The first meeting of the Southall Broadway Ward Forum was held at 7 pm on Friday at the Hambrough Primary School.

Its main purpose was to gather information about the problems the residents faced and what improvements they wanted carried out using the £40,000 that is available to them. It was also to update residents about the current issues the local councillors were dealing with.

The meeting was chaired by Council Manjit Singh (Con) and also attended by Councillor Zahida Abbas Noori (Lab) and Councillor Jagdish Gupta (Con).

The first part was an introduction by pc Faisal, a member of the Southall Broadway Safer Neighbourhood Team based in the Southall Sports Centre on Beaconsfield Road.

He outlined what his team priorities were and how they were dealing with them. They only deal with long term problems and non-emergency situations.

The next item was members of the public mentioning their problems or concerns. The most common being the amount of rubbish around and unsavoury teenagers and adults hanging around.

Some traders are taking liberties by extending their stalls onto the pavement and even using it as their rubbish tip. The Council officials’ seems to be asleep or looking elsewhere.

Residents find it is almost impossible to park in the resident bays after 8 pm. The solution offered by one resident was to reverse the hours of operation of these bays, because he had no problem with people parking there when he was at work.

Another problem, not mentioned, was irresponsible resident neighbours, who own more than one car and will not let any one else park in their place. They shift their remaining cars so that it is not possible to park in front or behind the other car.

The behaviour of some traffic wardens is pathetic. If you have a problem, like some one is blocking your drive driveway, they won’t help. They will ask you to ring the council, who will contact them and when they are free, they will come over to do their job. By that time, several hours later, the offending vehicle would have moved.

One other problem highlighted was the incompetence of the local Council, who removed a sign showing the way to the Jamia Mosque in Townsend Road. The sign was paid for by the mosque and after almost one year, no one is wiser why it was removed or when it will be replaced back.

The long term desire to have "Welcome to Southall" signs on the major roads has made little progress, as had the need to have public toilets around Southall Broadway.

The next meeting will take the issues forward.