Residents will next week find out whether controversial plans for a new leisure centre and 295 new homes in Ealing will be given the go ahead.

Ealing Council's planning committee will next week discuss the planning application for Gurnell Leisure Centre which could see the current facility demolished to make way for a 50m metre pool, BMX track, skate track and housing development to be built.

Submitted by Ealing Council, the planning application said the houses off Ruislip Road East will 'enable' the development and provide much-needed housing for Ealing.

A previous proposal in 2021 for a new centre at the site was rejected by the council's planning committee but since then numerous consultations have taken place to put fresh plans forward.

A council report due to be discussed on Wednesday 15 January recommended the application be approved.

An artist impression of the new water park (credit: Planning application).

It said: "There is a clear and overwhelming need to replace the leisure centre and enhance the wider open space."

It added: "The site represents the appropriate site of last resort to accommodate the replacement leisure centre and new housing.

"Overall, the development represents a high quality, mixed use regeneration of this site

"The proposed scheme will positively transform the area with a new, state of the art leisure centre and residential buildings in a new typology of high architectural and material quality."

However, the scheme has not been met with universal support, with over 300 objections being submitted.

If approved, the homes would be built on MOL (Metropolitan Open Land) which has raised concern from residents.

Ealing Council want to build 300 new homes next to the new Gurnell Lesiure Centre (credit: Planning application)

Other issues include the height of the proposed development, design, access to affordable housing, amenity space proposed, traffic impacts, residential amenity impacts on neighbouring properties.

Since the previous application was refused, refined plans have seen the number of houses reduced from 600 to 295 and the housing block reduced from 17 storeys to a maximum of 10.

Over 100 notices of support have also been submitted.

"The scheme undertook a detailed alternative site assessment, and this detailed that there were no suitable council-owned sites which could accommodate the proposed replacement leisure centre and the enabling residential development," the council report continued. 

"It should be noted that prior to submission the scheme went through extensive community engagement and consultation for over a two-year period."

Gurnell Leisure Centre first opened in the early 1980s and was one of only four 50-meter public pools in London.

See the full council report here.