EALING residents are emphatically opposed to the West London Tram, and have said the council does not give them value for money.

That is the message following a survey by Southall Conservative Association, which stated that 78 per cent of people do not want the tram along the Uxbridge Road and 77 per cent said Labour-controlled Ealing Council was failing to give residents value for money.

But critics say the survey does not give the full picture, with only three of the nine constituency wards being consulted.

However during the past five months the Southall Conservatives Action team has been conducting a door-to-door survey with canvassers contacting more than 2,500 householders across the wards of Northfields, Walpole and Elthorne.

Northfields Conservatives member and local activist David Millican said: "This unprecedented act of listening has given us a unique insight into what is on the minds of local residents. These are the actual issues of real concern to residents."

Mr Millican said residents would rather the millions of pounds spent on the ill-fated Response computer system and the money spent on doing up the Town Hall were spent on improving their local environment cleaning up the graffiti, re-doing pavements, re-surfacing roads.

Mark Reen, another Conservative activist agreed. "Ealing is a fantastic place to live," he said. "It just needs a Council that will make its priority the things that will really make a difference to us locally."

Another issue of concern was the state of the local environment, with many people saying the council took too long to remove litter and graffiti.

But council leader Leo Thomson said: "The council is committed to improving its services and making Ealing a cleaner, greener and safer borough. I welcome the news that 58 per cent of people surveyed thought our services are satisfactory or better. The findings show that we are very much in tune with local concerns having recently announced £3 million of extra cash into ridding our streets of environmental crime and anti-social behaviour."

She added: "To tackle these problems we have run a series of special clean-up days across the borough and invested in two new graffiti removal squads. The council supports the West London Tram because it will give Ealing a reliable, high-quality public transport service that meets the needs of our growing population for decades to come."

But action team member Phil Taylor said: "Talking to people on their doorstep has brought home to us all just how out of touch the current Labour council really is."