SEC is a voluntary alliance of 25 residents' and community groups from Hanwell to Acton. SEC seeks good planning for Ealing Town Centre that will reestablish it as the focal point for Ealing borough's residents. Contact Us to help, for info, to make a donation.

25 & 26 July 2008, Glenkerrin returns with revised Plan for Arcadia site
A letter dated 11 July from Green Issues - on behalf of Glenkerrin - is currently being delivered locally inviting you to attend an exhibition of their revised plans for the Arcadia site. 

The exhibition dates are Friday 25 July (2 pm to 8 pm) and Saturday 26 July (11 am to 4 pm) at Christ the Saviour Church's Parish Hall (opposite M & S). Please attend if you can and make sure you have some really searching questions to put to the members of the project team.  

17th July 08, SEC e-newsletter

Read our last e-newsletter here and forward it to your email contacts. 

15 July 2008, Legal & General announces buyer for Ealing Broadway Centre Legal & General has entered into exclusive talks with Doughty Hanson and Plus Shops to sell its £175m, 275,000 sq ft Ealing Broadway shopping centre. See 15 July Property Week here  http://www.propertyweek.com/story.asp?storycode=3116316&encCode=2079231881BC011555708JTBS737226611

 8 July 2008, CABE objects to Dickens Yard 

CABE (Commission on the Built Environment) has informed the Council that they are not supportive of the current planning application from St George as they do not consider that the proposals gave the ‘quality of living environment’ now expected of such developments.  The full text of the letter will be publicly available online at CABE’s web site shortly. 

20th June 08, Statement to the Press from Nick Woolven, SEC Chairman

Save Ealing’s Centre (SEC) unites 25 residents’ groups across central Ealing from Hanwell to Acton.  Ealing is our town centre, and we are very concerned about its future.  SEC opposes the current Dickens Yard plans - a massive overdevelopment that does not meet the community’s needs and is much larger than what the community agreed in 2004.

The Council can only sell Dickens Yard once.  It needs to be redeveloped, but must serve the community.  This demands coordinated planning, and integration with the rest of the town centre including public transport provision and the new Crossrail station.

The design of the Dickens Yard flats is massive and oppressive, and the buildings will completely overshadow the Conservation Area at the heart of Ealing - including the Town Hall and Christ Church.  High-rise densely populated developments are out of character and out of scale with Ealing’s existing low-rise landscape. 

698 new flats in Dickens Yard, with the 704 new Arcadia Centre flats, will overwhelm the town centre and Ealing’s infrastructure.  There is no provision for new schools, GP surgeries or dentists, or even new sewers.  There will be no extra community facilities when Ealing is crying out for a sports, arts, leisure and cultural centre.

The proposed retail outlets are marginal at best.  This will not reverse the downmarket trend in Ealing’s existing shops, many of which are already empty.

The centre of Ealing needs revitalisation, not regeneration.  This can only be achieved by developing a new vision in the form of an integrated strategic master plan.  Piecemeal development decisions will not work.  The Dickens Yard proposals must be rejected until new plans are in place.

19th June 08, Tibbalds Report: Public Meeting

A summary of the Council's 19th June public meeting on the Tibbalds Report will be available shortly. The meeting provided an opportunity to ask questions and give views on how the centre of Ealing and West Ealing should be developed over the next 15 years.

18th June 08, SEC e-newsletter

Read our last e-newsletter here and forward it to your email contacts.

 

17th June 08, Sir Peter Hall says, " Ealing needs a Master Plan..."

At a presentation in Ealing Town Hall, Sir Peter Hall (Bartlett Professor of Town Planning) - Britain's pre-eminment town planner, remarked on the transformational opportunities and the equally huge threats to Ealing arising from Crossrail and White City. 

He used a mass of evidence to examine the capacity for high density residential accommodation in town centres and concluded that for Ealing Town Centre the capacity is far less than that implied by the Arcadia or the Dickens Yard Schemes. He reported that Network Rail has decided Ealing Broadway Station is the 3rd highest priority station in the country for an upgrade given its chronic overcrowding. 

He stated that Ealing needs a 'differentiator' that will attract people back to the centre. He recommended that developments in central Ealing should not take place without a Master Plan for Town Centre development and that the Arcadia and Dickens Yard sites and other potential development sites eg Ealing Broadway Centre, should be looked at as one large development opportunity to provide Ealing with a multitude of facilities including a positive move towards arts & cultural. Read a summary of Sir Peter Hall's Presentation. and view Presentation Slides  of an alternative vision for the redevelopment of the Arcadia Centre proposed by Sir Peter Hall’s students at University College London.


13th June 08, SEC e-newsletter

Read our last e-newsletter here and forward it to your email contacts.

5th June 08, English Heritage say NO to Dickens Yard proposals

English Heritage, the Government's statutory adviser on the historic environment, produced a very critical report on the proposed Dickens Yard development and has publicly recommended refusal of St George's planning application for the site.  English Heritage's recommendations are based on national policy guidance. In a letter to Ealing Council Planners on 5th June, 2008 it concluded:

"...The consideration of English Heritage is that the application should be recommended for refusal, as it would cause detriment to long views, the character or appearance of the conservation area, the setting of heritage assets and the integrity of the context - by means of its incongruous scale, composition, silhouette and proportion..."

Read English Heritage's Letter to Ealing Council.


2nd June 08, SEC sends Formal Letter of Complaint to Council

SEC sent a formal letter of complaint to Ealing Council on 2nd June, 2008. The complaint is about the April 2008 St George's Dickens Yard Planning Application and the Council's lack of due process in the planning procedures.  Read the SEC formal Letter of Complaint in full. 

1st June 08, SEC sends Report to Crossrail

SEC sent a report to Crossrail on 1st June, 2008 outlining our vision for an integrated transport interchange at Ealing Broadway station.  Read the SEC Letter to Crossrail in full. 


30th May 08, Richard Barnes  says Dickens Yard is overdevelopment

Richard Barnes (GLA member for Ealing & Hillingdon, London's Deputy Mayor with responsibility for overseeing regeneration) reported in the Gazette on 30th May, "There should be a development Masterplan for Ealing because the pressure is on from White City and other successful shopping centres... There is no cohesive centre and people have got to look at it more imaginatively..."  He went on to describe the plans for Dickens Yard as 'overdevelopment.'