Neighbours' Paper Issue 67

Neighbours’ PaperNeighbours’ Paper

Issue No 67 Putting the people of Ealing first Winter 2013/14

www.neighbourspaper.com

Acton | Ealing | Greenford | Hanwell | Northolt | Perivale | Southall

Guest Editorial, p2

Ealing Notes, p4

St George and the Council, p5

Perivale Library, p6,

Olde Ealing Revisited, p11

Free Please Take One

p7, Piccadilly Line Stations

p8-9, Ealing Broadway Station

p10, Ealing Fairtrade Awards,

p12, Sports Coaching

2 Putting the People of Ealing First

Read NP Online at www.neighbourspaper.com Contents

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Editor: Tom Whiting (020 8840 5740)Guest Editor: Judy Breens

Treasurer: Judy Breens

Cover Photo: Pitshanger Park: Valerie Rudd

Writers: Judy Breens,Cecelia Coleshaw,Will French, Michael Holmes, DJoshi,Oliver New, Jackie Whitaker

Designer: Jamie AnsonWebmaster: Sonia Nimley

Advert Designer: Sandy Anson

Printer: Pollyprint Ltd, 263 Northfield Avenue, Ealing W5 4UA,0208 579 1441, www.pollyprint.co.uk

Advertisement rates: Single Box £25, Double Box £45, Triple Box £70

Next copy deadline: 31 January 2014

I am in the Editorial role temporarily because our regular editor, Tom Whiting has had an exceedingly busy period at work. I am appreciating both Tom and our previous editor Ann Pavett as editing Neighbours Paper it is not an easy job! This edition looks at some weighty matters: A new station for Ealing Broadway, loss of affordable housing at Dickens Yard and the reappearance of the Third Heathrow Runway proposal. In addition see Ealing Notes for the sad news that we may have lost the battle to save Ealing Hospital. Ealing Council were refused permission to conduct a Judicial Review. We then received Jeremy Hunt’s sham “A & E Saved” announcement. Since then Ealing Council has gone very quiet. They fought fearlessly for our hospital but it is hard to see where the campaign can now go. There are many positive things about our Borough however. This time we bring to your attention the work of the Carers Centre, Ealing Fairtrade, how Sports Coach can help those sporty NP readers to become sport coaches for the good of the community. …and the Valentine Music Festival in February.

We wish all our Readers a very Happy Christmas and New Year!

Contents Editorial................................................ 2

Ealing Music & Film Valentine Fest ... 2

Supporting Ealing’s Disabled People 3

Ealing Notes ........................................ 4

St George the Dragon and the Council Pussycat ................................ 5

Piccadilly Line Stations ...................... 6

A retired Librarian remembers Perivale Library ................................... 7

Ealing Broadway Station ................8&9

Ealing Fairtrade Awards .................. 10

Work Experience .............................. 11

Sports Coach .................................... 12

Ealing Music and Film Valentine Festival 2014This is the second festival after last year’s great success. Supported by many local businesses and organisations. It is expected to become an annual event. This time it will celebrate dance (Did you know Margot Fonteyn was brought up in Ealing?) There will be talks by great dancers and choreographers, music relating to dance and screenings of music and ballets. Our resident Ealing Symphony and the English Chamber Orchestras will play as well as the City of London Sinfonia. The Ealing Youth Orchestra will perform Handel’s Royal Fireworks Music and the Ealing young

person’s dance organisation, Twisters, will show us their incredible talent. There will be live Blues each night at the Ealing Club Ealing Broadway Station where the Rolling Stones first began in the 60’s. There will be a huge variety of music in many different Ealing locations with Indian Sitar music featured in a final concert. Ealing’s venues and musical talent is being showcased! Put the dates in your diary and prepare to join the fun!

For full programme see www.ealingmusicandfilmfestival.org

Editorial

020 8579 2969www.carcareealing.co.uk [email protected]

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Judy BreensGuest Editor

3Putting the People of Ealing First

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Supporters of the Ealing Centre for Independent Living and the Carers’ Centre showed how much they care by taking part in this year’s Ealing Half Marathon, raising over £2,000 for the organisation.

The Ealing Centre for Independent Living (ECIL) is your local disability charitable organisation, providing information, support and events for the disabled people of Ealing and the family members or friends who may be taking care of them. The funds raised from the marathon run will be used to support ECIL activities. As well as hosting events for disabled people at their West Ealing headquarters in Bayham Road (enquiries: 020 8840 8717 www.ecil.org), ECIL manages the Carers’ Centre, the Disability Advice Bureau (DAB) and ShopMobility Ealing.

Ealing Carers’ Centre It’s estimated that family carers save the state £195 billion a year, by enabling people who are disabled or long-term sick to remain at home. Diana has been caring for her mother for seven years. “I had to give up my own home to move in with my mum after she had an emergency operation that left her in need of permanent care. The emotional and physical wear & tear has affected me more as each year has gone by. I didn’t know there was support available until I burst into tears in front of my GP, who told me about the Carers’ Centre.” Diana has been able to take advantage of free counselling, benefits and legal advice, exercise classes, socialising, half-price

massages and the centre’s internet café. If you’re in a similar position, or know someone who is, please be sure to contact the centre on 020 8840 1566, or drop in between 9.30am-4.30pm, Mon-Fri, at 46 South Ealing Road W5 4QA.

The Disability Advice Bureau

Next door at No.44 is the DAB, run in conjunction with Ealing Mencap, providing information and benefits advice for Ealing residents with any type of disability. Changes to the benefits system are hitting disabled people particularly hard. There’s nothing the DAB can do to change that, but they can help explain any confusions and provide assistance with the inevitable form filling. By appointment only at present – ring 020 8840 8573 to book. Free disability advocacy and counselling is also available.

ShopMobility Ealing

With the Christmas shopping season upon us, people who find it difficult to get around on foot will be pleased to know they can hire a mobility scooter or wheelchair for the day, seven days a week, from ShopMobility Ealing’s new location in the Ealing Broadway Shopping Centre. “In the past, I couldn’t go shopping without having to wait for someone to go with me, but now I can come out by myself,“ said one regular user. Also on offer is overnight or longer hire of various types of wheelchairs. Situated on the first floor of the centre’s car park, the service can be contacted by ringing 020 8579 1724 between 10.00am-6.00pm, Mon-Fri.

If any other marathon regulars would like to run for ECIL, please ring Wendy on 020 8840 1566!

SUPPORTING EALING’S DISABLED PEOPLE AND CARERSBy CeCilia Coleshaw, Manager, ealing Carers’ Centre

the Carers’ Centre teaM CoMpleted the half Marathon

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Ealing NotesMany of us have campaigned for over a year to keep our hospital open. Ealing Council supported the campaign, insisted there was an Independent Review of decisions and attempted (unsuccessfully) to hold a Judicial Review. In November the Review announced that the A & E at Ealing Hospital would remain open. Many Conservative politicians boasted that the cross-party campaign to keep A& E at Ealing open had won the day. However, the claimed triumph belies the facts. The Health Minister, Jeremy Hunt has

Haven GreenFriends of Haven Green (FOHG) was formed to protect Haven Green which is ancient Common Land and Ealing’s heart. FOHG says the Green is steadily being nibbled away even though the Government protects such land against development for future generations to enjoy. Items like bus stops, an electricity sub station, a cycle hub and cycle racks are damaging the Green’s character.

This year stands for 110 cycles were installed on a large extent of grass. Originally described as temporary, the stands are likely to become permanent. Worse, many are empty! FoHG questions the legality of this kind of encroachment.

More from www.friendsofhavengreen.com.

By Judy Breens

Heathrow Airport: Third Runway. Despite there being agreement against this some time back a third runway at Heathrow is back on the agenda. Heathrow Airport Ltd made a submission to the Airports Commission set up by the government to assess airport capacity in London and the South East. This contains three options for a third runway. Included in the proposal are a number of measures that are intended to cut noise levels such as quieter planes, steeper approaches and more respite periods. See www.heathrowairport.com for the full submission or go to www.hacan.org.uk for further information. One piece of good news is that, the Government recently announced there will be no significant changes to night flights until 2017, after the Airports Commission reports in 2015.

not changed the Shaping

a Healthier Future decision on local health changes. The Chair, Dr Mark Spencer affirmed this on BBC News on the day of the ”A & E Saved” announcement. His team plans to demolish both Ealing and Clayponds Hospitals and rebuild a “local” hospital at Ealing. This will have out patient clinics only with some beds for rehabilitation and observation. No Maternity, Paediatrics, Surgical operations or Intensive Care. You simply cannot have a proper A & E Centre without the backing of a full hospital. Unless this plan changes the new Ealing Hospital may have an expanded Urgent Care Centre but it will certainly not have a full A & E. The same fate awaits Charing Cross Hospital. Together 700 beds would be lost. It is obvious that the announcement was a “face saving” gesture. Unless things change Charing Cross and Ealing’s A&E have stays of execution only, until the 2015 general election anyway.

Ealing Hospital:Is it time to take down the poster?

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St George, developers of 698 new homes at Dickens Yard, will have added many ££s to their assets on November 4th. Though affordable housing is desperately scarce in Ealing the Council planning committee agreed to accept a payment of £3.65million so St George did not have to provide 59 of the affordable homes promised in this much criticised development. The Council says the proceeds will go on affordable housing elsewhere, but that’s as maybe. For just £62,000 per flat, St George can now sell each property at market rates. Two bedroom flats in Dickens Yard go for £650,000+.

How the deal was reached is shrouded in commercial confidentiality. Observers must piece the picture together as best they can. The deal seems very generous to a company reported even in these straitened times, to be making 25% annual profits, and one reputedly good at persuading councils they need not provide as many affordable homes in their developments as planning policies demand. London Planning policy says 50% of homes in major developments should be affordable, onsite and integral to the development. At just 30%, Dickens Yard already fell way

below this requirement. The Council’s latest decision reduces it further.

Like the rest of London, Ealing desperately needs new homes for local people, but it seems half the homes sold at market rates in Dickens Yard are investments by overseas buyers. Ealing people are being priced out of a town centre being overdeveloped for the profit of foreign millionaires. Now we are losing homes the scheme specifically set aside for local people.

Neighbours Paper awaits with interest the fate of the remaining 70 affordable units St George is supposed to provide on a part buy/part rent basis. Will the Council pussycats be as obliging when St George comes to them with a similar offer for these flats?

Dealings with the Council must be very satisfactory for the company. How much its contributions to a fund for senior regeneration and planning officers to attend annual property junkets in the South of France help foster relationships is unknown. We do know that decisions on Dickens Yard seem to work out well for the developer.

In 2011 an organic supermarket

announced it would occupy the ground floor of the shopping centre but only in larger premises. The Council helpfully allowed St George to build out into both the town square and along Longfield Avenue on designated public space – supposed key benefits of the controversial Dickens Yard scheme. The supermarket has since left the scene but St George is now sitting on usefully enlarged floor space for which they can find other profitable tenants. St George’s diligent profit maximisation at Dickens Yard contrasts with an earlier Ealing housing developer called Edward Wood. In 1885 Wood disposed of some land along Longfield Avenue to Ealing Council’s predecessor, the Local Board. The site was valued at £2000 but Wood agreed to ‘knock off the last zero’ on condition it would be used for public benefit - ‘no buildings except Public Baths, a Free Library, or other public building’. Wood then returned the £200 payment to the Local Board to help fund the Town Hall’s construction. They did things differently in those days.Ironically it is his land that forms a large part of the Dickens Yard site.

St George, the Dragon and the Council PussycatBy np editorial teaM

penthouse apartMents availaBle up to £2,000,000



A Retired Librarian Remembers Perivale Library

There were shortages but the children’s section was well-stocked considering the wartime restrictions on print.

Shortages continued during the fifties and borrowing restricted to 1 fiction and 2 non-fiction! The strict librarian sent children with dirty hands home to wash and roller-skates were forbidden on the shiny parquet floor! (Later, stiletto heels were to make their mark instead!) The reference and reading rooms were separate, a quiet sanctuary with many more newspapers and magazines than today. Books were transferred by porters on bicycles. No biros were allowed to staff. The ledgers were kept in immaculate copperplate, using dip-pens. I still have the old inkwells since they were discarded.

In the 1960’s the partition wall to the reading room was removed to make more space. The beginning of the end of quiet libraries! Rates and rents were collected in the office. Citizen’s

My parents moved here in 1940,and I’ve known Perivale Library ever since. Like Wood End, it opened on October 11th 1938 and was run as a part-time branch from Ealing. Mrs G.Sanders was branch librarian assisted by Miss B.Lawrence, both until their retirements. It was largely due to the initiative of one Cllr May to provide for the new housing areas of the Borough. The Mayor and Borough Librarian attended with local rector Rev. A.M. Hope who donated a large bible. The mayor expressed the hope that the books would be uplifting and the public would spend many happy hours there. It was the time of Munich and storm clouds were gathering in Europe. A parachute bomb landed in Medway Drive on 26th September 1940 killing 6 people. Destruction was considerable. Our new house was shaken, and nearby was rubble and grey dust. The school and library remained open throughout the Blitz.

Advice lawyers attended regularly. School visits were encouraged. Opening hours were arranged to suit working practices at the many businesses on the Industrial Estate like Sanderson’s and Hoovers. With the increased popularity of television, fears were expressed about people’s reading habits. In fact television led to more readers eager to have the books many of the programmes were based on!

In my lifetime the three attempts by the Council to close Perivale and other small branches received vociferous local objections. It’s gratifying that the Council have reversed their latest policy. However, the previous administration decimated Ealing Reference Library and sacked its librarians, along with many back-office staff. They held libraries in low esteem. The very word Librarian has seemingly disappeared. Professional morale suffers as a result.

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PICCADILLY LINE STATIONS: IS CHARLES HOLDEN SPINNING IN HIS GRAVE?

A Retired Librarian Remembers Continued...

You might not have noticed them, but Northfields and Acton Town tube stations are officially listed buildings. In other words they are officially recognised for their architecture and design, so they are not allowed to be altered, let alone knocked down. They were designed in the 1930s by a famous architect called Charles Holden in a modernist style, involving use of brick concrete and glass to create a practical style of building.

Other local examples of this style are Chiswick Park, Osterley, Sudbury Hill and Sudbury Town. These station buildings are much admired, so take a few minutes to check them out sometime. Charles Holden passed away in 1960 but the old guy might be turning in his grave now though! An ugly prefab

type of building has just been named after him. It has been erected inside Northfields Train Depot to house 130 tube drivers, managers and administrative staff who have been transferred to Northfields from Acton Town. That might make London Underground the biggest employer in the Northfields area, by the way.

Staying on the subject of stations, when Osterley was built, it replaced an old station that was called Osterley and Spring Grove. It’s still there in

Thornbury Road, complete with disused platform. The old station is now a quirky second hand bookshop which also sells old fashioned children’s’ toys and bits of antiques. Might be worth a visit with Christmas coming up!

By oliver new

liBrary photos By valerie rudd

northfields station photo By JaMie anson

It’s a common misconception that computers have superseded the need for books. Certainly the web is a wonderful aid, and libraries have embraced the new technology. However, obituaries for the death of the book are premature.

Our refurbished Perivale library opened recently. Repairs to the roof, installation of a new boiler and the addition of a lavatory for the public are very welcome. But the destruction of the old counter (a work of craftsmanship in

oak, and a focal point) is deplorable. Also the loss of solid tables and chairs for study, replaced by plastic coffee tables. This and open-plan is not user-friendly but confusing to readers. Hanwell, I believe, has been more sensitively restored in harmony with its period charm. What a pity the same thought wasn’t given to Perivale! We can only hope that Carillion (who now have the contract to run it) will appreciate its value, and assure its future, so that, as in 1938,we can “spend many happy hours there.”



Ealing Broadway Station: Cheap and not very Cheerful Every day over 50,000 passengers pass in or out of Ealing Broadway Station. But did you know that work will soon start on the Crossrail development that may bring 30,000 more? Regular passengers know the station is a mess. Rebuilt in the 1960s, it is a brutal, soulless, concrete eyesore and a wretched gateway for visitors to Ealing. The entrance is cramped and there are long steps down to the booking hall and to platforms that often feel dangerously crowded.

Outside, the forecourt is cluttered, with no proper space to drop off passengers. Pedestrians have to cross a main road or push along narrow pavements. Bus stops serving the station are badly organised, congested or too far away. The recent addition of bike racks on Haven Green Common land has made the place jumbled and congested.

As passenger numbers have risen over the past 10 years the station has grown increasingly unpleasant, especially at peak times.

For years it’s been known that major improvements are needed. Town centre planning policies called for an integrated interchange. Consultants were hired to advise on options like building a bus station over the railway and opening a new entrance onto Uxbridge Road. But few improvements were actually made. Everything was put on hold to await the redevelopment of the station for Crossrail.

Things looked quite promising when Parliament considered Crossrail’s plans in 2008. They envisaged a glitzy new station complete with escalators. Vehicles would be cleared out of the forecourt, but there would be a place

to set down passengers from the road.

Sadly, things have slipped greatly since then. It’s now clear the station and the approaches to it are destined for a series of cheap and ill-coordinated measures. These will do little to improve any of the fundamental problems that have beset passengers for years – they may well make some of them worse.

This is all despite longstanding local pleas for the powers-that-be to improve the Station. These were pressed at meetings in Parliament organised by our MP and in a petition to the Council. But there has been no proper debate locally about the plans for such an important facility in Ealing and Crossrail has decided not to discuss its plans directly with the public.

The Future

Crossrail has now formally applied for the Council to approve the final details and the Council is consulting the public about them. The plans show how drastically Crossrail has pared back spending on the station rebuild. The existing

By will frenCh

“glitzy” station reBuild Before and after the Cuts. 2008 v 2013’.

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concrete building will remain and be remodelled to make room for up to 70% more passengers. Unlike Crossrail’s lavish new stations in Central London there will be no escalators, only lifts so small they will carry little more than a passenger with a wheel chair plus one with heavy bags. All other passengers will continue to use the steps. Once on the platform, passengers will find the shelter canopies cover less than half the platform length so at busy periods, some passengers will have to stand in the rain. Concerns remain that exiting passengers may not all be able to make their way up the stairs of platform 3 before the next Crossrail train arrives. The congestion this will create could have serious safety implications.

The prospects are just as disappointing outside the station. Work will start soon on clearing the forecourt of vehicles, but there is no provision for cars to set down passengers in front of the station. Sketches of the front of the new station show a ridiculous upward tilting west-facing canopy. This will give little protection from the weather and in a few years it will look just as awkward as the 1960s concrete station building does today. Sheltering passenger will enjoy a view of the forecourt area furnished with more ranks of cycle stands, anti-raid bollards and a tree. Beyond, Haven Green will be barely visible behind the clutter of the cycle hub and waiting buses.

Many people hoped Crossrail would be the catalyst to deliver the integrated improvements needed. Sadly they now show they will only deliver a scheme Crossrail thinks is good enough to get away with. How it fits with the town centre is not Crossrail’s concern. Without official local coordination, and despite the efforts of the Town

Centre BID Company, adjoining site owners have had little reason to work together for improvements.

Ealing Station’s problem is that nobody will take responsibility for the place as a whole. Many different transport operators deliver train, underground, bus, and taxi passengers to it but none are prepared to take overall ownership and make sure the bits fit together properly and work efficiently as a transport hub. TfL once had a specialist interchange unit that tried to coordinate different operators like London Underground and London Buses, but this disbanded two years ago.

Haven Green

The only land available to accommodate all the new passengers Crossrail will draw to the station is the Common Land that is Haven Green. Already, the historic role of Haven Green as an area of public open space has become seriously undermined. Ranks of buses queue along the diagonal and waiting passengers have worn away vast areas of grass. While satisfying an undeniable demand for cycle parking the new cycle hub built

there has taken away its green space and is damaging the Green’s appearance.

And locally, here in Ealing? Though our elected Councillors have made some eloquent speeches to eager voters, they’ve lacked the strength and the necessary commitment to demand something better. The contrast with East London is stark. In Tower Hamlets George Galloway threatened to derail the whole project if he didn’t get what he wanted (sure enough he did) while in Woolwich they negotiated a whole new station.

The station looks a huge disappointment. We can now just hope Ealing’s transport and planning ‘experts’ make the best of the poor job they’re faced with in fitting it into the town centre. We’ve all endured the botched scheme their predecessors delivered 50 years ago. Time’s running out to get things right this time.

They do these things so much better on the continent where modes of transport connect more smoothly with one another and more attractively. If they can manage it why can’t we?

Editor’s note: Until last year Will French was the Chair of Save Ealing’s Centre.

alternate view of the Current design


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In 2014 the Ealing Fairtrade Group is planning to launch a Fairtrade Award Scheme for the borough. The purpose of the Awards is to showcase local businesses and groups who are selling and/or promoting Fairtrade products. A team of volunteers is needed to help us organize this. Can you help us?

Categories under consideration:

1. Best Fairtrade Office - any type of workplace

2. Best Fairtrade Retailer - any shop or store

3. Best Fairtrade Food Outlet - any type of outlet selling food including cafes/restaurants/bars etc.

4. Best Fairtrade Accommodation - any type of hotel, b and b, etc.

5. Best Fairtrade Business or Supplier - any type of company supplying to private individuals and companies

6. Best Fairtrade Community Project - any activity led by an individual or group to promote or fundraise for Fairtrade

7. Best Fairtrade School/education Project - any project by a school, college, nursery, or university.

We want to recruit several volunteers to work as a team, together with existing members of Ealing Fairtrade Group, to:

· Assist to finalize the categories and agree a timescale

· Communicate the criteria for entry into each category to relevant parties

· Promote and publicise the awards to encourage nominations and voting

· Assist to identify and secure judges and sponsors

· Organize an awards ceremony

Each team member should have, or be looking to gain, experience of one or more of the following skills and experience:

- Event management- Communication skills- PR and marketing- Administration- Team-working- Initiative and self-motivation

An interest in Fairtrade and International Development

This opportunity is particularly suitable for anyone wishing to get into event management, marketing, promotions and administration.

By JaCkie whitaker

Ealing Fairtrade group is a voluntary group. Hours are flexible, communication is largely by email and sometimes telephone, and meetings are held as necessary in the evenings. The commitment needed will depend on the number of people in the team, but is expected to be in the region of several hours per week, for 6-9 months.

We welcome people of all ages and backgrounds, and in return for their time, volunteers will gain valuable work experience, skills and references. Training and support will be available as necessary, and out-of-pocket expenses will be paid.

For further information, please contact Jackie, Co-ordinator of Ealing Fairtrade Group at: [email protected]. and see www.ealingfairtrade.org.uk

Volunteers needed to organise Ealing Fairtrade Awards!



A young Neighbours Paper team member writes about

her experiences…………

Work experience is one of the most enlightening two weeks of your academic life. As a student myself, I know the effort you put into getting your grades - which are your first and foremost priority. What about after that? What’s next? Most of us have a dream career in our heads or a field we want to get into when we’re young. Dreams and reality are two VERY DIFFERENT things! No matter how thoroughly you research, first hand experience will always be the best and most reliable way to find out what that job is really like.

This is where work experience comes into play. It gives you an accurate insight into the work environment of your choice be it in a hospital, a mechanics, a bakery, a school etc. You will spend time working alongside the professionals and learning first hand what the job is like. It’s like an

‘Access All Areas’ backstage pass into the world of work. Possibly the greatest thing about it is the fact that it could inspire you into following a dream career.... or save you from making a mistake before it’s too late.

I personally learnt a lot from my two weeks of work experience. I’ve always

wanted a career with animals, so spent one week at a cattery run by the RSPCA and the second week with local vets. Having two placements was a great experience because the two were very different. At the cattery - a shelter for abandoned and unwanted cats - there was a clear daily routine and I quickly adapted to it. Arrival at 8am, cleaning cages (about 1 hour), general tidying up, lunch, sitting with the kittens (the best bit), second feed, more cleaning and finish at 4.30pm.

At the vets as there were new animals being treated every day. The routine involved similar patterns but also

By dJ (aged 15)

getting to know new animals every day. For a short time I weighed animals which was new. I learnt a lot about the profession and just how hard it is to be a vet. But also I spent some time every day standing around not really doing anything useful and not learning anything!

Knowing what I know now, I am in a better position about whether to pursue a career as a vet.

See more great pictures from the RSPCA cattery at www.neighbourspaper.com/blog

Work ExpEriEncE

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By MiChael holMes

Sports CoachingLast time I wrote about being a Sports Maker. Now another opportunity in sport is available. You can become a Sports Coach for a rewarding experience.

So what is Sports Coaching all about?

The aim is to develop UK coaching excellence. Good sports coaches not only enhance sporting experience, but through this, they increase and sustain active lifestyles too. This in turn will bring enormous health and well-being benefits to the London Borough of Ealing. Our vision is to enable every child, player and athlete to have fun, follow their dreams, and fulfil their sporting potential.

Sports Coach is a UK-registered charity working together with others to support recruitment, develop and retain coaches and help them to achieve their sport participation and performance goals. In Ealing we work with a number of partners to deliver this service: in particular, PRO-ACTIVE West London. We support and challenge our partners to improve their coaching systems, develop coach training and improve cross boundary and cross sector partnerships with the many sport and physical activity providers in all London Boroughs. This will contribute to the overall aim to achieve a cohesive coaching system throughout the whole of the UK.

I’ve always loved playing handball and have trained as a Handball Coach. I am now following the level 2 course that leads to a Certificate in the Principles and Preparations for Coaching Sport. The skills learnt here are transferable to my other love, American Football. I’ve become passionate about the sport since the American Football article I wrote in Neighbours Paper, Issue 65. I regularly play with friends in Hyde Park. This inspired me to take on the

challenge of Coaching American Football. I’m confident my current coaching experience will achieve my ambition to coach American Football.

Now that I’m registered with Sports Coach UK my hope is to develop an American Football Team/Club in Ealing in addition to the London Warriors who are based in Boston Manor. It may be I can encourage a younger group to learn the game. More teams are needed and with 3 National Football League (NFL) games consisting of 6 teams planned for Wembley Stadium next year the American sport is fast becoming successful internationally.

In closing let me highlight the benefit of taking up sports coaching. Our overall aim is to seek to encourage many more people to become and remain physically active through the increased participation in sport and physical activity at all levels for all people in Ealing. To do this we need to raise the quality of sports clubs, their workforce and to reduce inequality in sport opportunities. All who have an interest in coaching can follow this pathway to pursue their aspirations.

How could you become a Sports Coach? Please see: http://sportscoachuk.org/

MiChael holMes alongside the vinCe loMBardi trophy awarded to the winning teaM of the nfl super Bowl.

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Neighbours' Paper Issue 67