West Ealing Centre Neighbourhood Forum Interim Movement Group Report 19 Nov 2012

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1 West Ealing Centre Neighbourhood Forum Interim Movement Group Report 19 Nov 2012 BACKGROUND In the short time this Movement Work Group has been set up we have gathered evidence from three walkabouts, a number of small meetings and one paper. This was an attempt to understand the geography of the area and take into account current problems and future developments. Details of the Ealing Council Local Implementation Plan (Transport) called LIP with its funding have recently been revealed. A meeting with the Council will be arranged at short notice to discuss these plans (1c Corridor Plans) and the monies that accompany them this week. This has meant that this report has been assembled rapidly and without proper and complete debate. WALKING Introduction This has been our first priority. More people will occupy new homes in this area with the changes being made to two estates. Some of this housing will be deemed car free. The loss of the multi-storey car parks and two surface car parks will mean more walking and more shopping trolleys. An aing and a poorer population will mean more walking. Existing and new CPZs will reduce the ability to park freely in this area. A major mosque is planned attracting Friday worshippers from a large area. More people living in the area or coming to the area to shop/eat/pray will walk. WALKING Problems/proposals The new West Ealing Crossrail Station proposed on the north side of the tracks while new housing and Uxbridge Road destination to the south. No up to date details have been released. We have considered ideas for this new station. Waitrose is a forum member and discussions will continue. Jacobs Ladder is a busy, insecure and steep stepped approach foot bridge over the railway line. It is the poor but only connection between the expanding Drayton Green Primary Cchool, expanding IPC church and open space to the north to the growing population to the south. Similarly it is the connection between the business customer hinterland to the north to the shops and facilities to the south. It is such a poor facility that it would be difficult to negotiate it with pram, bicycle or shopping trolley. The step risers are high. Movement through the area to the north of the Uxbridge Road from the south feels insecure, unplanned and convoluted. Ealing Council s Conceptual Ideas 03 (Green Man Passage) proposals are ill-advised and don t go far enough as they only deal with the southern half of this route. Routes (this is a misnomer) from Jacob s Ladder southwards ought to be reordered in the estate redevelopment both in plans and planning gain monies. Pavement congestion problems occur in three places.

2 a) outside Nos Uxbridge Rd when the mass of passengers and those with shopping trolleys and buggies waiting for the E3 and E8 buses blocks the pavement b) outside No 47(? ) Uxbridge Road where customers and stock block the footway c) bus stop opposite Lido House and adjacent to Dean Gardens, where any waiting passengers block pedestrian movement. These may have simple solutions like double bus shelters, enforcement or setting back the Dean Gardens fence. Ealing Council Conceptual Ideas 01 Leeland Terrace to address narrow and cramped pavements was rejected by a large majority at the 10 May 2012 Walpole Ward Forum. Melbourne Avenue suffers from appearing to be for pedestrians only but has vehicles including lorries passing across it with some damage to the drainage slot. A shortage of amenity space and the rather dead nature of St James Avenue could be improved by redesigning the access to Sainsbury s car park to enter directly from Leeland Terrace. The resulting car free road could contain a play area. Money now allocated to Ealing Council s Conceptual Idea 02 St James Ave could go further and provide more for Pedestrians. The area covered by concept design should be designed to be adaptable. This would make it possible to clear it for events /articulated lorries for Blood Donation/Screening/other health services etc. Trees and seating could be palletised to make space adaptable. This is the major failing of Melbourne Avenue design. All the street furniture was/is fixed. Walking routes from the Sheltered accommodation in Tawny Close and from the Dean Gardens/Sherwood Close Estate south of Dean Gardens needs review as they are currently blocked. Raising road tarmac to curb top height at crossings and at junctions of minor roads to the Uxbridge road in the Ealing Council Corridor 1c proposals has implications. It isn t allocated but this and the Hanwell modifications are rated at a 450,000 spend. As a group we will ask what benefits will this raising of tarmac produce when other items need urgent attention. More research is to be undertaken but there are implications for the partially sited and confusion for Guide Dogs who are able to detect curbs but have more difficulty with change of surface delimiting roads from footways. Further work to be discussed. CYCLING We have received an excellent document on an east-west cycle route from a community leader and founder member of WECNF. The Ealing Council LIP document proposes few changes to the cycle routes which are in effect just labels.

3 His report is published at Appendix A. Our view is that a properly engineered route in West Ealing is a priority and that the Ealing Council LIP proposals come later. Our criticism of the Corridor 1c proposal is that it doesn t address changing the experience of young people. In the WEN-led 2 October 2009 Lido Junction Report produced by the community we advocated the provision of facilities to dissuade cyclists from using the Lido Junction. Officers are aware of the contents of this report and the diversion of southbound cyclists along Hastings south down Broughton Road and across a modified dual use crossing into Broomfield Road. Expensive modifications to the Uxbridge Road may be misjudged when this could be spent on the east west cycle route proposal above. We suggest this proposal is so important that we will actively encourage the community to reject all the 1c proposals if it is not made the priority. We are looking to the future not just to the present. The Council has this money with for example 700,000 for towpath cycling improvements between Southall and Greenford Green alone. Proposals to remove barriers between pavements and roads should be avoided as they are dual use and provide safe, visible and space efficient places to which to lock cycles. BUSES To be completed. Bus route No E1 to be modified to include Manor Road to service the future new Crossrail Station. New bus route required north-south down Drayton Green Road and Northfield Avenue to join say Northwick Park Hospital to West Middlesex Hospital when Ealing Hospital closes. E7 and E11 bus pull-ins to Waitrose? Bus stop rationalisation and adequate shelter and countdown provision to be surveyed. 1c proposals to raise tarmac tables along this section of the Uxbridge Road makes riding and descending stairs dangerous and unpleasant for bus passengers. This has to be balanced against slowing traffic. Modifications were carried out along Northfield Avenue and we are still waiting to see the comparison (speed and accident rates) before and after these modifications. HEAVY GOODS VEHICLES We have still to survey loading options. There has been a trend to supply relatively small shops with very big vehicles and multiples of big vehicles. This causes problems in Northfield Avenue and also in the Uxbridge Road. Our Lido Junction experience indicated many breaches of loading regulations with little if any enforcement. Sorting this out with traders could produce significant gains to freeing the Uxbridge Road at peak times. A planned regime where everyone gains.

4 There are concerns to be researched about how lorries from the A40 access West Ealing shops. Ecclestone, Felix and Alexandra Roads not a suitable route to West Ealing for lorries. At night HGVs especially vehicles like skip lorries make a loud bang every time they pass over a raised table. There is a concentration of flats now and more to come (rubberstamped by Ealing s LDF now Local Plan). Raised tables and residential units don t sit well together. CARS AND PARKING Work to be completed. The connection between car parking and shop viability is well known. While we are rich enough the car will be part of our lives and must be embraced and sensibly controlled. The elderly and disabled may find this the only way to access their facilities and services. John Cowing and Arthur Breens to complete survey of new places for stop and shop bays to compensate for loss of multi-storey car park and two surface car parks to the north of Uxbridge Road. Duration of these bays and turn over and phone extension of 30 minutes proposed by Council to be reviewed. Council reluctant to explain rational of such conversion. The provision of a few bays in the 1c Corridor proposals appears expensive compared with the many new bays that could be installed in the area with just Traffic Orders and lines. The workings of the the 3 CPZs and the anomalies and displacement between them and their affects on trade is to be investigated. The very expensive discretionary operation vehicle permits for CPZs may have to be reviewed to ensure shop viability when the whole area has CPZs. For the Council the whole mix of various departments and their vested interests need careful review. Things must work for the community not only to satisfy income streams or dogma. Clamping to the north of Uxbridge Road on roads which were publicly owned to be investigated. Manor Road and Drayton Green are now a commuter car park in a CPZ. This is a U turn and need s some explanation. Access and drop-off facilities must be provided at the new West Ealing Crossrail Station. CONCLUSION This is a work in progress and the group who gathered this information are very open to discussion and debate. The Council were unable to tell me more than the name of one person in West Ealing with whom they consulted at the formative stage before they produced their 1c plans. This in part invalidates their 1c Corridor designs soon to be up for consultation.

5 We would hope to have a wider and therefore more valid discussion before very large monies are spent. Eric Leach and Arthur Breens have after some arguments been asked to arrange a meeting with Council Officer Poalo Paternostro the week of 26 November to discuss our concerns about the 1c proposals. Many apologies to anyone I may have offended by misrepresenting their views and that includes Council Officers and forum members. Please send me your feedback. Arthur Breens breens01@btinternet.com