Ealing Common Campaigners Commemorate Victory

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Picnic 30 years after defeating road widening plans

A group of campaigners had a picnic on Ealing Common last Sunday (11th August) to commemorate defeating a plan to build on the common.

30 years ago, a public inquiry was held into widening the North Circular Road (A406) across Ealing Common.

Anthony Agius, who campaigned against the road widening and was involved in the inquiry, said, “This scheme would have knocked down homes, destroyed part of Ealing Common, demolished a stretch of woodland alongside Hanger Lane and given us more traffic, noise and pollution. Thank goodness the planning inspector had the sense to turn the scheme down.”

Although the first inquiry rejected the plan to build the road across Ealing Common, the concept of widening was not fully rejected. Instead, the Department of Transport came up with a new proposal whereby the road would be tunnelled under the Common.

Nic Ferriday who was involved in a later public inquiry said: “Although the tunnelling would have saved more of Ealing Common, it would have still meant taking land, demolishing houses and chopping down woodland. Fortunately, the new planning inspector turned down this scheme as well. Back then, we all knew that building more roads simply generates more traffic and therefore defeats the aim of relieving congestion. ”

August 13, 2013