London Borough of Ealing plan to demolish the current Gurnell Leisure Centre, replace it with a new one and build 599 homes in 6 tower blocks up to 17 storeys high on Metropolitan Open Land – this is London’s Green Belt and must be protected. This development is inappropriate and will cause significant harm to the MOL and the surrounding area.
In addition to this, they are proposing to relocate the current BMX track and create a new BMX cycle track on Long Fields meadow by Stockdove Way – this is a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC). The plans will see half the meadow destoyed and once it’s lost we can never get it back.
In both cases, the environmental impact has not been adequately assessed. Please don’t let Ealing Council get away with this.
Please go to our website for information on http://savegurnell.org.uk/how-to-object.html – go to “contact us” to join the mailing list.
Please object to both of these and neighbours to do the same and ask your friends, family members to do the same. You are no restricted to one objection per household – every member can object.
We are tagergeting 1,500 objecteion for Gunrell and curretly have 550 with just a handful of supporters. The BMX track has 330 comments and is currently split 50/50 support/object due to the BMX club rallying support – if you oppose this development please submt your comments and object to this proposal.
Why did I choose the Green Party? What I would like to tell you is that I have always been a devoted environmentalist and so it was a no brainer. However, growing up in a small town in Oxford, I wasn’t really aware of issues further away than my garden or then my local area at least. From leaving school, I had to make the decision for which university degree I would like to pursue. Having been okay at maths and science, alongside being sporty, the two options I thought were sports science or marine biology, with the latter just because it seemed interesting. I went with marine biology because I thought most people do sports science and it wouldn’t be new, plus, learning about the oceans seemed fascinating!
This was the first time I’d started to think about the bigger
picture regarding our planet, and I personally felt a bit clueless. Luckily my
course helped slightly, but I still felt like there was so much more to learn. After
university I travelled, which I understand isn’t the best environmentally,
however, it did allow me to witness some horrible truths that you normally only
hear about in the news. From the mass bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef to
spending a couple of months in South East Asia without seeing a single blue sky
because of mass crop burning. It wasn’t all awful though, I did get to witness
just how beautiful this planet can be, which led me to enrol in an environmental
postgrad, with the hope of pursuing a career that will hopefully benefit the
planet.
Throughout this little journey I noticed the impacts we are having on the climate have started to become increasingly commonplace. I also started to personally try and minimise my own impact: changing my diet, cycling as a means of transport and using more sustainable products. Additionally, I was fortunate enough to get an environmental job within the engineering sector.
Even though all of this is helpful I felt like I could be doing more, and though there are already plenty of people changing their habits to better our environment, things don’t seem to be changing as fast as they could, which is frustrating.
This final realisation is what brought me to the Green Party! Things aren’t happening fast enough; the political discussion needs to be changed. Of course, we still need to focus on all of the aspects to improve our society, but I believe we can do this in an environmentally friendly way. We have the technology and the innovation to find solutions whilst also benefiting our climate. The only thing I feel that is standing in the way is politics. The sooner we change the conversation, the better, and I feel the Green Party is the place to do this. I am very positive about the impact we can have on the world; the failures of the past are there for us to learn from.
Now more than ever we need to give environmental issues the same priority (if not higher) as any economic, social, or political issue. At the end of the day, none of it will matter if we are no longer able to live our lives on this planet in a feasible way. This may sound extreme, but we don’t think it is. At the Green Party we believe the frightening predictions of climate change and biodiversity loss to be true, and to be the biggest threat humanity has ever faced.
Not everyone believes this. Although luckily more and more people are starting to realise the severity of the situation. Believe me, I hope I am wrong and everything will be fine. But we are seeing more evidence every day to support the belief that we are heading towards catastrophe: complete societal collapse as a result of flooding, fires, droughts, extreme weather occurrences and mass starvation due to consecutive crop failures.
It’s time to pull the emergency break and start making a plan. We need to radically change the way we go about living our lives and running our country; and the same goes for London. On a local level there is so much to be done, it feels overwhelming.
We cannot delay action another minute we need to start right now
Luckily, if I do get elected to be on the London Assembly, I wouldn’t be doing this by myself. We have incredibly dedicated active Green Party members both in Ealing and in Hillingdon. We could do with more, by the way! There are so many ways in which you can get involved: delivering leaflets, knocking on people’s doors to find out what issues are important to them, working on our website and social media, designing leaflets, writing content, filming and photography, attending, hosting and organising events, liaising with local Green Parties throughout London and the UK, and much more.
The Green Party is about more than just environmental issues. We are also concerned with many other issues such as over-development, tenants’ rights, the violent crime epidemic we are witnessing, and of course protecting our NHS. We have firm policies on all of these. I would love to talk to you about our plans to make London a cleaner, healthier, safer city!
I believe improving our lives is not only about getting our leaders to take action. Too often we complain about things that actually we could be resolving ourselves if we pulled together. Time for a bit of a ‘green perspective’: people complaining about rubbish collections, which is an issue, also need to wonder: why do we have so much rubbish in the first place? It needs to come from both sides: we need our leaders to listen to us and take action, but we also need to recognise our own part in this. In this case, shouldn’t we be producing much much less waste in the first place?So this is my proposal: I will try my best to change things at the London Assembly level, but we must also work together to change things right here in Ealing and Hillingdon. We need to do both, and we need to do it together. The London Assembly elections aren’t until May 2020. Please. Don’t wait until then to do something. Come along to one of our meetings, get in touch with suggestions or questions, help us campaign. It’s not too late yet, but soon it will be. Please help us.
About the London Assembly
25 London Assembly Members elected by you at the same time as the Mayor. Eleven represent the whole capital and 14 are elected by constituencies
Assembly Members act as champions for Londoners by investigating issues such as transport, policing, housing and planning, the economy, health and of course: the environment
The Mayor should respond to Assembly motions and formal recommendations and the Assembly holds the Mayor to account
The Mayor must consult Assembly Members on strategies and budgets, which they can reject and amend if a majority of two-thirds agree to do so
The Assembly can press for changes to national, Mayoral or local policy
In the next 11 months we’ll be knocking on as many doors as we can to chat with our neighbours to get their views on what’s happening in the two boroughs and what needs doing. We’ll be going to the Colne Valley which is under threat from HS2, we’ll attend the so-called consultations on Heathrow expansion and visit other areas that need urgent attention. If you have a place in mind you think we should visit, let us know! We will be holding talks and invite guest speakers and we’ll be posting them on our website, so keep an eye on what we’re up to and please come along!
Unfortunately, just popping to the polling station every once in a while and casting your vote is not enough to keep our democratic system functional and fair. In order for democracy to work we need to constantly be engaging with it, looking after it. We are all busy and we all feel overwhelmed by the many things that need doing in our everyday lives. But I feel the issues we face are so important, we need to make time to try and make a difference. Because if we won’t, who will?
Any questions, concerns, suggestions, comments? Please do not hesitate to get in touch: marijn@ealinggreenparty.org.uk. I’m looking forward to hearing from you!
Marijn’s mini bio
Acton resident for 12 years
Founder and director of social consciousness research company Resolution:Possible
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