The Council of Ealing Council was scheduled to meet on 15 July 2025 to discuss a range of topics, including the renewal of its licensing policy, proposed changes to the council's petition scheme, and the annual scrutiny report. Members were also scheduled to discuss motions on fly-tipping and the Lammas Park Sustainable Urban Drainage System (SuDS).

Licensing Policy Renewal

As required by the Licensing Act 2003, the council was scheduled to consider a new Statement of Licensing Policy, which it must review at least every five years. The draft Statement of Licensing Policy 2025 was scheduled to be simplified, and include new sections and content, including:

• An overview of the borough and licensed premises, mirroring Ealing's seven town profiles approach.
• Specific focus on Ealing's Economy After 6 PM Strategy and a new section on Ealing's Strategy to Tackle Male Violence Against Women and Girls (MVAWG), as well as references to modern slavery and human trafficking issues (MSHT).
• A revised Special Policy section, in accordance with the findings of the Cumulative Impact Assessment (CIA).
• Updated considerations regarding specific policies that apply to different types of licensed premises, to reflect best practices, and two new sub-sections describing the proposed licensing approach to events, and large capacity venues and spaces.
• Clarification of the roles of responsible authorities within the Policy.
• The addition of considerations regarding shadow licenses.
• Revised and updated example conditions under the licensing objectives, following input from responsible authorities, including specific references to safeguarding, spiking, MVAWG, and delivery/online services considerations.

The Cumulative Impact Assessment 2025 examined data related to crime, anti-social behaviour, and ambulance calls to assess the effect of licensed premises on licensing objectives. The findings of the assessment supported the assertion that a high saturation of licensed premises selling alcohol had an ongoing impact on crime, nuisance, and disorder in existing Special Policy Areas (SPAs), and that there was evidence to support the expansion of the existing areas.

A consultation on the SLP2025 and CIA was carried out for five weeks, and the Consultation Response Analysis and Evaluation showed that overall, the responses were neutral or agreed with the proposed policy.

Ealing Council Petition Scheme

The council was scheduled to consider a report that set out an amended Petition Scheme for the London Borough of Ealing, and asked the council to adopt the scheme.

The council's current scheme was closely aligned to statutory provisions that were previously required under the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009, but hadn't been updated since the requirement for councils to have a petition scheme was repealed by the Localism Act 2011.

Issues with the current arrangements included:

• The requirement for signatories to live, work or study in the borough, which was virtually impossible to check.
• A low threshold of 1,500 signatures to trigger a debate petition, relating to 0.4% of the borough's population.
• No lower limit below 1,500 signatures for petitions to be presented at Council.
• An element of the scheme allowing a member of the public to submit a petition holding a cabinet member to account, which had never been used.
• The opportunity of appealing to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee if a petitioner was not happy about the way in which a petition had been handled.

The Draft Petition Scheme sought to address these issues.

Scrutiny Annual Report 2024-25

The council was scheduled to agree the Scrutiny Annual Report 2024-25, outlining the activities, outcomes and the impact that scrutiny had from the previous year.

The report included a foreword from the Scrutiny Chair, and details of the work of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, the Health and Adult Social Services Scrutiny Panel, the Economy and Sustainability Scrutiny Panel, the Housing and Environment Scrutiny Panel, the Children's Services Scrutiny Panel, and the Strategy and Change Scrutiny Panel.

The report also contained a list of the recommendations that had been made by the panels and OSC in 2024-25.

Petitions

Manos Kanellos was scheduled to present a petition with 125 signatures, requesting that the council stop the licensing of family homes into Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) in the North Hanwell and Elthorne Heights neighbourhood. The petition also asked the council to investigate existing conversions for compliance, licensing, and community impact, take enforcement action where appropriate, uphold the spirit of the 'Article 4 Direction'¹ by preventing a last-minute surge in unregulated HMO developments, and set a limit of one HMO per street.

Motions for Debate

The opposition group motion for debate concerned the work in Lammas Park to create a SuDS (Sustainable Urban Drainage System). The motion requested that the council arrange for an independent review into the plan and execution of the Lammas Park SuDS project, in order to gain recommendations concerning:

• Improvement of public consultation, explanation and participation on projects which will have significant impact on residents' lives.
• The process of the due diligence assessment of the first contractor.
• The assessment of concerns raised during the public consultation and their potential input in further planning steps or amendments of plans.
• The need for expertise in hydrology and other relevant technical specialities either internally or bought in externally.
• How to avoid similar time and cost overruns on future schemes.

The majority group motion for debate concerned opening new parks, planting new trees and rewilding open spaces, fighting the climate crisis, and creating a greener borough for residents. The motion resolved to continue the work to deliver the Council Plan objective of achieving Local Nature Reserve status for 3 sites, including Warren Farm, to formally reach 800,000m2 of rewilding across the borough, to continue the work to deliver the Council Plan objective of delivering new parks and community growing spaces throughout the borough, including a new regional park for West London, and to continue the work to deliver the Council Plan objective of planting 50,000 more trees by planting 9,000 more trees in 2025/26.

Other Matters

The agenda also included:

• Apologies for Absence and Attendance
• Declarations of Interest
• Minutes of the Meeting held on 10 June 2025
• Mayor's Announcements
• Petitions from Members of the Council
• Appointments to Committees and Other Bodies
• Questions from Members of the Council