Ruislip Residents’ Association TOWN CRIER September 2015 www.ruislipresidents.org.uk Boris Johnson News from our new MP A Tale of Two Great Barns by Eileen Bowlt RUISLIP RESIDENTS’ ASSOCIATION Founded 1919 PRESIDENT CONTENTS Brian Cowley VICE-PRESIDENTS Joan Davis Peter Lansdown 3 Editorial CHAIRMAN 4 Community Noticeboard Graham Bartram 5 Chairman's Message VICE-CHAIRMAN Mike Hodge 6 Boris Johnson MP TREASURER MP for Manor Ward John Hawley 7 Nick Hurd MP SECRETARY Pamela Edwards MP for West & East Ruislip Wards CHIEF ROAD STEWARD 8 A Tale of Two Great Barns Jack Greiller 11 Police Points DEPUTY CHIEF ROAD STEWARD Alan Jones 14 Education News EXECUTIVE Vivien Alcorn 18 Health Matters John Swindells Jaqueline Bolton John Williams 20 Councillors' Comments Susan Midgley 22 Planning Update EDITOR Graham Bartram 23 Houses of Parliament Visit ✎ [email protected] ✆ 01895 673310 24 General Meeting - Notice CONTACT US Pamela Edwards Honorary Secretary Ruislip Residents’ Association 98 Eastcote Road Ruislip Middlesex HA4 8DT ✆ 01895 674148 ✎ [email protected] www.ruislipresidents.org.uk 2 Ruislip TOWN CRIER COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES Editorial Jaqueline Bolton POLICE LIAISON Brian Gunn CONSERVATION Paul Mitchell Painting the Forth Bridge... PUBLIC TRANSPORT Graham Bartram The work of a Residents’ Association is never done. Just when you think you have solved one problem, EDUCATION Susan Midgley another crops up to replace it. All you can do is try and keep on top of it all. Ruislip Manor has had a lot RAF NORTHOLT LIAISON Peter Lansdown of work done and it is now looking a lot better, but recently I took a long hard look at Ruislip High Street ENVIRONMENT Christine Andrews and decided it needs some work. The pavement has not been well maintained and needs work, some RUISLIP LIDO Peter Lansdown of the shopfronts are pretty awful and many of the upper storeys have not been redecorated in many HEALTH Joan Davis years. The High Street is a conservation area and real- ly should look better, especially given the huge rents RUISLIP RETAIL AREA that the building owners are charging the shops! Pamela Edwards MANOR RETAIL AREA I had hoped to hand over the editorship of Town Joan Davis Crier by now, but sadly my replacement has had SOCIAL ACTIVITIES to withdraw, so I am back at square one. If anyone Vivien Alcorn knows Adobe InDesign and would like to volunteer MEMBERSHIP to help with preparing the Town Crier, please con- Brian Cowley tact me. We have a template which makes putting TRAFFIC & PARKING the magazine together reasonably straightforward. Brian Cowley MINUTES SECRETARY Patricia Wardle WEBSITE Graham Bartram John Swindells Graham Bartram, Editor Pro Tem PLANNING Mike Hodge Please note that the views expressed in articles in the Town Crier are those of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Ruislip WOODLANDS Residents’ Association. Vacant Ruislip TOWN CRIER 3 FRIENDS OF EASTCOTE HOUSE GARDEN www.eastcotehousegardens.weebly.com Eastcote House Volunteer Gardeners meet on the 1st Friday, 2nd Friday and 3rd Thursday of every month, at 9.30am. Everyone welcome - tools and refreshments provided - no experience necessary. Meet in the car park at Eastcote House Gardens. Gardening dates: September 4th, 11th, 17th; October 2nd, 9th, 15th; November 6th, 11th 19th; December 4th, 11th, 17th. Conservation dates: September 24th, October 22nd, November 26th. Open House: September 20th; Tree Dressing: November 28th. HILLINGDON DECORATIVE & FINE ARTS SOCIETY Lecture Programme Late 2015 Wednesdays at 2.00pm, Winston Churchill Hall - admission £6 to non-members 9 September AGM & The Art of the American Civil War Tricha Passes 14 October Past Imperfect: Why World War II art Shauna Isaac looting is still an issue today 9 December Three Wise Men: Gold, Frankincense and Christopher Bradley Myrrh – traditions of the Magi 13 January The Power of Jewellery: Adornment and Judy Rudoe Ritual from Prehistory to the Present RUISLIP, NORTHWOOD & EASTCOTE LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY Meetings held in St Martin’sLecture Church Programme Hall, 8.15pm.2015 Visitors welcome. 21 September From Shillibeer to Borismaster: The Story of the London Bus John Wagstaff 19 October Rogers of Eastcote House: London HA An 18th Century Lady of Property Eileen Bowlt RNELHS 4 Ruislip TOWN CRIER Chairman’s Message RRA Summer is well and the top of the embankment, not people's truly underway, a gardens. It turns out one tunnel goes un- typical British Sum- der the railway embankment and the oth- mer with hot sun- er is under the land just to the north of it, ny days, followed often people's gardens and sheds. Even by torrential down- given these two “misunderstandings” HS2 pours and flooding! Oh Ltd could not make the sum add up and well, at least it isn't snowing... appear to have lost the odd metre or two! We have had success with our appeal Council consultations are something for new people to join the Executive that have come up recently with many Committee: Paul Mitchell has agreed residents unhappy with the way these to take on the Conservation portfolio, are publicised and carried out. The matter Brian Gunn is now our Police Liasion and has been raised with the Council's Head Christine Andrews is our new Environment of Democratic Services, but apparently it person. I welcome all three to our Executive is up to each department to organise its and hope they enjoy their work there. own consultations, so there is no central expertise on how to do it well, and no HS2 goes ever onwards, like some awful one to complain to if it does not work. We Juggernaut. The Select Committee ap- will be taking this up with the Council in pears to have rejected our request for a the coming months, both as RRA and as tunnel extension to the M25, so it looks members of the Hillingdon Association of as if we will have to petition to the House Residents’ Associations (HARA). of Lords Select Committee, if the bill gets that far. Several Ruislip people had a Sainsbury's in Ruislip High Street and the meeting with HS2 Ltd in July to discuss ASDA and cinema in South Ruislip should a serious discrepancy in the information start construction in the coming weeks. HS2 Ltd provided residents about the tun- nel we are getting. It turns out that the I hope to see as many of you as possible at tunnel is nowhere near as deep as we had our meeting in October (see the back page), been led to believe. First the depth was but in the meantime if you see me on the measured to the track level, not the top High Street feel free to stop me for a chat! of the tunnel, then it was measured from Graham Bartram, Chairman, ✆ 01895 673310 Ruislip TOWN CRIER 5 Politics Boris Johnson MP Our MP for Manor Ward I was thrilled to have area forward, and on which I campaigned played a part in get- in my manifesto: ting the HS2 tunnel ◆ Helping Hillingdon Hospital with their under South Ruis- plans for modernisation. lip. I remember the genuine anguish on ◆ Delivering further improvements to the faces of residents high streets in the area. as they contemplated the horror ahead - ◆ Protecting green space from inappro- their apple trees demolished and a giant priate development. train howling through their back gardens. A tunnel was right and necessary. ◆ Looking at ways to improve the local bus services. So it is very disappointing that we were not able to persuade the HS2 commit- It is a real pleasure to work with the coun- tee to go for a further tunnel extension cillors of Hillingdon, who in my view set underneath the Colne Valley, and I will an example to the rest of London - provid- be joining my friend and colleague Nick ing excellent services at the lowest possi- Hurd in fighting for further mitigation - ble council tax. That is what sensible One protecting HOAC and minimising the Nation government should be all about. damage done by the “exit wound”. So far I have held six advice surgeries, and Whether as Chair of TfL or MP for Ux- visited businesses and schools and social bridge and South Ruislip I take the same enterprises all over the constituency. It is view: the HS2 is not acceptable in current a real privilege to be your MP - and please form either for London or for the rest of do not hesitate to get in touch with my of- the country. fice if you think I may be able to help: ✎ [email protected] In the meantime we are pushing on with ✆ 020 7219 4682 all the projects that will help to take the L @borisjohnson 6 Ruislip TOWN CRIER Politics Nick Hurd MP From our MP for the West & East Ruislip Wards Ruislip residents will share my deep disap- stage if we do not get pointment at last month’s decision by the a credible mitigation HS2 Select Committee not to look further solution. Frankly, I at a tunnel extension. I argued alongside am now less opti- Hillingdon Council, that the Committee mistic that we will did not have good enough information to be presented with assess the true cost of a tunnel, compared something that is ac- to the viaduct. More work needed to be ceptable. However the fight continues. done, not least because HS2’s numbers were dodgy and incomplete. That contin- Please do not hesitate to contact me re- ues to be my belief. garding HS2 or any other matter at: ✎ [email protected] Our petitions have not been in vain L @nick-hurdMP though.