Dealing with the Shocking Handling of the A4 Roadworks

Brentford West councillor Guy Lambert reports back

Cllr Guy Lambert

March 17, 2023

On Friday morning a rather exciting Zoom meeting. This was with those pioneers of improving our environment, the Heston Action Group, known to all as The HAGs. So what’s exciting about a Zoom meeting, you ask? Well, the HAGs have come up with a really innovative idea known as the West London Tree Hub. They have got £50K funding from the Mayor, and others adding up to £75K agreed so far. I found myself rather gobsmacked and the plan is to start in Heston but spread like the foliage of a tree, providing trees, an education hub, depaving streets that are covered with concrete, encoraging people to start by taking out one tile from their garden and replacing with a shrub or a tree. Not too controversal and will make a big difference. And we have the chair of trustees of London National Park City as a resident in Heston and a big HAG – always out working at it whenever I go. Proud of them!

In the afternoon I went with my colleague, and lead member for Housing Sue Sampson. A resident wrote to me to say she had damp in her flat that was making her son unwell. I was cross about it because her problem was not being well addressed and I remember seeing a hole in the wall (I could have fitted in it) and had forgotten to work hard to get it fixed. Well, this white hole that I saw a few months ago had become a green wall. Not acceptable and Sue is brilliant at addressing that kind of problem. As soon as she sees it she’s on the case, working out what has gone wrong and demanding action like a human hurricane. Mind you, a hurricane is the last thing that hole needs.

A lot of my attention over the last couple of weeks has been on the matter of the works on the A4. This started by National Highways with absolutely no warning (to us as councillors) though they did make some vague announcements to people who live very near to the A4. There is nothing I can do about the inconvenience of this, but I have been very concerned about the safety of pedestrians crossing.

I have mainly been concerned about Ealing Road, where some efforts (inadequate last time I looked but better than nothing) have been made to improve it but yesterday I was warned of another problem around Windmill which I am now working on too. To add to that, the few working lights underneath the M4 are now consistently not working, except around Lionel Road. Pretty shocking from National Highways and TfL! The picture is of a couple of people dicing with traffic: it was by accident that I caught the blurred lights of a car zooming by

Sunday evening I was at a banquet place in Southall to celebrate our new councillor, Emma Siddhu, had a resounding victory in the Heston West by-election. She’ll be a great councillor, and it was a fun evening. As I get older I am now rarely familiar with the music they play, but I can get to my feet and prance around, even using my arms a little these days!

Getting around to Monday, I spent the afternoon in Hounslow House, having a meeting with an officer about working between the cabinet and the top management team at the council. It sort of works but more communication can only improve things.

Then I was back in Brentford for a meeting at the Holiday Inn, organised by Dan Bowring and was the councillors (and various officers from Hounslow, the Canal and Rivers Trust and the Environment Agency) starting an important dialogue with the people who live in boats. They have a special set of challenges and very little protection in law. We value them and are a very important part of Brentford. It felt like a good session and I hope that people felt heard and will be encouraged to contact councillors if they need any help. I would give you a picture but I only have a video and no idea how to add it.

Tuesday afternoon I was up at Burden Close (why did someone decided on that name) – a small council estate just off Boston Park Road near the A4. I was with the Estates Improvement Officer who has just taken on this job. We then went to a few single houses dotted around (I have no idea how the council own these) and Manor Vale – a part of it is a council estate – and The Mall, which is all council (though as always, there are some leaseholders who have bought under “right to buy” or bought them later). I was very heartened by this inspection. In the past I had found these inspections frustrating because there were plenty of problems and not a lot of visible progress. This was different, with really no problems except one leaking gutter and a couple of aesthetic problems. There may of course be problems inside the flats and they can and do alert councillors when they have troubles but it just felt like three little estates where make a very nice place to live.

In the evening, back to Hounslow to prepare for next week’s formal cabinet. I have a couple of papers to present on Lampton – one about their performance up to last December, the other introducing their Business Plan for the year starting in April and beyond. Nothing fantastically different but I need to mug up on the changes so I can give out an informed and informative story when Cabinet comes around on the 28 th.

Wednesday I had doctor and osteopath. I nearly have a fully functioning pair of arms, even if the progress has been frustratingly slow. In the evening we had a Labour party branch meeting where we feed back to our party members – an enjoyable evening topped off with a beer or two in the Magpie. We found some music going on in there and I really enjoyed it – I should get out more. I was reminded that musicians don’t have to be famous to be fantastically talented and great to listen to. There’s a lot going on around Brentford, but if there’s anywhere where it’s comprehensively listed I haven’t found it!

Thursday turned out to be a meeting free day as one was cancelled on me. But I arranged to meet a local champion volunteer at the Black Dog. Apart from everything else, we discovered a (sort of) shared work history, where I had been ‘managing’ an IT service we were providing for his employers, a relationship I don’t recall positively from 20 years ago.

So that was another week over, and I have rather a pleasing looking Friday morning to enjoy. See you soon.

Councillor Guy Lambert