Bacon Sandwich for BoJo at Ealing Broadway
Mayor listens to local campaigners for improvements in station facilities
In Ealing this morning it was obvious someone important was on the prowl. Taxi drivers stopped and shouted their good wishes; passers-by held up mobile phones and asked people to photograph them standing next to or at least close to the centre of attraction; there were policemen stationed around looking watchful and alert and a cafe owner offered free coffees, teas and bacon sandwiches to the entourage.
Boris Johnson had been invited to come and visit. Angie Bray, Conservative parliamentary candidate for Ealing Central and Acton, had organised the visit and Cllr Jason Stacey was on hand to further the case for improvements at Ealing Broadway station.
Before he visited the station, Boris met local police on Ealing Broadway. He was particularly interested to meet two high ranking Policemen from Poland who are visiting Ealing for three months to advise and support local Police in their dealings with Polish residents and visitors.
He also met officers from Ealing Safer Neighbourhood Teams who were offering advice to residents and shoppers on the Broadway.
Cllr Stacey was doing his utmost to ensure that the campaign to get Ealing its quota of Police keeps up momentum.
Angie Bray told us: "We want Boris to see Ealing Broadway Station to show him how run-down and poor the facilities are there. Ealing Broadway needs to be one of the top priority stations once the Crossrail project gets underway. The problems are that there is no proper disabled access, the ticket hall is too small and the facilities for parking bikes are inadequate."
To put things into perspective, representatives from the Ealing Cycling Campaign were there to push home the point about making stations more easily accessible for cyclists. They had some interested statistics about the lamentable amount of parking for bikes (Acton Main Line station, for example, has precisely no parking provision for cycles) and about the difficulty of accessing stations for the disabled, people pushing buggies and wheeling suitcases.
Having seen the problems and walked around the station, Boris said: "Obviously there are going to be massive changes when Crossrail arrives. I have seen Ealing Broadway station during rush-hour myself and am well aware of the huge press of humanity which has to force its way through it. I will certainly be asking Transport for London about the costs involved in extending the station so that passengers can use the old exit which is currently blocked by shops."
However, improvements are not definite. "There is a massive budgetary squeeze going on at the moment. But rest assured that I have been made vigorously aware of all the problems involved at Ealing Broadway. I will be encouraging the Police to be more draconian with bike thieves having listened to local cycling campaigners. There should also be more stands to enable more people to park their bikes safely.
"Ealing Broadway is one of the big transport hubs and we will have to look very carefully at problems with bikes and with access to the station."
In between all this activity, the Mayor fielded "Look after London Boris!" shouts from Taxi drivers, shook hands with a man who had miraculously obtained a refund from the Congestion Charge and eagerly accepted the gift of coffee and a bacon sandwich from the owner of the Barracuda Cafe opposite the station.
October 2, 2009
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