Forum Topic

Rubbish around the old Gala Bingo Hall

Is it just me or has the flytipping around the old Gala bingo hall got out of hand since it was sold onto the new owners? The building itself slid quickly into disrepair and there are dumped mattresses amongst all manner of rubbish in the space to the right of the building on the Uxbridge Road and a mound of detritus (sofas, TVs, household waste) appears on the ground between it and 2 Burlington Gardens on a regular basis. On previous attempts to report the latter to the council I've been told that it is technically privately owned land and therefore not the council's responsibility. It's such an eyesore, surely someone must be accountable? I don't know about the legal ramifications but surely to some point the owners should be held accountable too? I feel an email to Dan Crawford coming on...

Antonia Kraskowski ● 3403d10 Comments

As far as I can find out it's still for sale. There's not been a planning application lodged with Ealing Council since the change of use in 2014. The lease on the property runs out in September 2017, so it'll be home to the church group at least until then I guess.

Joseph Jones ● 3396d

The site needs to be protected from having litter dumped there rather than just having it cleared up.  We don't want to give the impression to anybody that they have now have their own personal HWRC.

Philippa Bond ● 3399d

Whilst on the subject of the former Bingo Hall, has anyone heard what is likely to be done with it?

Bob Little ● 3399d

Well done Joseph thank you

John Kennedy ● 3400d

Absolutely Philippa. However, determining who owns a property can be cumbersome as a basic Land Registry search will only provide the name of the owner and not their contact details. The church group are currently only renting the property and the selling agents (Kingsbury Investment and Development Consultants Ltd) wouldn't respond to a private individual such as you or me with that information. A local authority could have some record of who owns which non-residential properties within their boundary (at least when I worked for Wolverhampton Council a decade ago we had records like that) or they can access these records with minimal effort. They are probably the best suited body to contact the owners and get them to take action as they have the legal responsibility to enforce environmental health legislation. I did do a bit of research into who could be the owner and whichever company (as I would bet it's owned by a company rather than an individual) does own the property doesn't seem to be an overseas based holding company. I checked that out using the nifty interactive map Private Eye produced a couple of years ago.

Joseph Jones ● 3400d

It doesn't do the reputation of the owners of the site any good.  Perhaps they just need alerting to the problem.

Philippa Bond ● 3400d

Hi Antonia. I took a walk down to this place just now and took photos of the rubbish (including two mattresses) that have been dumped outside the property. I contacted Ealing Council's Environmental Health Business Support Team via the Grimebusters hotline and logged a report with them. I took control of the conversation by explaining that while the rubbish may indeed be on private land it did contain items that could constitute a health hazard by providing a habitat for vermin and that while it was indeed private land it was accessible to the public (it's currently dumped on the set-back pavement outside the front of the property). They have logged my call and said that an officer will visit the site to assess the hazard and to then take appropriate action to contact the land-owner to clear the fly-tipped rubbish or to serve legal notices if required. I have a reference number and I will keep an eye on the site and stay in contact to check matters.Hope this helps.

Joseph Jones ● 3400d

Hi Antonia,Who in the council told you that? I'm going to guess it was one of Ealing Council's call-centre operatives. Quote chapter and verse at them. https://www.ealing.gov.uk/info/201153/street_care_and_cleaning/197/fly-tipping/4If rubbish is on private land it is indeed the responsibility of the landlord/land-owner to clear. However, if it constitutes a health hazard (which by the sound of it is the case, especially if it contains food waste and soft furnishings which provide a habitat for vermin) then the local authority can take formal action to force the land-owner to take responsibility after conducting a site visit.

Joseph Jones ● 3400d

If you look  up the boards look very loose if  we have a storm well Passed it today eyesore for Acton another one

John Kennedy ● 3403d

I think you should be complaining to the owners of the building/land as it is their responsibility.

Philippa Bond ● 3403d