There were some Policing issues discussed at the Ealing Southall's Community Forum that was hosted by Ealing Southall MP Virendra Sharma.

The meeting on Saturday 4 February was chaired by Harsev Bains, the chair of the Southall Community Alliance. Inspector Leigh Ballard was representing the Police for London’s West Area BCU.

One of issues raised was parking, whether on the pavements or other unsafe places. Inspector Leigh Ballard said that Ealing Council Parking civil enforcement team is responsible for parking enforcement and the police assist on occasions. There is total disregards for rules at certain places. We try to educate first.

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One participant said that with cars parked on pavements and elsewhere plus the state of pavements means that "It is more than just a traffic management issue", it needs to be looked at in a wider scope.

Angela Fonso contacted the local police 2 weeks ago about an issue with car wash customers. The cars regularly queue on the wrong side of Brent Road Southall for B's Hand Carwash, forcing vehicles approaching from Hayes Road and Western Road to overtake for a considerable distance. This is dangerous and has to stop.

Inspector Leigh Ballard said he will speak to local police and car wash company. Educate first before taking action.

There was a female A2Dominion resident, living in fear, not receiving any help and here today to ask for some kind of help/advice.. Ealing Council “don't have direct responsibility for what the housing associations do. We can't make them do things in many respects.”

Inspector Ballard said he will speak with the safer communities team.

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Closing Statement by Inspector Ballard

I have come away with three actions. I did expect a few more, but the three is fine. I'll take that and I will deal with those within the next few days.

We are trying to work tirelessly to improve the safety of all our communities across Ealing. We do need the help of the public to do that. What I find when I go to lots of public meetings, is that people are not always calling us when they should be.

A lot of the time, people see something happen and no one calls the police. We don't ever know that it happened. We see it later on social media but no one has reported it to us.

My plea to you is, dial 999 for something urgent that is happening now and dial 101 for non-urgent matters.