Crossings, Priory Centre, W4 youth and trees on the agenda

There was a lot of items on the agenda for the Southfield ward forum last night. It was the first time in a year where we over-ran - but very few people left so the extra items were well worth taking.

The first main item was a chance to hear from the founder of and children from, Chiswick's W4 Youth, an organisation which the ward gave about £10,000 to fund equipment to enable local teens to get together and have fun.

The feedback was amazing and they have come on leaps and bounds from when we first gave them the money. It must be the best £10,000 the Council has ever spent.

Next we discussed spending some of the ward's budget on such items as a feasibility study into a crossing on Southfield Road near the Rec. Lots of people had lots to say especially about how to spend £20,000 we won due to an increased recycling rate. My party want to see some of it used to increase these rates further. Any ideas please email me on gary.malcolm@ealing.gov.uk or tweet me @CllrGaryMalcolm

The third main item was when the meeting got rather loud and boisterous. We had invited a council officer responsible for trees to explain why the trees were recently severely cut leaving pretty much the trunk (with no branches or leaves). We managed to get the officer, who patiently answered a lot of tricky questions, to give a commitment that Southfield ward would not have their trees pruned in Spring again (given the problems we have this Spring as well as 6 years ago).

Lastly the important issue of the user groups (playgroups etc) of the Priory Community Centre who appear to be getting the boot from the Priory Centre with no real chance for them to be suitably re-housed in Acton whilst the work that might take place to provide for a primary school takes place. The lady who raised the issue has set up an online petition. Please fill it in: www.ipetitions.com/petition/supportprioryca

I signed the paper version after the meeting had elapsed.

Cllr. Gary Malcolm - Liberal Democrat Councillor for Southfield Ward

June 30, 2011