Weekly Update From Councillor Guy Lambert

Induction takes place into the new Hounslow House

Thursday starts with my regular update with the leader, Steve Curran. We are seeing a lot of each other at present as he was busily litter picking last weekend and also present as the FoodBox patron when we had the opening event. Patrons are usually members of the royal family but somehow I can’t see Steve as Princess Anne. We discuss my cabinet role, holding the poison chalice of recycling, waste, highways and Lampton, which I’m keen to continue holding for another year. It’s a difficult brief but I’m very engaged with it and hoping I can make a difference, supported always by the officers and all the people who actually do stuff!

Later I have a catch up with the new head of environment and then Steve and I meet with the director and vice chair of Watermans, me in my capacity of trustee.

The cabinet briefing we had scheduled for the evening is cancelled because of the knife crime meeting which Ruth Cadbury had set up, which involved a number of cabinet members. One of the papers we would have discussed caused me some concern so I spent some time over Thursday and Friday discussing it with officers and with the lead member for finance, the talented and industrious Shantanu Rajawat. In the end, we agreed some small modifications.

Friday was our Hounslow Highways ‘wardabout’ where we wander the streets looking for defects, flytips, graffiti, mess etc. Corinna was away in Portugal so it was just me and the Melvinator, who did a spectacular ‘nearly fall over’ stunt. I was impressed he kept his balance and Hounslow Highways noted a trip hazard. We wandered Lionel Road North, Carville Crescent, Clayponds Avenue and Lane and a bit of Green Dragon before I had to rush off to the Civic to meet the Director of Housing about the cabinet paper.

The weekend was upon me, and my first foray into the world of watching old cars go round in circles. Last year the Goodwood Members Meeting was notable for snow and probably the coldest two days I ever had. This year I went only on Sunday and the weather was kind, to the extent that at some point taking off layers I lost my glasses, no doubt fallen from a pocket. Highlights for me were this Fiat racer, born in 1911 and possessing a 29.5 litre engine. It gives my poor ridiculous car a terrible inferiority complex. Apparently FIAT stands for Fix It Again Tomorrow, one step down from Lotus – Lots Of Trouble, Usually Serious.

And a race composed entirely of Minis (the proper BMC ones, not the ersatz BMWs), 30 of the little blighters snapping at each others’ heels:

Monday I’m back in the real world with the first part of the Labour AGM taking place in the evening (and half the night!).  This comprises elections for Mayor, Deputy Mayor, chairs of committees etc and these are always hotly contested. I’m not sure I’m allowed to say anything as I guess the appointments are formally ratified at the council AGM next month, so I’ll keep quiet.

On Tuesday the highlight is our induction into our new council office – Hounslow House. This is bang in the middle of Hounslow and a very different proposition from the old Civic Centre. It is much smaller – reflecting both a reduced workforce and new ways of working remotely – and incorporates Hounslow Library. We are all, I think, impressed, especially as everything has been delivered on time and to budget and I think the development team has done a stunning job, outside.

And in, though some people think our new flexible Council Chamber, pictured below, lacks the necessary pomp. Some of my fellow members can make up the deficit.

On Wednesday morning I mosey along to Chiswick to attend a Joint Action Day, when recycling officers, enforcement and Hounslow Highways do a trawl of prominent streets with a view to ensuring traders are dealing with waste correctly, dealing with any flytips (including looking for perpetrators’ details) and advancing education and where necessary waste facilities for residents.

Amongst other things we find this very lovely sofa on the pavement and persuade the lady owner that she needs to remove it back inside whilst removal is organised.

One of the things you learn on exercises like this is that when people do anti-social acts it’s sometimes for want of a realistic alternative rather than being driven by malice or laziness. This woman had been let down by people who were supposed to take it away.

Later in the day I was going to take my daughter to the airport but she got a better offer, so I joined the crew from Teapigs who were doing a lunch hour litter pick around and about. There must have been 30 or 40 of us and my team were despatched to the back of Morrisons, filling numerous bags with old fag packets, beer cans, crisp packets etc etc. Apparently some of them do this once a month in their lunch hour. Good on them!

 
In the evening, a Labour branch meeting at Isleworth public hall.

Thursday morning I join Steve Curran and Hounslow’s head of corporate property for a session with the Friends of Watermans Park in… Watermans Park. Nice day for it and we hear about the plans for the marina – build is about to start and expected to last about 9 months - and ideas for the park afterwards. It’s going to have a little bit of encroachment from the marina, and probably a bit more from Cycleway 9 but there will be plenty of park left and we will be finding ways to improve it.

One of the people there is Kal from The Maker Station (themakerstation.co.uk) which has opened in the Max Factor building. This is a fantastic new space for, ahem, makers such as Kal who is primarily an upholsterer. But they are doing all sorts of things there,  offering rental of space, sewing machines, hot desks and classes in yoga, from a life coach etc etc, many of them free. It’s a big space with lots of facilities and a really friendly feel.

I was hoping for a picture of the assembled Waterpersons including the very lovely Steve Curran but it hasn’t arrived. Anyway, this pic of the Maker Station is probably more interesting

So that was my week – very varied and fun – and the fun recommences tonight at planning committee where I have called in the Brentford School for Girls application for a new multi purpose sports court which caused a lot of disquiet amongst the denizens of (particularly) Lateward Road. Nothing very huge but a number of controversial smaller applications.

Oh, I suppose I had better mention the B word. Or perhaps ultimately the non-B word (I can dream). It seems we are going to have MEP elections in May, which is jolly fun for those of us whose job it is to cajole the public to go out and vote. I was going to go out on Friday evening knocking on residents’ doors anyway so I suppose this means we will be redoubling our efforts and everybody will say ‘we only see you when there’s an election’. Over the last few years that’s been more or less the same as saying ‘we only see you when we’re breathing’. What will Brenda from Bristol say?

Cllr Guy Lambert

April 11, 2019