Weekly Update From Councillor Guy Lambert

---

Reflecting on five years and a quarter of a millennium of updates

Well, reader, we reach a milestone. To keep track of things I file these blogs in numerical order and we’ve reached 250 this week. It reminds me that 250 divided by 52 (given a few weeks off over the years) means 5 years before the mast and I find this purgatory began on 10 th July 2015, following an election on the 9 th.

I had had a long-standing interest in politics and local affairs, but it hadn’t really occurred to me to stand as a councillor until a vacancy arose following Ruth Cadbury’s richly deserved but somewhat unexpected elevation to the marbled halls of Westminster. Somebody suggested there were worse ways to engage in the world and that I might be a reasonable candidate. The rest, some say, is history, though others may prefer tragedy.

Whatever, the last chapter of the first quarter millennium began with attendance as a member of the public at part of the planning committee which considered inter alia a revised application for the Morrisons site. Only 6 planning committee members were involved, not including me, but I wanted to hear what was said. As far as I was concerned, the application is much better than the original one which I voted against, though one of my key concerns has still not been resolved – what happens if we’re left with no supermarket, if Morrisons disappears before anything appears on the Ballymore site. Green Tony Firkins spoke passionately against the proposal on the grounds it still proposes some fossil fuel, but my impression is the developers are making a really serious attempt to minimise or eliminate this. Anyway, it was voted through unanimously and I left the meeting without needing to make any excuses as nobody knew I was there in the first place. Somebody told me later that one of the other applications which looked pretty boring was actually worth staying for, but too late!

The meeting I thought I had on Friday turned out to be a mirage so I suddenly had three days free of professional engagements. I decided to be brave and meet a friend of mine in a café, and the mutually agreed place was Wanstead. Google maps told me this was 1 ¾ hours on a bike and I would not have been presentable company at the end of that. Didn’t fancy public transport so the ridiculous car was called into service. As it happened the traffic was about as awful as it can be and it took me way over an hour driving there, reinforcing my dislike of driving in London and my conviction that the only way this city will breathe and thrive is if we all minimise our car use.

The café was called Belgique and they had a novel way of getting to see a menu – use your mobile to scan a QR code. I went with mushrooms on toast with bacon on top. The bacon was a bit odd and my companion suggested it was turkey ‘bacon’ which the waitress confirmed. Apparently the café has gone Halal but I was a bit miffed that they didn’t point out that the bacon (which is all over the menu and not specified as anything other than normal bacon) wasn’t bacon as we know it! One for trading standards I suppose but I’ll let it pass.

Sunday I moseyed down to Brentford market place to witness the plant sale/exchange organised by the doughty Brentford Voice, in aid of our FoodBox as well as general community cohesion. What a good event, and a chance to bump into various locals that have been hidden by the lockdown. Not sure how much money it raised, quite a bit I think, but the community angle is equally important.

Later that day poor Pegasus got his tail wrapped round his legs and I came to a screaming halt in the back alleys of Isleworth. Turned out the rear mudguard, which I confess had been flapping for some while, had somehow got itself caught by the tyre, been doubled up and jammed in the space between the rear carrier and the wheel. For once in my life I was able to jury-rig a repair on the spot and continue with my ride, feeling justifiably proud of my engineering genius. Or bodging skills, if you prefer.

On Monday evening we were scheduled to have a planning presentation to do with the proposed redevelopment of the Tesco and Homebase sites near Gillette corner. Unknown multitudes of the public were assembled as were a very good smattering of councillors, officers, developers et al and we were all waiting for a presentation from the architects of these two controversial sites. For the first time since all this started though, the technology defeated us. Neither of the two architects could log in to present so sadly the whole thing had to be postponed.

Tuesday was our West London Waste Authority catch up. The MD presented a PowerPoint about the role recycling can play in the green recovery. When she started talking about Maslow’s need hierarchy I was taken back to student days. But it stimulated a really good discussion about availability of resources, which ranks with personal safety and health on row two of Maslow’s chart, ie a very basic requirement.

COVID has made us all begin to think a bit more deeply about resources. So much of the resource we so thoughtlessly consume has been imported, and far more than needs to be gets thrown away or disposed of not very productively by burning it for electricity. Our recycling regime in Hounslow means that what gets set out by residents for recycling really does get recycled, mostly in the UK but in truth even sophisticated regimes like ours are only scratching at the surface of what we could achieve via the ‘circular economy’.

This rather complicated chart illustrates things, and we must make sure that this features as Hounslow’s (and London’s and England’s) green recovery plan further develops. We will be talking much more deeply about this in future WLWA meetings and I’d be so pleased if we could create or facilitate jobs in Hounslow that provide employment in the recycling sector, with a virtuous circle of local people with incomes and real practical local reuse or recycling of our resources.

Tuesday evening was cabinet. You had a sneak preview of most of the agenda when we prepared a couple of weeks ago so I won’t harp on about it, except to say the keystone was our Climate Emergency Action Plan. This is a huge challenge but one that members and officers (and many residents) are very motivated to take forward with real commitment. The new paper we saw was about COVID - Managing Outbreaks and the Test, Track, and Isolate Programme. I may have mentioned it before and I certainly mentioned it in Cabinet, but I have been hugely impressed by our Public Health Team throughout this pandemic. They have always seemed on top of the game, reacting swiftly and decisively to events and adapting to the – umm – dynamically shifting direction emanating from Downing Street. I can’t prove it, but I strongly suspect they have saved a lot of lives, especially in care homes and as they take a more leading role in the Testing and Tracking (and I hope begin to be told what’s going on by central bodies!) I’m sure they’ll save many more.

Delighted to note that Cathja have opened in the space vacated by the lamented Maker Station in the old Max Factor building opposite McDonalds (and next to Watermans). They’re open Tuesday to Saturday 11 to 4 – great bargains and lovely people. Also we hear that the new flower market, the first new one in London for 150 years, I’m told, will launch on 6 September. Great work from (amongst others) The Chiswick Calendar and Abundance London.

On Wednesday I’m down at Brickfield Close for a photo-shoot for the new website we’re building for the FoodBox. Later, the three councillors who are leading on changes to roads to create more space for walking and bicycles have our regular meeting with the head of transport. Such a lot is going on, much of it very innovative, it’s not easy to keep up. And because it’s being done with real speed and the supply chain is under stress it’s hard to predict exactly when things happen and communicate it in a clear and timely way. Everybody involved is working flat out, and we think things will settle down a little shortly.

One of the fun things that happens when you live by the tidal River Brent is that people occasionally misjudge the tide and end up beached. There are worse fates, though my spies tell me this team have been caught out twice in the same place.

Busy Thursday coming, with 5 virtual meetings so I’m doing this Wednesday night. Pegasus may get its first day off since the start of lockdown, though I’ll try to sneak in a bit of R&R somewhere.

 

Cllr Guy Lambert

July 17, 2020