King Charles Reduces the Number of Complaints About Parking
Brentford West councillor Guy Lambert reports back
Cllr Guy Lambert
May 12, 2023
Colnbrook was I imagine a pleasant and picturesque village in rural Buckinghamshire, rather like another village (or a county town) I know well with an economy based largely on coaching inns.
Admittedly, Colnbrook has only a weedy little brook (or perhaps 2 of them) whereas the other one has the magnificent Thames and the gorgeous Brent and a canal to boot (there is also at least one weedy little brook or two but it has gone underground under Brook Road South etc). Anyway, both no doubt had challenges from the Industrial Revolution but Brentford is modestly challenged by the noise of planes whereas Colnbrook has been transformed by being inconveniently close to the airport itself. A pity, as you can see it was a lot nicer long ago.
So – why am I rabbiting about Colnbrook? Well, I went to sup a non-alcoholic beer to say goodbye to the HR director of Lampton who I have seen 100 times on Microsoft Teams over the last few years and about twice in the flesh, and he’s off to spend the next chunk of his life exploring new places (for him). A nice convivial hour or two and an excuse to test the sat nav built into my ‘new’ and modestly less ridiculous car.
Friday started with the horrible journey (it is awful by any means of transport apart from bicycle which is still a little challenging for me) to Kingston for the ear mechanic to say she couldn’t retest me as I have a bit of a sinus problem – come back in 6 weeks when it’s resolved. Later on, having ploughed through the usual emails and poking around the ward, I cycled over to Hounslow to say goodbye to our departing Financial Director (he has a fancier job title) who has been poached by another borough which has more ‘interesting’ problems than Brentford. He’s one of the officers in Hounslow who has been a pillar of good sense, good support and good company all the time I’ve been a councillor. I’ll miss him.
During the day I saw big stuff moving on the River Brent. It needed ‘Tintin’ pulling and another boat pushing and keeping everything straight (not much room). The river looks quite empty now.
So then, a long weekend, which are a bit habit-forming at present. During this an old feller (even older than me) had a new hat and coat fitted and a fancy walking stick. I don’t have strong feelings about this chap either way but I have never been a great lover of pomp and fuss and there was enough fuss and pomp to keep the country going for a long time. There was plenty of box sets and old cricket matches on the TV and I wandered past a couple of pleasant street (or pub) events on the Monday and nobody screamed at me about parking issues, which was a pleasant rest.
His car is even more ridiculous than mine but has only about 8HP but needs at least 4 drivers. But I manage to control (usually) about 250 horses with only one driver.
On my bike with one driver I did a quick tour of the ward on Monday, looking in at the street parties I knew about (though one had finished by the time I got there!). Was good to see the good people of Brentford out having a good excuse for having a bit of fun and conviviality!
On Tuesday morning I had a visit to the headquarters of the enforcement team in a highly-secret location in Hounslow as Steve Cullen impressed upon us when it was opened. I imagine it’s about secret as the location of Brentford FC’s stadium but I can keep a secret.
So I got to look at a wall of TVs with a 99% load of boring images – it’s not like YouTube – and a small team of people paid for watching TV. To be fair it’s better than a lot of stuff that is on TV and there aren’t any adverts. We also talked about the changes that have been implemented in the enforcement teams: the teams seem invigorated by the changes and certainly it feels like it is all much more effective than it used to be, though I’m sure it needs some more tweaking. There were a bunch of coppers in there as well, examining one of the screens. I was too polite to ask what they were looking at but it definitely wasn’t the football.
Talking of stadiums, here’s another one in Brentford, but the playing surface is not what it once was, but some architectural triumphs of architecture over the decades are plain to see. They are apparently near the end of the demolition and expect for it all to be completed by 2 nd June. I have asked for an update about what happens next, and when. I imagine they are still planning to build something!
In the evening I went to attend the Overview and Scrutiny Committee. It wasn’t mainly about my portfolio but they had a report on waste and recycling report that they were planning to note rather than debate, but I wanted to make a couple of statements about our service, which I did! I’m quite proud of our waste service: we consistently collect more than 99.9% of the homes we service; our recycling rate has improved from about 29% a few years ago to 37% the last time we had a report; we were shortlisted for an award from the excellence in waste management awards (more later). Equally, whenever I get a complaint, which does happen to me as the lead member from time to time, the management responds quickly and positively, and nearly always responds to deal with what’s raised.
On Wednesday we had another session – online this time – with people from the A4 businesses, Canal River Trust etc about plans to improve the canalside between the A4 and the High Street. Programme is progressing and we hope to see some action on the ground later this year.
In the afternoon, Lara and I had a meeting with housing people and a team that were engaging with residents about improve parking around Glenhurst Road and others near there. A productive discussion but again, actually do something will take a while.
My birthday, Thursday, was spent partly in hospital (shoulder check up) partly in the Grosvenor House not winning an award.
Absolutely gutted that another council won it – we wuz robbed
The day was ended with a nice Albany Spice dinner – lovely.
I have to go now because running late. A bientot.
Councillor Guy Lambert
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