Day 4 of the Public Inquiry into the Compulsory Purchase Order of The Green, Southall resumed with questions to Eleanor Young.

Eleanor Young, the Strategic Regeneration Manager at Ealing Council, who faced lots of questions on Thursday, spent all of Friday facing more questions.

We also had at least three Councillors at today’s inquiry. Newly elected Councillor John Martin (Ealing Broadway) and Shital Manro (Cabinet Member for Good Growth) were present again. Councillor Julian Gallant (Ealing Broadway) was also present.

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Matthew Nunn, the Public Inquiry Inspector, once again showed great patience and understanding in dealing with one objector who was unable to grasp the procedure and behaviour that needs to be observed.

The information below may seem scattered due to different persons, in turn, asking the same/similar questions later and managing to extract more information or supply more information.

Balraj Purewal asked for a breakdown of the racial ethnicity of people who participated in the public consultation process. The public consultations were just drop-in sessions, and no such data was collected and the same applied to online responses. Ms Young was unsure about the ethnicity of her own team.

Why was the Tudor Rose and Monsoon Banqueting not considered as heritage assets? That is the view of the Planning Department. When the Tudor Rose was excluded (from the development) the community did not tell us of any other assets.

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Ms Young said “There is digital exclusion” in Southall. That is NOT what a senior council official said at Southall Town Hall recently. Some mixed signals coming from Ealing Council.

Inspector Nunn said that people seem to be saying that there seems to be a disconnect. The general view is that people were not properly involved. You have not engaged in a constructive way. [I have to ask the question]

Ms Young replied “We did not reach everyone”. We informed 47 community groups.

Failure to assess the impact of the Monsoon Banqueting closing is an impact assessment failure and just a tick box exercise? “I don't accept that analysis.” The Monsoon is still open. It may or may not close. After that happens, that will be time to assess.

Harvinder Bhogal (Qualifying Objector)

The car park is recognised as essential by all parties but the number of parking spaces required is much lower according to the council view.

Initial meetings were held with 20 people in March 2016. The formal negotiations about the purchases started in April 2019.

Lance Cantor (Metropolitan & Suburban)

The Metropolitan & Suburban “options contract” saga pre dates the current plans. That project Included a large proportion of current area and had little benefit to the community. It got to the plans and drawing stage but no formal plans were submitted.

Lance Cantor (Metropolitan & Suburban) did meet council officers (and the GLA). The contractual relationship with him only started in 2017 and the purpose was to stop him (speculating).

Mr Cantor had lands under option and that is the reason for agreement with his company.

Mr Nunn, the Inquiry Inspector, said there was no evidence or documents on this matter. Mr Cantor had discussions with the parties. So that is relevant (information).

Various people were offered money. There is confusion about which scheme they were participating in. The prior agreements exceeded the market value. [This was also noted by Virginia Blackman]

Consultation only take place after planning application is lodged and not before.

Ealing Gateway Limited (09371695) is a shell company that was set up by Mr Cantor (on 2 January 2015) and has nothing to do with Ealing Council.

Eleanor Young said that schemes can only proceed if the land owners are happy and this is done by talking to them first. [Lance Cantor did all the dirty work. He offered high prices and people were hooked. Then Ealing Council took over and confusion reigned]

Who is responsible for the 7 years of uncertainty?

Katherine Clark asked if parking after 6pm was a proper use of car park? Ms Young replied yes. There is no data available/provided for that. The parking data is based on paying customers (before 6pm). It’s free to park after 6pm. How many people use it after 6pm?

At the time of the consultations, documents were available at the Dominion Centre, which was being used as a vaccination centre. All you had (to do) was to read the signs at the gates to realise the library was open via the side entrance.

Minni Dogra questions

Dilloway Industrial Estate businesses were locked into limbo agreement, so could not invest themselves to improve the area.

Manor house is still closed and under used.

There was a consultation on the closure of the YAC says Eleanor Young. [No such consultation took place. The consultation was about youth services and based on the closure of the YAC.]

The Annual Monitoring Plan (AMR) monitors the effectiveness of council policies. No AMR has been published for several years. So, there are no baseline figures to examine what is happening, a disconnect (from reality).

Southall Bridge widening. There is a scenario for not being able to deliver things. In that case, need to examine mitigation measures. All parties need to agree on a solution.

Another objector asked "Were people silenced by contracts they had signed with Lance Cantor?"

Public viability assessment? If 50% affordable housing is offered then you can fast track the process and not do public viability assessment. It is to incentivise developers to come forward.

In response to O.M. Dogra’s questions, Ms Young said that 1400 new homes have been in Southall since 2014.

She said the 2019 consultation led to removal of the Tudor Rose from the development area. [A local campaign managed to change their plan. It took one year.]

Ealing Council does not send out letters about planning applications. No wonder people are unaware and complaining. The Inspector agreed.

Ms Dogra produced some option agreements/contracts that are marked confidential and could not be read them out. The Inquiry Inspector will look at them and consider them.

Harvinder Bhogal stated that Ealing Council say they are not linked to Lance Cantor (Metropolitan & Suburban). They say otherwise on their website www.metsub.co.uk/current-projects2

[Note: The project information has NOW been removed. Earlier today, the project description read “undertaken COLLABORATIVELY and in JOINT venture PARTNERSHIP with LB Ealing”

In the words of the Inspector “This is not directly relevant but important to know what took place.”

This will be updated with more information later.