Ealing Council's Lets Go Southall initiative encourages residents to be more active through various types of outdoor activities, as statistics from 2022 reveal Southall has the highest proportion of self-reported bad or very bad health across Ealing borough with five per cent saying they struggle with health issues.

Statistics also reveal that Southall has the highest rate of diabetes across the 7 towns in Ealing - 1.6 times the borough average. Furthermore, Life expectancy is a concern as Southall has a lower rate for both men and women than the Ealing average, with it having the lowest life expectancy for women of any area of Ealing.

Health inequalities in Southall have long been a focus of the council's activities with Let's Go Southall, a programme designed to promote exercise to people in the area since 2018. This incorporates specific projects such as Let's Ride Southall a £1.2m bike scheme which plans to hand out 2,500 bikes to residents and gives free cycling lessons.

Agha Hussain, a shop owner on Southall high street, specialises in Pakistani goods selling everything from different crisp flavours to threads of saffron. He is unaware about the cycling scheme, but thinks it's a great idea.

Agha Hussain in his shop, Southall (image via Rory Bennet/MyLondon).

"It's quite nice food but it's not the healthiest."

He said: "If you dont have the means to go out and get a bike for £100-£200 if you get a free bike of course you are going to utilise it to the best of your abilities. I think it's a really good idea."

He added: "If there were cycle lanes I feel like it would be better for the whole community."

Despite a fit lifestyle being promoted by Ealing Council, Agha believes that people's diets in Southall is effecting their health negatively.

He said: "We [Southern Asian community] eat a lot of oily food. You can see a lot of samosa places, a lot of food places everywhere. It is not the most healthy stuff. It's quite nice food but it's not the healthiest."

When asked if he was concerned about the life expectancy rate in Southall Agha seemed unconcerned: "Not really, but because people have been eating this stuff for many many years and sometimes you can have too much is a bit of a health problem. But other than that not really."

Plans to create playing pitches at Warren Farm have been divisive with Agha confident that residents in Southall had enough open space already. "I think there are quite a few parks. If you go down the road there is Southall Park and if you go to Old Southall there's a park there as well and if you go down Springfield Road there is a massive park. So there are about 3 parks within a mile of each other so I don't think it's a massive problem."

Shiny Pancholi, a Southall resident, is however aware of the council's initiatives to encourage a active lifestyle within the Southall community and explained that the Let's Ride Southall scheme is helpful in motivating women in the area to get out more and partake in activities.

She said: "Women are in Southall stay home, they rarely come out. Now Ealing is doing some activity in Southall in Jubilee Garden. There are a few women coming, they also have a group which comes here [Southall Park] to exercise.

Shiny at the outdoor gym in Southall Park (image via Rory Bennett/MyLondon).

Like Agha, Shiny thinks that resident's diets and the easily accessible fast food restaurants in the area, has had a consequence on their overall health.

She said: "They are all eating fast food, they don't want to cook. Children don't want home food they only want to eat outside."

Cllr Josh Blacker, Ealing Cabinet Member for Healthy Lives, says uptake in the Let's Go Southall has been "great" amongst residents.

He said: "In terms of reasons it is hard to pin down a specific reason and we take a very system-wide approach in our new health and wellbeing strategy that we launch this year talks about the building block of health things like housing, poverty, air quality, all the things that come together and create the environment that contributes health inequalities."

"We know the use of cars is highest, the number of cars per household is higher. So it's an opportunity to exercise that's why we put things like gyms in the park and things and we have supported the Southall Park run", he added.

Beyond exercise programmes, he says there are also events run by Let's Go Southall that are focused on diet.

The Cllr said: "As part of Let's Go Southall, we have got various food programmes as well so there are food swap classes and we do events where we look into food choices and support to tackle conditions like diabetes which are at a higher rate in that area.

He added: "And then holidays and food activity programme we are trying to get children to have at least one full and healthy meal a day and we are working with the Mayor of London to achieve that."