Weekly Update From Councillor Guy Lambert

Who manages to cycle 25 miles for Prudential Ride London

Well gosh, I seem to have forgotten last Thursday and Friday, but actually quite busy days. Thursday morning was the Residents Association Forum in the council chamber, explaining my cabinet role and what I’m trying to achieve. I thought it went OK but Residents Associations are hard to please and I got some negative comments on Facebook – the story of a councillor’s life I suppose.

Then I whizzed off to Covent Garden for the quarterly meeting with old chums from the Finance department of Honeywell and its successor companies, which I describe as the Aggravation of Accountants. Better than a Murder of Crows or a Calamity of Councillors I suppose. Then back to the Civic for the housing strategy meeting – relevant to me because of my Lampton 360 role – then a meeting of the Thomas Layton Trust followed by the traditional face-fill in La Rosetta. With the weather and all the suntanned people we might have been in Sorrento. Sobrento, perhaps.

Friday was a sort of repeat in the morning, with the Pensioners Forum in a Church Hall in Hounslow. I gave the same slides as the day before to an audience who were no less demanding, but from what I hear the reviews were better. Then a session with the senior officer who looks after most of my area of responsibility and a meeting with the head honchos of Hounslow Highways. My relationship with Highways is like the Curate’s Egg – a little bit good (flytipping collection, graffiti, some aspects of street cleaning) and a little bit bad (other parts of street cleaning, bin emptying, leaving plastic barriers all over the shop). Anyway my first formal meeting with the top brass and I hope they got the message.

Saturday was Prudential Ride London. About 50 of us started from Brentford Market Place, led by the redoubtable Winston, and were shepherded to St James’ Park. Then it was every man, woman and child for themselves but pretty wonderful to go all through the centre of London to St Paul’s and beyond on streets dedicated to bikes, interspersed with a few pedestrians, wheelchairs and electric skateboards. A fantastic day and when I got home my phone told me that I’d done more than 25 miles, about what a Tour De France cyclist would do up Mont Blanc before breakfast but quite something for me.

So that set me up for a lazy day on Sunday at the Festival of Waste in the Market Square. A bit of a horrid day with rain and the danger of gazebos getting airborne because of the wind, but the waste team met with about 80 people who had a chance to get up close and personal with a Romaquip recycling lorry. There was also plenty of stuff from Volunteering Hounslow, Friends of the Earth, Green Party and various local recyclers with fascinating stalls, though one or two had to bow out for fear of all their stuff being blown away. The fantastic people from the Heston Action Group emerged from the canal (well, the towpath) with plenty of bags of rubbish they had picked up on their litter-picking way to Brentford. We also had a visit from her Worshipfulness the Mayor, Samia Chaudhary but I can’t identify that fat bloke in the picture. More cycling and less chips needed I think.

I decided to spend Monday at home catching up ( well, I didn’t quite succeed) plus investigating a couple of issues that had cropped up in Brentford.

On Tuesday got around to taking my bike back to Chiswick to be repaired (yes, again). I was a bit alarmed at the Festival when I parked it and the back wheel fell off. Luckily, that man Winston and his chums from the Bike Hub were there and they tightened it all up for me but remarked that the wheel spokes were far too slack after its rebuild. Natch, on Tuesday morning I had a puncture, so my first stop was the Brentford bike shop for a repair.

Then it was back to the flytipping Mecca known as Heath Road with sundry Highwaysmen (the ‘s’ is important) , waste people, coppers, enforcers etc. We persuaded H Highways to do a clean on the alley (which we established is owned by George Wimpey) and formed plans to improve the waste collection from the flats above shops.

In the evening, accompanied by the Melvinator, (Corinna had a diary malfunction) we were at the Mission Hall for the Director of Housing to explain plans to improve the Haverfield estate, financed by income from letting out the underground garages which have largely been disused for many years. One of my main aims from all this is to secure a permanent home for the Alliance Dance Unit – a Brentford Charity which does so much for young people – and a Brentford branch of the boxing gym which has been a huge success on the Ivybridge Estate in Isleworth. It looks promising, either in one of the old garages or at the base of one of the Brentford Towers. Residents are not convinced as yet, because the plans are in a very early stage but this is deliberate to let them get their views across before the plans start to solidify.

Wednesday morning, back to Chiswick to pick the bike up, then a meeting with our MP, Ruth Cadbury, and one of the trustees about Gunnersbury Park. Then I took advantage of a sunny afternoon and cycled down to Hampton, then across the great father Thames to Kingston and back home on the Dark Side, keeping out of the way of native tribesmen with their vicious hounds – killer spaniels and the like – and poison darts etc.

Thursday will be rather a packed day so I am writing this late on Wednesday. More next week.

Councillor Guy Lambert

August 2, 2018