Weekly Update From Councillor Guy Lambert

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Investigating the mystery of the Twickenham Road clankers

On Thursday, blogging aside, I was free until our leisure update in the afternoon. Nothing much to say as – as you will have spotted – leisure has been cancelled until further notice, other than lounging around in your loungewear watching boxed sets or vigorously embarking upon time-limited bike rides in magnificent isolation.

Seriously, the numbers infected with COVID are really frightening and Hounslow is amongst the worst hit at present. I keep hearing of people who have contracted it and it is rarely very pretty, even if it’s ‘mild’. I’ve been pretty careful from the start of the pandemic and it’s important we are all extra-careful now, so we get to bask in the light at the end of the tunnel, which is dimly visible now.

In the evening I attended the second ‘Chiswick South’ Streetspace consultation event. The traffic team had put on a second event because the first was oversubscribed. I hadn’t gone to that but I’m told that many of the 67 (I think) attendees for the second were the same people who attended the first one. It’s fair to say that most attendees were not enthusiastic about the schemes.

Friday was meeting free but I had been following up some manhole clanker issues with Thames Water. The offending items were more or less opposite Asda on Twickers Road and had recently been replaced. The initial complaint was that the contractors had this busy road closed for far longer than needed to effect the repair but the follow up complaint was that after all that they were still clanking. TW (to whose Customer Team I have established a direct line) said ‘not me, guv’ so I asked local residents to point out exactly which ones they are and cycled down for a rendezvous. Here are the little blighters which indeed clank away merrily. Inspector Clouseau from Hounslow Highways is now trying to identify the true culprit, drawn undoubtedly from amongst the Usual Suspects.

On Monday we started what will be quite a gruelling round of interviews for Non Exec Directors of the various Lampton companies. We have had a stunning response and the first two were both very impressive. We had another on Tuesday and there are another 11 interviews scheduled so far, over the next 2 or 3 weeks. Very accomplished people are looking at what’s happening here and they want to be a part of it, which is most encouraging.

In the evening we had a meeting amongst Labour group looking at options for next year’s budget. The council has – like everybody else – been hard hit by the pandemic and it’s well understood that the government’s pledge to underwrite ‘whatever it takes’ to combat the pandemic with additional central funding actually meant ‘whatever we feel like’. Because Hounslow is blessed with an exceptional Finance team and because we have resisted blandishments from the opposition to fund current services from reserves we have weathered the storm quite well so far but nobody is under any illusions that the next few years will be challenging. Unemployment and deprivation in the Borough has already risen sharply and that trend is unlikely to turn round any time soon so we will be very careful to be in a position to respond to the stresses that brings for residents and the council.

On Tuesday another interview, an update (not much to update) on the fate of the sheds within Brentford Towers and then our fortnightly update on the Streetspace schemes. All of the first phase have now been completed and we are going through interim reviews. Many of the schemes will be retained unchanged until a final review in a few months, but others will certainly be modified or perhaps reversed. The main local interest is Swyncombe Avenue. The consultation here has now closed but officers need to write their report before any action ensues, so I’m pressing them on that!

In the evening, Cabinet. All 40 odd minutes of the meeting can be viewed here.

It beats East Enders. OK I’m lying. My thing was just really about Lampton, and the commissioning arrangements for their services, which is pretty uncontroversial but reflects that the council and its companies are working very well together and have common purpose.

On Wednesday I had booked an asymptomatic COVID test. They are available now and people are urged to take them so although I interact very little with other members of the human race I figured I should do it, partly to find out how it works and partly to, well, find out if I have COVID! So I cycled down to Isleworth library where my test was booked, hung around for a bit reading Thomas the Tank Engine (well, reading the cover – the waiting room was in the Children’s Library). Then I was given a cotton bud thingy, tickled my non-existent tonsils (consigned to nature’s archive in 1958), poked it up my nose, popped it in a container held by a woman behind a screen, made my excuses and left. So do I have COVID? No idea. I have spent quite some time trying to find out but am so far none the wiser. Anyway I continue to feel fine so I count my blessings.

I also took a look at Strand on The Green because someone had complained about litter there. I had gone down on Tuesday and walked the full length of the footpath and thought it was pretty clean both on dry land and on the foreshore, though there were a couple of plastic bottles here and there. On the foreshore there was also a single rubber glove, a single welly boot and a toilet. A more creative genius than I would spin a mystery around that, involving perhaps a double-unidexter. However, my correspondent, whilst conceding that SoTG itself is looking quite chipper, pointed me to a little niche opposite the Steam Packet which had failed to catch my – and apparently Hounslow Highways’ – eye.



So I outs with the ole FixMyStreet and report it. I have an update this morning saying ‘closed’ so I hope that means ‘fixed’. Will check.

Late afternoon we have a webinar from the Office of National Statistics about the forthcoming Census. They are working together with officers from LBH to ensure the count is successful and wanted to update members and ask for us to be ready to help, which I’m very willing to do. It will take place on 21 st March. At least they should be relatively safe from too many people being off in Torremolinos.

In the evening it was planning committee. I wasn’t involved as a committee member but I had been wanting the controversy about bowls or golf in Gunnersbury Park to be properly aired. The three ward councillors had all called in the planning application, which is to convert the clubhouse into a café and was recommended for refusal by Planning Officers. I had asked the objectors, led by Brentford Voice, and the proposers – Putt in The Park and the CIC – to air their arguments publicly because whatever happens is important for the short/medium term future of the park. I had agreed to open the discussion and explain why I had called it in. However I learnt during the meeting that the protagonists were not allowed to present, something which rendered the whole thing a bit pointless. Would have been nice if somebody had mentioned it beforehand. The Melvinator called for the decision to be deferred, which was agreed on a majority vote. Hello, square one, nice to meet you again, but at least we can I hope have a proper debate now.

So that’s my week. A morning’s blogging and a few phone calls today. A weak sun is competing with the clouds and the open road beckons so the bike gets walkies. I gave the car walkies on Sunday because I realised it hadn’t moved for about 3 weeks and I was worried about the battery. Big shop in Sainsbury’s Chiswick so amply beered for lockdown now.

 

Cllr Guy Lambert

January 26, 2021