Email Newsletter 28/05/21
In case you missed it, following a vote at the Ealing Labour Party AGM on Monday 10th May 2021, Julian Bell was replaced as Labour leader of Ealing Council, by Cllr Peter Mason. In one of his first statements since becoming leader of the council, Peter suggested a change of planning and development policy click here to view his announcement). Does this mean a reversal of the previous leaders disastrous tower building policy?
STT cautiously welcomes this apparent change of policy for local development. We have been actively talking with Peter for the past year, so are pleased that the views of the thousands of local residents we represent are beginning to be heard.
Perceval House – what next?
We’re disappointed that in spite of this change of policy, Ealing Council as co-developer of the controversial Perceval House application shows no signs of withdrawing this disastrous scheme from the planning process.
On Tuesday this week (at Stage 2) the GLA confirmed it would NOT overrule Ealing Council’s decision to approve the scheme. This means the Perceval House development will probably go ahead unless Cllr Mason chooses to reconsider whether this is right for the future of Ealing.
We urge Peter Mason to do the right thing and withdraw the Perceval House application.
We are also keeping a close watch on the previous leader’s pledge to build 2500 “affordable homes”. Whilst on the face of it a laudable target, this has resulted in the building of thousands of often unaffordable one bedroom flats in tower blocks. A wholesale rethink of this pledge is now needed too.
Community Review Panels
As part of this new policy, Ealing is also launching a number of Community Review Panels (CRP) to represent the various areas of Ealing. Run by a private PR company, these aim to recruit a number of local residents, who are not otherwise involved in local groups, to comment on planning issues and applications. We discussed these (and Ealing’s newly implemented Independent Design Review Panel) on a STT podcast last year – click here to have a listen.
On the face of it, CRPs could be positive. But we’re wary that those residents with an active interest in planning seem to be being discouraged from applying to this panel. Its yet to be seen whether this is a genuine effort to engage, or a way of going through the motions of engagement whilst being able to justify ignoring thousands of legitimate online objections. So we’re encouraging our supporters to sign up. If you want to have your voice heard on the CRP click here to apply. In any event, STT will continue to campaign for appropriate, sustainable developments across Ealing. And will continue to hold the current council administration to account for its planning policies and decisions. Many thanks for your support The STT team
www.stopthetowers.org