Public Meeting To Be Held on Controversial Southall Development

Chance for residents to ask questions on Waterside scheme


Angela Fonso with daughters Emma and Karen outside the development. Picture: Grahame Larter

 
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Residents living around the Southall Waterside redevelopment will finally get the chance to have their concerns heard at a public meeting.

Ealing Council confirmed two separate meetings would be held on 10 July (not 10 June as originally reported), where residents will be able to ask questions about potential health risks from the redevelopment of the old gas works.

Residents have previously complained of headaches, respiratory problems and a persistent petrol-like smell.

The meetings will be at the Dominion Centre, with an afternoon drop-in session starting at 3pm and running until 6pm.

This will be an open forum for residents to come and ask questions directly to the council, Public Health England and the Environment Agency.

The second meeting, which will take a panel format for residents to ask questions of councillors and council officers, will run at the same location from 6.30pm.

Although the council did not make any reference to the developers attending or being able to be questioned, Council Leader Julian Bell said in an email to advocacy organisation Clean Air for Southall & Hayes (CASH) that developer Berkeley Homes would be invited to participate.

CASH spokeswoman and affected resident Angela Fonso said she was pleased the meetings were being conducted promptly after long delays as a result of the European Elections.

However, she said “rigorous marketing” was needed in order to make sure residents were aware of the times and dates.

Mrs Fonso said she would like to see the sessions formally minuted and audio recorded.

She said: “Berkeley Group must be there, to be held accountable for their practices, which are having a negative impact on the health and well being of the Southall community.”

“CASH wants enforcement action by Ealing Council or the Environment Agency and independent air quality monitoring.”

Mrs Fonso said a list of anonymous recent complaints would be presented to council officers as evidence that the odour nuisance is still ongoing.

She and her two daughters live about a third of a mile from the site’s Brent Road entrance, and Mrs Fonso said she had been affected by headaches, nausea, persistent coughing, eye irritation and mental confusion. One of her daughters has been prescribed an inhaler since the works began.

Over the next 25 years, Southall Waterside is set to include around 3,750 homes for 10,000 people.

A spokeswoman for Publich Health England said previously that it was “undesirable for the levels of naphthalene on-site to remain elevated” and “the levels should be reduced to prevent prolonged exposures”.

Short term exposure to naphthalene can cause adverse effects such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhoea and headache, according to the Heath Protection Agency, and it is also considered a possible carcinogen.

Ged Cann, Local Democracy Reporter

June 4, 2019

 

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