Coffee with Theo and Hollywood Comes to Brook Road South

Brentford West councillor Guy Lambert reports back

Brentford West councillor Guy Lambert

March 14, 2025

On Friday I attended a funeral at Mortlake Crematorium. This was for Sue Casey. Sue was a former teacher but whilst I have been active locally she has been a pillar of the community in Isleworth. She seems to have been widely both respected and loved. I mainly saw her across a room but she was always impressive in a variety of ways and there is no doubt she is serious loss to Isleworth, the borough and indeed to the Labour Party where she had some official roles. The funeral was standing room only, which tells it own story. RIP, Susan.

In the evening I was tempted into the Brewery Tap. Always a pleasure and there was the added attraction of free pizza and free beer. What can a man do? I was a bit late and there was no sign of pizza but the beer was well, it was beer - what's not to like?

There will of course be high buildings there - not everybody's cup of tea but there will be a lot of 'affordable' - details will emerge. They are thinking a lot about the environment, meantime use of the area which will take several years to build and they are thinking too about informal public areas, how it relates to the park and the canal and river. Also (as I always stress) the connection with Brentford south of the A4 is on their minds. Improving the canalside path is an opportunity as is better crossings of the A4 and perhaps some way of opening up the old railway line.

In the afternoon I took a trip to Kensington to visit the Natural History Museum which I hadn't been to for probably 25 years. I was interested by the Wildlife Photographer of the year exhibition and that was well worth the trip. I am a peaceful person but this one could not be ignored.

It's a bit reminiscent of Hounslow Council on a lively day. By the way, I have steered clear of being too political in my blogs but I can't pass over the by-elections last week. We have a new Labour councillor on Brentford East, and Theo Dennison has returned to the council as an Independent representing his old haunt, Syon. I was disappointed that my erstwhile comrades and our candidate Jennifer were edged out and I have had plenty of fall outs with Theo. But I am at heart a democrat, and Theo has been selected by the residents, so I had a coffee with him this week, patched up our arguments and agreed to work together where we agree. Local politics is actually not all that political: I am most concerned with helping the town and Borough improve, though I always come from the point of view of being a socialist, doing my best for the less prosperous.

On Sunday we had our joint surgery at the Digital Dock. I'm not sure we will continue this because it turns out usually to be mainly Syon and Brentford Dock ward people who appear. It was true this time because we had a large contingent of supporters of the Rowing place in Ferry Quays which is run by Team Keane but also is the HQ of the Brentford Rowing Club and the London Kayak School. All of this is under threat for reasons of leases, facilities and finance and the people are arguing that the investment the council has earmarked to provide another boat house in Dukes Meadow at a cost of £2.5M should be diverted to Brentford. Here the need and the potential particularly for less advantaged people are located. I strongly agree and have been making the case with the leaders of the council, thus far not successfully. There is an old commitment to build in Chiswick: fair enough - there was an old commitment to keep a police station in Brentford. Priorities change, and it is urgent that we capitalise on Brentford's long history as a port and a boat place for the town's character and to provide opportunities, especially to its teenagers and young adults. I will not be giving up on this ambition.

On Monday I had to drive to Chiswick to give my car its annual service and MoT. Having a car that is less old and less extravagant than my old supercharged V8 Jaguar is a lot less painful financially (but I still miss my XJR). I was supposed to going for a seminar held by the New Statesman in Westminster but arrived at Gunnersbury without any ability to pay for a tube fare so had to give that up. "It's not because I'm old, It's not the life I led, I always liked it slow, that's what my mama said" (c Leonard Cohen 2014). Well, not when I had a Jaguar XJR.

Most of this week I have been agitated by the filming going on in Brook Road South and Braemar (mainly) which has led to weird and wonderful beasts on our roads and a lot of confusion about parking (and lost spaces sometimes) .

I found this very annoying because nobody at the council seemed to know what was going on and such information that was shared was not shared with local councillors. There was an attempt to warn local residents and IMO an entirely inadequate offer to recompense for parking costs and when I asked Cabinet members and council directors nobody had a clue what was going on. Finally we found out that the team in charge were in finance. OK, the income is important but actually this (and previous filming in the last year in Netley Road and The Butts) should be something local people are properly told about and given a chance as far as possible to celebrate. There is a bit of fun and excitement about this but it is all done rather secretly. My spy tells me this is a film being made by Amazon and called Jack Ryan and looking it up it looks like it is related to The Hunt for Red October and Patriot Games, but if Sean Connery or Harrison Ford were in the Beehive I missed them. They couldn't have been in The Griffin because I think it was closed as they were helping the film makers. By the way the film makers were charming and I have no problem with the Griffin, though I noticed that some people were complaining about the pub, which I thought was unfair. I think the fun is now over, though I haven't been up there today.

Thursday was quite busy: I cycled up to Heston to take a look at some of the soakaways that have been created on the pavements there to soak up some of the rain that cascades off concreted over front gardens. I must say it looks a lot better for it and there are lovely people in Heston who fight for their local environment (but plenty who do the opposite!) People in Brentford are much less damaging and I am very grateful that we have local heroes like Air Quality Brentford who protect the area, but collectively we could do more.

Then I went down to the former Max Factor building. That has been let on a short lease to an outfit that is providing short term provision for artists and similar, and will be putting on exhibitions. I have introduced some of our local people so they can I hope get some assistance there. Another thing that has been rather a secret, though some council officers are engaged.

Later I had an online meeting with an outfit called LOCI .They are developing an app which will help communities to create better communication channels between local people, businesses, councils etc. I am enthusiastic and will do what I can to encourage and support them.

That's it for this week. Next week I am going on a short break and though I will be back on Thursday it remains to be seen if I'll have any new pearls of wisdom to share with you. I imagine Brentford and its residents will survive.

Councillor Guy Lambert