Weekly Update From Councillor Guy Lambert

Brentford gets four more years of this delightful column

Avenue Road was looking rather splendid in the spring sunshine on polling day

So here we are again. Firstly, thanks to all the 2241 people who put an X against my name. I pledge to do my level best for Brentford over the next 4 years and I remain eager to engage with and support individuals, community groups and any one who has an interest in the ward.

It was a very good result for my party in Hounslow – also in Ealing and Hammersmith. We were delighted to pick up all three seats in Osterley and Spring Grove, where Tony Louki’s hard work and engagement over the last 4 years – which puts the rest of us to shame – has persuaded people of the benefits of hard working, dedicated Labour councillors: they have decided three of them would be better. Sadly we just failed to get a bridgehead in Turnham Green, falling just 140 votes short but we have much more to build on in Chiswick than heretofore.

Anyway, polling day dawned sunny, and having visited St Paul’s School to vote I bumped in to Steve Curran outside his house as I cycled to our Campaign Centre on Ealing Road. He was looking a bit grumpy at the prospect of spending the day tramping the streets (weren’t we all) but I said I’d voted for him and he perked up a bit. Having set up the centre, I then went down to Green Dragon School with one of my lovely friends from here in Ferry Quays to catch the mums and dads as they dropped off their treasures and remind them that the polling station was just around the corner. Then I trudged New Road and Brook Road South, etc putting in ‘Good Morning ‘ leaflets. Such a change from the General Election when I spent the whole day in the campaign centre trying to manage dozens of activists from far and wide: this time most even of our local chums were busy in Chiswick or Osterley. It always surprises me how many people have not realised it’s election day, also surprised me that I kept bumping into Tom Beaton, one of the Green candidates. During the course of the day I managed Whitestile Road and the ones off it, 4 of the Towers, Clayponds Gardens and probably some others I’ve forgotten.

At the end of the day somebody provided a bit of health food in the shape of sausage and chips and beer and I cycled home, to get ready for the count next morning.

Friday morning – the count. Started at 9.30 and I was thinking it would be over by early afternoon but there were too many pesky split ballots – where people vote for (say) one Labour, one Green and one independent – which are incredibly tedious for people to count. I always enjoy looking at the spoiled papers. The ones that say ‘None’ are a bit dull but I enjoyed the one with a picture of a giant phallus, and the one that had precise and neatly written critiques. We Labour were ‘Revolutionary Marxists’ (I’ve always suspected The Melvinator) and the Greens were ‘Useless Hippies’. There were similar unflattering epithets for the Tories and our local independent, the excellent Torron-Lee Dewar. My feet had completely given up the ghost and I was hobbling painfully around. I had a chat to one of the coppers and he said he had the same problem until he got bespoke carbon fibre insoles made up which cost him £400 but solved the problem. Probably helped that he was 10 stone lighter and 35 years younger than me. Anyway, morning became afternoon and it emerged there were some cock ups with the postal votes. You actually know very soon what the outcome is going to be but confirmation takes hours and I was still there at about 6pm – even the announcements take a while with 20 wards and about a dozen candidates in each.

I was supposed to be driving up to Leicestershire that afternoon but given it was 6, I was tired and my dogs were hurting, I decided to go home and have a rest before braving the bank holiday traffic at 9pm.

Saturday and Sunday were old-car heaven: lovely sunny days with the tranquillity of Donington Park not only being interrupted by the noise of jets to and from East Midlands Airport next door but also the much more welcome bark of 4.2 litres of Chrysler V8 in a Sunbeam Tiger Le Mans Coupe. Of course there are more eccentric racing cars, like this Jowett Javelin and Volvo ‘Amazon’.

Monday is a day to chill and get those tootsies back to normal, then from Tuesday back to an early version of regular councilloring. A man comes to fit new blinds in my flat – one day I’ll get around to decorating – and in the evening  I attend the first induction session for new councillors. Not really aimed at me but a few of us more experienced ones showed up and we learned a few things. Then a few neck oils in the Rising Sun with various councillors and other rogues.

Wednesday morning I had to go to Hayes on Credit Union business and decided my car was in urgent need of medication, with steering, engine, suspension and air conditioning all getting dodgy. I keep telling you it’s ridiculous. In the evening ‘Acceptance of Office’ where you go see the Chief Exec and sign a pledge to be a good upstanding citizen and have your picture taken to prove it. After that it’s the first part of the Labour Group AGM. The AGM goes on over three weeks because there is so much to be decided, often by hotly-contested votes, from the leader and the mayor down to memberships of all the many committees.  One down, two to go.

This morning, I take the car to hospital. Miraculously, the engine, suspension and air con problems have all sorted themselves overnight, so Mr Capital Motors won’t be able to fix them. They will come back in a few days. It’s a sly old dog, that car.

Oh, forgot to mention: funding has been awarded out of the council’s Community Infrastructure Levy (ie paid for by developers) to improve the St Paul’s Rec playground. The Friends are seeking ideas and views.

Councillor Guy Lambert

May 11, 2018