Local Democracy
Individuality
“It’s still a tree!” Or is it? Ealing Council’s new logo and what it means to be a tree, or not be a tree.
Recording what happens to Southall — and who is responsible.
Local people. Local questions.
Digging the dirt, unearthing the truth.
As read by Ealing Council’s Press Office
Browse the reporting
Commentary
54 stories
Campaigns
Lift-Off! Ealing Elections Special
Massive vote loss for Mason’s Labour as Greens and ECI make historic breakthroughs.
Local Democracy
Who Does Peter Mason Really Represent?
Peter Mason has spent this campaign accusing others of hidden allegiances. He has some of his own.
Local Democracy
The Man in the Middle
Berkeley, Southall Community Alliance, and the Labour Candidate Who Links Them
Local Democracy
Sixty-Four Years On Your Side
Three incumbents. Sixty-four years in office. Well over £1.5 million in councillor allowances. Here’s what they delivered.
Local Democracy
The Meeting that Ended Local Democracy in Southall
How the panic of July 2019 prompted the cancellation of ward forums, councillor surgeries, and election hustings.
Local Democracy
It Takes Two to Tango
Dancing by numbers and closing children’s centres to improve them.
Investigations
The Drugs Don't Work
Not when the answer to inequality is simply to move it somewhere safer politically.
Local Democracy
Cactuses Never Die
Yousef Qandeel holds the keys to his home in a village that no longer exists. He is standing for election in Greenford Broadway on 7 May. This is his story …
Investigations
The Smell of Success
Peter Mason has been shortlisted for Labour Councillor of the Year. Southall Stories investigates his credentials.
Community
Back to the Future
Welcome to Ealing in 2010. 16 years of Labour management later, what’s changed? Complete the interactive audit tool to find out!
Investigations
This Is Our Home. It's a Tip.
Ealing’s fly-tipping crisis is out of control and Labour’s numbers don’t add up.
Campaigns
"This Place Has Turned Into a Bloody Slum": Southall Wards Meeting with ECI candidates
Ealing Community Independents’ Southall Wards Engagement Evening highlighted local grievances and called for community empowerment in response to …
Campaigns
When "deport six million" becomes mainstream: what Ealing Labour won't tell you
Ealing Labour condemns local Tory fascism, but Labour enabled the National Front in the town where Blair Peach was murdered for joining community …
Local Democracy
Canvassing with Minni Dogra: A Councillor in All But Name
Southall Stories joins Ealing Community Independents candidate Minni Dogra on the campaign trail in Southall Green — and passes the house where a sitting …
Local Democracy
"You Never Forget the Smell of Damp": Peter Mason's Housing Record in His Own Words
Peter Mason frequently discusses his challenging childhood housing experiences while facing scrutiny over Ealing Council’s ongoing housing failures under …
Investigations
On the Bins Again
After two articles on Ealing’s fly-tipping crisis — “Bangarang” and “Boomerang” — a commenter challenged the central argument: if fortnightly bin …
Investigations
Boomerang! Ten Years Sorting Out Fly-tipping
Fly-tipping in Ealing has doubled since the council changed waste collection to biweekly in 2016, leading to increased cleanup costs and ongoing community …
Investigations
The Broken Manifesto Promises that show how Labour is Failing Ealing
Peter Mason adeptly maintains Ealing Labour’s façade of progress while consistently failing to deliver on housing promises and other key issues.
Investigations
Section 106 money: where did Southall’s “developer tax” go?
Over five years, Southall generated more than £13m in developer contributions but received less than £5m in local S106 spending.
Environment
Bangarang! Pirate Pete and the Lost Bin Collections of Southall
The Lost Boys were right all along. They saw what Peter Pan couldn’t: that refusing to grow up and admit you were wrong costs everyone except those who …
Local Democracy
How to Report Nuisance and Pollution in Ealing
How the convoluted, exclusionary and ineffective reporting system seems designed to fail residents who need it most.
Investigations
The Council Investigation That Found Nothing
A year-long investigation by the council into complaints about harmful practices at the Johnson Street recycling site that burned last week ultimately …
Local Democracy
Demolition Man: Peter Mason's Legacy of Half-Built Homes and Hollow Promises
Peter Mason’s wrecking ball housing legacy: shifting statistics, botched contracts, half-built homes rotting in Southall Green, and zero accountability.
Investigations
Ealing For Sale
Ealing Council’s 2023 strategy document officially confirms what began in 2007 with the Dominion Centre template: a systematic 18-year asset disposal …
Campaigns
Save Ealing Children’s Centres Campaign Update
The Save Ealing Children’s Centres campaign raised over £5,000 in just eight days to fund legal action against Ealing Council’s plan to close ten of the …
Local Democracy
The Pied Piper of Ealing
A school performance of The Pied Piper becomes a perfect metaphor for local politics, where broken promises about children’s services mirror the fairy …
Local Democracy
So it Goes: AI on the Absurd Logic of Ealing Council
Two AI hosts discover the perfect mathematical logic of closing children’s centres while voting yourself a 70% pay rise, and marvel at Ealing’s democratic …
Campaigns
Perceval House W5: Where Local Democracy in Ealing Goes to Die
An exposé of how Ealing Council’s circular bureaucracy makes democratic accountability impossible, told through one mother’s struggle to save her local …
Local Democracy
Southall Odours
A resident’s morning walk through Southall reveals the multiple sources of air pollution - from gasworks remediation to illegal burning to traffic fumes - …
Environment
COPD
Living with chronic lung disease in Britain’s most polluted community, where personal health battles intersect with environmental injustice and the fight …
Local Democracy
The Cuckoo's Nest
Despite twenty years of resident surveys and failed plans, Ealing Council’s latest Southall ‘consultation’ delivers the same problems, the same …
Environment
Developers, if you Really Want to Help
A resident’s response to developers proposing a massive data centre in Southall challenges them to address the community’s real needs: thousands of trees, …
Local Democracy
ToryBoy
Inspired by a filmmaker’s failed attempt to unseat an invisible Labour MP, David Marsden’s own 2022 campaign as an independent candidate in Ealing’s safest …
Environment
Risks to Health from Remediating Southall Gasworks
Google’s AI provides more ethical guidance than Ealing Council leaders, recommending that toxic waste remediation should stop immediately when benzene and …
Local Democracy
I am the Leader of Ealing Council
When asked how to handle toxic air pollution complaints while accepting £30,000 from the polluting developer, Google’s AI gave better ethical advice than …
Investigations
Response to Ealing's Air Quality Strategy and Action Plan
Ealing Council’s draft air quality strategy promises to protect residents from pollution while simultaneously allowing the very developments and practices …
Investigations
The Property Lobby: the Hidden Reality behind the Housing Crisis in Ealing
How property developers paid Ealing councillors to holiday in Cannes while planning 14,800 new homes in Southall that local people can’t afford and don’t …
Campaigns
Weasel Words on Air Quality Monitoring
Ealing Labour Council has shown negligence towards the health of Southall’s schoolchildren by disregarding air quality issues linked to a nearby toxic …
Investigations
Ealing Monopoly
An exclusive group of wealthy, mostly white men conspired to profit from Ealing’s public assets during a financial crisis while not being elected for such …
Local Democracy
Ealing Labour Leaks
Leaked WhatsApp messages from Ealing Labour councillors reveal internal conflicts, allegations of bullying and corruption, and criticism of leadership …
Local Democracy
From the Southall Big Plan AGM in 2017
Elected representatives continue to neglect longstanding issues in Southall, exacerbating problems like housing and traffic while failing to address …
Investigations
Look at these Bricks!
The text discusses the progress and promises regarding the construction of genuinely affordable homes in Ealing, highlighting various statistics and dates.
Campaigns
Strawberries for Pigs?
A father’s discovery that his child’s garden strawberries were poisoned by toxic air from nearby gasworks becomes a meditation on how Labour councillors …
Environment
High Traffic Neighbourhood
An hour-long school run through Southall’s traffic gridlock reveals how ‘improving access for HGVs’ creates chaos for residents, while a father’s choice of …
Environment
The Gaslighting Zone
Residents express frustration over toxic air quality and question the appropriateness of partnerships related to mental health in Southall.
Environment
Pull the Other One, Julian
Julian Bell, the leader of Ealing Council, controversially downplayed air quality concerns at a former gasworks site while allegations of bribery and …
Environment
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics?
Searched project for “Berkeley Group statistical manipulation benzene levels unit conversion mg/m3 ppm legal limits Atkins” Berkeley Group and Atkins used …
Environment
Countering the Southall Waterside Narrative
Berkeley’s Southall Waterside narrative is systematically dismantled through exposure of their corporate gaslighting tactics, broken promises about …
Commentary
Meeting Berkeley Group
A meeting with Berkeley Group representatives left local residents feeling misled and disrespected, as their concerns were overshadowed by the company’s …