Forum Topic

'Altogether better Acton'

This Ealing Council produced publication arrived on my doormat today. After living in Acton for 25 years I'm not sure I need this sort of thing but I suppose it might have it uses. Not sure what they are, though. There's a snippet from June Martin, owner of the Little Art Room. (where is that?) She says "Shoppers now enjoy a high-end bike shop; an organic food emporium; a bakery; a shop that makes its own ice cream; a joiner who makes quality wooden furniture; a trendy barber; and a high quality beauty salon."I can identify example/s of some of the above businesses, but am mystified by:- the ice cream (used to be at Barberis on the High St but don't know if they still exist), - the organic food emporium (please someone tell me where this is!) - the joiner (is this Becky Bell? She moved out over a year ago - or is there someone else?)Please help. I haven't managed to read much more, but this looks like it must have cost something and seems just like one big advert for Ealing Council. Can anyone shed any light on it?

Clare Gittins ● 5104d18 Comments

Clare, The Little Art Room is at the top of Boston Manor Rd oppodite Wickes, i think that's the area she must be talking about.

Milena Vincic ● 5104d

It did actually say the businesses were in Hanwell.

Nigel Ryan ● 5104d

The ice cream makers have gone and a very nice chemist is in its place

Kevin Bell ● 5104d

So it does. I was scanning it for useful info and failed to read properly. It said Acton on the cover, so I assumed it was all about Acton. Should have realised it was a pointless advert for Ealing Council and put it straight in the recycling. I wonder how much it cost. Does anyone else object to their council tax being spent on this, or am I just in a grumpy mood today?

Clare Gittins ● 5104d

Is this revamped rubbish, just another name for Around Ealing?For a council that is making cuts and spending money hand over fist on silly projects, I think we have the right to be grumpy.

Nicola Howard ● 5104d

This irritating little magazine is just Stalinist propaganda for the incompetent Labour administration currently "running" LBE. It highlights all the wonderful projects they have been spending our money on. They've even created a website for their poor benighted electorate to share their own experiences of the Council's utter wonderfulness: www.ealingaltogether.com Suggest a mass uploading of pictures of fly-tipping, graffiti, derelict shops and uncollected rubbish would be the appropriate response.

Peter Millman ● 5104d

I suppose there is one consolation, it's less than 18 months before we can boot them out.  There again, there are the misguided that think the sun shines out of their a***s.  How much more potty nonsense, will we have to put up with in the meantime?

Nicola Howard ● 5104d

This magazine is a real wast of money. I cant see anyone bothering to look at it. I thought pickles had put a stop to councils self advertising.

Bob Crossley ● 5104d

It must have taken me all of 1 minute to glance at it and put it straight into the recycling.  What a load of rubbish!

Nina Battleday ● 5104d

There was a time when Around Acton was a proper magazine, then the cheaper version was produced in an effort to save money, and, now this.  Someone has made good use of Photoshop.  If the council must produce such propaganda, could we have the images un-retouched, so that we can see all the rubbish and litter that adorn our streets and amenities.

Nicola Howard ● 5104d

I guess other parts of the borough got ones that said 'Altogether better...Hanwell/Ealing/Greenford etc. The website www.ealingaltogetherbetter.com says on its home page:-"Discover the London Borough of Ealing, made up of the seven town centres of Ealing, Hanwell, Acton, Greenford, Northolt, Perivale and Southall each with its own unique identity.Only a short distance from the centre of London, Ealing has fantastic open spaces, excellent attractions and a wide range of shops. Restaurants serving foods from around the world provide an unrivalled choice of options for eating out and there’s accommodation to suit all budgets.Come and find out what makes Ealing “altogether better”."In to the recycling this goes. If they must spend our council tax on a magazine, at least make it interesting and informative!

Amanda Knights ● 5104d

Sorry, made a typo, it should read Around Ealing, not Around Acton.  Don't really make that much difference, the Despots running the council will continue to waste our money and, churn out the self praising propaganda.

Nicola Howard ● 5104d

Further to Peter's suggestion for a "mass uploading of pictures of fly-tipping" to the new www.ealingaltogether.com website, someone on the W4 website suggested reporting dumped rubbish to the Leader of Ealing Council via Twitter.We need to give the exact address or location, and, if possible, include a pic.Ealing's leader is Julian Bell - @juliangbell is his Twitter account.Sounds like a great idea to me - let's bombard him.

Tom Forde ● 5102d

Tried to send it back but this is what I got. Be careful, it looks like it is full of virus's.  plus there are over 300 links to e-mail this rubbish.Errors found while checking this document as XHTML 1.0 Transitional!Result: 226 Errors, 312 warning(s)Address: Encoding: utf-8 Doctype: XHTML 1.0 Transitional Root Element: html

Nicola Howard ● 5102d

Nicola,What did you try sending back and to where?

Amanda Knights ● 5101d

Clare,I got the Ealing version of this nonsense this week.  The whole exercise has cost £40K.  It is a total waste of money.  20-30 people have had their council tax thrown away on this.  I can only think that the residents' survey is coming up and they are trying to cheer us up.  Lots of the facts and figures are wrong and most of the projects they are talking about have been around for a long time.  I asked to see all of the versions.  I note that the Acton one talks about "A modern, Olympic-sized eight lane swimming pool".  No-one has been talking about a 50m pool in Acton for a number of years (unfortunately in my personal view).  The new pool will be a 25m one.

Phil Taylor ● 5101d

£40K! What a monumental waste of money. We could have had another invisible pot - maybe even two - on the High Street for that much money. Speechless at the pointless waste of it all.

Clare Gittins ● 5101d

Have to agree this is a total waste of money. Not sure why each borough needed this ridiculous patting ourselves on the back for doing nothing magazine.

Ana Strachan ● 5094d