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Ealing Gazette Friday 23 April, 2004
Crowding fears over flat plans

By Sunita Jaswal
People living near Daniel department store in West Ealing expressed grave concerns at two public meetings on Tuesday at plans to build 137 flats above and around the retail building.
The proposed development in Uxbridge Road and Broughton Road has been at the centre of controversy since the original application was submitted nine months ago.
Around 70 people attended the two meetings at 3pm and 7:30pm at the Conservative Association Centre in Broughton Road to discuss amended plans with a representative from the house builder Crest Nicholson
Neighbours of the proposed site said that they felt the number of flats would lead to traffic and parking chaos and concerns were raised about the density of the development, which people felt were too high for the area.
Daniel will be demolished and a new store built for free as part of the deal with Crest Nicholson. During the construction, the store will trade from different premises, as yet to be decided, and move back when the work is completed. It is expected to take 18 months, while the flats will take an extra year. Architect for Crest Nicholson, Andrew Reid, said the Daniel family had been considering the idea of re-development for about four years.
The meeting was told that the original application, which made provision for only 35 parking spaces for 140 flats, had been redesigned with 73 spots and four additional car club places for 137 flats.
Daniel will maintain its 50 spaces for shoppers at the back of the store which residents will not be allowed to use in the evening.
People moving into the new flats will also have to sign a legal document prohibiting them from buying an on-street parking permit in a CPZ zone after concerns were raised about cars from the development overspilling on to surrounding roads.
The design of the building, which fronts on to Uxbridge Road, would be contemporary while the flats in Broughton Road would look traditional with yellow stock bricks and slate roofs like the surrounding properties. The store would retain the ground floor - combined with a mezzanine floor between the ground and first floors - so it would not have to shrink the business. It would have five stories of flats above it. The properties in Broughton Road would take up four floors, but would look like three because the roof of the flats would be set back from the road.
Mr Reid said architects redesigned the plans so that two floors could be taken off after consultation with neighbours revealed that their light would be affected and the building would not be in line with the rest of the road. Sixty-two of the flats will be affordable housing for key workers, which is eight more than the previous application.
Have your say
What do you think of the plans for Daniel department store? Is more housing a good thing for West Ealing or will it cause problems? Tell Sunita Jaswal your views:
Call 020 8579 3131
Fax 020 8840 0107
E-mail edit@ealinggazette.co.uk
Write to 134-136 Broadway, West Ealing, London W13 0TL.

LBC (97.3FM), Sunday February 1, 2004
Charlie Jordan's "Sunday Supplement"
Charmian Boyd was a guest on this show, talking about our Home Zone and how to have one of your own.

Evening Standard, Wednesday January 28, 2004 Street wise by Anthea Masey

There can't be many streets in London where you can play hockey with your children in the middle of the road in the knowledge that you are not going to be knocked over by some fast rider on a rat run. But this is exactly what Charmian Boyd and her children, Marianthe, Alexander and Helena Evangelidis, are able to do in their street in West Ealing, thanks to a groundbreaking scheme that is redesigning city streets to put the needs of pedestrians and cyclists first. Boyd and her family have the good fortune to live in a Home Zone. The idea for these pedestrian-friendly areas comes from Holland and Germany, where there are thousands of such schemes. Attracted by the idea of making their streets safer for the people who live there, Boyd and others in the Five Roads Forum, her local residents' group, got together to look at ways of improving road safety and enhancing the streets with new trees and flower beds. Luckily for them, their efforts and enthusiasm coincided with the Government giving the go-ahead to 13 pilot Home Zone schemes, three of which are in London and the South-East: in the Five Roads areas of West Ealing; in Holmewood Gardens in Brixton and in Cavel Way in Sittingbourne, Kent. Since then, the Government has committed £30 million to a further 61 schemes.

The idea got off the ground in this country more than five years ago, when the residents of Methley Ter race in Leeds proudly reclaimed their street by grassing over the road, which had become a rat run. Nothing quite as radical has been done in London, but the key idea behind Home Zones is to create neighbourhoods where pedestrians and cyclists have priority over the car, and traffic is slowed to no more than 20 miles an hour, with an advisory speed limit of 10mph.
One of the key design features of Home Zones involves paving over roads and raising them to the level of the pavements. The space created is thus used, at given times, by pedestrians, cyclists and motorists; there are no longer separate roads for cars and separate pavements for pedestrians. Instead, large flower beds at road corners, new trees, speed bumps and chevron parking - bays with cars parked at an angle to the houses - create an obstacle course for motorists, who have no choice but to slow down.
Boyd warns that, even with a lot of enthusiasm, it can take a long time to establish a Home Zone, and she is disappointed that the British can be less radical than our Continental cousins. "When we first started our research five years ago, I went to Holland and Germany to see their Home Zones and I returned very excited. But on the Continent they are keen to curb the use of cars in cities, whereas we see it as an attack on the fundamental rights of motorists." Also there is never enough money.
In Ealing the residents are still waiting for the council to complete the new planting and seating areas, and this autumn they dug in to their own pockets to plant daffodils around the new trees. They have also raised money from the National Lottery for a community mosaic.
But the work has not gone unnoticed by house-hunters. IT specialists Lisa Hall and her husband, Robin, made a positive decision to move to the area because it was getting a Home Zone. 'We have friends who live here, so we knew about the Home Zone. I like the idea of putting pedestrians first. "It feels much friendlier and, as a result of all the consultation, neighbours have really got to know each other. We now look out for each other."
Other schemes in the capital include Kingston, where the council is just completing two schemes, one in the Manorgate Road area, close to Kingston Hospital, the other in the Cavendish Road area of New Malden.
But the poor residents of Holmewood Gardens in Brixton are still waiting for their Home Zone, despite being one of the pilot schemes nominated five years ago. The residents have been promised their Home Zone by the end of March, and the scheme is now finally coming to fruition.

BBC iCAN references to Five Roads Forum

Mail on Sunday, Sunday July 20, 2003
Reclaiming your street helps house prices rise
When residents won traffic-calming schemes to end 'rat runs' on their roads, they also boosted property values
By Danny Buckland

Devising quicker journey times, beating traffic lights and avoiding roadworks are techniques essential to London drivers on a daily basis. But using residential streets to beat the queues on main roads creates 'rat runs' which spoil otherwise quiet neighbourhoods.
Now the Government has invested £30million in 14 'home zone' pilot projects in areas such as Manchester, Peterborough, Leeds and Sittingbourne in Kent, in an attempt to reclaim noisy streets for the residents who live there.
As well as the scheme's environmental benefits, estate agents say house prices have risen by up to ten percent in the zoned areas. Pioneered in the Netherlands, the scheme was designed to create pockets of calm in urban areas. It involves road surfaces being raised to the same level as the pavements and parallel parking swapped for 30-degree diagonal parking in alternate sections on each side of the road to create a snaking effect, forcing drivers to automatically slow down.
The use of trees, shrubbery and mosaics gives a villagey feel. The message conveyed is that cars, cyclists and pedestrians are using a shared surface and all have equal rights.
Now, instead of waiting for the authorities to act, residents have taken up the idea themselves in one West London borough.
Motorists in the Five Roads area of Ealing are greeted with brick planter boxes of flowers, road humps and road surface designs such as rows of brickwork and yellow stone chippings.
"We'd had enough of being on the receiving end of the car," said one resident, Charmian Boyd, an audit commission inspector who heard a radio programme about the scheme and contacted Ealing Council.
"I was so frustrated at not being able to let my children out onto the street because the roads were so dangerous. When I heard about the home zones I teamed up with my neighbours to form a residents' committee."
"We're one of only two schemes that were proposed by residents," adds Charmian. "People were fed up with the number of cars hurtling down our streets."
During the rush hour it was estimated that 2,500 cars would dart between two lines of parked cars to avoid a busy junction on Uxbridge Road.
With the home zone in place, the flow has been reduced to 500, undoubtedly helped by the 20mph speed limit which future legislation may reduce to 10mph.
"There was aggression as cars tried to force their way trough and there was no consideration that people live here," says Charmian.
Kevin Hart, of Ealing estate agents Robertson, Smith & Kempson, adds: "It was a very busy cut-through but one that has become significantly quieter. When we took buyers there before, it was impossible to park which did not make a favourable first impression."
Now the streets are safer, cleaner and more popular with families keen to move into a more controlled area.
Every property for sale in the Ealing home zone is now under offer. Sales are sluggish in neighbouring streets.
"It is definitely affecting sales as every property in the scheme is under offer, whether it is a large Victorian house or a studio flat,' says Kevin.
Robin Hall, 55, an IT manager, and his wife Lisa moved into a four-bedroomed Victorian house because it was in a home zone. He believes the scheme has helped his house increase in value by £200,000 to about £600,000.
"The area's quality of life is now superb and it has been a great investment," says Robin.
"Our house value has climbed 50 per cent whilst the rest of the market was running at 30 per cent over the past three years."
Kim Tompsett, 46, who has lived in the area for 17 years with her husband Mark, an IT consultant, and children Alicia, eight, and Ben, seven, was particularly concerned about the effect on her family.
"Street lighting was poor and motorists didn't care about the residents."
"Traffic would use it as a rat run throughout the day and night - sometimes until 4am - and there would be constant traffic noise."
One well used part of the street is now closed off with a steel gate painted bright yellow. The gate's arrival means that children can now play outside their own homes.
Kim says the change has been incredible. Her Victorian four-bedroom house, which was purchased for £150,000, is now worth about £500,000. She believes the bonus of being in a home zone may have added another £50,000 to its value. She adds: "It's not done for the value of the houses but for the community and the safety of our children. This is about reversing the trend of car domination."
Councillor Peter Wicks, chair of the home zones project board, says early signs show major roads can easily cope with the increased numbers of cars from the diversion and alternative rat runs have not appeared.
"The home zones pilot is an excellent example of the council and the community working in partnership,'"says Mr. Wicks.
"With a few simple measures we've created a neighbourhood that gives a fairer balance to the needs of everyone living there."

Ealing Times: A Little Touch of the Country January 17, 2001
A controversial project which supporters say will return rural values to Ealing will be trialled from next month following support from residents. The project, called a Home Zone, means five residential roads in West Ealing will be redesigned to give priority to pedestrians and inhabitants. It aims to reduce the number of cars passing through Hartington, Broughton, Arden, Denmark and Hastings roads, and slow them down by putting in raised gateways at the street entrances and imposing a 20mph speed limit. Ealing's proposed Home Zone, which is one of nine similar projects piloted throughout the country by the Government, was supported by 76 per cent of residents consulted. The majority of them also said yes to angled parking in the roads to slow traffic, as well as levelling out the road and pavement in part of the zone to create an area shared between pedestrians and cars. They also supported a proposal to create a village feel in the new levelled-out area with tree planting, decorative paving and a notice board, although the majority rejected putting in seats and a children's play area. "This is a development which has wide support throughout Europe," said Hugh Comerford of the Five Roads Forum, which pushed for the five roads to trial the scheme. "The rural values of the last century are beginning to come back to the streets of Ealing people meeting each other outside their houses. "If we wish to stimulate our community we have to meet on the streets, and the one thing which has been standing in the way of this is too many cars coming down our streets too quickly." But opponents of the scheme have predicted it will spread traffic chaos outside the five roads and say it has been presented without enough facts on the effect it will have on traffic congestion. The plan is expected to be approved by the council's cabinet later this month before a series of community meetings are held to thrash out the finer details. Central Government will monitor the success of Ealing's Home Zone and compare it with other trials across the country before deciding whether to introduce it to other areas.

Ealing Times 22nd June 2000 - Friendly Roads exhibition

The Guardian, Thursday August 5, 1999

Home Zones reclaim the streets

Junior drivers with a dubious knowledge of road rules caused traffic chaos in a west London street yesterday, but the transport minister, Lord Whitty, was unperturbed by the tailback of scooters, tricycles and assorted pedal toys.
He had come to Broughton Road in West Ealing to take part in an open-air tea party - complete with armchairs, tables, and a television dragged out into the road - to mark the launch of a scheme that, it is hoped, will see residents reclaim at least some of the streets outside their homes from the motor car.
Ealing is one of nine areas that will pilot the "home zone" project, which puts the rights of residents and their children before cars by means of a series of traffic, parking, and design changes.
Based on a scheme in the Netherlands, where there are 6,000 home zones, Ealing hopes to limit vehicle speeds to 10 mph, install traffic-calming measures, pedestrianise at least one street, and level the footpath and road in others, to make the area safer and more accessible for residents and their children.
Other such streets in Lambeth in south London, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham, Sittingbourne in Kent, Peterborough, Monmouthshire, and Plymouth have been included in the project, which will be monitored by the government and councils for three years before the scheme is introduced more widely.
Charmian Boyd, spokes woman for the Five Roads Forum, which mustered support for the Ealing project, said that residents had been "enclosed" within their houses for too long.
"We would like to reclaim the streets for people, because the bias is totally toward cars." she said.
"We aren't anti-car - many of us have them - but we are afraid to let our kids out, and it's become an area where we've become completely threatened by cars. "
"Now, when cars come into this area, they should respect the fact that this is where families and people live."
Schneill Styles-George, nine, said that she was looking forward to the changes outside her home in Broughton Road, which will begin early next year at a cost of at least £100,000.
"I will be able to use my roller skates more easily and have more space to skate," she said. "Now, I can't go near the edge of the footpath because cars go zooming past."

BBC News Report: Safer Streets Tests begin Wednesday 4th August 1999