New luxury tower blocks are to be built with the Gurnell Leisure Centre site, building on London's Green Belt. It shows Labour is in enthralled by developers.

The Labour administration are continuing their plans to build on Metropolitan Open Land (MOL) by adding housing blocks to Gurnell Leisure Centre rebuild. The Liberal Democrats say this is further evidence that Labour want to concrete over green space across the borough as outlined in the draft Local Development Plan (LDP). MOL has the same status and protections as Green Belt which is that it should not be built on. Instead the council are encroaching beyond the leisure centre in order to build luxury housing, the majority of which will be for sale on the open market.

At the recent Cabinet on Wednesday 22nd February, they approved the plans which were outlined to knock-down the old Gurnell Leisure Centre and replace it with a new £45 million development of new housing blocks with an associated leisure centre including a pool and gym area. 

Liberal Democrats are keen to ensure that people across the borough are actively engaged in responding to the LDP including Gurnell to conserve green belt and open spaces as well as ensuring that our built environment is appropriate and fit for purpose in the twenty first century.

Liberal Democrat Councillor Jon Ball, Opposition Spokesperson on Planning and Housing

"The Labour administration is obsessed with a gold-plated leisure scheme that will cost much more and so justify the building of hundreds of luxury flats on Gurnell's open space to fund it. It has authorize bulldozing the existing Gurnell sports centre, rejecting options to retrofit the existing building or a like-for-like replacement. The Council also did a survey of residents that found that less than a third of residents wanted other development to fund this but Labour are pushing ahead regardless.

The Council set up a 'Sounding Board' of local residents but has ridden roughshod over the views expressed there. In his report, the Chair of the Sounding Board said "the single largest concern relates to the inclusion of residential development within the scheme and the claim by the Council, refuted by some on the Sounding Board, that this is necessary to be able to support the costs of replacing the leisure centre." The Sounding Board also raised concerns about "the impact of any development on Metropolitan Open Land inclusive of ecological impact and development in the flood plain". A group of many of the community groups went further and objects to the proposal outright. Again and again this administration fails to listen to residents.

Ealing's planning committee resoundingly rejected the administration's previous scheme for this site as inappropriate building on Metropolitan Open Land. The new scheme has this same flaw and what it proposes is little better."

Liberal Democrat Councillor Gary Malcolm, Leader of the Opposition, is leading a response to the draft Local Plan and is keen to talk to any groups who have not been engaged in the process.

"Our response is that we believe in the importance of green infrastructure to sustain us over the medium term alongside a framework of buildings for the future and connected communities. We believe that this local plan is damaging to the sustainability of a future Ealing. These aspects are in a delicate balance."