Full Council rejected a motion to drop the Troubadour theatre in Walpole Park on 13 October. A lease still needs a public notice, planning and a Cabinet vote.

Ealing Council has rejected a call to scrap the plan for a Troubadour theatre in Walpole Park.

A Liberal Democrat motion asking Cabinet to withdraw the proposal was lost at Full Council on Tuesday 13 October. A Conservative amendment, which would have required the theatre to leave the park after three years, fell first. The Mayor announced both results from the chair, as the council’s webcast of the meeting records. The written minutes are not yet published.

The vote does not grant a lease. Cabinet agreed the idea in principle on 9 September, and three steps remain before anything could be signed.

What the motion asked for

The motion was proposed by Councillor Connie Hersch and seconded by Councillor Ksenia Maximova, a Liberal Democrat for Walpole ward. It asked Cabinet to:

  • withdraw the Troubadour proposal and take no further steps towards a lease
  • look for a brownfield site elsewhere in Ealing, with a full consultation
  • reassure the organisers of the Ealing Summer festivals about their future in the park

It said the three petitions against the plan had 8,297 signatures between them when the motion was submitted. It also listed residents’ concerns, among them noise, fencing off the heart of the park, light pollution, parking on Mattock Lane and the effect on The Questors Theatre.

The Conservative amendment was moved by Councillor Julian Gallant, who represents Ealing Broadway. He changed its last sentence at the meeting, so that it asked Cabinet to make sure the theatre “is removed from Walpole Park at the end of the three-year period” if it goes ahead.

How big a slice of the park?

The two sides gave very different figures for the land involved.

Who What they said
The Liberal Democrat motion Cabinet approved leasing “approximately one third of Walpole Park”
Labour’s first speaker in the debate “less than 10%”, leaving “over 90%” of the park open

Neither figure comes with a plan of the site. Cabinet’s own report, which we covered in the original cabinet decision, describes leasing part of the park for three and a half years. The size of the site will be fixed in the formal notice and the planning application, and we will report it from those documents.

What Labour said

Labour, which runs the council, spoke against both the motion and the amendment. Its first speaker said the council owns no other site able to host the venue and knows of no suitable brownfield site in private hands.

Council leader Peter Mason said the plan was “a proposal” and “temporary”, and that it would test whether Ealing could support a large theatre in the long term. He set out the limits as he saw them: “If it fails, it goes. If it succeeds, it goes. If we don’t achieve terms with the theatre provider, it won’t happen. If it fails planning, it will not happen.”

The Green Party’s Councillor Marijn van de Geer, who represents North Acton, backed the motion. She said no green space should be given up at all.

What happens next

Three steps remain before a lease could be signed:

  1. A statutory notice, advertising the lease of open space for two weeks. This is the formal window for objections, and for support.
  2. A planning application, which will be referred to the Mayor of London.
  3. A final Cabinet decision, with the objections in front of it.

None of the three has happened yet. The council has not published a date for the notice.

The 5,250-signature e-petition against the theatre closed on 4 October. It was not debated on 13 October. Full Council next meets on Tuesday 8 December, and we will check that agenda when it appears. The petition’s progress is on our petition page.

What it means for you

  • The plan is still alive, but it is not approved. Tuesday’s vote leaves Cabinet’s in-principle decision standing, nothing more.
  • The petition is not an objection to the lease. If you want your view counted, watch for the two-week open space notice. We will report it the day it appears.
  • You can watch the debate yourself. The item starts 1 hour 22 minutes into the webcast, and the vote is at 1:54:31.
  • If you support the theatre, the same notice is where to say so. Cabinet must weigh the comments it receives.

Sources