Forum Topics

Anyone know our rights regards Council house Central Heating repairs

Our Central Heating has has stopped working, and this is affecting the way the hot water works too. T Brown stated a motor needed replacing as an emergency, as it was incorrectly repaired by them previously in February when the repair people did not have the correct lubricant so poured Cooking oil over the motor spindle. It then worked for a few weeks and now makes all sorts of clicking and banging noises but has stopped. working.Mum is 88 and should not have to live like this in the freezing cold.Whenever the hot water is used the radiators now go in, regardless of the Central Heating thermostat settings, until the water reaches the required Hot water temperature.T. Brown made it an emergency and promised it would be repaired today Wednesday 10th March.Now T. Brown want to put if off until next week.Does anyone know if I Can demand Ealing council use it's legal powers to make T. Brown carry out it's own promise to replace the motor they themselves damaged? It must be T. Brown's legal responsibility to do so, as it was their own repair people who produced the fault.

Leslie Bailey ● 2047d19 Comments ● 2021d

Dumping Virgin Media and Tivo

I was planning to get rid of Virgin media as their internet service has become increasingly unreliable. One thing stopping me is that I have got used to my Tivo box and am unsure if buying a DVR as a replacement will be as good. Has anyone been down the same road?

Mark Evans ● 2055d4 Comments ● 2024d

Greenest ever' skyscrapers to be built entirely from recycled materials

Our beloved leader gets to build his Gotham City lookalike on the site of the Stirling Road dump. Don't get too excited if you're on the council housing list, you won't be able to afford one.

peter king ● 2025d10 Comments ● 2025d

Graffiti at Gunnersbury Park

The members of the Bowls Club campaign have read, with great horror, about the recent graffiti at Gunnersbury Park.We condemn, without reservation, this utterly intolerable action. We had no prior knowledge of, nor took any part in, these despicable actions. These events will do nothing but harm to our desire to see a bright future for bowls at Gunnersbury Park.We have our differences with the CIC but we will always seek a resolution through civilised discussion and debate, and never through actions such as these.

Jim Storrar ● 2032d4 Comments ● 2025d

Post in area served by Northolt Sorting Office

There has, at Thursday lunchtime, been no post in the area near the old White Hart pub since Saturday (and that was a late delivery combining the previous couple of days). I understood the problems when the pandemic was at its peak but not now. What is going on, Royal Mail?

Ian Fergus ● 2032d4 Comments ● 2025d

My Heroes Seema Misra and Jo Hamilton

Readers may be able to help. The ladies above were caught-up in the Sub-postmasters scandal in which the accounting computer system and the management failed. This caused Seema to be imprisoned and Jo to have to choose by pleading guilty to false accounting in order to escape the more serious charge of theft. There had been redacting and shredding of data to hide the innocence of these ladies. Those who had done this should go to prison. Why were the police not immediately involved? The possible charge was theft after all and so the police could have taken individuals in the post office management for interfering with the evidence. The police are the gatekeepers of part of the legal system and appear reluctant to become involved in rip-offs by authority. Something similar happened in Ealing when some motorists were not electronically reminded that their CPZ resident parking permit was due for renewal. Some residents were reimbursed but how many were not? And now we have the council charging otherwise law abiding motorists for passing through very unusual LTN barriers. The LBE officers who I spoke to last week at the Culmington Road barrier said that all the signage was in order under the signage legislation (when it wasn't) and I said the message wasn't getting through evidenced by the enormous numbers of motorists being charged. The evidence told the story and one of the officers flounced off. End of meeting. This fraudulent abuse of power and entrapment must stop. The police have to act as it brings all authority into disrepute. Gatekeepers in the police heirarcy and there are many are rejecting this in that it has nothing to do with them. That's not right.

Arthur Breens ● 2034d2 Comments ● 2025d

Ealing Parking Services / Tarranto

Has anyone else had this issue?Previously I paid on line but got a message that there hd been an issue with taking the fee. So I tried again - same message.Tried again - once more same message.Then checked my bank account and three lots of payment had been taken.Nightmare starts - can't get hold of anyone, nobody calls back, emails unresponded to.PCN's start arriving.Had to go to the Civic Centre and got my overcharges back with reason "car Reg is quite new and not on system yet".Despite appeal the PCN's not revoked - furious!!Fast forward a year. Renewal time for car.Guess what? Yep £100.00 renewal taken but "problem with payment" message and I cannot get hold of anyone.Last thing I want to do is attempt to visit civic centre - is it even open???Such a poor Council we have.No parties in a brewery for them

Colin Goodman ● 2040d9 Comments ● 2026d

What flag is flying over the Town Hall?

Is Bell(end) still flying the EU flag over our town hall or has he finally seen sense? We should ideally have the Union Jack and the flag of England if there are two flag poles

peter king ● 2032d8 Comments ● 2026d

When is Purdah not Purdah

On the TW8 sister site a local councillors blog states that due to the election run up he could not even chair or filed questions at a meeting over Boston Manor Park.The issues there are those of operations ongoing and the planning of such.But party political it is not.So if that's the parameter Hounslow Councillors are having to comply with, surely the same parameters apply to Perceval House?Except it is Highly Political in any case.

Raymond Havelock ● 2031d3 Comments ● 2031d

Gunnersbury Park Bowls Club - Petition

The Gunnersbury Park Community Interest Company has refused to grant access by the Bowls Club to the bowls green to carry out urgent maintenance work.Some readers may wish to sign this petition:https://petitions.hounslow.gov.uk/GPBowlsClub/Our request is that all councillors, whether members of the Planning Committee or not, should seek to use their good offices to persuade the CIC to allow the Bowls Club access to the bowls green.Gunnersbury Estate (2026) Community Interest Company (the CIC) is responsible for the management of Gunnersbury Park on behalf of the joint owners, the London Boroughs of Hounslow and Ealing.In April 2020 a planning application was refused for the conversion of the bowls clubhouse to a cafe/restaurant. In January 2021, a decision on a further, almost identical, planning application was deferred by Hounslow Planning Committee. This proposal would lead to the re-purposing of the bowls green as a mini-golf facility which would mean the end of bowls in Gunnersbury Park after 90 years.In deferring their decision, the Planning Committee wished to have more time to consider all of the relevant facts, including the consideration of alternative sites for the mini-golf facility.The Bowls Club and volunteers from the wider community have been refused access by the CIC to carry out urgent maintenance work. Without this work the bowls green will rapidly deteriorate to a condition beyond repair and this will mean that the Planning Committee will be faced with a situation where bowls is no longer a viable use for the site of the bowls green.The Bowls Club is not opposed to the establishment of a mini-golf facility in the Park. Indeed, it supports the principle of this important source of revenue for the CIC but not at the expense of the bowls green and the Bowls Club itself.

Jim Storrar ● 2052d14 Comments ● 2033d

The Safety of Women at Night and LTNs

A female neighbour told me she was returning from work late at night in an Uber provided by her employer recently. The driver stopped about 200 yards away from her home by an LTN barrier and said he would go no further. She said he could drive round but he told her he had already been fined several times in LTNs and could only make a living by completely avoiding them. She said she understood and that she would still give him a five star rating if he waited at the drop off for five minutes to give her time to get to her front door as she was terrified by the isolated walk in the deserted badly lit street. He did so with his headlights on and engine running.I can understand the advantage of having fewer vehicles going down a road during the day but at night time few of the reasons for LTNs apply. On the contrary, as any female who gets back late in the evening will tell you, the last thing you want is a complete absence of traffic.

Tricia Arbuthnot ● 2040d56 Comments ● 2033d

Lammas Park Pavilion Project

Pledge to refurbish this much loved building:https://www.spacehive.com/lammas-park-pavilion-project#/idea

Philippa Bond ● 2039d1 Comments ● 2038d

This years Council Tax  figures and charges

Who publisde the figures without checking its accracy.?          Adult care chares are shown as a percentage increase which si way dearer than it shoulbe. similarly

Oswald Whittle ● 2038d0 Comments ● 2038d

Gurnell planning application refused

Big blow for Bell. Planning committee refused the redevelopment tonight with 10 against, 1 for and 2 abstentions.It seems the main concern is the cost to Ealing taxpayers.

Simon Hayes ● 2040d7 Comments ● 2039d

More Councils are building Eco Homes

As we continue to try to make our way towards a cleaner greener low carbon country, here is an interesting article on how some more Councils have managed/are managing to build low energy homes.  I also found the Comments that follow the article interesting as there have been problems with the use of wood burners here and I believe there are new regulations for them and re the wood being sold for burning.  Remember that the virus giving us the disease Covid 19 is named: SARS - Cov 2  ie:  severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.  A reason why we were asked not to have bonfires.  https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/mar/06/eco-homes-become-hot-property-in-uks-zero-carbon-paradigm-shift#comment-147889182Very disappointing to see that one of the biggest housebuilders was lobbying Govt to stop their Eco Home Building programme but pleasing to see that they appear to have changed tack now and will be building them.

Philippa Bond ● 2047d3 Comments ● 2039d

Up to date Carpenter/Handyman Recommendation

Can anyone recommend a local carpenter or handyman in the west Ealing area? I need someone to hang two internal bathroom doors, which is not much more than a days work, and I'm struggling to find someone who wants to take on such a small job.A search on the Forum doesn't offer much help as most of the recommendations there are quite old now. Any and all suggestions welcome!

Dominic Moore ● 2053d1 Comments ● 2040d

New Road Layout Uxbridge Road - Hanwell to Southall

I'm told that the council are planning new road layouts on the Uxbridge Road including cycle lanes with wands and removing of lay bys for buses so they stop in the main traffic lane. I was unable to find any details about them so I'd be grateful if someone could confirm this is what is planned and point me in the direction of where I could find the plans. Also, if there is anyone who thinks this is a good idea could they explain to me how this is consistent with the concept of LTNs. I thought that the policy was to redirect traffic onto 'distributor roads' of which the Uxbridge Road is clearly one. If you restrict traffic flow on distributor roads aren't you just going to get wash back into LTNs which will be worse as the increased traffic will have to circle around barriers? 

Gordon Southwell ● 2047d9 Comments ● 2040d

DISHONEST TRADING.

Misleading information provided by energy switching company Look After My Bills to the public has been addressed by the Advertising Standards Authority. Below is a post shared by Nick Blagg, a member of:                                                                                                                                                                        "Look After My Bills Problem Reporting Page."                                                                                                                                                     Nick Blagg shared a link.The complaint made to the advertising standards agency against LAMB has been upheld !! It feels like a partial victory to me based on what the ruling is (see below) but it’s still a win and the more of us that continue to complain the more pressure is applied.  Keep it up guys. 👍🏻Dear Mr Blagg,Thank you for your continued patience.  Further to the below, we received another complaint which raised issues similar to those highlighted in your complaint.  Based on the information you and the other complainant provided, we considered that advertising content from Look After My Bills was likely to break the advertising rules we apply.  Therefore, we contacted the advertiser to ask for their assurance that future ads do not misleadingly imply that users of the service will have access to every single energy company and every single energy deal on the market.  They have provided this assurance.This now resolves your complaint, and the case will be closed.  Basic information including the advertiser’s name and where the ad appeared will be published on www.asa.org.ukThank you for bringing this matter to our attention.Kind regards,JamesJames JonesComplaints ExecutiveDirect Line 020 7492 2214Please note, I do not work on FridaysAdvertising Standards AuthorityCastle House, 37-45 Paul StreetLondon EC2A 4LSTelephone 020 7492 2222

Neil Milkins ● 2042d0 Comments ● 2042d

Murray. Walker

Sad news. Murray Walker,absolute legend, has  passed away at the age of 97. May he Rest In Peace

N V Brooks ● 2044d2 Comments ● 2043d

Amazon GO

I’m a little surprised that there has been no mention of an Amazon GO - the first outside the US- due to open in Ealing Broadway some time next week. Looks to be next to Holland & Barrett but I may be wrong.,No cash or cheques or cc, get the Amazon app on your smart phone, walk in, shop & walk out. No checkouts. Given that Amazon, amongst others is rapidly taking over the world, with issues such as taxation being raised, why the local silence re this.

Bettina Margaret Thwaite ● 2057d17 Comments ● 2043d