Ealing North
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Steve Pound MP Ealing North |
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The Future of Shopping in Ealing30 June 2008 - Local news - Gazette article 1. What do you think of the Dickens Yard proposals, and what is the best way forward for development in the borough? Dickens Yard isn’t in my Ealing North constituency but the commercial viability of Ealing as a shopping centre is an issue close to my heart and I support the principle of town centre regeneration while having severe concerns about the impact of the development on the surrounding residential streets and, especially, Christ Church School. Negotiation is needed! There used to be a well loved swimming pool behind the Town Hall and bringing that facility back to Ealing would unite all shades of local opinion. There is also the issue of the well used public parking space that is an encouragement to many people living outside of Central Ealing to visit the town centre. In the long term there will be virtually no car parking in any urban town centre but in the short to medium term we have to consider those for whom public transport is simply not an option and to encourage people to change their driving habits rather than ban them from their own town centre. 2. What kind of impact do you expect the new White City shopping mall to have on Ealing? How can we lessen any negative impact? The White City development will make it a perfect storm for Ealing’s retailers. Kingston, Uxbridge, Harrow and now White City. We’re stuck in the middle and our business will surely be sucked away centrifugally. You could say that this doesn’t matter and that we could happily exist as a dormitory town but I don’t see long distance shopping as sustainable – commercially or environmentally – and I don’t know of any successful town centre without the major stores that anchor more specialist traders. Boarded up shop fronts and urban decay is the inevitable corollary of out of town shopping and that will be Ealing’s fate if we don’t fight back against developments like White City. 3. Ealing is becoming increasingly congested and parking is an issue for workers and residents alike. What should be done to make things better? With regard to congestion in central Ealing I am tempted to suggest that we should consider an urban tram; but that argument has been made and comprehensively defeated. Like it or not the day of the city centre car has passed and we will never ever again be able to purr along through deserted streets as in the sepia postcards of Ealing past. Public transport, walking and cycling are the future of urban transport and the signs are there for all of us to see. My experiments in commuting without the car have proved to me that no part of the borough is inaccessible to the owner of an Oyster card and my nerves fray far less as I sit on the E1 reading a book than they do when I’m behind the wheel on a gridlocked A40 listening to Nick Ferrari. I’d continue to encourage public transport while bringing the full force of the law down on the highwaymen without masks who wield their car clamps to such brutal effect in Greenford! |
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| Disclaimer | Copyright | Designed by Bassam Mahfouz. Promoted by Julian Bell, The Labour Party, Ruskin Hall, 16 Church Road, W3 8PP on behalf of Steve Pound MP |
