December Day on London's Oldest Allotments and a great chance meeting

Don't let the ambitious Pathways boss have his way 

So quick trip down to plot 202 to pick up some Christmas Spuds and drop off a little 'home made' compost - great to have a fantastic clear sky- a real reminder why we shouldn't lose more of out precious green space to the developers concrete.

A  warning (with humour)

Seems from what I have heard that Ealing Pathways 'Chief Exec.'  Clive Wilson has declared himself unilaterally the sole arbiter on what should happen  for the two Allotment sites that Pathways are responsible for in Ealing and will stop plot holders from having bonfires in 2017, don't know if this is in a fit of pique or to get his retaliation in first.

He's still got a united opposition in the shape of  local councillors, residents and MP Rupa Huq so maybe he's just a sore loser?

In fact the argument over land for 'housing' shoulkd not be witjh allotment holders but Government and big building firms who sit on their stiock of land (to keep prices and profits sky high - look at this Telegraph no less report).

 Pleasurable chance meeting

Hilary's a voice in the community

Doubly pleasurable to meet the ever cheerful and friendly Hilary Panford, Hilary's a regular attendee at OPEN Ealing's various events and her good friend Tony bought her an 'Autumn'  Photograph of Ealing Green - Hillary not only said the picture was still up but also that OPEN needed more younger men like me (Cough Cough)    - thanks Hilary for purring a smile on  my face

The picture under discussion

Ealing cinema, Housing and the Arts

A peep today -
(not the Egyptian Pyramids) 

Today I had a peep behind the hoardings at the site of the old /new Cinema site in Ealing.

Well I suppose the fact that work has started on the Cinema project is good news (it's going to be I fear now that developers St Georges have had changes to the planning permission it'll be  more about high profit housing than Cinema and Arts.).

If you want to make sure that local p[eople get some 'real' facilities' the Campaign for Ealing Performance and Arts Centre CEPAC needs your support (and perhaps) help - they're working to see that not everything is about commercial outcomes.

A front page picture in the Ealing Gazette (from me)  a few years back 

More on the subject of housing soon (it'll be connected with the removal of 'valued' and ' historic'  Allotments then).

The Direction Home

A home would be nice

In the upcoming UK's Financial Autumn Statement  (Nov 23rd) Chancellor Hammond has a golden opportunity to re- invigorate the UK economy.


One of the key failures over the last 20 years or so has been around the housing stock , there's not enough of it, it's too expensive and sub standard (particularly around heat retention).


It was interesting chatting to an architect friend this last weekend about housing issues:

Poor quality estates should not be replaced by over dense schemes  

What I learnt from him confirmed my fears about  building developers - they expect exorbitant profit (60 margins are typical) they are unwilling to assume responsibility to improve quality and tend to go for lowest cost at whatever level it is set.


Government needs to  ensure that developers have an incentive to use the stockpiled land they are sitting on and to improve the building standards that developers must comply with.

Ealing Council leader Bell & acolytes
(probably not talking about housing)

Councils to should focus on housing and ensuring that 'Cathy Come Home' is a historic document and not a contemporary problem.


Improved housing can form part of a virtuous cycle where families are able to have better quality of life and be happier.

And it's not just families who need this help recent months have seen rapid increases in those single people sleeping rough,