Weekly Update From Councillor Guy Lambert

Quite enjoys cycling over a car free Hammersmith Bridge

If you were going to develop man flu on election day, it would have been hard to pick a better one. I didn’t hear too many war stories from my comrades but amidst all the Brexit mayhem it was good to learn on Sunday that Labour were still the largest party in Hounslow with the Tories a miserable (and well-deserved) 5th. I see that ‘Man of the people’ Ben Habib was elected for the Brexit party to undermine the metropolitan elite. Not sure how his MEP salary will focus his mind given the £1.75M pa salary (plus £200K dividends) he earns as CEO of that champion of the common man, First Property Group. I hope their major investments in Poland and Romania won’t be adversely affected by Brexit (if it should happen) but somehow I think they would find themselves ‘quids in’ to quote another Brexit party supporter.

Anyway, I lay low on Thursday but I had council stuff to do on Friday so a heroic recovery was called for. I went down to my bike ready to cycle to Albury Avenue, where I had an assignation with Hounslow Highways and found it with a sizeable hole in its nearly-new back tyre (Another one?!? said Brenda from Bristol). So I drove up to Albury. I’ve been there twice in the last couple of weeks and you can’t walk 5 yards looking vaguely official before someone comes out to ‘comment’ – usually with considerable passion – on the proposed CPZ. Since this is neither my ward nor my cabinet portfolio I know naff all about it and encourage them to contact their ward councillors (then sneakily myself contact them as well as traffic officers). Then I had a meeting in Hounslow House with the officer who is the ‘client’ for Hounslow Highways, which cost me a fiver in parking in the Treaty Centre under our new car free regime.

Then I drive to Chiswick Halfords with bike wheel under my arm (well, not while I’m driving) and receive excellent service, which I’m coming to expect from them, rather against my original prejudice. The guy fits my new tyre, notices and makes safe a broken spoke, and charges just £3 for the new inner tube on the basis that the old tyre clearly had a manufacturing fault. Getting such excellent service from someone who is always very busy seriously happinates me.

Anyway, after all this shenanigans I can cycle to Cranford Community College where Seema Malhotra MP is holding a reception for her Hounslow’s Promise charity, of which I am a trustee. Despite spending many pounds on raffle tickets I did not win the signed copy of Hansard (they didn’t say signed by whom) I had always dreamed of so the cycle track was a bit slippery on my way home on account of the floods of tears.

On Sunday I had an invitation to the Gurdwara in Hounslow to talk about recycling, litter etc. I had not visited the Gurdwara before and my contact wasn’t around when I arrived, but I was quickly picked up by various dignitaries who showed me around, insisted I partake of a little hospitality in the shape of tea and pakoras, and provided me with a most fetching item of headgear. I think I need to upgrade the rest of my wardrobe (and body) to match.

I was then whisked upstairs and realised that my ‘presentation’ would in effect be part of a religious service, which was slightly alarming. Anyway I tried to copy what others were doing and sat through a session of music and singing (I did not attempt to join in the songs). As my regular reader will know, I’m not one for religion but I was rather charmed by the event and I must say that I have found followers of the Sikh faith to be most public spirited, and this spirit was apparent. I am not particularly well adapted to sitting cross-legged on the floor and then getting up whilst the eyes of 500 worshippers are upon me, but with some friendly assistance from the president of the Gurdwara I reached the lectern (pulpit?) and talked for a few minutes. Whether my inspiring words had the slightest impact remains to be seen!

I was then able to get back to Brentford Market to join a Hounslow Cycling Bike ride … to Chiswick. If you think that sounds unambitious, we did go via Twickenham, Richmond, Barnes Wetlands, and the sublimely car free Hammersmith Bridge. All nice and gentle and ending with tea in Chiswick House grounds, with the rain mainly holding off. I would let you have a picture if any of these googled instructions for recovering photos from Twitter actually worked grump grump [see below, Ed].

On Tuesday I cycled up to Southall Lane for the Lampton360 board meeting, which I attend as an observer. Nothing very earth-shattering to report from the board meeting but later in the day we have our cabinet briefing, where as part of a huge agenda we consider updates to the governance arrangements and new business plans for some of the key Lampton businesses. The Lampton businesses have now been going for a couple of years and it’s timely to revisit what we want from them and how we will ensure it happens and measure progress, especially with my fairly new role and a new Chief Executive in place.

In the middle of all this excitement I remembered there was a councillor (and public) update to the forthcoming Lovebox/Citadel festivals in Gunnersbury Park so I had an active afternoon, cycling back to Brentford then back to Hounslow again. It was pleasing to see that the organisers have employed somebody to do community liaison. She is a local (albeit from Ealing) and knows the park well and is busy knocking on doors of residents and businesses, which should help. I bang on about my usual concerns, which are around anti-social behaviour on the streets, making sure there are adequate and properly trained stewards outside the arena, taxi and other transport management. Whether all my wailing will make a difference is another matter but there is a glimmer of hope that people are listening. Couldn’t stay for the public bit but put my nose around the door to see who was there and say hello to a few I knew.

On Wednesday I had an update with the head of Hounslow Highways. We were pretty upset at the weekend because there was a major fail in bin emptying in various places. This really is not acceptable but the good news was that Hounslow Highways put their collective hands up, acknowledge there was a fail and say they are taking serious measures to prevent a recurrence. We’ll see. On a related matter, I had an unexpected response from the dark side – Thames Water. I periodically get myself excited about clanking manholes, mainly on the High Street/Kew Bridge Road and usually feel right royally ignored. Occasionally someone from TW puts their head above the manhole, like a creature from Alien, and asks me where the problem is. Of course, all they need to do is walk or cycle along the road with their ears open (even a deaf bloke like me can hear them half a mile off) but I spend an hour or so cycling back and forth photographing the offenders – I counted seven of them. Here’s one, outside Morrisons, half-hidden under a glob of tarmac they put down the last time I summoned the Alien from the underworld. The glob of tarmac silenced the clanking for a good half hour until a bus drove over it .

Today, Thursday, I will brave the Residents Association Forum: I don’t have any specific role but I like to see what’s up when I can. Then I have a Lampton meeting with the Chief Exec.

Supposed to be a hot day – I hope not too hot for fat cyclists.

Cllr Guy Lambert

May 30, 2019