A new firm of architects has been appointed by Ealing Council for Gurnell Leisure Centre and its surrounding area following last year’s Ealing Council’s planning committee objection to its own proposals for new housing and leisure facilities on the site.
According to Architects’ Journal, Mikhail Riches has replaced 3DReid on plans for a new leisure centre and hundreds of new homes for the area which is in the Pitshanger ward on Ruislip Road East.
The original plans for nearly 600 homes and a new leisure centre proposed by Malaysian property developers EcoWorld and Ealing Council was rejected in March 2021 for a number of reasons including the limited number of affordable homes on the site being less than 50 percent.
Local community groups including Save Gurnell have raised their concerns over how Gurnell Leisure Centre has been allowed to become derelict by the council and have been campaigning to reopen it.
Now, as well as ditching the previous architects, Ealing Council is no longer working with EcoWorld and is now undertaking a new feasibility study for the area
“We are thrilled to have been selected by Ealing for this important project,” said David Mikhail, director at Mikhail Riches. “We will be questioning some of the assumptions of the previous scheme in order to deliver a people-centred place; cutting-edge, low-carbon leisure facilities together with community-focused housing in a new quarter that will be stitched around Metropolitan Open Land, while focusing too on landscape and enhancing the biodiversity of the River Brent running through the site.
He added: “Ealing has set up a “sounding board” of local and national stakeholders for us to engage with, which we hope will help us to transparently share our ideas and help build support for this important facility, both for Ealing and further afield.”
A spokesperson for EcoWorld said: ‘We know from our time spent with the local community and council just how important Gurnell is to Ealing. Naturally we are disappointed not to be working with Ealing to deliver a new sports centre and new homes, but wish the council all the best in delivering a replacement for this much-cherished local asset.”
