Category: News

We are pleased to announce that our new website for ERA is “live”. This is our new home for all things Eastcote – local events, news, everything you want or need to know about our area, and information about planning and other developments in Eastcote.

You can also submit your event and your news directly to our new website by following the links highlighted.

If you have any comments or suggestions – or even would like to get involved, then contact us

RAF Northolt’s Communications Officer, Sqn Ldr James Tenniswood, outlines plans for the 100 aircraft flypast on Tuesday 10th July, in celebration of the RAF’s centenary year.

The flypast will enter London from the east, fly along The Mall, then split up into 9 packets of aircraft which will exit London over Hendon, Heathrow and the South West of London.

In London, the best place to view the entire flypast will be at The Mall, or just behind Buckingham Palace, somewhere like Eaton Square Gardens. If you want to see the aircraft that will exit over Hillingdon, the best, and only view will be just North of Heathrow; Harlington, Sipson and Harmondsworth areas. Aircraft from the flypast may be visible along the lower border with Ealing and the M4, and along the eastern edge of Harrow, east of the A5.

Unfortunately the aircraft will not exit over RAF Northolt or it surrounds. This is because, unlike the Queen’s Birthday Flypast, which is much smaller and usually flies out over RAF Northolt in order to avoid Heathrow airspace, this flypast, with up to 100 aircraft, will see Heathrow’s airspace closed and cleared; thus nearly all the traffic will travel out over Heathrow and to the south of Heathrow.

We will put out any updates on the RAF Northolt Twitter and Facebook channels. Of course the Flypast, and the parade, will be broadcast on BBC One on the day.

Update: The petition will be delivered to a representative of the East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust at the main Mount Vernon office, 9:30am on Monday July 9th.

Local residents have vowed to save Michael Sobell Hospice in Northwood, setting up an online petition addressed to The East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, asking them to “Find a way to replace the current Michael Sobell Hospice building that has come to the end of its life.”

Supporters are encouraged to join for the presentation of the petition. Organiser, Terry Dean, said:

“If you want to join us; The plan is now to congregate on the land just outside the gate 3 entrance of Mount Vernon Hospital on White Hill from 9 to 9:30am on Monday July 9th. I have cleared this with the police and invited them to join us.”

“I will be accompanied by Dr. Elaine Laycock MBE. Dr Laycock was one of the first doctors to work at the hospice soon after it opened. She used some of her time at MSH to help create the first Palliative Care Centre in Serbia which opened in 2013. She took staff from MSH to Serbia to teach them, and brought Serb doctors to MSH to learn. There are now two hospices in Serbia both based on the Michael Sobell model; it is ironic that there may soon not be one in Northwood unless we stand up for it.”

“Dr. Laycock and I will be meeting with Nick Hurd next week to discuss this campaign. I have in my possession a letter from Mr Hurd stating that he welcomes the Department of Health’s End of Life Care Strategy which encourages the development of specialist palliative care and hospice provision.”

If we are able to reach a target of 10,000 signatures we may be able to force a response from Westminster. At this stage we only need everyone who has signed so far to get one more signature! So please share this link if you have not already done so.” https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-the-michael-sobell-hospice

“Finally I have received a message of support from a relative of Michael Sobell. To remind yourself what we are striving to save please paste the address below into your browser to watch a short video made last year by media students of West Herts College.”

“Thanks for standing up for compassion and the need for members of society to care for each other.”

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Kahn, has put forward a new London Plan to which anyone can send their individual response during the consultation period.

The consultation closes at 5.00 pm on Friday, 2nd March 2018.

Following the link below, will take you to the London Plan Website where you can view the full plan and there are details of the various ways that you can submit your comments:- https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/planning/london-plan/new-london-plan/how-comment-draft-london-plan.

The full draft plan is 500 pages long and makes substantial and far reaching changes to the existing plan about which the London Borough of Hillingdon has considerable concerns and is very clear in its view that many of the proposed policy changes will have significant adverse impacts on the Borough, its people, its built environment, its natural environment, its heritage and wider policy objectives.

The Eastcote Residents’ Association fully support all our Council’s concerns as detailed in the written response that LBH is proposing to make.

ERA will be submitting comments to the Mayor showing this support and highlighting the issues that will affect the Eastcote area which we serve.

In addition, it would be great if you could find the time to make your individual objections known. 500 pages is a lot to get through! Therefore the draft response already provided by LBH is attached, which you can use as a guide for your own comments.

Just as a brief overall steer here, some of the issues that will affect us are:-

• Generally, the Mayor makes no policy differentiations to meet the very distinct issues and needs between inner and outer London.
• There is a clear policy of shifting housing growth to Outer London to ensure more housing should occur in suburbs such as ours.
• The plan requires Hillingdon to provide an annualised average of over 1,500 new residential units (based on a target of 15,530 units over 10 years), with an emphasis on 1 and 2-bedroom homes.
• To achieve such housing growth, there is no longer a presumption against infill building in gardens (garden grab), high rise buildings in town centres would be encouraged and the protection of Green Belt land is potentially undermined.
• Car parking standards for new builds have been significantly reduced – in some cases to a zero requirement.
• In tandem with car parking, no plans are provided to improve public transportation in the Outer London Boroughs. Not everyone travels from our area into London and the public transport links between the North and South of the Borough are particularly poor.

If you require any further information on this, please contact Jackie Redrup, Eastcote Residents’ Association, Volunteer Planning Representative planning@eastcotera.co.uk

You can view Hillingdon’s Response to the Draft London Plan here.