Weekly Update From Councillor Guy Lambert

Finding out where to get grosseries when out campaigning

Campaigning after taking part in the Great British Spring Clean

When The Melv and I get to Watermans Park there is shock and horror. It seems there has been extensive vandalism to the equipment and that the play park and outdoor gym have been cordoned off, which is hugely frustrating. More about this later.

After Watermans it’s up to Braemar and New Roads for a dose of door knocking. I must say that mostly we’re getting very good response on the doorstep – rather better than I expected and it’s good for my personal morale. Lara has enough morale for everyone and her energy and creativity is most infectious. She has come up with this natty poster which is going down a storm with children of all ages and persuasions 😊.

In the evening I’m off to the The Express Tavern for a rare appearance at the monthly meeting of the Mafia, otherwise known as Hounslow Cycling. 8 or 9 of us assemble in a smoke free room and discuss new ways of making life hell for everyone by encouraging cycle training, going on rides together and complaining to TfL about the dangers of cycling on Kew Bridge. Poor old Inspector Montalbano would have a torrid time trying to sort out the resulting carnage between the Cuffaros and Sintagras.

On Friday I meet with a couple of traffic officers in Orchard Road and thereabouts so they can explain to me how they believe they have delivered the 16 additional parking spaces and we can jointly explore whether there are other opportunities to ease the parking pressure hereabouts. I can see where the additional spaces have been provided, but the trouble is many of them are parking zone spaces to replace areas previously controlled by a yellow line, so it isn’t much help outside of restricted times, which is when much of the pressure occurs. There are a few immediate changes they can make which will help a little, and some others that can follow but require statutory consultation. We are exploring some other avenues and I’m hoping to hand deliver a letter to residents in the affected roads next week, explaining what’s been done and any options they may want to consider.

In the afternoon we have a well-attended Trustee meeting for Hounslow’s Promise. I still need to find a time to get to Cranford Community College to arrange a transfer of funds into our shiny new bank account. Not easy with busy teachers and now no teachers because it’s the Easter holiday.

Saturday is quite busy. We start with a canvassing session in Mafeking Avenue and thereabouts. Lara brought a couple of pals and we managed to ‘do’ both Mafeking and Lateward Road and I sampled a handful of water from the newly functional – and most splendid - Victorian water fountain in St Paul’s Rec ground (like nectar, obviously).

Straight from there to our litter pick as part of the Great British Spring Clean. The car park behind The Beehive was in a shocking state, as was the little alley behind Morrisons, and we collected about 15 bags of crud in an hour or so. Good band of volunteers including all 4 Brentford Labour candidates (until Rhys sloped off to Chelsea 1, Brentford 4 🥂👌 before the photo at top of the article) and a shy one who likes to stay incognito.

There not being such a thing as too much talking to residents, I cycled off to leafy Hounslow South on Sunday afternoon to join an intrepid band of labourites including a recently deCOVIDed Ruth Cadbury MP. Cycling home I notice my first ever Grossery shop. I know exactly where to go now when I want something gross.

At some point during the weekend The Melvinator featured in A Really Big Chorus in the Albert Hall - The Armed Man, a mass for peace in aid of combat stress. He has an astonishing voice as well as being a top councillor and Brentford’s loss will (I hope) be Chiswick Riverside’s gain.

On Monday, bar the usual round of emails etc in the morning, I take the day and evening completely off, and the ridiculous car goes for an outing to Windsor. My friend lures me into an antiquarian bookshop where inevitably the pair of us end up buying silly books that we don’t really need but which in my case at least are enormously pleasing. Good to have a bit of a break.

I did say more later about Watermans Park. I visited on Saturday when quite a number of children had found a way through the fences and were playing away and having lots of fun. I couldn’t see where the vandalism was so I followed up with officers who told me that it may not be that visible. This was not your usual ‘kids larking about’ vandalism but someone armed with an angle grinder and seemingly fuelled by malice, attacking some of the bases of machines and securing bolts. Infuriatingly, this seemed to have been fixed by Tuesday but the council has to satisfy its insurers by formal inspection. I’m told it should reopen Friday.

On Tuesday, a Zooting© with people from housing about the Orchard Road development and the status of various bits of land thereabouts, with the thought there may be some opportunity to use them for additional parking capacity. Will feed into my letter next week I hope.

Then a catch up – my final one, at least in this administration, with ‘my’ executive director. My relationship with street mess has come a long way since I arranged a fix for the problem of constant mess in Princes Avenue W3 back in 2018, before the last election (others claim credit, but I have the emails to prove it) and I was pleased to hear finally that plans are in place to provide on street receptacles for all the problem flats – usually above shops – that produce pretty purple sacks which generally turn rapidly into something horrendous once cats. rats and foxes espy them. I’m proud of the enormous progress we’ve made with recycling – from 29.8% when I took over to 37.8% at the last count, at a time when many boroughs are going backwards. Still a lot to do but we have well advanced plans to take things towards our target of 50%. I’m also pleased we now publish where our recycling goes. Also delighted to hear they have begun actively recruiting a leader for the anti-flytipping Special Waste Service – such a success in its trial and something which should be extended across the borough (and which will be extended as manifesto commitment if Labour are returned to power). I believe I have worked together well with my designated officers, something that runs throughout this administration, and something which was a big factor in us winning Council of The Year 2021, according to the judges. Certainly, I hold my officers in high esteem and they claim it’s mutual (they would claim that, wouldn’t they?).

If there was any danger of me getting complacent, next stop is Hounslow House for a face to face meeting about progress on clearing years – probably decades – of mess from the wooded and shrubbed environs of the A312 in Cranford, near the M4 junction. There’s been great progress by TfL in particular (not to mention the heroes known as Cranford Action Group) but there’s still plenty to do to make what could be a lovely riverside area accessible to the public, and deter horrible people from re-horriblifying it.

I had nipped up to Swyncombe Avenue on the way to look at a tree problem with a resident, we agree this will not be solved quickly and to pick it up again after the election (touch wood).

Quite a free Wednesday for me, but I have a house guest, who avails herself of the Digital Dock in the High Street during the day. She’s quite impressed (bar a minor snag with the toilet door!) and I’m pleased to bump into an old friend and local resident when I visit her. In the evening I go to Hampstead for the launch of a book written by a mutual friend of ours – a first for me.

Today, Thursday, we do a morning canvass in Clifden Road, Hamilton and thereabouts. It is really positive, and all 4 of us that are on duty agree it’s one of the best canvasses we’ve ever experienced. I had 3 hardened Tories who have seen the light – not sure whether they will come over to the side of sweetness and light, but they have decisively put the Nasty (party) Party behind them, fed up with fibs, lawbreaking and tax dodging.

I’m being let out again at the weekend – off to Goodwood for the Members Meeting where I shall be watching old geysers in old cars driving round in circles (fast). Bit disconcerted by this icy wind that came today – unhappy memories of this same event 3 years ago which was my first race meeting in the snow and, I think, the coldest I have ever been in my life.

Cllr Guy Lambert

April 8, 2022