Keep Off the Zig-Zags to Keep Children Safe

Parents and carers who park dangerously outside Ealing primary schools are being warned they could be given fixed penalty notices as part of an Ealing Council road safety campaign.

Pupils from St John Fisher Catholic Primary School, Perivale supporting the zig-zag road safety campaign with Councillor Bassam Mahfouz

The council will be taking enforcement action against people parked in the zig-zag area at 17 schools from 20 February.

The yellow zig-zag road markings provide a clear space for children to cross where they can see traffic and traffic can see them when going to and from school.

Banners will be displayed outside schools and leaflets given to parents and carers to remind them that it is illegal and dangerous to block the ‘school keep clear’ area marked with zig-zag lines.

As part of the campaign the council’s civil enforcement officers will patrol the 17 schools and issue fixed penalty charge notices of £110 (reduced to £55 if paid within 14 days from issue) to anyone parking on the zig-zag lines.  Local police safer neighbourhood teams will also visit the schools to move on vehicles blocking the area.

Councillor Bassam Mahfouz, cabinet member for Transport and Environment said: “Parking on zig-zag lines outside schools puts children in danger by reducing their view of the road and forces them to cross between parked cars. It also makes it harder for drivers to see them.

“Inconsiderate and dangerous parking near schools is one of the biggest complaints I get in my mailbag from parents and neighbours. This campaign is about reminding parents why they shouldn’t park dangerously outside schools. Keeping children safe on the road is our priority and if parents continue to ignore those warnings then we won’t hesitate to issue penalty charge notices.”

Ealing Broadway Bike Hub gets on the road

Work on a new bicycle hub that will offer more secure, covered and well-lit cycle parking near Ealing Broadway station is set to begin next week.

Current bike stands at Haven Green, Ealing Broadway are set to be replaced with a new Bike Hub including Ealing's very own bike hire scheme

The new cycle stand will be covered by CCTV and will increase the existing amount of cycle parking places available to approximately 130. It will also include a separate folding cycle hire facility.

Construction of the hub at Haven Green will begin on Monday 20 February and is due to be completed in May.

The creation of the cycle hub is part of Ealing Council’s Cycling Strategy which aims to encourage more people to take to two wheels as their regular mode of transport. Ealing Council has secured £286,500 Transport for London (TfL) funding towards delivering the hub.

Temporary cycle stands will be available at Haven Green during construction work. As one of TfL’s “Biking Boroughs”, Ealing Council is focused on creating a local culture of cycling.

North Acton and Greenford stations have also been identified as potential locations for other bicycle stands in future.  The cycling strategy includes other investment by the council such as:
*       Building on existing award-winning cycle training schemes and continuing to provide advice to new or existing cyclists
*       Continuing highway engineering schemes to remove barriers which inconvenience or endanger cyclists
*       Extending off-road routes.

Work will also begin this week on building a new taxi shelter at Haven Green. It will have improved rest and toilet facilities for drivers but the stand will have a traditional design.

Councillor Bassam Mahfouz, cabinet member for Transport and Environment, said: “Cycling is a healthy, quick and affordable way to
travel, and we are committed to supporting people who want to take it up in Ealing. Residents have told us that they would be more likely to cycle if they had somewhere secure to leave their bike at Ealing Broadway. The cycle stand will give more cyclists that reassurance, whether they’re in the area shopping or commuting into central London.

“We’re also very excited to have a cycle hire scheme which will encourage more people to discover the pleasures of cycling.”

Plans to improve stop and shop parking across borough

Ealing Council is proposing to support local businesses by giving their customers the option to extend their stay in stop and shop parking bays.

The scheme currently offers free parking varying from five minutes to two hours in stop and shop bays. Under the new plans motorists will still be able to continue using the borough’s stop and shop bays as they do now. To give shoppers greater flexibility motorists will be able to extend their stay using the council’s pay by phone service without having to return to their car. People just staying for the free period will not have to register or telephone the service.

People wishing to use the service will be able to stay for an additional two hours in selected stop and shop bays for a flat fee of £1.80 plus a service charge of 20p.

This means that in locations where there is currently a free period of 30 minutes the maximum stay will be two hours and 30 minutes, in cases where there is a free period of 60 minutes the maximum stay will be three hours and in cases where there is a free period is two hours, the maximum stay will be four hours.

Ealing Council demands HS2 rethink

Ealing has pledged to fight for measures to reduce the impact of the proposed High Speed 2 rail link.

The Transport Minister Justine Greening recently announced that following a consultation, to which Ealing Council submitted a holding objection, the route would go ahead, as planned, through Northolt, Greenford, Perivale, Ealing and Acton. The announcement did not provide details of what mitigation would be provided to residents in the borough, despite having done so in other areas. The planned route will run parallel to the central line through the north of the borough coming out of a tunnel in Acton and now re-entering a tunnel just beyond Northolt.

Councillor Bassam Mahfouz, cabinet member for Transport and Environment said:

“This isn’t about party politics. It is about the lives and homes of people who face years of blight and disruption from construction work and will then have the noise of high speed trains thundering through their neighbourhoods. It’s a slap in the face for people in this borough and we will not allow our residents to be treated like second class citizens.

Starbucks amongst companies in hot water over fly-tips

Three Ealing businesses have been given hefty fines for not disposing of waste properly.

The prosecutions at Ealing Magistrates Court on Friday 27 January follow investigations by Ealing Council’s Envirocrime team.Mr Dhirajlal Ranchod Samani, owner of Londis at 74 Bilton Road, Perivale, appeared in court to plead guilty to seven charges of failing to prevent staff dumping waste on the street in August last year.

CCTV footage showed staff from Londis wheeling up to five black plastic sacks of rubbish per day in a shopping trolley to flytip them beside a litterbin on the street.

Mr Samani was fined £900 and ordered to pay costs of £400 and a victim surcharge of £15, bringing the total to £1,315.

In a second prosecution on the same day at Ealing Magistrates Court, Harsimran Textiles Ltd clothing store at 40 South Road, Southall, was fined £700 plus costs of £500 and a victim surcharge of £15, totalling £1,215.00 

Bassam speaks on BBC’s Sunday Politics Show

Cllr Bassam Mahfouz speaking to police in Deans Gardens one of the crime hotspots which will see new additional lighting

Bassam spoke on today’s Sunday Politics Show about Ealing’s excellent record of rolling out new street lighting across the borough, which is now being followed up by a programme to deliver new street lighting to tackle crime hotspots as well as seeking to introduce energy-efficient LED lighting across the borough in order to save 40% of the council’s electricity bills whilst further improving the quality of lighting.

You can view the interview by clicking on the following link: Sunday Politics Show (22/1/12 – BBC iPlayer). The section on street lighting starts around 40 minutes into the programme.

Top Accident Hotspot gets Massive Public Backing

Residents have given their overwhelming support for Ealing Council’s plans to introduce crossings to make a West Ealing junction safer for pedestrians.

Ninety per cent of residents who took part in the consultation gave their backing for improvements to the Lido junction where Uxbridge Road meets with Northfield Avenue and Drayton Green Road, which has the highest pedestrian accident rate in Ealing. 

The council has been working with Transport for London (TfL) on proposals to make the junction safer for pedestrians, particularly the young, elderly and mobility impaired, while avoiding significant impact to traffic flow. The consultation was held after TfL approved changes to the junction. 

Improvements will include green man pedestrian crossings on all arms of the junction; moving a bus stop on Drayton Green Road and changes to road markings and signage. 

Councillor Bassam Mahfouz, cabinet member for Transport and Environment said: “We have been campaigning for some time to make this junction as safe as possible and it will certainly make a big difference to pedestrians using it. 

“We are keen to make Ealing as safe as possible and it’s great to receive such strong local support from residents who I’d also like to thank for their patience with this project. We are all looking forward to making the improvements for residents as soon as possible and will be finalising the details, taking on board comments that we have received.” 

David Highton, chairman of West Ealing Neighbours, a community group which has been campaigning for improvements to the junction, said: “We are delighted that the plans for safe crossings at the Lido will be going ahead and we thank everyone involved – the Council, TfL, and  all the local residents who worked so hard to make this happen. It will make a huge difference to everyone who lives and works in West Ealing.”

Northolt pupils celebrate new borough-wide 30mph speed limit

Signs designed by a pupil from Viking Primary School are being used to inform drivers of a new 30mph speed limit on Yeading Lane.

The road is the last in the borough to have its limit reduced as part of a new borough-wide 30mph limit, aimed at improving safety on roads managed by the council.

Children from the school joined Councillor Bassam Mahfouz to erect the first of the signs on Wednesday morning at the junction of Radcliffe Way, just moments from their school. The new speed limit comes into force on Yeading Lane on Thursday, 19 January 2012.

According to the Department for Transport if a pedestrian is hit by a vehicle at 40mph, they are four times more likely to die than if the car was travelling at 30mph – the difference is even greater for children.  Reducing speeds can also help reduce the number of collisions because drivers have more time to react.

Councillor Bassam Mahfouz, cabinet member for Transport and Environment said: “It’s always tragic when someone is seriously injured on our roads, but what’s worse is that so often accidents are preventable. Road safety is a top priority for us and we are doing all we can to reduce the number of serious accidents.  We know that speed is often a factor in collisions and that’s why we are introducing the borough-wide 30mph zone to improve safety and make Ealing’s streets safer for all road users.”

The new 30mph limit is the maximum allowed on any borough road, but there will continue to be even lower limits in some locations, such as outside schools.  Drivers are also reminded that they must continue to adjust their speed to the road conditions.

The speed limits on the borough’s main trunk roads, such as the A40 and Uxbridge Road, will continue to be set by Transport for London, which manages those roads.

Comment on Government’s announcement for HS2 route

Today’s announcement from the Government that it will push ahead with HS2 along the planned route was alongside news of an additional tunnel west of Northolt for around 3 miles.  It means that the high speed trains will be roaring out of a tunnel near the Acton Cemetery run parallel to the Central Line though the borough and then thunder into a new tunnel as it departs the western boundary of the borough in Northolt.

At this stage, there is little more detail on what mitigation will be provided for local residents and we as a council will be continuing to work with HS2 and the Government to ensure that the issues we raised as part of the consultation are dealt with as further details are worked through.

Responding to this news, I have released the following statement, “The decision ignores the legitimate pleas of blighted residents in Northolt, Greenford, Perivale and North Acton. It means that we in Ealing will face the brunt: getting all of the pain including a piercing wall of supersonic sound with none of the benefit of money being spent on tunnelling to reduce the noise.

Residents across the proposed route will be deeply disappointed and feel let down by a government that has simply steamrolled ahead with their plans and turned a blind eye to the cross-party consensus from the borough of Ealing.”

Maps of where the route will be including where the tunnels will go:

West Kilburn to Park Royal (pdf)

Perivale to Northolt (pdf)

Pound Shop Pays the Price for Fly-tipping

The owner of a Southall pound shop has been ordered to pay £1,015 after his staff were caught fly-tipping.

Mr Ajit Singh, the owner of One Pound Store at 42 South Road, Southall, appeared at Ealing Magistrates Court on Thursday, 15 December 2011, and pleaded guilty to failing to prevent his staff from fly-tipping on six occasions in May and June 2011.

The prosecution follows a CCTV operation by the council’s envirocrime officers. The team caught shop staff dumping black sacks full of the business’ waste, cardboard and cardboard boxes, outside a neighbouring business. Mr Singh had been given advice and warnings by enforcement officers.

Mr Singh was fined £100 for each of six off