Petition by residents say Ealing Council needs to extend draft Local Plan consultation beyond 8 February 2023

A petition by residents asking Ealing Council to “grant residents of Ealing proper meaningful Local Plan consultation” has been set up to get the council to further extend the deadline for its draft Local Plan.

Residents feel the current deadline of 8 February 2023 is not enough time to go through hundreds of pages of detailed information the council is asking people to comment on when the consultation was announced on 30 November 2022.

In its petition, the organiser Hayley Austin says: “We believe that the consultation process has not been adequate because:

“The Council has not made sufficient efforts to engage with residents or businesses to ensure that residents and businesses are able to actively participate in decisions.
“The Council has not given adequate time for this consultation with a restricted consultation period 30th November 2022 to February 8th 2023.
“The council have not letter dropped all residents and businesses of the Borough and have failed to educate on a 500 page consultation document.”

The petition follows concerns other residents have had with the consultation and who have written to the council about their concerns. One Southall local said: “The Council is conducting this consultation from a huge position of strength, since they have been working on the new LP since about 2019. And then we are given until 8 February 2023”.

They claim the council has been working on the draft Local Plan for years and have the benefit of teams of experts to write it, which local people do not have the means of ability to respond to in such a short period of time.

One Hanwell resident told EALING.NEWS: “This really is not enough time to respond. We need to consult with each other, we need to find out what these complex documents mean. It takes time. The council has the means to do this but we are just ordinary working people. The council leader needs to realise we can’t respond in such a short period of time for something they’ve had months if not years themselves to prepare and get experts to write for them.”

Ealing Council previously extended the deadline for inviting residents and businesses across the borough to provide feedback and comments to its draft new 15 year local plan by two weeks from 25 January 2023 to 8 February 2023.

In one letter seen by EALING.NEWS and written by Southall resident and local campaigner Minni Dogra, they say that the impact and legacy of the plan is great and needs time to properly respond to.

Ms Dogra also claims the council has implemented poor levels of communication and engagement to residents and businesses over how the draft Local Plan is being made public and explained.

Ms Dogra recently attended a walkabout on 12 January 2023 organised by the council and is concerned that the amount of time the council has provided following the walkabout and workshop to when they have given a deadline for responses to the plan is not enough.

“We all met at Southall Station for the Walkabout at 1pm 12 January 2023: 5/6 Ealing Council officers, 4 residents, 2 Southall councillors and one Cabinet councillor who joined us halfway outside Lidl. Why was there such a low turnout? I raised the serious issue of lack of notification and the time period involved for the proposed consultation of such massive changes planned for Southall.

In the evening the Southall Workshop meeting took place at Southall Manor House. Again, the turnout of local Southall residents and business people was extremely low. I recognised the Southall residents because they are the same people who take a genuine non-secular interest in Southall community matters. Although I am not sure, 2 Southall councillors (same ones from the Walkabout) were present, but not the Leader of the Council despite being the Councillor for Southall Green. Other Ealing borough residents attended and complained bitterly about the lack of notification and time periods allowed for the consultation process.

“The Council is conducting this consultation from a huge position of strength , since they have been working on the new LP since about 2019. And then we are given until 8 February 2023. That’s 3 weeks to start reading , understanding , learning , digesting , thinking , discussing and finally reaching a stage of consultation. We are not on an equal footing.”

“I sincerely believe that the Southall people and all the residents and businesses throughout the borough should be given a fair starting point from which to begin the Regulation 18 consultation process. The consultation cannot start properly unless notification and sight of the Draft LP is given in a proper and reasonable manner. The impact of the proposals are so far-reaching that people must be given reasonable time to form groups and learn from each other so that they can respond. The truth is that many of us have just become aware of the Local Plan and we need sufficient time to try to reach out to as many residents as possible who are able to express feedback that is a fair reflection of our different community groups.

“I expect the council to allow an extension going in to March. The council does this for a living. You cannot expect ordinary people to settle down to study this document. As I said on the Walkabout and at the Workshop, I never knew in all my years in the borough that the council was required to consult businesses and residents in relation to a new Local Plan. This is the first time I have ever read such a document where we are required to appraise the detail and give our opinions. Those of us who are trying our best to engage must be given some respect for the time that they have already committed to the consultation process by attending the council run events. Ealing Council should also consider running a second round of Workshops so that we can go beyond the “Introduction to the draft LP” and next time have a more meaningful conversation and ask questions from a position of knowledge rather than ignorance.

“I was given a summary by the engagement officer at the walkabout. The summary is detailed as to all the aspects that we would have covered. As a matter of record I must advise that the detail reflected in the summary sheet given to us was not actually covered. The weather was atrocious (wind and rain). Whilst the planning officer gave information as we walked around (which was very helpful) , our most detailed conversation was about the shortness of time and the need for a time extension so that the people of Southall could genuinely engage in this Regulation 18 procedure.

“We expected the Regulation 18 to be a process that the Council were going to engage in prior to drafting the Local Plan. It appears that the draft local plan has already been drafted and the Regulation 18 process is happening after the event and that gives the impression of decisions made and foregone conclusions. The Draft Local Plan is basically a catalogue of the Council’s plans for the seven towns. People are unhappy right across the borough. Once again the impression given is that decisions are being made, documentation is being rolled out, plans are being passed, consultation procedures are not followed properly, expediency and tick box exercises drives the decision-making processes.”

Councillor Jon Ball, Liberal Democrat spokesperson on planning and housing commented to EALING.NEWS: “We in the opposition agree with residents that the deadline should be extended further. The Local Plan consists of a 559 page document plus 37 further supporting documents, some of which also run to hundreds of pages, and the devil lies in the detail.  A period this short running across Christmas and the New Year is patently insufficient for residents to properly study, discuss and respond to the plan.”

A council spokesperson told EALING.NEWS: “Thousands of residents and businesses have already taken part in our consultation on Ealing’s draft new Local Plan. The council has already extended the consultation period by two weeks beyond the required period, so the new deadline is 8 February 2023. That means it will run for 10 weeks in total, ensuring that our communities have additional time to review this important document and feedback on the proposals.”