TALES of terror but also of residents' resolve not to be beaten by mobs were told by council leader Julian Bell when he gave a public lecture about the Ealing riots.

Councillor Bell gave a personal account of the events and the action taken by the council in the hours, weeks and months following them at the talk at the University of West London today (Friday June 8).

He began with an overview of the night in August 2011, recalling how 300 thugs rampaged through the streets of Ealing and West Ealing with initially just 35 police officers without riot training or equipment struggling to contain them. Ealing's 44 riot police had already been sent to Hackney to deal with the unrest there.

He paid tribute to Richard Mannington Bowes, who was killed while trying to put out a fire in Springbridge Road, and said it was surprising no-one else lost their life.

He revealed about £1 million of damage was caused that night, about £400,000 borne by the council.

And spoke of his own experience, facing 300 rioters charging towards him, before he escaped to the safety of the town hall. He said he was standing at the junction of Ealing Broadway and the High Street at about 10pm, exactly the time social media had declared the riot was to start, when he saw "the tide of evil" coming towards him.

Mr Bell, said: "The was a guttural roar then they came charging down the High street towards me and Ealing Gazette reporter Michael Russell. They picked up and threw everything in their path. It was very, very frightening."

But despite his experience and the violence he watched unfolding before him on the council's CCTV cameras, he warned against demonising social media.

He pointed out the large majority of the messages organising the riot came from Blackberry messenger (a system limited to that particular make of phone) rather than Facebook or Twitter.

And Twitter was instrumental enabling a team of volunteers to gather with brooms to help with the clean-up the following morning as well as allowing him to keep in touch with residents from the CCTV room where he stayed throughout the night.

Council officers also stayed awake to provide a fast response. Street cleaners were out working from 5.30am, just an hour after police had declared the borough safe.

Council officers and councillors visited affected traders and residents quickly offering support and advice and stories began to emerge of terrified traders hiding from the horde and residents cowering at home as a mob gathered outside brandishing petrol bombs. Their cries for help were among the 1,000 calls to 999 made that night. Most went unanswered.

The borough recovered, helped by a £250,000 riot fund from the council and it's shop local campaign which saw a nine per cent boost to footfall. Only two shops, the Ealing Green Local Supermarket and the Green Mango Cafe next door are yet to reopen.

Mr Bell said: "I would still say eat, drink and shop local. Our retailers have had a tough time and we need to support them."

He said the Met Police had learned lessons from their mistakes and a lot of work has been done to prepare for a repeat of that night. Any officer who comes to Ealing now will be riot trained and many extra officers will be arriving for the Olympics and they will be there during the anniversary of the riots.

When he was asked about the causes of the riots and how to deal with them, Mr Bell drew on observations made by former Ealing Council chief executive Darra Singh who led the Riots, Communities and Victims Panel which drew up the national report into the unrest, as well as Tottenham MP David Lammy.

He said there were many who felt they did not have a stake in society which had to change, a view echoed by many in the audience.

Mr Bell said income inequality in this country, which has got worse in the past 30 years, needed to be tackled more effectively. And, Ealing was doing it's bit in the national problem by working with young people to help them find direction and work.

The criminal justice system was also touched upon as Mr Bell cited Mr Lammy's observation that neither the punishment side, nor the rehabilitation side worked effectively and needed to be tackled.

Finally he defined 'character' as the attribute which allowed many young people to ignore the call to riot. He said more work needed to be done with young people to help build that.

Riot toll:

Richard Mannington Bowes lost his life

More than 100 shops and businesses had been damaged.

Ealing Green Supermarket was burned down and families living in flats above were made homeless

Nine homes had been attacked

Numerous cars were burnt out

1,000 emergency calls had been made

Council help:

A £250,000 fund was set up to help businesses affected by the riots

It included £1,200 payments to damaged shops to help cover the cost of repairs

And two 20,000 crisis loans to the two worst affected business - the Ealing Green Local Supermarket, destroyed by fire, and the Green Mango Cafe next door badly damaged by water from firemen's hoses.

Business rates were suspended for affected traders (worth a total of £187,000)

One-stop-shop advice surgeries were set up

A shop local campaign was set up

And residents affected were visited and given security advice at home

Aftermath:

About 250 rioters have been arrested by police

About 70 percent are not borough residents

About 30 per cent were under 18

About 30 per cent of these were borough residents

About 17 per cent of all rioters were involved in gangs