Why is Ealing Council planning to set up a "Southall Reset" programme for "regeneration and investment for the Southall town centre and its surrounding neighbourhoods"?

The programme "will be focused on tackling deep-rooted challenges specific to Southall to support its residents and businesses to become part of a thriving Southall community and benefit from a more inclusive economy."

Ealing Council leader Councillor Peter Mason tweeted earlier in the month: “Tonight we hit the reset button for Southall, our industrious, resilient, entrepreneurial, diverse, incredible town. It’s future is as a place of good, well-paid jobs, of culture and community pride - not a dormitory town.”

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"Will the structures that are set up to implementation of proposals listens to residents?" - Ravi

"All these surveys and reports look like Ealing Council care... but don’t be fooled ... they need these Reports to fight the community objections" to planned destruction of current buildings and services.

"Look at all the cabinet documents carefully and Reports obtained.
It says SOUTHALL IS UNHAPPY." – Minni

It is worth reading the officers report as to why this is being done. The residents have known ALL OF THIS for years. No one bothered to listen to them BEFORE. With the SAME people you will get the SAME result.

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What does the report say:

The report say that Southall is not happy about the "the availability of clean and safe parks and open spaces in Southall", not like the rest of the borough.

The report says that people in Southall do not "feel safe on balance" unlike the rest of the borough.

The report says that Southall residents are NOT satiffied with "local facilities and availability of shops and leisure facilities".

Southall residents "feel less positive" and "more negative" than the rest of the borough.

They are not happy about the "cycling and walking facilities."

There is "dissatisfaction with air quality and employment opportunities".

Residents are less positive about public transport than the rest of the borough.

The "feelings of being welcome" is less than the rest of the borough.

Feedback from online and in-person engagement events paint the same dismal picture.

• Dissatisfaction with local development, lack of facilities for walking and cycling as well as infrequent/ inadequate public transport, and concerns about safety especially in public spaces such as parks.
• Southall residents strongly raised poor levels of cleanliness and hygiene in the area and issues of littering, fly tipping, waste and pollution.
• Residents feel they are not either consulted properly or listened to by the council when new plans or policies are brought about.
• Participants wanted to ensure that proper infrastructure to support new development was in place before it takes place. Some felt that Southall was disproportionately impacted by the “disbenefits” of development such as noise, odour, traffic and disruption, instead of its advantages
• Faith leaders from Southall raised concerns about the disposing of community assets such as the Youth Adult Centre and Featherstone Leisure Centre.
• "Most young people would like to live in the borough after they finish school?" An odd result as most young people regard it as a dump. Even if they wanted to live here, the house prices are un-affordable. They also made references to the level of homelessness and the poor state of housing.
• Young students "cited lack of suitable employment or apprenticeship opportunities as well as inability to use public and active transport to travel both locally and out of borough".
• Residents would like to see improvements to public facilities, parks and green spaces, as well as additional indoor and outdoor leisure facilities in the area.

Large scale investsment in Southall?

Moving the Library to the Dominion Centre was asset stripping and cost cutting exercise, not an improvement or an investment in Southall.

Closing down the public tolets in Southall?
Residents and visitors would have preferred the public toilets to remain open and looked after better.

Ealing Council are going to knock down the PERFECTLY good Young Adult centre.
Residents are saying build the "state of the art" replacement centre before you CLOSE the Young Adult Centre otherwise it's just hot air.

RESET – You press the RESET button when things have gone wrong. It removes any good or bad things that have happened. It takes you to the beginning. You CANNOT press the reset button to Southall. You cannot UNDO the damage already inflicted on Southall residents. You can only TRY to stop the PLANNED damage.