Weekly Update From Councillor Guy Lambert

Overflowing bins, flytipping and recycling interspersed with pubs

After my visit to the exotic back alleys behind Vicarage Farm Road, next stop was Lionel Road South where, with Ruth Cadbury MP, I met with a selection of unhappy residents who had been disturbed by the Lovebox and Citadel festivals. Given that North of 110,000 revellers enjoyed the delights of Gunnersbury Park over 3 days and pop festivals are noisy by nature, we have all been a bit surprised that there have been relatively few complaints from residents (though those present say this is because nobody believes anybody will take any notice of complaints). The police and NHS both seem to have been very pleased with the festivals, with few arrests and surprisingly few health issues but there’s no doubt that there was real impact on many residents and that some of the organisers confident predictions based on 15 years’ experience were less accurate than those of locals with zero experience. If it is to repeat (over some of the residents’ dead bodies) there are a lot of lessons to be learned, but Gunnersbury Park does need events income – it costs £1.7M pa to run and the councils simply don’t have the funds. 100% of event income goes back into the CIC which runs the park.

Thursday evening and Friday I laboured manfully trying to clear email backlog which has become a real challenge – especially stuff I should be following up – because I knew I was having the weekend off, at Silverstone. I dropped in at the very popular Weir pub/restaurant – rather different than when I used to frequent it as the White Horse – for a quick drink to say goodbye to our lovely and very helpful housing manager, Stavroulla Kokkinou, who has taken the poison chalice and gone to work for Housing in Kensington and Chelsea. She’ll make a big difference: they need her more than we do, but we’ll sure miss her.

Anyway, 2 days wandering about Silverstone in my shorts and with my nose like a beacon – at least the sight of me clears a path of horrified people so I can get a good view of things. Place is packed with Porsches, Lamborghinis, Mercedes etc which bore me silly but I loved these Healeys from before Leonard Lord crossed Donald Healey’s palm with silver and created the Austin-Healey (which were pretty nice too).

Monday I try and catch up with the weekend’s emails and have a pleasant drink and chat with a local resident about the future of Brentford High Street over a beer or two in the secluded garden behind the Watermans Arms. In the evening, Labour Group in the Council Chamber, preparing for Borough Council on Tuesday. A very calm and constructive meeting it was too.

Tuesday morning I visit the Gunnersbury Park café with Steve Curran, where we meet Julian Bell, the leader of Ealing and his deputy, Yvonne Johnson. Running of the park has now been transferred to the Community Interest Company owned by the two councils and we wanted to talk about governance now the CIC is beginning to get up and running (it only really started in May). We need to be clear about how we will provide oversight from the councils, and also how we will get some real engagement with members of the public. The meeting was constructive and things will move forward in the autumn.

Then I (perhaps unwisely) cycled to the Civic Centre in the midday sun to meet benefits people together with a resident whose case I have been trying to assist. After a 15 minute cooling off period, I helped a totally blind man from the RNIB who is helping the Melvinator with new technology which I like to call the Brailliac to find his way to the canteen. The resident and I then meet a helpful woman from Liberata and finally establish that what the resident has been saying for months is true, rather than a figment of her imagination. Felt like progress, but the whole benefits game is woefully complicated, especially where disabilities are involved and you sometimes feel the only ‘person’ who really understands is the computer.

In the afternoon a meeting with Ruth again at One Over the Ait by Kew Bridge. There is a land dispute going on between some boat dwellers and the council and they have asked us to try to see if we can broker a settlement to head off a court case scheduled for November (this is a different matter from the one concerning the boats by Watermans Park). Land law is exceptionally complicated on river banks, one of those things you never knew you didn’t know.

Borough Council in the evening is quite a busy agenda and notable for the council unanimously agreeing an increase in the Members Allowance to match the London Councils’ recommendation. It’s a sizeable increase but the basic allowance is still 17.5% less in real terms than it was in 2006, though experienced councillors tell me the workload has increased dramatically. Our Conservative chums were not so conciliatory on various other items, though they don’t seem to be able to agree amongst themselves on many of them. I had formal questions to answer on the visits to the waste and recycling centre (they are very popular, and we’ll repeat quarterly) and potholes (Hounslow is either the best or second best Borough in London for potholes, even before we implement our pledge to find £2M to deal with a few more). Our Tory chums are very grumpy about this presumably because some of it will not be spent in Chiswick. There is an unusual amount of rough and tumble and from the way they whinge about our manifesto you’d think they had won a stunning victory rather than an ignominious defeat!

On Wednesday I have a lengthy meeting with the senior managers at Hounslow Highways, going over their activities fairly comprehensively. Street sweeping has undoubtedly improved markedly in recent months but we continue to be plagued by flytipping, which is on an increasing trend everywhere. I have a go at them about disappearing street bins (they will un-disappear) and ones that aren’t emptied. They are putting extra crews on bin emptying and I encourage people to report overflowing bins on the H Highways website whenever they see them, as I try to do. We also discuss recycling from street bins and I learn the term ‘Dirty MRF’ which apparently is a facility rarer than Unicorn Horn. This is a waste recycling plant capable of removing the half-eaten hamburger from the cardboard box that somebody has helpfully put in the recycling bit of a segregated street bin, and sending the components on their respective onward journeys.

After that I attend (as an observer) a board meeting of FM360 – the Lampton company which looks after council housing (mainly). As before, I am greatly impressed by both the quiet professionalism and the positive spirit of this company.

In the evening, the City Barge for leaving drinks with our organiser, who is going on to greater things in the Labour Party Regional Office. Wobble home on bike. Sleep. Get up. Write blog. Put on tin hat. Go to Residents Association Forum to talk about bins, potholes, litter and dog poo, always high on their agenda.

Some words from The Melvinator. Not all of us are heathens, and Mel wishes it to be known he attended the leavers service at St Paul’s Church, and reports that it went very well. He was elected to the Executive of the London Road Safety Council and their priority is motorcycle safety (pretty challenging from some of the antics I see in Brentford). Mel has been a long-term agitator to get Brentford Lodge, and NHS facility next to Brentford Health Centre which has been out of use. This week it was reopened as a Recovery College which will support those with mental health problems out of hospital and back into the community.

Last but not least, tomorrow your correspondent is taking part in the Prudential Ride London starting from Brentford Market Place at 9.30 am – if you want to join the event it’s here: https://www.prudentialridelondon.co.uk/

Sunday is our very own Festival of Waste organised by the Remarkable Rin from the Cathja charity. Come to the Market Square between 12 and 4 on Sunday to meet the recycling team, see a Romaquip lorry close up and lots of other exciting attractions. Anyone not attending may be recycled.

Councillor Guy Lambert

July 27, 2018