CONSTITUENCY MATTERS Cllr Gregory Stafford, leader of Ealing Conservative Group

AS Councillors, one of our key duties is to listen to the electorate and in our system of democracy, that usually means people’s concerns should be heard.

In Ealing, this theory regrettably often does not hold true. If it did, then our libraries would not have been culled, as over 10,000 people signed a petition asking for them to remain open; our students would have adequate study places, opening hours would be longer and book stock would not be sold off.

Likewise, the Gurnell Leisure Centre would not be closed until there is a guaranteed opening date for a replacement pool.

As it stands, leisure swimmers have no real practical alternative facilities as the others are too far to get early in the morning without being involved in heavy traffic.

Ealing’s ill-thought-out Low Traffic Neighbourhood schemes would have died in its infancy, given that over 8,000 people have already signed a petition! When you consider that in one such scheme, residents in half of the area would face an additional two-mile journey to reach both local shops and the facilities in the centre of the Borough, you can understand the strength of feeling.

And it’s not just proposed traffic schemes that will bring misery to neighbourhoods, but also Labour’s desire to blight our local community with tower blocks obliterating the features that make Ealing an attractive place to live and raise a family.

Ealing Labour has shown time and time again, that it does not care about the voice of concern from local residents. It knows that they know best.

Conservatives believe that local people know what’s best for themselves, their families and their communities.

I’m proud to be supporting residents against the blights listed above and will continue to raise their concerns to the Council. The more they are deaf to resident anger, the louder we will shout!