On 7 May 2026, residents in the Southall West ward will vote to choose who represents them at Ealing Council.
EALING.NEWS has asked all candidates standing to become a councillor, 7 questions about who they are, what they hope to deliver and why they want residents to vote for them.
Here’s what Dan Cortese, standing for Ealing Community Independents in Southall West, has to say:
Tell us a bit about yourself, your priorities for the ward and why you want to be a councillor for Southall West?
Originally from Australia, I moved to the UK in 2016 and settled in Southall in 2021. I’ve had a varied but exciting career working across the construction, tourism, television, and tech industries.
My number one priority for Southall West is getting on top of overdevelopment. Over 1,500 flats have been built in the last five years, yet we still don’t have a full-line supermarket, our post office and community gym were shut down, promised GP clinics have never materialised, the South Road bridge widening project was abandoned, and the council just closed three of Southall’s six children’s centres. With another 25,000 flats already approved for Southall and no concrete plan for the services and infrastructure to support them, it’s a recipe for disaster.
Southall is growing at twice the UK average rate. That growth generates significant revenue for the council, revenue that is clearly not being reinvested here. One of the first things I will push for is an unredacted audit of Southall’s revenue generation versus council investment, so we can see exactly where our money is going, and if necessary, fight to get it back.
What motivates you?
I’m motivated by what Southall has the potential to become – under the right leadership.
The Elizabeth line has been a game-changer for Southall. We’ve got a bunch of large, underutilised industrial sites ripe for redevelopment, a canal network that ties everything together, and billions in private investment already committed. By any metric, Southall should be in a renaissance. Instead, the last five years have felt like the opposite, because the decisions shaping Southall are being made by people who don’t live here, don’t care about the end result, and don’t answer to its residents. Everything needed to make Southall thrive is in place, there just isnt the skill or will
On a broader level, I know a lot of people feel let down by the main parties and have disengaged from politics altogether. I understand that feeling. I had all but given up on the political process myself. But meeting my fellow ECI candidates, who refuse to accept this race to the bottom we seem to be in, changed that. Knowing that a genuine alternative is possible reinvigorated my belief that things don’t have to be this way, and I hope that, by standing in this election, I can show others the same.
What is your own personal connection to Southall West or the borough?
I moved to Southall five years ago when I bought into the Green Quarter development. Since then, I’ve worked with neighbours to form a residents’ association and community action group, and more recently joined the Southall Residents Alliance, where I met my fellow ECI candidates Joe, Angela and Sukhi, who encouraged me to stand for Southall West in this election.
What do you consider to be your 3 top political, work or personal achievements?
Growing a YouTube channel to over 3 million subscribers and 400 million views. Knowing the content I created was directly reaching and challenging millions of people around the world, encouraging them to think more abstractly and engage with the engineering and systems shaping the world around them, remains one of the things I’m most proud of.
Successfully leading multi-million pound and dollar projects across both construction and marketing. Delivering complex, high-stakes projects across very different industries has given me a practical, hands-on approach to problem-solving that I use in all aspects of my life.
Summiting Mount Kilimanjaro. We left base camp at midnight in minus-20-degree weather. I wore 6 pairs of socks and still felt the cold, so I knew it was going to be a tough day.
A few hours in, my cousin couldn’t continue and had to turn back. I was gutted because it was all we’d talked about for almost a year, but knowing I’d likely never be back, I pushed on with our guide. Not only did I reach the summit, but we arrived before sunrise, so I got to watch the sun break the horizon and light up the whole Savannah below.
That unforgettable moment taught me that when the opportunity to do something meaningful presents itself, don’t worry about what others think or wait for better conditions. Grab it and give it all you’ve got.
What do you consider to be the top 3 challenges Southall West faces, and how will you address them?
Overdevelopment and infrastructure underinvestment. Like I said earlier, this isn’t a game like SimCity. You cannot continue approving towers full of flats, adding thousands of people to an area, without investing in the infrastructure and services people rely on and just expect the result to be a success.
I will push to pause any further large-scale approvals until a concrete, fully-funded infrastructure plan and delivery timeline are in place, and ensure developers are held accountable by tying progress on phased construction projects to the delivery of essential community facilities – no more kicking the can down the road
I would also push for a moratorium on new HMO licences in Southall. HMOs are framed as adding much-needed housing stock, when in reality, they take family homes and convert them into dormitory-style accommodation that maximise room count and revenue at the expense of the community.
Fewer families move into HMO-heavy areas, and if this model ever falls out of favour, converting those properties back to family homes will be so cost-prohibitive that Southall will be left with streets full of undesirable housing stock that eventually become future slums.
Family homes in London are a precious commodity, and we should be protecting them wherever we can.
Crime and anti-social behaviour. Petty crime, drug dealing and verbal harassment have reached a point where residents, particularly women, can’t even walk to the shops or train station at night. I want to work with the Met to restore Southall police station to a fully staffed, 24-hour operation and increase regular patrols along our high streets with officers whose presence is known and felt by those engaging in anti-social behaviour.
Fly-tipping and neighbourhood pride. It’s a nationwide issue, but Southall is particularly affected, and a big part of the reason is the council’s own policy failures.
Fortnightly bin collections are not working; they know this because there is published data on it. When eight to twelve people share an HMO with two wheelie bins collected every two weeks, what do they think will happen to the additional trash? Keep it inside for up to 2 weeks? No, it ends up on the street, degrading the area and encouraging others to do the same, creating a cycle of declining standards. The council currently spends millions clearing fly-tipping incidents directly, when that money should be redirected to reinstating weekly collections so the problem doesn’t occur in the first place.
What do you love about Southall West and the borough of Ealing?
Southall is a vibe! I wouldn’t have chosen to live here if I didn’t feel it. Whenever there is a festival, the community spirit is undeniable; that’s Southall at its best, which used to be the norm.
It’s interesting, actually. Southall West is one of the most diverse wards in London, possibly in the whole country, but what’s stood out to me most over the last few months, while speaking with residents, is the unity and shared expectations people have in their day-to-day lives. Regardless of their age, background, nationality, or religion, they all want the same things: cleaner streets, safer neighbourhoods, and representatives who actually show up and listen.
That common ground, in a place this diverse, is something genuinely special, and that’s worth fighting for. We can get Southall back to a place where people enjoy themselves and are proud of; we just have to remove the people from power who let it slip in the first place and replace them with people who actually care about Southall’s future.
How accessible will you be to residents, and how can they contact you?
This is actually part of what pushed me to stand in the first place. When I contacted our current Labour councillors with a concern back in January, it took me a month to receive any acknowledgement, and I had to send weekly follow-up emails just to get that. That level of indifference from someone meant to be a representative of the people proved to me that the current Southall councillors, across all wards, not just Southall West, have become comfortable and complacent and think our votes are guaranteed so long as they do their leaflet drop every four years. They are wrong.
I will commit to responding to all formal emails within 5 business days, not necessarily with a resolution, but with a clear acknowledgement that the issue has been received and is being looked into. Residents deserve to know they’ve been heard.
I’ve also set up a dedicated X account, @dancorteseuk, where residents can follow, comment and tag me in real-time issues as they happen. I want an accurate, ground-level view of what’s affecting people day to day, not a filtered one.
We (ECI) also want to push for a return to regular in-person ward surgeries across Ealing to restore a sense of community and allow residents to interact and engage with their local councillors. COVID ended in 2022; it’s time Ealing Labour stopped using pandemic-era protocols to hide from face-to-face accountability and the people they are meant to serve.
Click here for all Southall West candidates standing.
Full coverage of the 2026 Ealing Council local elections and candidates standing can be found here.
