Weekly Update From Councillor Guy Lambert

Official secrets left on trains in St Petersburg and professors who can't spell

At the weekend my venerable laptop, whose hinges had been dodgy for some time, suddenly became super-dodgy to the extent I can’t really open or close it. I decided to take the plunge and invest in a shiny new one, which of course means I am now in that period of frustration when you are trying to recreate the cosy environment from your old computer on your new one. Whilst still wrestling with the (improved but still imperfect) security constraints of working in a Local Authority. To be fair, I did work briefly for the Foreign and Commonwealth office, where the security arrangements took irritating to a new level without of course preventing senior officials or politicians leaving unencrypted laptops on trains in St Petersburg. (OK I made that up, but those of us of a certain age can remember such stories even if, at a certain age, details become fuzzy).

Thursday morning was the Cleaner Hounslow Community Reference Group, picking up the threads of the Cleaner Borough Programme that has been somewhat in abeyance whilst cleaning activity was concentrated on our hands. Decent attendance from many of those groups from around the Borough who are dedicated to making it nicer and it was good to set things moving again. We’ll win by partnering between the council and the community.

Immediately afterwards I had an update with the key officers in my areas of responsibility. They are hugely involved with the various recovery activities the council is working up, but the day job is running reasonably smoothly and work continues to implement a raft of changes like the little grey ‘grit bins’ that are gradually appearing outside parades of shops. These are to give flat dwellers somewhere to dispose of waste rather than on the street or in their kitchen, waiting for the bin day. Of course this is a bit tricky because, especially now, we can’t restrict pavement width too much. But the experiment has been very successful in most places we’ve tried it. Also coming down the track are some enforcement people who will be dedicated to environmental crimes like flytipping: everybody agrees this is a scourge and we are determined to reduce it using both carrot and stick techniques.

On Friday afternoon we had a Trustee meeting for Seema Malhotra’s charity. I have agreed against my better judgment - not because I think there’s anything wrong, just because I have too much on my plate already - to be Treasurer, and I have been slightly perturbed at lack of financial information. All’s well, but it’s been impossible to open a bank account during the pandemic so, whilst our funds are safe, it’s not easy to keep a track on income and expenditure. The main work recently has been getting refurbished donated PCs and donated broadband connections to children who lacked access, but there are big plans for the future, looking to improve the lives of young people across the Borough.

On Friday night I heard of a horrendous flytip in a leafy cul-de-sac in Chiswick. I decided to take a look when out on my rounds, and as luck would have it I arrived at the same time as Hounslow Highways. Whoever arranged for that red sofabed, old mattresses, yellow mosaic tiles etc to be taken away by a cowboy operator committed an environmental crime just as surely as the cowboy did. If anybody can identify anything…

Monday lunchtime I changed the habit of a lifetime and attended a nationwide Labour Councillors meeting (on Zoom, natch) to share experiences of what’s happening about the pandemic and how councils are going to try to mitigate the damage. I remember it as interesting, but these online meetings rather merge in my memory as we are having such intensive discussions about how to promote recovery.

In the evening we had a practice run for the planning presentation about proposed developments on the Tesco and Homebase sites in Osterley/ Syon Lane. We tried to run this a few days ago but the architects were unable to access. The dry run worked and the presentation went ahead on Tuesday evening – rather a long session. There’s no doubt these proposals are controversial, but as I hope you know by now, planning committee members like moi can’t prejudge before the actual committee so I’ll keep schtum about my own views of the proposal. But setting that aside, I felt the presentation was held far too late in the development of proposals. The point of these pre-planning applications was intended to be to shape proposals before they were fully developed and they have been really successful in the past. I will be surprised If there are anything more than cosmetic changes to these proposals when they come to committee, so the presentation feels like a chance for the developers to soften up the planning committee without challenge, other than what the councillors can provide. Fortunately, the ward councillors had been briefed as, to a degree, had I, but there is always better understanding when locals put their points across themselves.

Earlier on Tuesday we’d had our regular West London Waste update. Day to day is going OK but an interesting discussion about direction of travel: the driver for waste policy has been the collection process, but as focus increases on what happens to waste (we don’t want it dumped on beaches in the Philippines) and government policy moves towards making those who create the waste (manufacturers, retailers etc) more responsible for its disposal, emphasis is switching to quality. This should be good for Hounslow because our relatively rigorous sorting regime means we have high quality recycling. All a dynamic environment and new thoughts are emerging, with COVID the latest influence.

Also on Tuesday, another Community Reference Group, this time drawing together the strands of Cleaner, Greener and Climate, to keep everyone up to date and spark some cross-fertilisation.

In the afternoon I passed through Clitherow Road. Well, it’s a cul de sac so I went down one side and back up the other. One of the houses there is a council house that is being extended to provide 4 to 5 bedrooms and I’d had input from the neighbours on both sides who have had various concerns, so I was pleased to bump into the officer who is overseeing the work. He gave me a swift tour, and I can see this is going to make a super home for somebody.

Wednesday was free of meetings during the day, and in the evening a brief engagement with the Feltham and Heston Labour party where I had been asked to update on what’s happening in my cabinet portfolio and with the council in general. This only lasted an hour, which meant I could catch my local team on the TV, having a stunning night and booking a place at Wembley. I really hope they prevail against Fulham so we’ll see some proper scousers coming to Lionel Road shortly. I have no doubt the Bees will marmalise the Toffees but you’ll forgive me (or maybe not) for anticipating the real Reds will overcome the stripy ones.

In the afternoon I had cycled out to Feltham Station to have a look at some alleys thereabouts which are popular but where people are nervous about using them at night. They are rather neglected, partly because it’s not clear who owns some of them or who is responsible for the various fences, lighting etc. Annoyingly, I must have dropped my little bike computer somewhere there because when I got back to Pegasus, his brain had disappeared from my pocket where I has stored it. I retraced my steps, but nowhere to be seen.

Walking down this rather ill-starred alley it was a pleasant surprise to come upon this tranquil scene

This informed me for the meeting we had on Thursday morning. Inconclusive, but it was good to have dedicated ward councillor Alan Mitchell talking with a variety of community people, Network Rail, South Western Trains and me, so we should make some progress. I agreed to go back there sometime when it’s dark so we can get a better sense of how it feels.

Early afternoon we have the Green Recovery board with its academics and specialists in green issues and regeneration from a wide variety of disciplines. I love these meetings, which are full of enthusiasm and ideas, and the council – enthusiastically supported by partners – is beginning to formulate plans to really move things forward. It was very heartening to see these comments in the chat box, from external people who are immersed in this. From one:

It is a real privilege to be part of this journey.  We think some very cutting edge things are happening here, and we are so keen to share learning and to help on this journey

From another:

I'm thinking about moving to Houslow on the back of this :-)

I think he meant Hounslow, but we all know professors can’t spell.

Cllr Guy Lambert

July 31, 2020