Security guards in Ealing

Which parts of Ealing do we cover?

All seven towns that the council’s new draft Local Plan, still being examined in 2026, is built around: Acton, Ealing, Greenford, Hanwell, Northolt, Perivale and Southall (Ealing Council). The draft says the last decade’s growth went mainly to parts of Acton, Ealing and Southall, and it aims to spread new development to Greenford, Hanwell, Northolt and Perivale as well.

Park Royal, split between Ealing and Brent, is the UK’s largest industrial estate, with more than 1,700 businesses and over 40,000 jobs (OPDC). Its planning authority is the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC), which calls it London’s kitchen: around 30% of the capital’s food is produced or processed there, alongside logistics, film and creative businesses. The wider Old Oak and Park Royal Opportunity Area has capacity for 25,500 homes and 65,000 jobs, with regeneration around North Acton station on the Central line.

Two more Strategic Industrial Locations sit further west (London Plan): the Great Western Industrial Estate in Southall, and the industrial land of Northolt, Greenford and Perivale. A 2022 audit for the council found that more than a quarter of the jobs on Southall’s industrial land are in food (Ealing Council).

Town centres. Ealing is a Metropolitan centre, Southall a Major centre, and Acton, Greenford and Hanwell are District centres (London Plan). Elizabeth line trains call at Acton Main Line, Ealing Broadway, West Ealing, Hanwell and Southall (National Rail), and Ealing Broadway also has the Central and District lines (TfL). The University of West London has a site in Ealing, with a second in Brentford (UWL).

Southall is a London Plan Opportunity Area with capacity for 9,000 homes and 3,000 jobs. On the former Southall Gasworks, plans cover 3,750 homes, 931 of them affordable, with shops, a cinema, a health centre, a primary school and 40 acres of parkland (Ealing Council).

What needs guarding in Ealing?

Food and logistics sites. In Park Royal, Southall and the Greenford and Perivale estates, an officer on the gatehouse can check drivers, vehicles and visitors against your delivery schedule, and check outgoing loads against the paperwork. Once the gates shut, they patrol the yard, the loading docks and any trailers parked overnight. See warehouse and industrial security.

Building sites. The gasworks site in Southall and the growth around North Acton and Old Oak both bring large building sites. On sites like these, construction site security controls who and what comes through the gate by day and guards the site at night. Where site traffic shares streets with Park Royal’s HGVs, traffic marshals see deliveries in safely.

Shops. Make It Ealing is the Business Improvement District for Ealing town centre, funded by its businesses, who voted in October 2025 to renew it until 2031 (Make It Ealing). West Ealing has a BID of its own, renewed in a 2023 ballot (Ealing Council). In Ealing, West Ealing, Southall or Acton, a uniformed retail security officer gives your shop a visible deterrent and backs up your staff.

Festivals and events. In 2026 the Ealing Summer Festivals put on seven festivals in Walpole Park between 8 July and 2 August, from beer and comedy to jazz and blues (Ealing Council). Planning your own event in Walpole Park or elsewhere in Ealing? See event security.

What should you know about Ealing first?

• Who plans Park Royal. OPDC, not the council, is the planning authority for Park Royal and Old Oak, and it supports keeping the land in industrial use. If you’re building there, your planning consent and its conditions come from OPDC, so plan site security around them.
• Festival season. The summer festivals run for weeks, not a single weekend. If your shop or venue is near Walpole Park, plan staffing and deliveries around the published dates.
• Licences for evening work. The London Plan rates Ealing’s night-time economy as regionally significant, and Southall’s and Acton’s as more than local. Door supervisors at licensed premises need the SIA’s door supervisor licence (SIA).