Without any consultation, Ealing Council has unveiled its new logo.

The old logo was a mature municipal (socialist?) oak. Forty years of recognition, instantly legible, sitting in the lineage of the borough’s heraldic tradition.

Bin lorries, school gates, planning notices, council letterhead.

The kind of brand asset most local authorities would pay handsomely to acquire — and which Ealing already had, free of charge, through the cumulative work of decades of public service.

🎶 I’ll chop you down, like an old dead tree… 🎶

The replacement is a stylised “fingerprint” of seven disconnected branches floating in a green (party?) ecosystem.

No roots, no leaves, no canopy, no trunk.

Stripped of almost everything that might make it recognisable, or function, as a living tree.

An unnamed council spokesperson assures us:

“The new logo is still a tree."

But, I hear you ask, what is a tree? When is a tree not a tree?

According to the Forestry Commission:

To be considered a tree, the plant must have at least one woody stem and be expected to achieve a height of at least 5 metres.

But let’s be fair. This isn’t a real tree, but a representation of a tree, and what that might mean to anyone who sees it. A symbol of the London Borough of Ealing, its seven towns, and its diverse people.

“while the council supports those distinct 7 towns and their communities, it also believes in respecting the individuality of each of the people it serves."

Those seven abstract and disconnected white branches represent and respect the unique identities of Acton, Perivale, Ealing, Northolt, Greenford, Hanwell and Southall — and each and every one us.

Carefully cultivated and contained individuality.

Ward forums gone. Election hustings invitation-only and no questions from the floor. Public meetings no longer attended.

The once “broad church” of the Labour Party, now excludes everyone who refuses to conform to the leader’s vision.

Many of our community assets sold to developers.

Disconnected branches.

No trunk to gather them. No root system to anchor them. No canopy to shelter them. Floating freely. Structurally separate.

Accessibility compliant. Representation variable.

At no cost to the taxpayer

Echoing former leader Julian Bell’s rationalisation of his many trips to MIPIM in Cannes, the in-house designers did the work “at no extra cost."

Officer time is a cost. Communications team capacity is a cost. The opportunity cost — what those staff could have been doing instead — is also a cost. The council does not capitalise its brand equity on the balance sheet, but it had some, and it has now disposed of it.

It is, on the other hand, the perfect council tree.

It needs no soil. It will never need watering. It has no growing season.

It cannot drop leaves, cannot fail to thrive, cannot be planted in the wrong neighbourhood.

It cannot be subject to a canopy survey.

It will require no maintenance budget, no enforcement officer, no Section 106 contribution, no construction management plan.

It is, of all the council’s recently planted trees, the only one guaranteed to survive.

Specimen

The borough’s seven towns are now honoured by an abstract emblem of growth and individuality — two days after a piece documenting the borough’s ninth-worst position in England for heat vulnerability, the £5 billion retrofit gap signed by the Leader to government, and the 41,500 trees the council has planted almost entirely outside the seven priority neighbourhoods most of those seven towns contain.

It is the council’s other published documents — the heat vulnerability rankings, the canopy cover map, the air quality focus areas, the EREC overcrowding statistics — that record which of the seven the council has actually served, and which it has not.

The old logo was a tree.

The new logo is a values statement.

Both are now part of the brand.

SS · 002

With the help of Billy Bragg, I wrote a song. Thanks to Suno AI, it sounds more like The Only Ones. And I feel fine.

A lost Billy Bragg protest 7” from an alternate universe where he lived in Southall and got obsessed with local governance and the A4020 arterial road to the country.

Individuality

after Billy Bragg

I’ve got good neighbours
And friends from many nations
I’ve shared glasses
With folk from English classes
And unless you’re a fascist
I won’t turn you away
If you stick around
I’m sure that we can find some common ground

Individuality
Each and every one of us
Individuality
Your rules can’t contain us

The new logo for the London Borough of Ealing
Accessibility standards now it’s meeting
While Southall’s vulnerable prayed
In the heat to find some shade
“It’s still a tree!" the council has spoken
At least it’s finally out in the open

Individuality
Each and every one of us
Individuality
Your rules can’t contain us
Individuality
Or express all our qualities
Individuality
Or hide inequalities

I’m sure that everybody knows
How much my council rates me
It lets me down most every time
And leaves the streets so dirty
Please don’t shirk
Responsibility for your work

I’m getting weighed down (weighed down)
With all this information (information)
Consultation
Without representation
Stop raising allowances
While services grow poorer
I don’t want a superhero
Or accountability zero

Individuality
Each and every one of us
Individuality
Your rules can’t contain us
Individuality
Come eat and drink and speak with me
Individuality
We can be what we want to be

Previously on Southall Stories: SS · 001 — Ealing’s Burning.
Feeling the Heat: the council’s £5 billion gap, in the council’s own words.