Weekly Update From Councillor Guy Lambert

Canvassing followed by leafletting followed by canvassing

Brentford Market

This might turn out to be the most monotonous blog ever as my life at the moment largely consists of canvassing followed by leafletting followed by canvassing.

Rather oddly, therefore, I find that Thursday afternoon was spent leafletting somewhere around this blessed ward, this earth, this realm, this Brentford. In the evening I was supposed to go to the launch of new offices for the Leprosy Mission International on Windmill Road but I didn’t make it  (I hate to admit that I dozed off for a few minutes and missed the time. There, I confessed). The Melvinator reported back that it was a good event.

Friday afternoon I had a meeting related to Hounslow Community Foodbox, which we held in the Holiday Inn, and in the evening Corinna, Mel and I were up in Layton Road. I had heard from a resident a couple of days before that Bob the Builder (or Dave the Demolisher?) was in the former Suzuki garage armed with bulldozers and king size steel conkers, knocking it down. The site is owned by a developer (unlike the car park next door, which the council owns) and he hasn’t as yet revealed his plans for the site. We are still expecting a school to be built at some stage on the car park site – though nothing is certain. Any plans await the Department for Education doing a deal with another school entrepreneur now that the existing one has failed to sustain its business in Brentford. Anyway, Layton road residents seemed to be OK for now, the oversized development once mooted for the site having been consigned to the dustbin by councillors and planners.

Saturday morning I took a bike ride over to my old haunts in Chiswick Riverside, and we ‘did’ a bit of Spencer Road and proceeded to Bolton and Cavendish Roads. In my mind this is all grand houses but you get a different perspective when you canvass. Many of the grand houses are now flats and there are sizeable council developments interspersed amongst them. A lovely morning (for once), nice people (as ever) a lot of people saying they will vote Labour this time (as usual) so a good morning all round. I thought the council estates and the streets were better maintained than in Brentford, so all that goes into the lizard memory in case this lizard is still around after 3 May to point this out to the housing and streets people.

Saturday evening it was a very rare trip to the theatre – the Watermans.  This was a – kind of – play put on by @foodbankasitis. It’s put on by former (and perhaps still) food bank volunteers who want to help inform people what a food bank is actually like, and about the people who are driven to use them. Moving, spellbinding and worth going to as they continue their tour. The experience of the foodbank they have come from seems to precisely mirror what happens in our local FoodBox. Thanks to my lovely neighbour who bought me a ticket and who shared a light meal with me at the Guru Tandoori afterwards.

On Sunday I briefly attend both Brentford Market – for the first time I’ve seen there’s an antiques, paintings and junque dealer adding a welcome new attraction.Then off to Turnham Red (formerly Green) to briefly see the Earth Day picnic where a lot of cyclists and green-tinged folk are gathered, including @HounslowCycling’s splendid BikeHub where the ever-helpful Winston is fixing up bikes for free. Our canvass in the afternoon is in Clifden Road and Brook Road South. Sadly (if expectedly) we don’t find our lovely MP who is busy running 26 miles to raise (I hear) about £5000 for charities. That works out around £200 per mile. I did run across the road yesterday which must have been at least a fiftieth of a mile so if anybody wants to give me £4 I will donate it to a favourite local charity: perhaps the Magpie and Crown Foundation or the Express Tavern Trust – so many good causes in Brentford to choose from.

Monday, more leaflets and a Ferry Quays meeting in the evening. I thought this would be an hour but things have a habit of overrunning… Tuesday a resident cancels on me as she is off on hols somewhere (I’m relieved – plenty to do at present) and I’m up to Covent Garden for lunch with the Aggravation of Accountants – work buddies that I have known for 30 years. In the evening, a licensing panel, to do with that hardy annual, Club K in Hounslow. There is a history of trouble around this club – partly because it is situated at the heart of the High Street where people congregate for some late night ‘fun’ – and they have been making efforts to improve. They currently have a licence to sell alcohol from 8am (I kid you not) to 2.30 am but they want to extend that to 3.30 am Thursday to Saturday. When I used to frequent these places you were lucky if they were licensed to 11, but it seems times change. Anyway, as a licensing panel it seemed we were putting in a serious challenge to their opening hours, because something I expected to take an hour or so extended for a full 4.5 hours. I really didn’t want to spend until midnight hanging around the council chamber but there you go.

Wednesday morning Corinna and I tackle leafletting of Great West Quarter, where there are something like 800 households, and I carry on into Baltic Avenue, until I run out of leaflets. Phew. Time for a pint and a rack of ribs in The Griffin, where the food is a cut above. In the evening the three of us tackle Ealing Road. Unfortunately the Melvinator is in the middle of a series of ‘procedures’ on his eyes so the ever-willing spirit is conquered by the currently delicate flesh and he doesn’t stay long: some things are more important than a bit of door knocking.

That’s all for now folks. I guess anything next week will be on Wednesday as I’ll be a bit busy chasing people to polling stations on Thursday. Anyway, I warn you, if enough of you vote for me next Thursday, you are liable to be subjected to another 4 years of this.

Councillor Guy Lambert

April 27, 2018