Weekly Update From Councillor Guy Lambert

Chasing a tax rebate,electioneering and some beer drinking

Last night for the Six Bells

Well, I think, to general relief, it’ll be a short one this week, what with a 4 day weekend and all that and the council in ‘Purdah’.

I get various plaintive cries from my colleagues in the Labour office in Chiswick and go there in spare moments to do a bit of mindless data entry or envelope stuffing – balm for the soul – or proof reading. Friday afternoon I am looking forward to a bit of door knocking up by Layton Road but in view of the beast from the East having turned into the Deluge from Scrooge (well, what else rhymes with deluge?) we decided to do one of our lovely dry towers instead, though we didn’t expect to have to swim across the car park.

I had been encouraged to visit the Six Bells on Brentford High Street because sadly the existing landlords are leaving. It seems to be really hard to make this pub work, which is a great pity but anyway I cycled down there for a quick one, just to show willing. As it turned out, I had a quick several, which did nothing at all for my camera skills, so this one from early on shows there was a good crowd – later ones not up to scratch! If anyone spotted a drunk on a bicycle singing This Old Heart of Mine, it wasn’t me.

Saturday morning I met a resident who appears to be the victim of a fraud, to do with tax rebates. HMRC seem to have passed his tax rebate to a dodgy agency, who seem to prefer to hang on to the tax rebates they acquire rather than handing them over to the people who are entitled. Having got no dice out of HMRC (who seem completely uninterested) and a response from the Police’s ActionFraud along the lines of we’ll think about it and someone may get back to you in 28 days or sometime, I consulted with Genghis Todd, who has form in these matters (allegedly – as an upholder of all that’s good and right rather than as a fraud practitioner, I hasten to add) who made the rather sensible suggestion that we should pursue via the small claims court. So on Saturday morning we lodged the claim. In the afternoon I alerted TrustPilot to the fact that this company had five bad reviews (words like ‘stealing’) and 4 good ones, though these 5 star reviewers all rather spookily also gave 5 star reviews to the same software company and tap distributor. Trustpilot say they’ll look into it within ‘several days’ (is several less than 28?). Nothing heard from anybody as yet. I rather doubt it’s in a councillor's job description to help residents make legal claims against tax agents, but sometimes things just get my goat!

Sunday I had a canvass booked but I hadn’t actually noticed it was Easter Day when I booked it. So the dodgy character lurking around Avenue Road was me and the relieved looking bloke driving home because nobody else turned up and it was raining was one and the same. I consoled myself with trying, with Myra, to persuade lovely labour party members to take their part in distributing 7500 leaflets we have to get out there and deliver them to their eager hands.

Monday morning we had a meeting of the Ferry Quays Estate directors moving forward our ideas to further improve the cream of Brentford’s new estates and in the evening I cooked for my daughter (she’s very forgiving about cremated parsnips and toothbreaker carrots). Tuesday I’m round to hers: she has the daunting task of a flatpacked dressing table from Argos, so Mr Handy calls with his massive toolbox and miniscule skills. Anyway, we got it done, and I managed to hang a built-in cupboard door but bottled fixing the mirror to the wall using strange hidden fixings.

Then it was a licensing panel to do with a new Coop opposite Gunnersbury Station. Our own licensing manager had objected, basically because they hadn’t bothered to read or try to comply with our local licensing policy, as had a local business owner. In truth, Gunnersbury station is hardly a hotbed of anti-social behaviour and the police were happy (and we trust the coop to do the right thing) so we didn’t have much option but to approve, with a few conditions. Applicants for licences have a habit of employing advisers who see their job as being to patronise and infuriate the licensing panel members. Not that I would suggest this was the case this time, but I have been known to lose my cool.

I managed to sneak in to attend the Green Drinks with the Brentford Recycling Action Group at the Magpie and Crown, where a couple of pints of exotic craft nectar and a bit of good company are always apt to cool my troubled brow.

A nice free day on Wednesday (other than brochures, emails, reports to H Highways etc) so I continued my recent commitment to go to the gym. Obviously I want to get my body swimsuit ready, which will require just a little work.

So we’re round to Thursday. I’ve arranged to go and meet the Friends of Dukes Meadows. This is obviously not in my ward but I have valued the area for 40 years or so and I know there’s some controversy about the council’s plans to invest in sports facilities and the like there so I’d like to get a better understanding of where people see the issues.

Councillor Guy Lambert

April 6, 2018