Work has started on the second phase of the Southall town centre transformation project.

The aim of the £1.7 million project is to make Southall town centre more attractive and user friendly for visitors and shoppers.

It is part of Ealing Council's £15million scheme to regenerate town centres across the borough. The southall improvements will include:

• new paving
• installing raised surfaces at pedestrian crossing points along the High Street and The Broadway to improve pedestrian access and reduce vehicle speeds
• redesigning the service road layout outside Lidl on The High Street to increase pedestrian safety and installing new parking bays
  changing the layout of the entrance to the service road on South Road and increasing the width of the footpath around the bus stop to
• improve pedestrian safety
• refurbishing street furniture such as lampposts and bins and removing unnecessary signs and street furniture.

Cabinet member for Regeneration and Transport, Councillor David Millican, said: "Southall is a really vibrant town centre so I'm delighted that we are investing in these improvements to make the area even more attractive to visitors and shoppers."

Work already carried out in the first phase of the project includes new paving, removal of unnecessary street furniture and a new raised pedestrian crossing point on the Uxbridge Road between its junction with Trinity Road and Abbotts Road.

Ealing Council is investing £934,000 in the scheme with a further £800,000 being contributed by Transport for London (TfL). The investment is part of the £1.9million set aside by the council to regenerate Southall. The remaining money is being spent on a number of other projects to improve the town centre, including:

• offering shop front improvement grants to businesses
• providing visual merchandising training to traders
• improving Pocket Park on the corner of Western Road and King Street including new hanging baskets, pruning back overgrown trees and
• removing concrete benches
• displaying hanging baskets through the town centre
• displaying festive lights through the town centre