Weekly Update From Councillor Guy Lambert

We could have four more years of this weekly column

So to planning and its “monster agenda”. There were at least three big applications plus a shoal of tiddlers but the hall was packed for two of them. The first and most interesting locally was changes to the Brentford FC stadium development. This was actually two applications in one – a change in the conditions and a change in the design of the stadium and residential units. We’ve had conflicting input from Bees fans on this – some for the changes, some against – but everyone – well, I mean the majority of Bees fans - is keen to see the development happen.
My concern was that there is no affordable housing in the scheme, though there is a commitment to consider it for what is known as the ‘Duffy site’ on the other side of Lionel Road, if the numbers add up after the rest of the scheme has been developed. I wanted the acknowledged cost savings on the stadium build to be reflected in the viability of the whole scheme to give a better chance of affordable housing, but the officers told me that wasn’t possible.
I could not vote for the scheme, given that, but I was not fundamentally against, so I abstained on the conditions element but voted in favour of the new design which will bring a better residential solution and which has every chance of actually being built!.

Even more controversial was a development on the former Morrisons site opposite Hounslow West tube. Morrisons shut up shop a couple of years ago because they couldn’t make the store pay due to not enough customers. The owners couldn’t persuade any other chain to take it on, though Lidl were interested in a smaller store. So the proposal is for a housing association development with a smallish store and 176 100% affordable homes – about half for rent, half for shared ownership. There’s a huge petition from locals and backing from Seema Malhotra MP to either refuse or defer the development: but we can’t conjure up a supermarket operator out of thin air and in any case a Planning Committee is legally bound to judge the proposal set before it rather than dream that a better one might emerge from somewhere. There were no planning grounds to refuse the application, so we approved it. As residents left the room there were a few cries to the effect that we’d been bought, however I asked Mel and neither he nor I got anything so I conclude this was a touch of Fake News. If I had a tenner for every time I’ve been accused of taking a dodgy tenner, I’d have quite a number of tenners.

We also had a development on the waste ground behind Kew Bridge Station – 30 smallish flats of which 15 will be for sale at a 20% discount to the market, to provide a stepping stone onto the housing ladder. I think the development is good but I got the hump because it doesn’t provide step free access to Kew Bridge station platform, which I think it should. It does leave room for a ramp to be provided from the station building itself but that will need someone to find the funding so, old cynic that I am, I’m anticipating this will be built in 2073. So I abstained again. This is getting to be a habit.
 
There was also the Green School for Boys (opposite the Girls’ school) and a couple of others: all these were approved and we got out by midnight.

Nothing to speak of on Friday but Saturday morning was Mel and my ‘Trigger Ballot’ at the St John’s centre. Both of us were endorsed to stand again (hurray) and we will have a new female candidate to stand with us. The short list contains 4 excellent women we’ll be proud to stand with (hurray again) but not Myra (chiz chiz, as Nigel Molesworth would say). We’ll find out on Saturday. Saturday afternoon I picked up Tony Louki and we headed down to Hanworth Park House, a really fantastic old building which is located in an unfashionable area and has become very neglected and decayed. The Melvinator would have joined us but he came up with some old guff about singing carols somewhere for charity, so cried off. Actually I have to say that Mel has a beautiful voice.

Local residents have made a couple of splendid videos about the house and its history: It will cost a mint to restore and has been bought by a developer who wants to build about 200 houses on the green belt to finance the restoration. We were invited by the Friends group and met with them and with the developer.  Cllr Louki has form on finding a way through these challenging conservation dilemmas and we will work on this until a mutually acceptable plan can be formed, which preserves this wonderful place and provide for its use by the community (at least in part).

Monday we meet on site here in Ferry Quays with a surveyor who is advising us on various issues with the buildings. It’s tempting to think they are poorly built, except when I take a reality check and remember how ‘well’ my previous abode, constructed in 1865, was built (ie Jerry building was alive and well in the mid-19th century). Anyway this is an estate of over 400 flats and it has a few little problems, notably with the lifts. Their manufacturer, Doppler, sounds reassuringly Germanic but is in fact Greek. Perhaps it’s a foreshortening of Papadoppolos.

In the evening over to Bedfont for a David Henry Waring trustees meeting. We agree in principle to hand the charity over to the Metropolitan Housing charity, subject to Charities Commission approval, etc.

Tuesday it’s more Ferry Quays business, this time looking around the Kew Bridge development with a man from St George’s to help inform our plans to refresh our carpets, lighting etc. After that a brief meeting in the Civic centre of the Housing Overview committee, attended only by John Chatt and myself, plus officers. This was about one of their performance measures which seemed a touch perverse – they had failed to help as many homeless people as planned because not enough homeless people asked for help. We pointed out that if they succeeded in entirely eradicating homelessness they would fail abysmally on this measure. Actually, it’s a good measure, aimed at catching impending homelessness early, but they will express it differently hereafter!

Wednesday morning the Melvinator and I plus a diverse collection of officers spend a couple of hours wandering around the Haverfield estate.  We have a perfect day for it – freezing cold and the drizzle interrupted only by heavier rain. Both Mel and I have got the hump about various issues in the Haverfield: lack of investment, poor cleaning, graffiti, flytipping, falling down fences, you name it. Anyway, good to get people looking and I hope things will improve there as they are set to in the Towers.

In the evening back to the civic, this time for our Air Quality group. Again this is poorly attended – only Mel and I plus an officer – but the officer has done excellent preparations and we get very clear about how to take this forward, so it’s a good meeting. Later on I am dragged kicking and screaming into a pub in Isleworth – the molto simpatico Swan – to have our Labour Christmas drink and pick up some Credit Union stuff prior to our sponsorship of Carols in the Park at St Paul’s Rec next Monday. This should be a fun free event with live animals for the little ones and mince pies etc for the fat ones.

Councillor Guy Lambert

December 14, 2017