Eric Leach's Ealing Covid-19 Latest Update
When are Ealing children returning to school?
When are Ealing Children Returning to School?
For Primary and Junior schools the earliest re-opening a date for some is 2 September 2020 and the latest is 7 September 2020. For Secondary Schools phased re-opening is common. For example at Drayton Manor High School in Hanwell Years 7 & 12 return on September 2020, on 4 September 2020 it’s Years 8, 9, and 10, and on 7 September Years 11 and 13 begin their Autumn Term.
Ealing Covid-19 Cases
For the period 24 February 2020 to 16 August 2020 Ealing’s Covid-19 case load has followed similar regional and national levels. The 16 August 2020 rate /100,000 for Ealing is 499.4. This is slightly higher than the north west London, London and England rates. One might describe it as a low rate, but like regional and national rates it is slowly rising.
The ‘R’ number for London is increasing. It was 0.9 – 1.1 as of 21 August 2020. If R is greater than 1 the pandemic is growing.
Research Shows Spending on Clothes and Hospitality up 17% in Southall Since January 2020
Consumer research by the Centre for London and King’s College London shows great variations in spending profiles across London when comparing July 2020 figures with January 2020 figures. Spending in central Ealing is down by a third. Restaurant spending in central London is down 80%. More at: www.centreforlondon.org/news/suburban-spending-boost/
Astonishing Video in China Selling Southall Waterside Housing Units
Strangely no details on sickness, vomiting and cancer concerns at Southall Waterside raised by Clean Air for Southall and Hayes (CASH) are aired on the video.
Wood End Library and Children’s Centre in Greenford to be Demolished
As part of Council’s plans to build11 Genuinely Affordable Housing units, this library and children’s centre are to be sacrificed. Ironic really as the Council spent £870,000 refurbishing the centre in 2011. There are words about creating a new children’s centre and ‘community’ library but no details of size or management of the facilities. Email savewoodendlibrary@outlook.com for more details.
Ealing Central Library
Lovers of literature are in for a shock should they visit Ealing Central Library in Ealing Broadway Centre. Once the locked door is opened, library users with books to return are allowed to proceed just four feet. One of the two library operatives will stick your books onto a big pile of books.A receipt will not be issued. ’We leave them there for 72 hours so that any Covid-19 will atrophy’. What fate might await those books?
Some bookworms might remember the reports in ‘My London’ in 2019. It reported that between February 2019 and May 2019 Ealing Council sold off 6,286 books to Revival at 7p/book. The Council received just £440:02 – not even enough to install one Low Traffic Neighbourhood road block. (Revival sells these books on to Amazon, eBay, Alibris and Play.com).
The Southall Broadway is London’s Most Polluted Street
This rating has been announced by the Environment Defence Fund Europe (EDFE). The group compiled data from 231 sites across London. EDFE measured concentrations of toxic Nitrogen Oxide from diesel cars. It found that this pollution had risen by 23% outside the London Ultra-Low Emission Zone.
‘Soane’s Kitchen’ at Pitzhanger Manor W5 Closes Down
Covid-19 claimed another victim when this up-market restaurant shut down. It opened controversially in 2018, when critics alleged that Social Pantry – the appointed operator – had an existing relationship with Pitzhanger Manor supremo Stewart Cowper-Bowes. It also appeared to some that Alan Dillon, who had run a cafe in Walpole Park for 10 years, was ignored in the bidding/selection process. Also to close is the hole in the wall take-away café ‘The Rickyard’ also run by Social Pantry.
After 20 Months in Gestation The Names of Ealing Parks Foundation (EPF) Trustees Leak Into the Public Domain
Ealing Council first announced its intention to set up EPF in November 2018. EPF’s mission is to work collaboratively with Ealing Council in the future management and maintenance of Ealing’s 127 parks and open spaces. It’s a company limited by guarantee with solely charitable purposes. EPF began looking for Trustees in April 2019. The names of the Trustees are:
Sonja Evelyn Garsvo (Chair), Michael Stephen Conway, Jane Rebecca Fernley, Joanna Margaret Bussell, Andrew Elliott Kaufmann, Joel Jay William Kenrick, Patricia Jane Newman, Paul Justin Carter and Miriam Edna Rice.
Companies House and Google searches reveal that just two of the nine have obvious parks management experience. EPF is still not registered with The Charity Commission.
Pizza Express in Bond Street W5
Although 73 Pizza Express restaurants have been closed down, the one in central Ealing is still in business. Good news for a good restaurant.
Junction Road W5 Covid-19 Response LTN 32 Goes Live – Sort Of
Incompetent installation of a central locked bollard with two planters on each side at two of the four Junction Road ‘filters’ could be viewed on 19 August 2020. When the bollard is unlocked the gap is barely wide enough for a saloon car to drive through never mind an ambulance, fire engine or refuse/recycling vehicle. Police and Ambulance services have voiced concern about these dysfunctional road blocks. Certainly not an auspicious W5 debut for LTNs. Ealing Council Leader Julian Bell attempted, somewhat unconvincingly, to ‘rescue’ the inauspicious LTN installation in a news video.
Coldershaw/Midhurst Covid-19 Response LTN 21 Misses Its Start Date
It’s now installation starting on 26 August 2020 rather than the intended 24 August 2020. However an LTN sign was being erected outside The Grosvenor pub and workmen active on the Montague Road block on 19 August 2020. A Labour Councillor has also written to a resident voicing concerns about the planned road block at the junction of Leighton Road and Northfield Avenue. Surely it was our elected Councillors who designed and approved these LTNs in the first place? So it’s a bit late now for policy makers to have reservations.
Ealing Council Wants to Change the Name of Havelock Road in Southall to Guru Nanak Way or Guru Nanak Road
Major General Sir Henry Havelock KCB (1795 – 1857) is famous for his recapture of Carnpore during the Indian Mutiny of 1857. There is a statue of him in Trafalgar Square and one in Sunderland (his birthplace). One might not be happy about our nation’s activities in India in previous centuries, but it is part of British history.
Guru Nanak Sahib Ji was the founder of Sikhism – the Sikh religion. He was born in the Punjab in 1469. Sikhs began arriving in Southall in the early 1900s when an Army officer arranged for former Sikh soldiers to come and work at the horribly low-paid Woolfs rubber factory in Southall.
Have your say in Current Consultations at: www.ealing.gov.uk
Consultation ends on 7 September 2020
Eric Leach
eric.alan.leach@gmail.com
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August 26, 2020