Weekly Update From Councillor Guy Lambert

Photo-ID problems lead to e-scooter try out rejection

A pleasant evening in the Kennel of the Black Dog, including a portion of ‘loaded fries’ which loaded my already capacious waistline, together with a few IPAs. I was particularly taken by the music provided by JB Hutto and his Hawks from 1969. Disappointed with myself for never having heard of him before.

Friday morning was the Green Partnerships Board, which I attend together with council officers and other councillors but most notably with a number of external experts from academia, business and wider government organisations. This is such a huge agenda that I won’t even try to summarise it but this slide gives a flavour.

There are numerous initiatives buried under each headline and officers are working furiously on a huge number of innovative projects – we’ll all be seeing progress over the coming months, and it is very heartening to see the enthusiasm these experts have for the work being done within Hounslow. We really are setting the pace on a lot of these things.

This means I miss the meeting of the Brentford Art Trail committee, however they seem to be making good progress on this, which is scheduled to take place 3-5 September, despite my lack of attendance. Or perhaps because of it.

Slide from the Green Partnerships Board

In the afternoon, a meeting with Hounslow’s Promise. They/we (though I didn’t have much to do with it) have won a big grant to fund an extension of the existing mentoring scheme to cover 18-24 year olds, to help them move their lives forward, so everybody is quite excited. We will need to recruit a lot more mentors and go find some mentees. Meanwhile I continue my wrestling with a certain high street bank in an attempt to open an account. We have gone past base camp but still have a way to go before attempting an assault on the summit.

In the evening an actual bit of culture – an evening in the Watermans studio watching 4 short plays. I was invited to go by Isleworth councillor Salman Shaheen who lives in Brentford. His fiancée was the author of one of the 4 plays. It was by far the best, I thought, but it’s possible I’m a touch biased. Afterwards we repaired to Galata Pera, the Turkish restaurant which is but a sparrow’s from my abode. I was surprised and delighted to see it very busy and the nosh was very acceptable indeed, especially some garlicky sausagey starter thingy (my grasp of Turkish cuisine is less than complete).

Saturday was the official launch of the new Cruyff Court within the Brentford Towers estate, with a crowd of dignitaries including my two ward colleagues, Corinna and The Masked Melvinator, lead member for housing Lily Bath and Exec Director Peter Matthew, 56 th and first Gurkha Mayor Bishnu Gurung and Brentford FC legend Marcus Gayle. The fantastic women who lead the Brentford Towers Residents Association were there, looking exceptionally glamorous as were our ward PCs and treasured PCSO Angela. Well, they’re all treasured, but Angela has been on the Brentford Beat for several years.

We’re hearing of naughtiness going on in the court late at night and upsetting the neighbours, so we need to find a way of controlling that, but it was lovely to see the enthusiasm on display from people of all ages including a committed match between housing officers and … another team. Not sure fitness and skill would have impressed at Euro (not) 2020 but commitment was well up there.

Sunday I dropped by Chiswick Pier for the Party on the Pier before heading off for a damp but friendly ride with Hounslow Cycling, discovering some bits of the River Crane path I had not previously seen.

On Monday, down to Strand-on-the Green to take a look at the footway there and in particular at a place where the river wall has slightly parted company with the footpath. I’m assured that the feet seen in this picture are attached to a real living human being, not leftovers from a feast f rom the Loch Chiswick Monster, or Piggy, as he is affectionately known, after the town. We’re accompanied by local councillor Gabriella Giles, who told me the correct pronunciation of her name as she is not French, apparently, plus luminaries from the Strand-on-the-Green association and other locals, plus Hounslow Highways and council officers. We’re awaiting a report from m’learned consultants before deciding how to fix this.

Later, a short session with the Lampton Group MD – some interesting developments coming round the corner shortly we hope – then a longer one with Brentford Voice and council leader Steve Curran talking about, well, Brentford. Mainly about the various plans that are approved but currently not being built, which Steve was able to update to a degree, but there’s still some uncertainty.

Tuesday afternoon we had a session about Houses in Multiple Occupation. There are two aspects to this, the ones that are already here, a minority of which are causing big problems for neighbours, and the ones that may come later, where we are trying to get better control via what’s known as an Article 4 directive. This merely means that prospective HMOs need to get planning permission which gives us a lever to control them, but it’s a lengthy legal process and needs the Secretary of State to agree, or at least not object (I think!)

Wednesday morning, a meeting with Ecoworld, the developers who are behind the Brentford stadium and Griffin Park developments. They are looking to float a new planning application for Griffin Park which is controversial. I believe they have consulted quite a bit with neighbours and they say the feedback from them is OK. They would say that, wouldn’t they? I am with the director of planning Sarah Scannell and all I can really do is give them my own priorities and what I think the wider planning committee might think.

Later I went on a bicycular inspection of the Haverfield estate, with the idea of following it up with a formal inspection with the housing officer. I got so drenched I decided to wimp out of the formal inspection, especially as I was busy with, first, the Finance committee of Lampton360 and second, an update on arrangements for the novel concept of crowds at the new stadium, featuring the football club, licencing, waste, enforcement etc people, so I figured I was allowed a bit of time off for dunious behaviour.

Thursday morning, first off, the fortnightly short West London Waste meeting – no special excitements though it seems that Richmond have suspended some of their services due to lack of staff, caught up in either the pan- or the ping- demic. Weirdly, I am hearing of far more people with COVID at present than I ever did in waves 1 and 2.

Next, The Melvinator and I answered a call to McDonalds for a meeting with the new franchisee. She is keen to engage with local councillors and says they want to put something back into the community, which would be something of a novelty for McDonalds. It is refreshing at least to have somebody who wants to talk with us and I got a free cup of coffee, and Mel a free tea. So corrupt.

In the afternoon we’re invited to a hire e-scooter demo in Acton Green – ie the Ealing part of Chiswick. Hounslow were thinking of engaging in the London trial but in the end thought better of it and let the experiment proceed in Ealing and some other boroughs. These are regulated scooters, so regulated that the system rejected me. It couldn’t match the hirsute, elderly gent in my selfie to the short haired young turk pictured on my driving licence so I was reduced to being a spectator as Hanif Khan and various others wobbled off on these things. Interesting though, and the council’s active travel guru Fatima provided a photo, as my phone had decided to be difficult.

I have an evening archaeological event to attend but I’m going to save that up for next weeks enthralling instalment. Bet you can’t wait, but those axeads have waited for 4000 years so patience will be a virtue.

Cllr Guy Lambert

July 30, 2021