New hotel for Ealing town centre

The next meeting of Ealing Council's planning committee is scheduled for tomorrow, Sept 2nd. I don't see anything of note on the agenda this time, but in case you missed it, at August's meeting they granted planning permission for a brand new hotel to be developed in Bond Street, right in the centre of Ealing town. The intention is to transform four storeys of the empty Swiftcall office block, (26-42 Bond Street -- adjacent to Ealing Green and above the now defunct Old Orleans restaurant), into a fifty bedroom hotel. Under the plans, Old Orleans would become the hotel's reception, lobby and hotel restaurant.

On the face of it, this looks like good news. To me, the west side of Bond Street near the Green has never looked right, and now looks more bedraggled than ever. Why we've never had a large modern hotel in central Ealing is something I've never understood -- so this is long overdue. Unlike the Arcadia nightmare, it looks like a positive step in the town's regeneration, and for once we can all look forward to seeing the arrival of the builders. The application was submitted in May, so I expect the negative impacts of the current economic climate have already been factored into the development's financial planning.