Work has at last finished on the road widening between Norwood Bridge and Frogmore Green, and a gyratory road system has been constructed at the Southall entrance to the old AEC works.
For many years there has been a company of Sea Cadets in Southall. They have had various setbacks. Their former HQ in Trumpers Way was destroyed by fire in 1979. On Monday, 17th January 1983 the Second in Command Sea Cadets visited the TS Westcott Company as they are now known at their new HQ in Tentelow Lane. Membership now thirty.
Southall Environment Project, under the Directorship of Councillor S. D. Gupta, MSc DIIP, came into being in September 1977. Its object was to enrich the quality of life in Southall. In 1982 the project is five years old. Several good schemes have been started and quite a lot done to try and clean up the town. Ninety per cent of the ethnic community in the town are ordinary people who want to be left alone to live their own lives. It is only a very small element that cause trouble with thieving and mugging. This is not helped by the large number of unemployed, both coloured and white – the figure at the end of 1982 being 4,328.
New Parish Social Centres have been built for St Johns and Holy Trinity Churches. Between 1968-78 the Ealing Borough established the Glade Lane Nursery, centralising the growing of trees and plants, and closed the Park Nursery. Unfortunately, over the past ten years several large industrial firms have either closed down or moved. The Gas Works closed in 1973; the AEC in June 1979; Cramic Engineering 1978; Arrow Switches moved to Plymouth 1968. Several smaller firms have also closed down but, in the hope of attracting new industry, small Trading Estates have been created at the end of Hortus Road, on the Council Depot in Endsleigh Road and on the site of A. & B. Hanson’s Yard in Featherstone Road.
In 1979 the first Euro Parliamentary Election was held and Mr Brian Hoard was elected to represent Western Territory of which Southall is a part.
There opened in Southall on the Southbridge Trading Estate in 1980 a small wholesale grocery warehouse. In 1981 an extension was added of 55,000 square feet, making in all 80,000 square feet. Thus, the success of the four Satterwalla Brothers who now employ 125 people and have a turnover of £12 million.
Another setback for the name of Southall – the very successful Southall three-day show will, after 40 years, in 1983 become Ealing Borough Show. Due to economy cuts the open-air swimming pool in the Recreation Ground will remain closed.
The Fire Brigade
Just as Southall gradually developed, so the Fire Brigade has gradually expanded. When, in 1900, Mr C. Abbott formed a voluntary Fire Brigade the Council built a Fire Station attached to the Town Hall and, very grudgingly, provided a manual engine, uniforms and a horse.
A great boost came in May 1913 when the Annual Competitions of the South Midland District of the National Fire Brigade took place in Southall Park. Under Chiefs Harry Willis and Albert Smith the Brigade became much more efficient and a lot more up-to-date. Motor Fire Engines purchased about 1930.