A Short and Perfectly Formed Update as Votes are Counted

Brentford West councillor Guy Lambert reports back

Cllr Guy Lambert

May 3, 2024

So here we are with Blog No 429 – nearly 9 years of councillor weekly updates. Worth doing: well, I generally enjoy writing them, but whether you enjoy reading them is another matter entirely.

Whatever your opinion, this one is likely to be short and probably not perfectly formed but you who are drivel lovers will be used to it by now. It’ll be short because it’s nearly 11pm on Wednesday, with a very busy Thursday and Friday in front of me. In case you hadn’t noticed, there’s elections this Thursday. For the mayor of London, for the members of the Greater London Assembly, and for the councillor for little old Brentford West. Tomorrow is encouraging people to vote (for whomever they prefer) and Friday for supervising those counting the votes.

I’m not going to bore you about the Mayor or the GLA – there is plenty of info and I’m sure you can make your minds up. But I will talk a little about Brentford West, which is close to my heart.

It’s an important day for me. I have an excellent Labour colleague, Emma Yates who wants to serve, who will be active and care about the people of Brentford, is honest and straightforward and somebody I trust. If she wins, I look forward with confidence to the next two years until the next council election. There are three other candidates that I know, two of whom are honest and constructive and I wish them well. The other prominent candidate in this election meets none of those specifications and I would expect towering laziness (51 st idlest out of 60 councillors last time he was a councillor) and a lot of energy for political intrigue and mendacity (note no less than 9 leaflets in the campaign – all full of porky pies and misrepresentations). Ask anyone in the council in Hounslow or Ealing. I am not sure I could bear having such a ward partner, but if the vote goes the wrong way I will have to decide how I respond.

Back to normal service: on Thursday evening, dinner with leader Shantanu Rajawat at the Siracusa to reflect on the last year in the council and the year soon starting – we meet like this every few months.

On Friday I drove a friend to the airport and back to Brentford via a waste and recycling appointment at Space Waye to a canvass session in the afternoon around Boston Manor. Similar on Saturday and Sunday at different places, including a visit to Holly House, near the A4. We discovered this building had some horrible problems with flooding affecting some at least of the people on the ground floor. This includes at least one ceiling fallen in and visible floods. I and Ruth Cadbury immediately followed up with housing people – both those manning emergency phones over the weekend and senior management who we alerted.

Then a meeting free Monday followed by a busy Tuesday. First thing was an appointment with a podiatrist, in Twickenham because my long term helper in Chiswick has retired. Then a zoom meeting with people from the Pesticide Action Network and various councils who are wrestling with the difficult matter of Glyphosate. We in Hounslow are something of a pioneer, but it is very tricky to keep weeds under control and a couple of councils have recently given up, applauded by some and resented by bees, butterflies and many naturalists. Difficult, because the manual option is less effective and costs more.

Later, an update on street cleaning, with the leader and some other cabinet members and officers, then the latest stage in the too long saga of the Watermans Park Marina which is moving forward quickly now I hope, then a meeting about our plans for ‘no mow May’ and our general longer term efforts to support diversity in plants on streets, parks and estates. Finally, a cabinet meeting where we ran through the agenda for the formal meeting due 14 th of May. Quite a packed day.

Just one meeting on Wednesday – update with the Exec Director I work with – then more door knocking and then an evening in the Griffin with colleagues, destroying my attempts to lose weight.

Thursday I will be pounding the streets until late in the evening and on Friday, out early down to Twickenham where the count will be taking place and where I will be an observer.

The weekend will be in Donington, for my favourite motor racing event of the year. Something I really need after a few weeks of politicking, which is not my favourite pastime!

Councillor Guy Lambert