Weekly Update From Councillor Guy Lambert

Apparently there's an election on

Loth as I am to criticise the editor [It's rarely wise, Ed] (she who must be obeyed) I did notice last week that a picture I submitted didn’t make it through. I thought maybe I had offended against religion but looking again I find it is St Microsoft that was offended: it put in a page break so (I assume) the editor didn’t notice the last bit [Assumptions aren't wise either, Ed]. So here it is:
3 days of the above.

Meanwhile, a couple of things I’ve been asked to mention. The Melvinator announces that work has begun on a new Bee-Hive also known as the Lionel road stadium with the old stables gone but many of the bricks being preserved for reuse. And the Friends of Cathja are very keen to have some new volunteers for their shop in the High Street – all sorts of skills welcome – ‘front of house’, warehouse box shifters, specialists in books or clothes or whatever. Can be weekday or – better still - weekend, a day or half a day or an hour, but preferably regular and reliable!

So I did my 3 days watching old cars, which was a pretty good break in routine but not helped by a biting wind. Despite the whole event being cloudy I noticed at the end that my face was feeling a bit hot and, in the mirror, a fetching shade of puce.

I was back on Monday but between some family commitments and trying to catch up with email etc I managed to completely forget a meeting with a resident. Contrary to what you might think, I am not entirely perfect.
Anyway, we have an election on so normal routines are seriously disrupted – less boring meetings, more getting out on the doorstep talking to people and more time in the Labour office stuffing envelopes and trying to sort stuff out. So I find I have no council business to report this week, which is probably a first, though there is still activity going on beneath the waterline with loads of emails and phone calls to deal with and in fact it will take until this weekend to get on top of what I didn’t do last weekend :-(. Well, what passes for ‘on top of’.

I spent most of Tuesday in the Labour Party office: as luck would have it, the election was called at a time we have the builders in so there was chaos for a bit, though I can now say it’s organised chaos.

Wednesday morning I was supposed to have a Credit Union session but this was cancelled due to complicated child care problems for my colleague, so into the office again to organise a bit more chaos (take that as you wish).  

In the afternoon, down to the Holiday Inn for another presentation about the proposed Brentford to Kew Gardens Bridge. All the usual suspects were on show – the most esteemed editor, BCC, local historians, Green Party types, Big Mel Collins and a good turnout of local residents. I think it’s a good idea but ‘tarte dans le ciel’ as the French don’t say until someone coughs up £10M to pay for it. I did suggest to the Holiday Inn manager that they should pay as they will get lots of customers but when I turned my back for a second he had disappeared. Perhaps these two events were connected.

After that it was time for a bit of door knocking, in Syon ward on this occasion. There is something very nourishing to the soul to walk around in the rain with soggy paper on a clipboard disrupting everybody’s dinner. Or so people tell me. I am yet to be convinced, but it was very heartening to hear the enthusiasm expressed for Ruth Cadbury. It seems that her incredible work ethic and her unremitting fight for issues that are important round here is really hitting home. A quick glass of house red in La Cuisine on London Road further restored the spirits so I regained my enthusiasm for a campaign planning meeting back in the Chiswick office, which thankfully was fairly short.

Today, Thursday, I’m off to Ashford to support Surrey’s only Labour councillor in retaining his seat. Then in the evening we have planning committee: I’m pleased to say that it’s a very short agenda, though as ever, not without controversy and with the added ingredient of an application from one of our fellow councillors. Sadly, none of Cllr Tom Bruce’s neighbours has objected so we’ll have to make up some objections of our own.

Finally, a couple of messages from Monsieur le Melvinateur. Because I bore on about what I do in this blog, you may get the impression that my fellow councillors are less active. In truth, they both work very hard and Mel in particular is always jetting off around London representing Hounslow on various arcane bodies, often to do with Health or disability.
Last Wednesday he jetted off to the Harvester in Boston Manor Road to attend the AGM of the Boston Manor Residents Association. He tells me it was a lively affair but he has kept mum about what was lively so I’ll have to dig for any scandal. On Sunday, Mel reports, we said goodbye to the Revd Derek Simpson who has been a tower of strength to our local community for the past 21 years.  On Tuesday, 2 May, there was a Thanksgiving Service for the Shelter Project for homeless men over December 2016 to March 2017 to which Hounslow Council provided £15,000.  On Wednesday, 3rd May, Mel, Ruth and Seema attended the Speak Out in Hounslow AGM at what Mel describes as the Kew Steam Museum, more properly known these days as the London Museum of Water and Steam in Brilliant Brentford. One of those occasions when the offending three letter word has been expunged.
Somebody moaned at me this week that my meanderings were getting too long, so a relatively low calorie version this week. Now where’s my sausage sandwich?

Guy Lambert

May 5, 2017