LONDON Mayor Boris Johnson and his deputy Richard Barnes (Tory Assembly Member for Ealing and Hillingdon) are both up for re-election on 3rd May this year.

They are desperately hoping the electors of Southall have forgotten the decision Mayor Johnson made in March 2010 to overturn the democratic decision of Ealing’s planning committee and give the green light to the Southall Gasworks development.

In the face of fierce opposition from the local community, Labour Councillors and me, the Tory Mayor pushed through the decision to allow a huge over-development of the site with 3,700 new residential units that will cause traffic gridlock in Southall. He was assisted in this decision by the local Tories who failed to even attend City Hall to protest; in sharp contrast to the coachloads of local people who raised their voices in vain against the worries of congestion and contaminated waste.

Two years on the people of Southall have not forgotten this betrayal by Boris and they are determined to make him pay at the ballot box. The Labour Council has done its best to mitigate the impacts of the Mayor’s decision by demanding and getting £12m in what are called section 106 agreements to provide supporting transport, education and health infrastructure for Southall but it is not enough given the scale
of the development the Mayor is forcing on Southall and his refusal to widen the bridge on South Road before construction takes place.

One of the key conditions for the project that even the Mayor agreed was essential, was that no development could take place on the site until an access road was built on the west side onto the Hayes by-pass near Pump Lane. But Hillingdon Council including Tory Councillor and Deputy Mayor Richard Barnes are hell bent on putting a block on this and as a result the owners of the site, National Grid, have recently put in a planning application to vary this key condition and allow the use of Beaconsfield, Ranelagh, Woodlands and Trinity Roads to transport contaminated waste through the streets of Southall in big lorries past local schools and homes.

This is outrageous, completely unacceptable and more than rubs salt into the original wound. The application was pulled from the planning committee due to lack of consultation and it would be very unwise of National Grid to try and bring it back as the Southall community and the local Labour Party will fight it every inch of the way.

Southall voters will also be asking why Hillingdon Tory Richard Barnes is trying to inflict this misery on their town. Added to the bus and tube fare hikes, the cuts to police officer numbers and the threatened closure of Ealing Hospital they have every reason to make Tory Boris and Barnes pay and vote for Labour’s Ken Livingstone and Onkar Sahota on 3rd May.

Virendra Sharma MP