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A time for reflection
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Arcadia centre entrance | |
Like all of London, SEC and its supporters have been horrified, angered, and very shaken by the shocking events in Ealing and West Ealing of August 8th. It's hard to believe that an innocent local pensioner could be killed by a rampaging mob in the heart of our town centre. We extend our strongest sympathies to all the traders who suffered loss or damage - especially the smaller ones. They need our fullest support.
As we'd expect after such a trauma, the community quickly came together to condemn the perpetrators and clean up the damage. Elected leaders have been to the fore, performing a vital role of reassuring the public and steadying nerves while the forces of law and order reasserted themselves.
The question on our minds now is where we go from here? The Government in Westminster and the Mayor in City Hall have already started to weigh up what to do. But what about here in Ealing? What should our elected Councillors and those who advise them do? And what about us, the Ealing community, still unnerved as we are by events?
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Ealing Green
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It's too easy but a waste of time to stand on a soap box and come up with formulaic solutions. There's a lot we don't know yet - exactly what happened and who were the people involved? Are they local, or did they come from afar? Are they gangs or mainly school kids, or mostly the older and unemployed? Was it all pre-arranged or spontaneous? So the first thing Ealing needs is a full accounting of the events - just who did what and what on earth were they thinking of when they set out on the rampage? Much will emerge from the innumerable court cases now in process, but accounts have to be collated and published. This is something for the Council to coordinate and it must publish what it finds not in a dusty Committee report but in a way that everyone can read.
Secondly, we need to build on the community solidarity that flourished the morning after. Volunteers with their brooms gave up their day to demonstrate the strength and the basic goodness of the Ealing community. A huge dividend can be reaped if this spirit can be captured on a permanent basis. Of course it isn't easy - those volunteers all lead busy lives and they need the kind of leadership that emerged on Tuesday morning but on a lasting basis.
So third, we need better ways to communicate with each other locally, and once again we look to the Council to show sustained leadership here. The Council says it wants to make Ealing a great place to live and work. To achieve this means showing that everyone must count. We have to find ways to foster dialogue across all parts of the Borough. This is of course something much easier to say than it is to do, but if Monday night's events teach us anything it is that we are stronger when we work together than when we sit back and allow anonymous forces to take over and run amok.
Will French
Chair, Save Ealing's Centre
12 August 2011
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