Forum Topics

Ealing Councillors Not Standing Down When Elected MPs

It seems to me totally indefensible that two Ealing Councillors are hanging onto their seats and claiming allowances after being elected MPs. The presumption would be that there is some political rather than financial advantage to be gained by Joy Morrissey and Alex Stafford doing this but then the local Conservative party should explain themselves. It is surprising there isn't a rule compelling people to stand down.

Gordon Southwell ● 2441d32 Comments ● 2424d

Cinema

Why is the long promised cinema not functioning yet? The council should have made it a priority, insisting that the cinema should be finished before a single flat was started. As it is the tail seems to be wagging the dog!

Brian Conneller ● 2432d11 Comments ● 2425d

Protest the tower blocks - 18:00 Tuesday 25/2

Various residents groups are planning a joint protest outside the next council meeting at 18:00 on Tuesday, 25/2/2020.The more people that can attend the greater the impact will be.This page detailing the event is from the Stop The Towers group but there are many other groups across Ealing which are also organising their members to attend:  https://stopthetowers.info/protest-ealing-town-hall(Paste the above link into your browser pending a response to my request to neighbournet tech support on how to make the link clickable.)Everybody who does not like what the council is doing with all of these tower blocks is urged to attend. No need to be affiliated to any particular group - just turn up and make your views clear to those in charge.

Tony Colliver ● 2432d13 Comments ● 2426d

Unsolved Hammersmith Nudes' Murders.

Back to square one and up against another brick wall. The 2019 B.B.C. documentary, Dark Son - The Hunt For a Serial Killer was viewed by the London Metropolitan Police 13 months ago. After 13 months the Met. have now contacted me to say that the content of the documentary was "purely speculative and without any evidential basis." In 1921 Harold Jones bragged how he had beaten Scotland Yard after he was acquitted of the murder of 8 year-old Freda Burnell in Abertillery. I am convinced he beat them again after murdering 8 women in the Hammersmith district of London between 1959 and 1965. Jones had lived incognito in Fulham, Putney and Hammersmith using a variety of aliases.

Neil Milkins ● 2427d0 Comments ● 2427d

Thank you for the daffodils...

around the street trees.They were a joy last year and are a similar joy this year!  Has anybody owned up to planting them?

Philippa Bond ● 2427d0 Comments ● 2427d

Disposing of fluorescent light tubes

Does anybody know what it is recommended locally to do with fluorescent light tubes? I googled the question and was told that they can't go into general waste and you are supposed to give them to a specialist disposal company.

Christine Mulligan ● 2427d4 Comments ● 2427d

HEALING IN CHISWICK

Many of you are aware that we have been running a healing centre monthly at the London Buddhist Vihara in Chiswick for many years.The Vihara is doing some building works at present therefore we will not be able to use the hall for at least one month.  I am sorry.  I will advise you again as soon as we are able to use the space again.

Pat Smith ● 2431d0 Comments ● 2431d

Is our real problem Ealing's pension deficit?

Watching the rugby at the weekend I got into conversation with another group of people who were in the same bar and it turned into a very convivial afternoon. Given the result we wanted to talk about something more cheery so natuarally the subject switched to pensions rather than the match.The chap I was talking to seemed to know his stuff and told me that Ealing Council in particular had a major problem with their fund which was running a very substantial deficit. He said most local authorities had an issue because fewer people were joining council schemes because of outsourcing and head count reduction and more and more people were retiring and living longer but Ealing's short fall was more than most. He also said that at some point soon, just like many companies the borough will have to start covering the deficit which could be in the region of half a billion. There is no prospect that scheme income will make it self funding because, although head count has reduced, average salaries have increased significantly and generous early retirement packages remain in place. He said that Ealing like many other councils have reduced costs by persuading people to take retirement. This is actually more expensive but pushes when it needs to be paid for out into the future. His estimate was that by the end of this decade local taxes would need to double to make sure the pension fund was adequately funded.I really don't know enough about pensions and the way they work to know if this is alarmist nonesense or a timely warning. I have heard people say similar things before. It there anyone with expertise in these matters who could comment?

Andy Jones ● 2447d6 Comments ● 2431d

No rape in South Ealing Cemetary - Story on Main Page

Hmmmm, the Police apparently not pursuing this now, after further investigation of the allegation, and, as usual, no mention of possible charges against the Complainant. As usual.Hmmmmmm.

Rosco White ● 2435d23 Comments ● 2432d

Exercise in hubris, not "flagship restaurant": "...Closure of Dickens Yard Flagship Restaurant"

For me the closure of Charlotte's Place in Dicken's Yard represents an almost inevitable result of hubris in refusing to accept CASH and I certainly NEVER regarded it as a "flagship restaurant" (Ealing Today: "Uncertainty After Closure of Dickens Yard Flagship Restaurant", no flagship endeavour would need to restrict its clientele to only people who could pay using plastic (credit/debit/charge cards) and to disallow payment using cash.Not only the idea of denying "access to cash" is distasteful in what is meant to be an inclusive development on former public land in the social core of Ealing, however, it lowers the tone of the business as the reasons for going "cashless" are to do with lowering overheads, no flagship biusiness would NEED to cut corners by disallowing cash purchases, instead it would show its power by accepting less economic methods of payment, that is quality rather than parsimony

Mark Julian Raymond ● 2443d22 Comments ● 2432d

The Slow Death of the BBC

I was vaguely aware of how these might be difficult times for the BBC but until I read some coverage of recent event and spoke to people with some direct knowledge this weekend, I had little conception of how bad things where. The four hundred or so people who were sacked recently were told in no uncertain terms that they lost their jobs because the corporation needed to make savings after all the pay increases that became necessary after the Samira Ahmed judgement. They are so terrified of legal action about unfair pay (even from men) that they have erred on the side of caution. As they can no longer use the excuse of celebrity or public profile for paying someone more then they have to pay 'star' wages to people who are clearly not stars.  If this was the extent of their problems then they could weather the storm but this government (particular Dominic Cummings) really wants the corporation dismantled. The decriminalisation of non payment of the licence fee might seem a rational and fair move but it will have a massive impact on the BBC's finances as well having to fund over-75s licence fees. Restrictions on licence fee increases means that the ongoing squeeze on the BBC will continue and accelerate. Like most organisations forced to cut costs they seem incapable of trimming in the middle management executive positions where most of the fat is and content creation is where most of the jobs are going. They also have quite intractable unions to deal with and a pension fund deficit of £1.9bn and rising. Increasingly what's left of the BBC licence fee will go to fund this deficit and the pay of an unsackable but unproductive layer of middle management and fewer and fewer programmes will be made.

Gordon Southwell ● 2442d26 Comments ● 2432d

Question on Parking Fines in Ealing

A neighbour of ours received a PCN recently. She is a lawyer and is more than capable of fighting it. The circumstances of the ticket are so preposterous that she will clearly get off.She had never got a PCN before so she was surprised when her carefully and expertly crafted initial appeal to Ealing was rejected. I told her this happened in nearly all cases.What I wasn't sure of is what happens next. She is now awaiting the notice to owner. She will appeal again and go to the adjudicator if necessary but what fine would she have to pay if she lost - the full rate or the half price rate for early payment. As she pointed out if anyone appealing unsuccessful is effectively fined double some principles of natural justice have been ignored and lots of people without legal training will be intimidated into paying fines they shouldn't because of the extra financial penalty.

Christine Mulligan ● 2437d4 Comments ● 2432d

Distant echoes of a coronavirus in China

A friend of mine just received the following apology from a supplier in China for the late refund for a broken product:"Hello XXX,So sorry for my late reply, I  able to reply to your email till now because of the raging  pestilence in our country, and  I am in the most serious area.I  hope you are doing well.Per your request, I have issued a full refund to you and you may receive the refund in 3-7 business days.SincerelyMolly"If the circumstances were not so tragic it might qualify for the "January Smile" category on the Forum, however, instead it is sad

Mark Julian Raymond ● 2454d8 Comments ● 2433d

Has there been a water stoppage Raymond Ave etc?

The water pumps are going full out, the hot water is off it's timer slot but the water is being pumped throughout the house I cannot think of any other reason. Not that much was used this evening to cause a shortage indoors.

Leslie Bailey ● 2434d0 Comments ● 2434d

Who pays for the tree damage?

Another big storm is descending on us with the possibility that more street trees will be blown over. Ealing Council says more than 30 trees were blown over in the borough last weekend. A near neighbour whose car and house was damaged by a falling Plane tree that had a rotten base has been told it was an "act of God" and therefore the council cannot be held responsible for this.Has anyone else in the borough been told the same thing by the council?

Ian Richardson ● 2437d4 Comments ● 2436d

Ealing Labour Council and the hypocrisy of building 27 Council Homes

Ref: Ealing Council building 27 council homes on Dabbs Hill and Eastcote LaneLooking at the land in question, they could have built a lot more than 27 homes for council housing purposes.The phrase 'smoke and mirrors' comes to mind, and I would like Ealing Today to ask why this large expanse of land is only suitable for a total development of 45 homes (when you add the shared ownership angle and 4 private ones) at 4 storeys high when developers are convincing the Council to build 300 homes in high rise buildings, at 30 storeys,  in North Acton with only a small fraction going to take anyone off the council waiting list.I suppose we all know the answer though don't we...housing developers approaching the council prefer the resale capability of Acton etc, closer to the City etc, more £ for building smaller units if you are a major house builder.It seems the Council will headline this development, get pictured in their non-pressed, non-matching chinos and suit jacket (my word is this man Julian Bell really the leader of our area?), but it does nothing to address the concerns of normal people in our area that we are having our amenity provision and character ruined for generations by a Council completely hell bent on following Sadiq Khan's housing target numbers - that will do wonders for him as national politician, but erode communities that make up our city.They make a big play on this consultation - they only consult when it suits them!  Ask the residents over the type of consultation that go on by their established partner A2 Dominion for instance,  they put an animated, line drawing together in their recent proposals for West Ealing that even masked the height of the development, and did one afternoon presentation in the basement of a pub, and this consultation was for 25 storeys!  You could always email in though.....They only consult properly when it suits them, and I implore Ealing Today and all media organisations to get to the root of the issues here not just picture them handing over a set of keys and run a press release from them.I am really, really disappointed in Ealing Labour generally, the glad handing on this and it's telling that James Murray MP has joined the charade as he like the rest of the MPs are quick to tell us that planning is the Council's responsibility - so can we now write to him now and expect a valid response on the monstrosities that are planned in our Borough?  That have a small fraction of social housing element, but get waved through planning on this basis?  He wants pictured here on a planning housing issue so is it now permissible he will get involved in all matters on housing?Anyway not long now for Ealing's Labour Council and friends annual jolly to MPIM, a property conference, and sell off more of our Borough!

Steve Young ● 2453d16 Comments ● 2438d

Ealing's Parking Permit Scandal Features in Private Eye's Rotten Boroughs

Our local council get a mention in the latest edition for raising loads of money from residents by not issuing reminders. Ealing Today gets an honourable mention.

Christine Mulligan ● 2447d5 Comments ● 2439d

PCNs to increase in Value consultation URGENT

The council has noted an increase in numbers of PCNs issued. It thinks they are too cheap and that because of this they have lost their deterrent value. Their is a consultation on the current consultations part of the council website that wishes to capture your views.After the "no reminder for resident  permit renewals scandal" not yet resolved that started back in July 2019, I wouldn't trust them with this either.Surely the rise in PCNs is to do with much larger area of CPZs and the frequently proven unworkable electronic system used to book in visitors clearly not fit for purpose.

Arthur Breens ● 2464d11 Comments ● 2439d

Verily, the reality is spoken . . .

"The truth is that those who run local authorities are no longer interested in providing what most of us consider proper public ‘services’, such as collecting the rubbish every week and helping children across the road.  They only care about raising enough money to keep themselves in the style and comfort to which they have become accustomed." Who said that?  RL, of course.

Tony Heath ● 2441d3 Comments ● 2440d

Tie Your Wheelie Bin Down Mate. Tie Your Wheelie Bin Down!

Flying recycling today - no not from a green box - but from a blown over wheelie bin thanks to Ciara.You can buy nets to tie onto your green box if you feel you need to - online.  Mine was fine today with nothing flyable on top - and all tins snd plastic bottles squashed so they wouldn't roll if they did happen to escape.  Stacking papers and plastic bottles upright Instead of laying them horizontally also seems to help

Philippa Bond ● 2441d0 Comments ● 2441d