offices, refurbishment and re-siting of Southall station entrance, car parks, minor shopping parades with cafes and restaurants, various green spaces and piazzas, children play areas, flats and houses, a new two/three forms primary school, a health centre and, most important of all, a new, wider bridge over the railway lines which will also provide direct access to the commercial as well as residential side of the developmentWhat is stopping this scheme from going ahead is the impasse between Ealing council and Hillingdon council, as someone has rightly pointed out already. Construction vehicle have to have access from the Hayes By-pass, rather than through the narrow and congested roads of Southall itself. In exchange for allowing access, Hillingdon would like a proportion of the affordable units on the development. This is also to off-set the ‘impact’ that this development will have on Hayes’ town centre itself (which, let’s be honest, is not that great).I think that Ealing’s present administration reluctance in finalising the agreement on this development is due more to the fear that the incoming inhabitants of this development, right in the centre of Southall, would be of a different political make-up and background from the present population: mainly city workers who, with the oncoming cross-rail, will reach their place of work in less than 20/30 minutes from their door-steps. There was an article in the Gazette recently that claimed that by the new Ealing GLA member declared that hef in favour of this development going ahead as it was essential for the survival of the area and in order to meet new housing targets for the borough. However, at a recent council meeting, when a question was asked to the Leader of the Council as to clarify what progress has been made with regards to this application, in view of the fact of what their GLA member had said in the article; the Leader’s reply was: “you should not believe what you read in the papers”.
Rosa Popham ● 4900d