Locals and commuters using North Acton Underground station are once again raising concerns over the hygiene and safety of North Acton Square which serves as an entrance to the Central Line station.
The entrance area off Victoria Road, which Transport for London (TfL) says is the responsibility of Labour-run Ealing Council, has loose handrails which wobble when used despite having been installed in 2020 and an unhygienic public refill water fountain with layers of dirt and bird droppings on it.
Locals told EALING.NEWS that the North Acton Square area has not been properly maintained or cleaned up and is full of graffiti along with empty alcohol cans and bottles scattered throughout.
They also say people are drinking their booze in the square and dropping cans and bottles without any action being taken by authorities.
Residents say they have been complaining about the state of North Acton Square for several years and nothing appears to have been done to address their concerns.
One local told EALING.NEWS: “It really is appalling to see the state of this new entrance and public square. Who is going to risk their health by refilling water with a fountain that is never kept clean? Why is no-one doing anything to secure the handrails which are dangerous and why is it allowed to be run down and look like this?”
They added: “Why are drinkers allowed to be get away with this? It is causing a nuisance and is also frightening to see so much anti-social behaviour going on in a public place with no-one doing anything to stop this.”
In 2023, another resident told EALING.NEWS that the handrails had not been properly installed. They said at the time: “It’s been like this for months. Three of the handrails never seemed to be properly installed and used to wobble when you used them. They’ve put some barriers up around three of them but haven’t provided any details of what the problem is, what is being done or who is responsible for this.”
Transport for London has told EALING.NEWS that anything outside the actual Underground station is not its responsibility including the cleaning and maintenance of it. A spokesperson said: “Anything outside of the station is the responsibility of the borough environmental health team.”
They also added that the water fountain which is covered in dirt and bird droppings is also not their responsibility and is a “Mayoral initiative”.
Ealing Liberal Democrats Councillor Athena Zissimos, spokesperson for the Environment, told EALING.NEWS of her concerns about North Acton Square.
She said: “Ealing Council should thoroughly clean up all the graffiti and repair the railings as a matter of course. The local safer community team should be
moving on the street drinkers.”
Councillor Zissimos added: “The council needs to step up and sort the area out, a proper plan should have been made when the square was built of how it would be kept clean and maintained on a regular basis, which has clearly not happened. I am wondering if anyone thought to put the drinking fountain on a cleaning schedule at all.”
Speaking to EALING.NEWS, an Ealing Council spokesperson said: “We have been on site and there is one section of handrail that is slightly loose and we’ll be fixing that shortly. Repairs can reported on the Love Clean Streets app which can be downloaded for free in the app store on any smartphone or on our website here.”
The spokesperson added: “We are acutely aware of the issues at North Acton Square, and the wider area, including fly-tipping, anti-social behaviour and graffiti. A range of maintenance and clean-up initiatives have been implemented, however, the problems have returned.
“We are working with Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC), and local partners, to develop new plans for North Acton Square to tackle these issues and provide this public space with new uses for the local community, providing new opportunities for them to come together and enjoy this area. We will be making announcements on this, with our local partners, over the coming months with new uses aiming to be in place by this summer.”
