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 2011 ANNUAL AWARDS
The Ealing Civic Society awards were presented by Torin Douglas, BBC Media Correspondent, at a ceremony in the Town Hall on 22 November. Ealing Civic Society chairman Robert Gurd said that the aim of the contest was to embrace all kinds of building and landscape design. He was impressed by the level of entries. He said: “It's a very high standard - ranging from several playgrounds, to a restored church and an extended private house." The architects KSK Associates Ltd were highly commended for a major restoration and extension to a house in Mount Pleasant Road. Matt Keeler of KSK and Jane Allen are pictured here receiving the Award from Torin Douglas. Northala Fields Visitors' Centre, designed by CYD Projects, was commended. Further information about the winners and shortlist on our Awards pages.
Photo: ©Tom Doran
 NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING
Under the Government's localism agenda, communities will be encouraged to develop neighbourhood plans for their own areas. The Society, working with Save Ealing's Centre (SEC), has approached the Council with a view to drawing up proposals for central Ealing. A workshop was held in early October between local interested parties, including community groups, businesses and the Council, to consider how to take the process forward. It was agreed that the next step would be for the Council to approach the government for funding to become a "frontrunner" organisation which, if successful, would gain funding to help work on drawing up a neighbourhood plan. The application was submitted in early November and the outcome is expected early in 2012.
We were successful in gaining support to help us update SEC's 2008 Vision for the centre of Ealing (and West Ealing) in preparation for the neighbourhood planning exercise and a workshop was held at the end of November. The results of the
workshop will help us move forward with neighbourhood planning.
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 NATIONAL PLANNING POLICY FRAMEWORK
The Society attended most days of the examination in public in November 2011. We were particularly keen to see reductions in housing targets along the Uxbridge road corridor and strengthen the weak safeguards for the historic environment, particularly in Ealing's and Acton's town centres which are dominated by conservation areas. In the face of resistance from the Council we could only appeal to the inspector to to recommend to the Council that our concerns be addressed in the final version of the local development framework core strategy due to be published later in 2012. |
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 Hope for new Empire
Following a local campaign to rebuild the partially demolished Empire cinema opposite Ealing Town Hall, it looks as if we may at last see some action. Revised plans for the redesign of the Empire were sent to local groups for comment and planning permission was granted in late 2011. Empire's Chief Executive, Justin Ribbons, has told the Ealing Gazette they would "soon be able to commence work" on a state of the art 20 screen complex including Empire Cinemas' large screen format, known as Impact. The site has remained cleared apart from the supported facade since February 2009.
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