News at last about the long-derelict cinema site in central Ealing, and of progress towards an arts centre.

 CEPAC has learnt that the Public Inquiry into Ealing Council’s proposed compulsory purchase of the Empire Cinema site will start on Tuesday 14 April and is scheduled to last for five days.  Empire Cinemas may still reach agreement to sell the site before then but in any case an end is now in sight to the long process of assembling the land to allow Land Securities’ proposed development to go ahead. 

CEPAC has been in contact with both LandSecs and Picturehouse about what will replace the old cinema, Picturehouse is the chosen operator for a new cinema on the larger “cultural quarter” which extends down to Mattock Lane.  We have urged that the space allocated for wider community use in the outline plan should include facilities for performance arts and other cultural activities.

The next step in our campaign is to conduct a major survey of potential users for such facilities.  We have now secured backing from all four property owners / developers in the town centre to help fund a professional feasibility study. Ealing Council has agreed to provide matched funding of a third of the cost, with CEPAC providing the rest. This survey will start immediately and should be completed before March.

We have had a good response from our supporters in raising most of the balance needed, but still need £2,800 to be sure of covering all the cost.  If you haven’t yet donated to our appeal on our web site at www.cepac.org.uk/appeal, please do so now!  Alternatively send a text message to 70070 with the subject line EPAC14 £10. It’s quick, easy and tax efficient – try it.

Ealing Council's Cabinet has this week (17 December) confirmed its backing for the sale of the old Acton Library to Curzon Cinemas.

However welcome the prospect of having a cinema within easy reach of central Ealing, the move doesn't do anything to address the lack of performance and community space in and around the borough.

This shortage will be seriously exacerbated when the Council goes ahead with its plan to convert much of Ealing Town Hall into a hotel, restaurant and flats.

CEPAC estimates that the closure of the Town Hall venues will displace some 54 regular community users.

The Council’s proposals make our campaign all the more relevant, and we are planning to launch a major survey in January into the needs of local cultural and arts organisations.   So please continue to give us your support for an artistic rebirth for Ealing!

Ealing Council has at last started moves to allow it to compulsorily purchase (CPO) the derelict site opposite the Town Hall, so that Land Securities can go ahead with their outline plan for the wider area down as far as Mattock Lane.   This was just as Empire Cinemas announced that they had restarted their work, after they secured new finance. 

This means that there are now two potential developments, which both have planning approval. Only one scheme can go ahead - but which one?

No-one really knows, but it’s certain that if the Council’s CPO is to succeed, it has to show that there is a “compelling case in the public interest” which would justify Empire being forced to sell its site. CEPAC’s view is that the LandSecs scheme will need to provide more benefit to the community and more cultural facilities than are in its present plan, for the Council to win its case at an inquiry. 

CEPAC believes our concept of a multi-purpose performance space in central Ealing, available to the whole community, would help it to do this. We will be pressing the argument for it to be included in a wider comprehensive scheme.       

​Cllr Julian Bell, Leader of the Council, has on behalf of Ealing Borough Council agreed in principle to help fund a feasibility study to show how an arts centre could be established as a viable project.
 This follows the success of CEPAC’s 2013 Demand Survey which highlighted the lack of purpose-built performance and arts facilities in Ealing.
 
Council support is dependent upon CEPAC securing the participation of Land Securities, the Council’s development partner for the cultural quarter around the old cinema site.
 
Land Securities is currently considering our proposal.
 
CEPAC believes that a performance and arts centre in Ealing, which has the backing of the Central Ealing Neighbourhood Forum, would engage with the whole community and complement the wider regeneration now starting in the Ealing Broadway area.

CEPAC has launched an appeal to help fund a survey into the cultural and leisure facilities people want in the town centre.

In July, CEPAC agreed with the Central Ealing Neighbourhood Forum that it will commission an independent inquiry to produce evidence for the new Neighbourhood Plan. 

CENF was successful in winning a government grant to go towards the cost of the survey, but CEPAC needs £4,000 more to cover the total cost. This is a crucial step forward to getting the facilities that a borough the size of Ealing should have. 

"We are confident our supporters will rally round to ensure we raise the balance," said John Hummerston, CEPAC Chair, "as more and more people realise that this is the best chance we have had for years to get a multi-purpose arts performance facility in the town centre."

In the meantime, details should soon be available of the outline planning application that Land Securities are preparing for the area between the old Empire Cinema site and Mattock Lane.  This will be a further step in preparation for potential compulsory purchase as part of the Council’s broad plan for the Cultural Quarter.

CEPAC has agreed with the Central Ealing Neighbourhood Forum to run an independent inquiry into what cultural and leisure facilities people want in the town centre. Last month CENF won a £7,000 government grant towards the cost of a survey, which will be part of the evidence needed to support the Neighbourhood Plan it is creating, and it has commissioned CEPAC to do the work. 

“We know that Arts and Culture are a key part of planning the Ealing’s future, but what do people really want to see in the new Cultural Quarter?” said Nick Woolven, CENF Chair. “We need firm evidence of what will help bring visitors back into central Ealing, and what will
 be commercially viable.”

The survey will be run by Purple Market Research, which is based in west London. Trevor Wilkinson, its Joint Managing Director who will be responsible for running the survey, lives in Ealing and has worked here, so he already knows the area well.

"This is a significant step forward for CEPAC," said John Hummerston, CEPAC's chair, "and something we have been working towards for some time." 

The report will be available to all.  Ealing Council is currently planning what should go into the Cultural Quarter, an area which lies between the old Empire Cinema site and Mattock Lane, and has already encouraged the running of a survey.

Land Securities, Ealing Council’s partner in the plan to redevelop the “cultural quarter” in the town centre, are hoping to acquire the Empire Cinema land from receivers appointed by the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), who now control the site.

The receivers, Allsops, have been refusing to discuss a sale to either LandSecs or the council, in the hope that a speculative bidder might appear.  However it is thought that the Council’s insistence that it will go ahead with a Compulsory Purchase Order may soon result in a negotiated deal.  This would mean that a new plan could be on the table as soon as the summer.

CEPAC has already had an initial meeting with LandSecs and is seeking an early discussion with their architects.

The Central Ealing Neighbourhood Forum (CENF) has backed CEPAC’s move for a cultural needs demand survey at its latest full meeting on 2 April. The survey is designed to find out what people in the catchment area around Ealing Broadway want to see as a provision for arts facilities in the centre.

 The last investigation of what will bring people back into the town for leisure and cultural activities was a professional survey in 2000 for Ealing Arts + Leisure with support from the Council.  New evidence of need is a vital component of the new neighbourhood plan for Central Ealing now being prepared by CENF.