Outcomes of the Southall Big Conversation Stage 1: Listening to Southall Written by Daniel Hill, Checked by Michael Owens, Signed

off by Kelvin Campbell July 2012, Version 2: Final Report

Introduction This document summarises what the team has learnt during Stage 1 of the Southall Big Conversation. We have called this stage Listening to Southall as it has consisted of working with a wide range of people from diverse backgrounds to understand the issues they face and their ideas for Southall. In the next stage we will develop a draft vision and set of projects together in the Southall Charter that will be the basis of the second round of consultation and involvement. The Big Conversation and the Southall Charter will be more than a set of aspirations. It will build: 1. Trust between the community, civic leaders and the agencies 2. Understanding about the extent of peoples concerns and what can be done about it. 3. Commitment from all parties to bring about transformational change Ealing Council and the Local Strategic Partnership have commissioned the Southall Big Conversation and have appointed Urban Initiatives (a consultancy firm) to support the process. How did we listen to Southall? The listening stage took place between January and March 2012 and was undertaken by Urban Initiatives, staff from Ealing Council, the Local Strategic Partnership and supported by Community Ambassadors as well as a large number of volunteers. The team undertook four primary methods of outreach to stakeholders and the community. 1. Face-to-face meetings with stakeholder groups: We had informal workshops with ten groups including residents, businesses, developers, faith groups etc. involving over 90 people. 2. Workshop with LB Ealing officers: We organised a day workshop for over 40 officers across the council whose work involves Southall. 3. The Big Conversation/Futures Team Event: We invited stakeholders to an evening meeting on 14th March, attended by over 80 people from a range of backgrounds. This discussed big and small ideas for improving Southall and debated the future vision for the town. 4. Public Consultation: We ran a two-day event at Southall Town Hall with stalls at a number of locations across the town centre. Over 1,000 people registered and over 900 submitted big or small ideas for Southall. This event was supplemented by a Twitter stream.

What were the key statistics? During the course of a two-day public consultation on 30th and 31st March 2012, Urban Initiatives led a large group of those involved in Southall to find out what Big and Small ideas people had about the future of their town. A wide range of people took part, including many people from different ethnic, age, gender and other groupings. Every idea was logged and categorised using seven broad themes. It is not possible in this summary paper to set out the detail and richness of ideas proposed. These are available in supporting papers. However all of the ideas were considered, and a shortlist of the best will be taken forward by the project team. Almost half of the ideas related to improvements to streets, their safety and the way they are used. This shows the importance of the use and quality of the public realm in the general perception of Southall. It is important to note that there may be overemphasis on this issue because of the fact that most of those responding were in the street at the time and perhaps looking out for the most visible issues that they could affect.

Within this category of improved streets, safety and crime, traffic, and cleanliness are where most people had ideas, which ranged from behaviour change campaigns (Educate people to stop spitting), to physical interventions (Pedestrianise the street on Sundays or provide more car parks). After improved streets, people were keen to stress the need to attract additional investment into Southall (More mainstream shops) as well as encourage better neighbourliness (Provide better facilities for homesless people). What is notable about these results, is not just the range of ideas and issues presented, but the sheer number of responses. People understood that things were interlinked for example, that the quality of the street was partly down to social behaviours such as spitting or poor driving. These ideas and issues have been incorporated into the broad themes set out below:

What were the broad themes? The Southall Big Conversation Listening Stage exceeded our expectations for the range and quality of issues and opportunities discussed. Although there was some consultation fatigue and cynicism that things wouldnt change, the vast majority of people gave positive feedback, energy and ideas for Southalls future. Southall has considerable strengths as a place and as a community. In talking about what needs to change or be improved, it is important not to downplay or overlook the social and physical assets of the area. There is much to be confident about, including its unique culture, its resilient community, and a shared drive to succeed expressed in businesses, education and career successes. Yet Southall remains a community that experiences substantial social pressures: it has a large population of rough sleepers; informal residential developments proliferate in back gardens; the civility established by Southalls mature community appears to be constantly under threat. From all the meetings and events, three messages have come through loud and clear: We want to be ambitious about Southalls future.

We want to instil a sense of civic pride everyone who lives and works in Southall. We want the Big Conversation to come up with realistic projects where we can get involved.

A very wide range of issues, comments, ideas, opportunities and challenges were raised throughout the listening stage. Much more detail on these can be found in the accompanying reports. It is very important to recognise that in the discussions with local people, many recognised that there were important links between different issues. For example, Southalls success in welcoming newcomers to London, the communitys success in establishing strong neighbourhoods and enterprises, and the commitment to help those in need, all make Southall an attractive place of arrival in London for some of the worlds most desperate global citizens seeking to improve their lot. But that there are lots of spin off issues that arise from this strength such as pressure on housing and services, community cohesion etc.. Furthermore people spoke about social issues and ideas as much as they discussed more physical ones. We have distilled seven broad findings from the Big Conversation to date set out on the following pages. These will be used to develop the vision, principles and projects in the Charter.

Finding 1: Southall has a diverse, complex and energetic civic society The sheer number of people who have attended meetings, events and roadshows relative to our experience to running similar events elsewhere in the UK demonstrates that Southall has a strong, well-organised and mature civil society with a great sense of civic responsibility.

Moreover most people are passionate about Southall, are worried by the seemingly intractable problems it faces and want to help make it a better place. There is a strong set of community leaders as well as a wide network of activists and volunteer networks that could widen and grow community leadership, particularly amongst people not currently affiliated with businesses or faith groups. The community is diverse, and is continuing to become more so because of Southalls role as a reception neighbourhood for recent immigrants. This presents a challenge in terms of integration, but an opportunity for diversity, new skills and energy to be seeded here. What are the implications for Southall and the Charter? The community, businesses and wider civic society have a major role in taking forward the Charter and projects by providing ideas, energy, expertise and resources. The Charter should be a means of strengthening existing and emerging community leadership by backing people and putting resources into their hands. There is recognition that the community and civic society alone cant transform Southall. The council and other agencies need to put in place organisational structures and develop the tools and processes that encourage, co-ordinate and support change. Projects should include places, programmes and events where communities can come together to provide inter-faith, inter-ethnic, inter-generational dialogue and understanding. The Charter needs to emphasise the fact that despite many challenges, Southall is a place where diversity is celebrated and welcomed. Although the Charter cannot set out a definitive set of long-term projects, given the complexity of Southall and its rapid pace of demographic change, it can identify the route map for a way forward, identifying set of short term actions; a set of catalytic projects and programmes to get things going; and, a set of aspirational projects that people can aim for. In doing so, it should develop a number of enabling mechanisms that provide the funding, people and assets required to support the town and its citizens in responding to changing needs and opportunities as they arise.

Finding 2: Civic pride needs to be embedded in all of Southalls communities Many of the issues raised by people throughout the consultation were related to minor, yet important infringements. Complaints of litter dropping, informal parking, spitting, employment of illegal immigrants and other examples suggest a concern amongst many consultees that there are people in Southall who do not care about the town or express civic pride. This was often stated as a problem amongst recent arrivals in the UK, along with a recognition that it was exacerbated by a mixture of marginalisation, exploitation and unfamiliarity with urban living in London. These low-level problem behaviours detract from Southalls strengths and contribute to the fact that that people who can, often move on. Moreover, by not dealing with these relatively low-level issues, people felt that a mutually reinforcing message of decline and climate of permissiveness was becoming established. What are the implications for Southall and the Charter? The Charter should incorporate awareness and education programmes that promote culture and behaviour change to prevent the low-level issues from happening in the first place. The Charter needs to become a common statement of intent that everyone, including those in more marginal communities, can and want to sign up to. The Charter should celebrate all the positive things that have happened and are happening in Southall. Improvements to playing fields, better community safety and policing, streetscape upgrades and other investments are helping to make Southall a better place. As well as promoting community leadership, the Charter should develop a programme that helps to build allegiance to the town among those who are successful. At the moment many successful people leave Southall, and many others make a profit in the area but take it elsewhere. These people can be a source of financial investment and practical support that can be mobilised to support Southalls regeneration.

Finding 3: There are too many cases where peoples basic needs are not being met Southall, along with many other deprived parts of London, is struggling to cope with entrenched poverty, ongoing immigration, the economic downturn and public service cuts and reorganisations. People we consulted expressed real concern that there were many cases in Southall where residents basic needs decent shelter, a healthy and secure environment, access to social services and education are not being met. Rough sleeping is relatively common in Southall and closely associated with drug use. Many thousands of people including young children are living in poor quality and often illegal outhouses in back gardens (so called sheds with beds), affecting health, social opportunities and educational attainment. Many people are not able to easily access public services, despite clear need, often because of language, cultural or knowledge barriers. Although schools are performing well, language barriers cause significant issues and there is a lack of access to higher education within Southall. Southalls severe deprivation, its overcrowded housing, homelessness and other social factors are unsurprisingly reflected in poor health: Southall has higher than average over-all mortality, high rates of coronary heart disease, diabetes, outbreaks of tuberculosis, and mental health problems including depression and psychosis. Although many recognised that Southall is an entrepreneurial place, joblessness and exploitation at work were stated as major issues to tackle. What are the implications for Southall and the Charter? The charter needs to address how the role of council departments and other service agencies such as the police or NHS in the area can work in a more joined up way. In the context of constrained public spending, services need to be smarter and more effective and partner with thirdsector organisations and social enterprises where appropriate. Agencies in Southall need to redesign their services to provide a more user-focused approach, with an approach that is tailored to the needs of the towns particular and rapidly changing communities. This will mean working closely with other agencies to access hard-to-reach groups. Council departments and agencies should ensure that their work goes with the grain of community-led initiatives. For example if the community wants to organise a Southall Deep Clean, then they should provide technical and logistical support and back this up with targeted enforcement. In some cases the challenges are of such a scale that traditional policy responses are insufficient. For example the estimated 30,000 people living illegally in backyard buildings cannot be made homeless. So policy responses need to be more nuanced. The relevant council departments and agencies should provide positive encouragement and support to those who currently infringing the law but are willing to work

towards becoming compliant. But at the same time, they need to have the resources and will to provide visible and strong enforcement on the worst offenders or those unwilling to change their ways. The Charter should include ideas that enable people, especially at the lowest rung of the economic ladder, to start and grow their own small businesses within affordable premises. The Charter should foster the spirit of social enterprise in the community, looking for any opportunity to release the latent goodwill of the community - combined and the goodwill of the public sector - to assist in providing and supporting the social and infrastructure needs of Southall through business.

Finding 4: It is important to recognise, build upon and celebrate the ambition already present in the community. Education is highly valued as a route towards improvement. The communitys commitment to successful education reflects the wider tenacity of a community that has established itself and thrived in no small part over the past half century. Southall is already a place with many examples of selfimprovement. Satisfaction with the quality of much of the existing educational provision in the area was expressed during the consultation. Family owned enterprise has proved to be a successful and valued route to economic improvement over the past thirty years. Southalls young people have demonstrated excellent abilities to compete for position and succeed in Londons dynamic economic sectors including business and financial sectors, IT, media and the creative industries. What are the implications for Southall and the Charter? Reflecting the commitment to education, the idea of developing a relationship with a world-class university or important cultural institution, while continuing to build on the existing Further and Higher Education establishments in the area, was warmly received in most of the meetings and should be reflected in the Charter. Affordable workspace for micro enterprise and for growing companies should continue to be made available in Southall; and business support including loan finance for enterprise encouraged. Southall should continue to encourage its young people to access employment in Londons central activity zone; opportunities to encourage economic development in dynamic sectors such as media that could grow in and around Southall should also be encouraged, drawing on its cultural offer and its educated workforce.

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Finding 5: Safety, and perception of safety on Southalls streets and public spaces needs to be addressed For the public consultation, concerns over safety while moving around public space was one of the most frequently raised. This includes a number of interlinked issues from (seen and unseen) criminal activity, anti-social behaviour to low-level annoyances. In particular lone women said that they often felt unsafe and would often request that a male friend or relative accompany them on trips on foot. The lack of safety has knock-on effects: For example people talked about how they drove short distances within Southall because of fear of crime, or how businesses lost custom because shoppers would not want to buy expensive items for fear of theft. Some respondents felt that certain uses or locations were hotspots for crime, such as areas outside betting shops, or unsecured back alleyways. What are the implications for Southall and the Charter? The police need to continue and widen their work in tackling crime and fear of crime. They could lead a coalition of agencies and community groups. Building trusting relationships with communities is vital in targeting and successfully prosecuting criminals. Perception of safety is strongly influenced by how effectively lowlevel problems such as fly-tipping are dealt with. The Charter needs to address how these types of issue will be tackled. The council and other agencies need to work with businesses that are perceived as attracting anti-social behaviour to reduce its impact. The council needs to work with local landlords to secure alleyways and other non-overlooked spaces that are not public rights of way. New developments and refurbishments should promote natural surveillance of streets and public spaces by minimising blank walls and providing active uses and plenty of glazing at ground floor and frequent entrances to buildings. The quality of street lighting can have a dramatic effect both on crime and the fear of crime. The council and others should improve street lighting wherever possible. The Charter should address how the use of Southalls parks will be improved as populated spaces tend to feel safer. Parks, squares and gardens represent a range of opportunities to improve health and well being (for example by providing a free outdoor gym), to improving biodiversity.

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Finding 6: Southall needs to dramatically improve and widen its offer to locals and visitors alike Many people felt that Southalls shopping is becoming both more ethnicfocused and poorer quality. Young people, in particular, strongly supported the need for a more mainstream range of shops and services in Southall. The lack of leisure and culture uses such as a cinema, a theatre, a bowling alley, swimming pool, youth centre was often cited as a reason why local people visit other centres in West London rather than stay in Southall. Some members of the community also shared this view as well but when informed about the Gas Works Development and the potential mainstream shops that could be brought into the area, the same respondents stated that Southall should retain the Asian shopping element as a unique selling point. They also went on to say that its quality should nevertheless be improved. Lack of parking was stated as being a barrier to local business growth. Research commissioned by Ealing Council in 2012 has resulted in the following findings. Most people do not use the car (47% walk to access the town centre, 30% use the bus, 6% use the train while only 15% use car). Average spend per week was lowest amongst car users (walk 75, bus 53, train 37 and car 34. The car parks have at least 50-60 spaces free on weekdays, but are full at the weekend. This research is informing the councils future parking strategy. Southalls food offer was seen as a strength, but that it lacked consistent quality and that there was a lack of skilled chefs and waiters to encourage success. Many respondents had ideas to provide better hotels for visitors and improve their experience. This included ideas such as walking tours and improving the branding and perception of Southall. What are the implications for Southall and the Charter? The Charter should develop mechanisms to support and grow local and unique businesses that offer a good quality service and abide by the law, but enforce more heavily on those that The retail mix in Southall should be diversified to include the development of a significant mainstream shopping area. Southall needs to address a major deficit in cultural and leisure facilities for both locals and visitors. More generally the visitor experience must be improved to capitalise on this untapped resource. This should include improved information, branding and marketing capitalising both on Southalls unique offer, and its location close to Heathrow and central London. The council has committed considerable funds to provide a new car park in Southall. This needs to be combined with ideas that reduce the need to travel by car and encourage people to use other modes of transport. This involves a wide range of initiatives from changing behaviours, to improving safety, to improving public transport services.

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Finding 7: Southall is more than one place This appears an obvious statement. But the historical development of Southall, and its severance by the railway and adjacent industrial uses, both current and former, has resulted in two distinct centres, surrounded by a number of different neighbourhoods. Respondents felt that it was important to ensure that each part of Southall gained from the regeneration, that each part didnt seek to be the same, but celebrated its uniqueness. Improved connections between places, particularly across the railway, were seen as important.

There was discussion as to why Southall had not undergone the kind of partial gentrification process that places such as Brixton had undertaken, despite good connections, a decent housing stock, good parks and well-performing schools. Many thought it was down to the lack of social stability of the area linked to the churn of residents who start in Southall and then move on. In other words Southall is always in transition. What are the implications for Southall and the Charter? The Charter needs to recognise that different strategies are appropriate in different locations. It should promote The Green, for example, as having a different role and offer from The Broadway. And South Road should be different again. Each place in Southall should seek to be complementary, rather than competing directly with adjacent areas. Any gaps should be addressed. For example, there is nowhere in Southall where highly aspirational modern housing is available. New uses along the railway corridor should seek to knit both sides together with better cross connections, friendlier uses and complementary activities. The charter needs to address how to tackle the escalator effect, where many of those who are successful, move elsewhere, often leaving behind the more vulnerable and deprived. There is an opportunity to reconnect with this wider network to provide support and investment back into the community. The arrival of CrossRail in 2018 will make the importance of Southall station and its surroundings even more important. This area consists mostly of poor quality public realm and includes considerable opportunities for improvement, particularly through the proposed new station concourse.

What happens next? This report concludes the first stage of the Big Conversation. The second stage will take the findings from this report and develop a Charter.

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