I CAN only agree and sympathise with the residents of Southall on the gasworks site decision, as reported in the Gazette.
It will be a disaster for Southall and well beyond.
Southall is already one of the most crowded places in West London.
Its road are heavily congested and its air pollution breaches legal limits set to protect human health.
The last thing local people need is even more people, congestion and pollution.
Boris Johnson's justification for the project is typical of the phoney arguments put forward for 'development' and 'regeneration'.
He said "This application is clearly of major significance to London, with the homes it will deliver and the jobs it will create.
"West London is an important driver for the capital's entire economy.
"Failure to give the Southall application the go-ahead and develop this key brownfield site could be detrimental to the future economic prosperity of the area."
Boris Johnson's arguments are absurd. It is ridiculous to try and boost jobs by increasing the population.
We need to create jobs for the currently unemployed local people to fill, not encourage more people into what is basically a housing estate with very few jobs.
It is equally absurd to try and boost the economy by increasing the population.
Of course a bigger population tends to support a bigger economy - that is why China's economy is much larger than Norway's.
But that does not mean the
Chinese are better off than the Norwegians.
NIC FERRIDAY Boston Gardens
Hanwell
