Southfield Ward Forum Off To Flying Start

Good turn out for new style residents' meeting

Local Lib Dem councillor, Harvey Rose, chaired the first Southfield ward meeting in the Church Hall, Cunnington Street, last week. These council meetings have the role of discussing local issues and recommending spending ideas to the council’s Cabinet who will then ratify them or not.

There was a good turnout (of about 50 residents) despite lots of residents on the evening including those from Weston Road and Kingswood Road stating they had only heard of the meeting from fellow residents and not from the council’s “Around Ealing” magazine.

Some of the issues raised and discussed were:

1. a new bus stop for the 272 on South Parade
2. gating schemes
3. the need for more bins and better litter collection from the council in Acton Green
4. a notice board to be placed in Acton Green to inform residents of local matters
5. the potentially dangerous road (road safety) of Bollo Lane because of speeding traffic from the North and the blind corner in the South near the bridge

Councillor Gary Malcolm, Southfield ward councillor, said, “It was good to have a council meeting in Southfield was the old area committees were always in Acton and so many Chiswick residents never went. There were a lot of ideas of what to spend the £40,000 committee budget on and so we will be looking at these to select the best ones.”

He added, “The Lib Dems want to see more ideas of how to spend the money and especially those residents who didn’t come to the meeting. If any resident has any ideas I would like to encourage them to email me at gary.malcolm@ealing.gov.uk”

Forums will meet at least three times a year and will be publicised through ward newsletters. Copies of the newsletters and details of the meetings are available via the Council’s website at www.ealing.gov.uk/committees. Notes from each meeting will also be published online.

September 15, 2008