Weekly Update From Councillor Guy Lambert

Junction 2 goes to licensing and appeal is heard for Alfa Laval

Thursday evening, liquid lunch by now a blurred memory (not THAT blurred, behave) it’s the BTRA. Us 3 Brentford councillors meet the chair and secretary down at the Watermans. This is one of those meetings which are both fun and feel very productive and 100% of the credit goes to our BTRA friends, who are a real breath of fresh air. They only started just after the Grenfell tragedy and have made enormous strides in just a few months. Better still, despite the challenges, it looks like they are having a whale of a time and making a real difference to residents in our towers. Have a peek at btra.org.uk (and no, they have nothing at all to do with truck racing).

Friday morning I make a most cautious approach to the Floreat school in Great West Quarter. I am in constant communication with my rib and knee, both of whom are nagging me: “kerbs are to be stepped over, not tripped over”. The ascent of the pavement is successful and I am shown round the school by the head teacher. They are making the most of a difficult site and all the staff I meet are clearly committed and nice people with it (plus 4 to 7 year olds always bring a big smile to my face).

On Sunday morning I cycle up to Boston Manor Park to compare notes with Linda Massey in her cosy café, about the impending licence hearing. The Friends are clearly not happy about their park being used for the Junction 2 festival and we agree to attend the hearing on Tuesday and make sure local objections get a full hearing.

Over the weekend my knee is playing up so I don’t do much more (apart from the inevitable emails etc) and I manage to get an appointment with my doc on Monday – painkillers and antibiotics. So Monday evening I’m off to Isleworth Public Hall for Credit Union board. We had three new potential directors (I call them supplicants, because it pleases me to call them something silly) but due to a horrendous day for transport and clashing meetings only one arrived. Anyway we definitely have one new board member and another will join shortly.

Tuesday is the ‘Autumn wardabout’ with Hounslow Highways. Mel and Myra are both busy at the planning appeal for the Alfa Laval tower. Hyundai want a car showroom on the site (which is fine) but they want a monster size illuminated advert (which is far from fine either with councillors or planners). We’ll see what the inspector says, though too often they seem to side with developers. Whatever, I really really want that site developed: it’s a horrible eyesore and a magnet for anti social behaviour and you can see where the little beggars scramble over the hoarding. 

In the afternoon I have a meeting with the people from Air Quality Brentford to talk about the council’s Air Quality Action Plan and to help prepare for a meeting I’m expecting on Wednesday, of the Air Quality task group. The plan is a weighty document but not easy to use as a guide for what needs doing. We agree that we should be trying to get some SMART objectives for air quality (Specific, Measurable, Agreed upon, Realistic and Timely) so we will be working on that.

Tuesday evening  it’s down to the council chamber with various residents of Boston Manor Road and thereabouts to take part in the licensing panel hearing for the Junction 2 Festival. I’m not on the panel (not allowed as it’s my ward) and I sit with the objectors, though when I go in I’m as interested in getting the thing run properly as I am in actually stopping it. I was pleased with the way the organisers had responded to complaints, not denying that this year’s event had had big problems and pledging to sort them. Of course one is a tad sceptical but they seemed to be trying to do the right thing. All of our residents were calm and measured and a noise man from Ealing (which had been worse affected than Brentford) turned up and said that the ‘reduced’ noise level being offered was actually noisier than what in reality happened this year (when it was well under the - higher -limit but created massive issues). Their lawyer kept suggesting that the complaints from residents were exaggerated – that, for example, they couldn’t really see inside the toilets – but one of our number pointed out that she had a full frontal view from her dinner table! All of this turned me further against it, though to be fair the actual organisers were still agreeing there were problems.
As of now, I don’t know what the outcome was.

Wednesday morning and it’s my follow the recycling wagon routine. The idea is to look out for houses whose recycling is getting rejected and try to explain what they need to do differently to get it taken next time. I warn the guys on the truck that I’ll be following them, but not sure they understand me. I knock on a few doors in Albany Road – not even my ward but where I find the truck – and drop a business card with an explanation through those who don’t answer. I continue up Brook Road South and Hamilton Road, before breaking for a cup of tea with my editor! A few doorstep conversations which are always interesting: apart from angst about recycling there are a lot of car break ins. I ask to be added to the WhatsApp group monitoring this. During this adventure I meet with the local supervisor (the guys had complained someone was following them, so they obviously hadn’t understood me!)

Anyway, in almost every case the problem was ‘soft’ plastics – carrier bags, polythene bags, film on the top of plastic supermarket trays. Some bags say they’re recyclable but we cannot recycle them so rely on the LBH website rather than what it says on the (plastic) tin.

Turned out my Air Quality meeting at the Civic didn’t happen so it was a bit of a wasted journey except that I got to have a chat with my good friends Clls Louki and Anderson. Then, yes you’ve guessed it, Wednesday night is usually pointless Labour party meeting night but I like the Swan in Isleworth for after-meeting fact-finding.

Just off for some afternoon door knocking. Who knows upon which Brentford door the fickle knuckle of fate may descend. You have been warned.

Councillor Guy Lambert

November 29, 2017