I feel that the details revealed in Private Eye, although alarming, are now a regrettable piece of history. Nothing can be done now about the size of the severance package and the events that led to the redundancy. Nor should we rush to assume the worst with regard to the relationship between the former director and other players in the relatively small world of property and development.The person in question was Director of Property and Regeneration at LB Ealing before he took up his post at Hounslow in September 2012. While he was with Ealing he was once dubbed “The Grim Reaper” by a local community group when he was put in charge of protecting and preserving Ealing’s built heritage despite his record in bringing about the demolition of some valued properties in Ealing. This was a cruel moniker to give a hard-working public servant.In September 2012 Willmott Dixon were awarded a £16.5 million contract by Ealing to refurbish the historic Acton Town Hall and Baths to house a range of leisure, community and civic services. The swimming pool and a library are there now but I believe that Acton Town Hall itself has now been converted to about 70 flats by another developer called One Housing Group. A few weeks ago I wandered into the Holiday Inn in Brentford where there was a presentation about the plans to redevelop Acton Lodge. I believe that this is one part of a proposal to develop two former day centres in Hounslow (at Acton Lodge in Brentford and Two Bridges in Bedfont). These are both planned to be housing sites with 24 housing units (all affordable) on the Two Bridges site and 23 units (all for private sale) on the Acton Lodge site.These plans appear to have been developed by Lampton 360 before the end of 2016 when the former director was the Interim Group Managing Director of Lampton 360. The two sites will be developed by Lampton 360 together with Be Living (a part of Wilmott Dixon). We know that the new football stadium and the associated development is another Wilmott Dixon project. We shouldn’t put two and two to make five and we should be confident that this situation is entirely coincidental.Two final thoughts. I wonder what has happened to the day care services previously available on these sites? If the land at the former day centres still belongs to Hounslow should we not expect that all, or almost all, of the houses provided on these sites will all be available at social rent and not so-called affordable rent? I can hear others say that £0.302 million would have been a useful contribution to the development costs but I fear that things don’t work that way and, in any case, that’s water under the bridge.
Jim Storrar ● 2833d