Weekly Update From Councillor Guy Lambert

Will sort out the recycling in Hounslow by himself if necessary

Thursday comes around again and I cast my mind back a week. Last Thursday was quite busy, starting with a meeting with the council leader and a large Housing Association. This turned out to be about financial advice services they might offer to people who attend the Hounslow Community Foodbox. They have set aside some funds to support this and want the council or the charity to provide some match funding. Something that I hope the communities part of the council will consider seriously, because the second priority of the FoodBox, beyond supporting people with immediate needs, is to help them on a path to a sustainable future – we really do not want repeat customers.

Then it’s an update with my excellent lead officer. As ever, she has a huge agenda and as ever, I want more pace in getting through it. I’m pretty confident we are on a good track but I’m always impatient!

In the afternoon we have the ‘strategic meeting’ between housing and the Lampton company – FM 360 – that does most of their repairs and improvements. They are doing a good job and gradually improving service and value for money, but here I am again, calling for more pace.

So to planning: there was a big one and a shoal of tiddlers but it was one of the tiddlers that was really controversial. This was the umpteenth attempt to get planning permission to knock down the former Pissarro’s bar/restaurant by Chiswick pier and replace it with a block of flats. We refused a scheme last year and our refusal was upheld by the Planning Inspectorate on appeal. So the developers gave the scheme a run through the carwash, put on new tyres and removed the rear spoiler. Officers recommended approval, but after a constructive debate, and rather to everybody’s surprise, we unanimously refused it. Maybe one day the developers will get the message, but mammon (and probably gammon) talks.

The big one was the final phase of Brentford Lock West, up Commerce Road around the bus garage and the overhanging warehouses. This also includes a footbridge over the canal/river to help accessibility to Brentford station, GWR, library etc. Personally I really like the Brentford Lock West schemes and this final one is no exception, especially as it will provide 124 council homes as well as 63 affordable ones – mainly shared ownership. It will also improve the canal path under the overhanging warehouses and the committee asked for this improvement to be extended northwards. The canal path should be a key part of providing pleasant walking/cycling connections between the town centre and the A4. Approved.

On Friday I had a review with my doctor. At my decrepit age they want an MoT test twice a year and I passed with the usual advisories – less beer and chips, more gym and lettuce. I had paid – a fairly modest sum - to attend the Labour Local Government conference on Friday night/Saturday but decided to give it a miss in pursuit of ‘getting a life’ so I had a nice relaxed Friday and weekend.

Only news fit to print was a visit to the Brentford Towers with senior housing officers, the leader and deputy, officers from the Brentford Towers Residents Association and Corinna. This was to unveil the signs which explain the major refurbishment of the Towers which has been going for a bit. A few residents wandered past and people seem pleased with this rather belated attention – new fire doors throughout, new windows gradually going in and being welcomed, etc. I have had some grumbles about the names of the Houses being covered up and visitors wandering the estate looking for the right block so it was my turn to have a grumble at the Director of Housing asking him to put skates on for some temporary signs!

The Melvinator was in the vicinity too but we managed to miss him until I found a football gnome sitting on the fence near Clayponds Lane when I was cycling home. He was on to his son waiting for a lift to Nottingham Forest 2, Brentford 1 [closely followed by a victory over Villa which was more fun, Ed!]

I hear of a fire at the Real China Restaurant at Bell Square, Hounslow. This is not an establishment whose doors I have darkened but I have from time to time been found outside them raging at their bin arrangements. Anyway, it seems that the 3 fire engines that parked on the pedestrianised Bell Square were too heavy for the paving, so I attend with officers from Hounslow Highways and the Director of Watermans Centre: they use the space for street performances and these won’t be possible until the damage Is repaired. Hounslow Highways are on the case and will fix things as soon as they can source replacement brick paviors. We’ll take the opportunity to give the whole square a through spring clean. Oh, and the horrible bins are gone, let’s hope it stays that way.

Monday evening I’m up before the Beak in the shape of the Housing and Environment scrutiny panel, to explain our progress on waste and recycling. Despite the efforts we have been making our recycling performance is not improving and, whilst we are getting good quality recyclate and making decent income from UK recyclers, there is not enough of it, particularly from flats – the kerbside recycling from houses is over 50% and performing well. During 2019 I’m determined we’ll make good progress with flats, and continue to improve kerbside too: we have lots of activities to make this happen.

Tuesday I’m allowed out of school and go down to Mitcham – which is somewhere between here and Timbuktu - to the place where our food waste is ‘anaerobically digested’. These visits are really fascinating (if malodorous!) and it was one of those where you learn more about how complicated it all is. Basically they mash up everything that comes in food recycling – food, plastic bags whether ‘recyclable/compostable’ or not, vegware, large lumps of metal(!) etc.

Stuff goes through their digestion system for about 3 weeks then some is rejected (by the machine) and promptly put through the system again. This is either because it contains something undesirable (like plastic) or something hard to digest (like compostable bags and vegware). The latter can go through the cycle 4 times before being sufficiently rotted to go to anaerobic digestion. Plastic, metal etc is gradually filtered out so what’s left is essentially compost – sold to farmers – or methane (mostly fed into the gas grid). Fascinating, and I begin to understand it better when recyclers say they ‘tolerate’. A teabag may have a bit of plastic in it but its 99% tea and their systems can strip out the nasties. It’s not great economically (has to go through the system up to 4 times until it’s isolated) so they don’t encourage it but in the round it’s acceptable. They also mentioned collecting from a fish restaurant: mostly what they got was oyster and lobster shells, to the extent it became not worth doing, but clearly people will likely put mussel shells in the recycling and getting too precise about requirements will create confusion and make people give up trying. For those carried away by the romance of recycling here’s a picture for Valentine’s Day.

In the afternoon I’m in the civic for the first of a series of monthly meetings with the finance team who look after my area of responsibility, then our member task group on waste and recycling, then the cabinet meeting where we cover a long agenda very swiftly. Phew.

Wednesday morning we have a presentation from the developers who are going for the site on the West side of Capital Interchange Way. This is the scheme that I described as ‘boring’ when I first saw it, being less of an urban fantasy than the sci-fi one proposed a couple of years ago by the late Will Alsop. The three ward councillors were present and I think it’s fair to say we warmed to the scheme. They have taken on board some concerns about height etc and still produced a scheme with decent levels of social and affordable housing and which looks quite handsome. Coming to planning, ’after March’ they say.

Nice day for cycling so I go on to Poole Court Road – a cul de sac which the bin lorries have trouble accessing – not hard to see why!  

Then a quick whiz round the ward – graffiti gone and footpath cleared in Carville Hall Park North (thank you Greenspace360 and Hounslow Highways) and then a visit to the Foodbox to deal with a couple of financial matters and to chat to our wonderful volunteers. It’s packed with stuff and people and can our donors prioritise things like tinned fruit and more summer things- we have plenty of beans, soup and pasta at present but could do with other stuff to balance the parcels.

Back to the civic in the evening for one of my most important meetings so far: we present back the findings of our street cleaning review to our engaged residents – lay assessors, action groups, etc – plus a smattering of councillors from across the borough.

This has been a very far-reaching exercise and we have left no stone unturned, and people seemed very pleased that we had fed back so openly on the warts as well as the good things. There was even some applause at the end of the meeting, a rare thing indeed! Of course, this is the first step of a journey but we embark with palpable support from our contractors and partners – internal and external – and it feels like we are starting from a good place with a willingness to do what’s necessary.

Hungry and a touch exhausted, I craved a pint of London Pride so Louki and I partook of the 2-for-1 pizza offer at the Rising Sun. I arrived first by bike and the bloke behind the bar was a bit shocked at what he thought were my plans to put away two pizzas personally. Tony had a point of Oliver’s Island, and I observed that in view of recent developments at Fuller’s he might be drinking Iwo Jima next year.

Another week over, and a new one just begun, as one of my great heroes John Lennon once (nearly) observed. However I cannot say War is Over – the war on filth and flytips will go on!

Cllr Guy Lambert

February 14, 2019