Boris Johnson has helped launch the next stage of the much-anticipated regeneration scheme for Southall Gasworks.
The Mayor of London was joined by Ealing councillors, developers and civil dignitaries for an event held earlier today at the Gasworks site off Beaconsfield Road.
National Grid and St James are behind the mammoth scheme, which aims to deliver 3,750 homes, food and drink outlets, a cinema, healthcare and education facilities, as well as offices and a sports pavilion.
Speaking at the event, Boris said: "It's highly appropriate that we're meeting on the site of a former Gasworks because some people really do like to gas on about building homes, whereas other people actually get on with it. We are facing massive demographic pressures in our city to build new homes for people. We do need to provide high-quality housing but we won't solve the problem unless we massively extend supply."
At one stage, the council bumped heads with the Mayor after he forced the application through even though it had been shot down by the borough planning committee. People had objected to the scheme for a number of reasons, including concerns over the impact from traffic and the health risks in building a major housing development on contaminated land.
Julian Bell, Labour leader of Ealing Council also spoke at the event. He said: "It's been long in the gestation and we've had some improvements along the way in terms of planning conditions. We believe that the mitigations that we were working on will benefit people living in and around the site and we will be watching closely to make sure that we get a western access road."
Mr Bell added that the council would make sure that decontamination work at the site would be thorough, as well as working with developers and Transport for London to mitigate the traffuc impact.
He added: "I'm very excited about the new retail opportuniies at the site, which would incorporate restaurants and shops."Building work is scheduled to begin in 2017, with the first batch of homes due to be available in 2019, the same year that Crossrail is projected to get underway.
