East Acton Pedestrians (now including me)

Tonight was the latest meeting of the East Acton Steering Group – which brings together East Acton Councillors, Residents Associations and Council Officers from across the LB Ealing/LB Hammersmith and Fulham boundary.

The really good news from the meeting is from the consultation with local residents about a much needed pedestrian crossing across Old Oak Common Lane from The Fairway to Fitzneal Street. I and local residents have been arguing for this for some time, and the money has now been made available by Transport for London. Residents have voted 86% in favour of the crossing, with a higher than usual response rate of 30%. This means that the works to create the crossing will start in the next few weeks, and should be finished by the end of January at the latest

Most of our work over the last year has been related to road safety works at the junction of Old Oak Common Lane and Du Cane Road. This has involve removing a mini-roundabout with uncontrolled crossings, and replacing it with traffic lights and light-controlled crossings. This scheme got over 80% approval on consultation, although has subsequently been subject to some complaints particularly about the length of the ‘green man’ phasing on the pedestrian crossings. Our ideal situation was to also have a pedestrian crossing roughly between the Iceland store and the Post Office – however Transport for London (TfL) would not allow this as it would be too close to the Western Avenue

At the recent Annual General Meeting of East Acton Residents Association, most people felt that the new arrangements were not perfect but better than the previous uncontrolled situation. There is a minority view against this, particularly from local businesses, although most people at the Residents Association meeting felt that the problem with local shops was with their quality and lack of choice rather than the traffic.

At the Steering Group meeting we moved on from the junction issue, to look at smaller scale improvements that could be made to the shopping area. This will include new bike parking stands at road level, new road markings to particularly assist buses, and environmental improvements.

Cycled off up Long Drive to get to Ealing Town Hall, and suddenly heard a painful crunching sound. The chain had come off its’ sprocket on my bike, and I couldn’t get it back on. Pushed the bike home in the rain, and rushed off to the East Acton tube station. Having not been able to cycle for over three years until July due to a knee injury, it’s very frustrating to lose the use of the bike even if only (hopefully) temporarily.

I was consequently late for the last meeting of the Flooding and Water Pressure Scrutiny Panel. We had a very useful discussion, making recommendations arising from our previous meetings (see previous posts), which I’ll summarise later when we agree our final report.

Went on afterwards for a chat with Paul Woodgate at the Kings Head. After Paul left, I went to the bar and suddenly realised that it was 11.15 and their new extended hours had come into operation. No bell at 10.50 had meant that I hadn’t rushed for my last pint. Something which I’ve spent a large part of the last year planning had happened without me noticing ! A leisurely and pleasant session followed, in total contrast to the Daily Mail image of mad binge boozing. Had to get the 207 home, which at least allowed me to inspect Bromyard Avenue at night, but I need to get the bike fixed for future later drinking.

The Kings Head in Acton (also known as 'Committee Room 3"

because of the number of Councillors who drink there)