What's Being Done About Low Life Expectancy in Southall?
Delicious but unhealthy food seen as part of the problem
Asim Nazir, restaurant worker in Southall
August 30, 2023
Approaching Southall High Street from the silvery, sleek Elizabeth Line station is an experience that is difficult to quantify. The hum of activity, the distinct variety and the raw vibrancy of the area is hard to take in for an evergreen visitor used to the goings-on of the standard London thoroughfare.
Southall is different in many ways from its counterparts in Ealing and even the capital at large. It is defined by deep cultural, ethnic, religious and social links to Southern Asia.
This is reflected in the High Street. Food vendors shifting brightly coloured traditional Indian snacks like gulab jamun, chewar and Mysore pak. The intoxicating smell of curry hangs over where shops and food kiosks spill out onto large sections of the bustling pavements.
If the High Street is dying, someone needs to inform the people of Southall. However, over the years, concerns have been raised about the area, particularly to do with residents’ health outcomes.
A council town hall in June 2022 addressed some of the worrying statistics that have emerged from the area in recent years. Southall has the highest proportion of self-reported bad or very bad health across Ealing borough with 5 per cent saying they struggle with health issues.
It also has the highest rate of diabetes across the 7 towns, 1.6 times the borough average. Life expectancy is also a concern. Southall has a lower rate for both men and women than the Ealing average, with it having the lowest life expectancy for women of any area of the borough.
A food stall in Southall
Health inequalities in Southall have long been a focus of the council’s activities with Let’s Go Southall, a programme designed to promote exercise to people in the area, being established in 2018. This incorporates specific projects such as Let’s Ride Southall a £1.2m bike scheme which plans to hand out 2,500 bikes to residents and gives free cycling lessons.
This scheme has proved almost universally popular in theory, however in practice groups have raised issues around road safety and cycle lanes in Southall which they say has affected locals’ confidence in using bikes instead of other forms of transport. A more controversial plan the council have put forward to tackle the problem is the partial conversion of the currently rewilded Warren Farm into playing fields to serve the Southall community, a move that has been roundly criticised.
In light of the concerning statistics, Local Democracy Reporting Services went to the town to get the opinion of people who live on health inequalities and how local authorities are attempting to tackle it.
Shopping centre Ealing Southall
Agha Hussain occupies a very quaint corner of the High Street. His narrow shop specialises in Pakistani fare selling everything from unusual crisp flavours to threads of saffron. He is fairly sanguine about the council’s statistics but places the blame for people’s poor health squarely on the shoulders of resident’s diets.
“We [Southern Asian community] eat a lot of oily food,” he said. “You can see a lot of samosa places, a lot of food places everywhere.”
“It is not the most healthy stuff. It’s quite nice food but it’s not the healthiest.”
When asked if he was concerned about the life expectancy rate in Southall Agha seemed unconcerned, “Not really, but because people have been eating this stuff for many many years and sometimes you can have too much is a bit of a health problem. But other than that not really.”
Agha Hussain in his shop
Plans to create playing pitches at Warren Farm have been divisive with Agha confident that residents in Southall had enough open space already. “I think there are quite a few parks. If you go down the road the is Southall Park and if you go to Old Southall there’s a park there as well and if you go down Springfield Road there is a massive park. So there are about three parks within a mile of each other so I don’t think it’s a massive problem.”
“I see people in the morning going for walks, going for runs so I don’t think it’s much of a problem.”
He hadn’t heard of Let’s Go Southall but said he thought it was “a really good idea,” especially the bike giveaway. He said: “If you don’t have the means to go out and get a bike for £100-£200 if you get a free bike of course you are going to utilise it to the best of your abilities. I think it’s a really good idea.”
He says he would like to see more hire bikes in the area such as Santander and Lime rentals, adding that making the roads in Southall more cyclist-friendly would go a long way in encouraging people to start riding. “If there were cycle lanes I feel like it would be better for the whole community,” he said.
The High Street is dominated by all types of shoppers from dawdlers and meanderers to picky purchasers hopping rapidly from shop to shop. Because of the neighbourhood’s demographic, it has become a draw not just for Ealing residents but London’s wider South Asian community.
A fresh fruit stall in Southall
Prerana Ramteke lived in Southall for 7 months before moving to Hounslow but still comes back to buy her favourite snacks on occasion, but she admits it’s probably better that she only comes back now and then, for the sake of her health.
“Southall is full of Asians and the food we eat is delicious. I love it. But still, if you eat that much sugar that is going to affect you,” she said. Originally from Mumbai, Prerana says although she loves the food and will come to buy them on a special occasion she has health concerns of her own.
“As a woman, I found out recently that I am pre-diabetic so if I eat junk food it’s not good. I used to live in Scotland and you could not find this type of food but if you live in Southall and you get these every day then I think I won’t live that long anyway.”
Prerana Ramteke, shopping in Southall
In one of the many restaurants serving up tantalising grub is worker Asim Nazir, who moved from Pakistan just three months ago. His perspective is fairly unique having seen London life in Southall through fresh eyes.
He puts down a lot of the health difficulties in Southall down to the fast-paced London lifestyle and, of course, the food. “The majority of people living here are of the Asian ethnicity, which means their food style, and lifestyle is a little bit different from other groups [in London].”
In Southall Park, you will find everything you could want in an urban green space. The well-kempt paths guide visits through leafy wooded spots, wide open fields, decorative flower beds and multiple sports facilities. Following signs to the outdoor gym LDRS met a woman taking advantage of the ample equipment and sunny day.
Shiny Pancholi is one of the few people LDRS spoke to who was aware of Let’s Go Southall and had even taken part in Let’s Ride Southall events, including cycling lessons. “They are putting cycling on for beginners, they putting on cycling lessons in the morning on Thursdays from 9:30 until 12 O’clock.”
“I only went one time because now the children are back from school. I know to cycle but I have joined the beginners and once they have fully practised they take a group of people on the road.”
Shiny admits she is nervous cycling on the road, citing the lack of cycle paths as one of her concerns. However, she does see the classes and the attempt to get women out of the house as a positive saying that it is starting to help disrupt women in the area’s often sedentary lifestyle.
“Women are in Southall stay home, they rarely come out. Now Ealing is doing some activity in Southall in Jubilee Garden. There are a few women coming, they also have a group which comes here [Southall Park] to exercise.”
She suggests that part of the struggle for people is the easy accessibility in Southall to near irresistible fast food restaurants which add so much colour but act as a huge temptation to the neighbourhood.
She said, “They are all eating fast food, they don’t want to cook. Children don’t want home food they only want to eat outside.”
Shiny Pancholi at Southall Park Gym
Shiny for all of her worries is making the most of Ealing Council’s initiatives in the community and is an example where outreach efforts have made a difference. Cllr Josh Blacker, Ealing Cabinet Member for Healthy Lives says uptake in the Let’s Go Southall has been “great” amongst residents.
Speaking to LDRS he discussed the reasons why Southall is facing health inequality and what the council is doing to improve things. He said: “In terms of reasons it is hard to pin down a specific reason and we take a very system-wide approach in our new health and wellbeing strategy that we launch this year talks about the building block of health things like housing, poverty, air quality, all the things that come together and create the environment that contributes health inequalities.”
“We know the use of cars is highest, the number of cars per household is higher. So it’s an opportunity to exercise that’s why we put things like gyms in the park and things and we have supported the Southall Park run.”
Beyond exercise programmes, he says there are also events run by Let’s Go Southall that are focused on diet. “As part of Let’s Go Southall, we have got various food programmes as well so there are food swap classes and we do events where we look into food choices and support to tackle conditions like diabetes which are at a higher rate in that area.
“And then holidays and food activity programme we are trying to get children to have at least one full and healthy meal a day and we are working with the Mayor of London to achieve that.”
Cllr Blacker says that the scheme has not faced issues with language barriers because of the way it is run, focusing on training community leaders to run the programmes themselves. “The Let’s Go Southall team speak a number of community languages. I don’t think it’s much of an issue as it might be for other programmes and it seems to be working incredibly well, the number of people getting involved is great.”
Addressing the worries about Warren Farm and the necessity of dewilding the reserve rather than using facilities that already exist the councillor said, “Southall Park is great and we have the gym there. But it’s only so big and there are a huge number of people in Southall and it’s only getting denser with a lot more development going on. Southall Park is not gonna give us the space to deliver the football and cricket pitches that we need.”
Rory Bennett - Local Democracy Reporter