February 28, 2001 15:24: A multi-million pound revamp of a popular shopping centre is hoped to keep it successful in the face of strong competition.

More than £5.5 million is to be ploughed into revamping Ealing Broadway Shopping Centre and managers envisage a brighter, more spacious centre, which they claim will enhance the town's special character for shoppers.

From June, brick columns around the Town Square in front of the library will be demolished and the area covered with a glass canopy.

It is hoped the new glass canopy, together with a new mall cafe with seats on either side of the centre's twin towers, will also make the square a more attractive venue for community events, including Ealing's Summer Festival concerts.

The second phase of the two-year refurbishment, due to start early next year, includes removing the bandstand in the middle of the centre. New ceiling finishes and lighting, new faces to the pilasters and refurbishment of the toilets are among the improvements.

The improvement programme, which is being funded by the centre's owners Legal and General, is the first to be undertaken since the centre opened in March 1985.

And it has been hailed by the centre's manager Vicki Edwards as a major boost for Ealing's residents, traders and visiting shoppers.

"This is great news for Ealing and and can only enhance the special character of our town," she said.

"It will allow us to compete more effectively within an increasingly competitive market."

Ealing Centre Forum, a group set up to regenerate the town centre, was told by commercial experts in November 1999 that an extra 300,000 sq ft of extra retail space was needed roughly the size of the Broadway shopping centre if the town was to remain competitive.

But surveys have shown opposition to a new shopping centre.

Ealing Centre Forum's own survey of nearly 50,000 shoppers and residents last summer revealed that 70 per cent of them wanted to preserve the town's village character.

And 85 per cent of members of Central Ealing Residents' Association voted against a new shopping centre in November.

Three areas Bond Street and High Street, Dickens Yard and Ealing Broadway Station have been listed as possible sites for a new retail centre.

A study by Legal and General into future retail development is expected to be ready in two months.

By.Emily Rogers