Weekly Update From Councillor Guy Lambert

Supporting Foodbox's move to larger premises to cope with higher demand

Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun? We all have to make our fun in new ways at the moment and I’m very conscious of how lucky I am compared with so many. No frontline caring to do, a spacious flat with a balcony in a beauty spot, no bottled up 7 year olds (or 17 year olds), few financial concerns, a bike that is holding up to the current exigencies. It must be very hard to take if you’ve lost your earnings, have small children in crowded accommodation, or are obliged to put yourself at risk day to day in the frontline.

So as never before I honour the NHS workers, the bin crews, the shop workers, social care staff – especially those who are looking after people in their homes – delivery drivers, bus and train drivers, teachers who are still teaching, all the council officers working in the Hounslow Community Hub, and, no doubt, a million others I haven’t remembered.

And also the parents holding together their families, especially those in cramped accommodation and/or with little money. www.hounslowspromise.org, of which I am a trustee, is asking people to dig out any old computers they may have that they don’t use to help the estimated 1000 children in Hounslow who have no or limited access to technology and therefore learning, at present. I’ve found a decrepit old thing in my drawer so maybe that will help. They’re working on how to help them get broadband as well.

Back to the normal episode of the life and times of a Brentford Councillor. I’m succeeding in getting out for my exercise on the bike pretty well every day around and about Brentford, Chiswick, Osterley, Isleworth etc and on the whole I find people are keeping as far as possible to the rules. There is even a new distancing etiquette building up, in a way that is extremely British and exercised by everybody living here irrespective of race, colour, creed, gender (assigned at birth or chosen later), sexual orientation and even attitude to Brexit. Elaborate ‘after you Claude, after you, Cecil’ rituals, apologetic looks, exaggerated detours. Fun. I have learnt now to avoid certain areas because there are simply too many people for all these complicated avoidance strategies to work – some parks, footpaths, Costco –  in the last case the rituals are sometimes applied, but only patchily as feral hunger for elephant bog roll overcomes social niceties.

My diary is littered with various teleconferences on Zoom, or Skype or on traditional voice conference calls, with council officers, trustee groups, friends (I have one or two, surprisingly) family etc. Over the week I have been to Costco three times (with my debit card), to Sainsbury’s local, Waitrose (and partners) twice, and the Coop to pick up generous donations from the public and the stores themselves. We also continue to get great support from Morrisons. Food parcels contain an eclectic mixture of everything from Morrisons Savers Baked Beans to remaindered Beetroot and Nigella Seed bickies from Waitrose.

I wonder if you plant one of these Nigella seeds whether you’ll be able to grow your own Nigella.

Whatever, the FoodBox is getting stunning support from the public – cash donations, collection boxes in stores, collection boxes in people’s gardens – and from retailers themselves – sometimes remaindered stuff but sometimes straightforward donations. And a special mention for David Lesniak from Outsider Tart café in Chiswick: he and I have crossed swords in the past but he is providing great and varied support using both his skills and energy and his trade contacts.

During the course of the last week we decided at the FoodBox that we needed to make a temporary move to larger premises whilst the crisis unfolds. We are limited to 2 people in the premises at present by the confines of our centre and social distancing and we really need more with current demand. The council quickly agree to open up the Rose Community Centre half a mile to the West and I’ve been there a couple of times to take keys, get shown around the place, and arrange various things we need there. In truth, the council and our friends at Coalo have been so dynamic that I am largely rendered an onlooker. Trying to get spare keys cut in the current circumstances is a challenge, but we’re on course to move in a week or so with great work being undertaken by our volunteers and trustees and an offer of help with logistics from some other heroes – the London Fire Brigade.

Mixed up with all this FoodBox stuff, normal ward activity goes on. Someone raised the fact that estate agents had again fixed a sign to historic Sarah Trimmer Hall, so I’ve asked our planning enforcers to get on to it.

I have had a few calls from people in desperate financial straits. Sometimes this is because their zero-hours employment has become zero hours and zero money whilst the DWP notes that they had earnings in previous months and knocks this off their already meagre and delayed Universal Credit - £43 for two people to live on for 6 weeks is a bit challenging. In other cases, people who’ve been self-employed for decades now find themselves self-unemployed: no income and whilst support from the Chancellor is very welcome it won’t be appearing until approximately June.

On Monday afternoon, minding my own business coming back from Chiswick on my exercise ride I find the normally free flowing junction (joke, but true at the moment) at the top of Kew Bridge blocked by a string of Transit vans with caravans attached. They are heading for the alley down the side of the Express Tavern. It occurs to me this could be a bit of trespassing so I immediately report it to our enforcement and police teams. Still there and commencing to flytip as of yesterday, whilst we try to persuade the landlords to get active. Just as we are at the corner of Ealing Road and the A4, where a previous encampment has not had the detritus properly cleared and which is now the home to some small furry travellers who think neighbouring gardens look inviting.

It’s hard to deal with these issues on private land, where the council and police have very limited powers, at the best of times. It’s harder still when council officers and the police are depleted and stretched and some of the landowners have more or less shut up shop.

On Tuesday evening we have our regular cabinet update with senior officers. This is very comprehensive, covering NHS, Social Care, council services, schools etc. At present things are steady and we’re just about coping. If we are to continue to cope we need to really make sure the social distancing and self-isolating is very firmly implemented and the consensus is we’ll encourage our enforcement people and the police to get stronger in their responses – the time for friendly advice is over when front line workers are passing away, even the PM is intensive care (get well soon) and the stresses continue to grow. It’s very hard for families with children, and for young people, but there’s no alternative and our ‘lockdown’ is a party compared with France and Italy.

My conference call this morning was with West London Waste Authority and we compared notes between the authority and the 6 participating boroughs. Most of us are doing OK, with only Richmond having suspended services beyond closing public access to our household waste sites. All of us have done this because of capacity and distancing concerns.  Richmond have also suspended their garden and ‘bulky waste’ services, their situation not helped by their being in the middle of a change of contractor. Contingency plans are well developed, should we lose capacity amongst the workforce, and neighbouring boroughs will help each other out if need be.

Let’s end on an uplifting note. When I ventured out, blinking, to my balcony this morning I spied a touching scene of young people in love played out in the morning mist. Seems they were saying goodbye to each other before heading off in separate directions for their work or whatever. Beautiful.

Cllr Guy Lambert

April 9, 2020