Are Lime Bikes the Solution to Brentford's Litter Problem?
Brentford West councillor Guy Lambert reports back
Brentford West councillor Guy Lambert
November 28, 2025
As those who read this stuff will know, I am very young indeed and eager to discover more about the world around me. I subscribe to a 'newspaper' called the London Minute which gives really short updates on stuff that is going around the Big City, and I sometimes find things that I want to take a look at. So I cycled to Kew Gardens (where I was picking up a book from Hewson’s Bookshop, much lamented in Brentford but still going in Kew) and took the District line through to Blackfriars, to take a look at a new public space. Given the whole embankment goes back to Joseph Bazalgette who dealt with the Great Stink which beset London in 1858 by narrowing the river and building a sewer which took the stink down to Barking, it's only correct for the new super-sewer to tip its cap (can a sewer tip its cap?) to old Joe
So here it is. A lot of paving, arranged in an interesting way, and some rather dubious (to my philistine eyes), cough, sculptures in very colourful and playful black.
Nice to take a little trip and on the way back to the station I awarded myself a pint in a pub i used to go to when I worked nearby - the Edgar Wallace. It is an eccentric old pub, probably infested with barristers from the Temple next door but is a place I find simpatico.
The walls are covered with adverts from I suppose the 1950s, like this one for the brand of cigarettes my mother smoked, and no doubt helped her on her way to an early grave. Craven A were unique in having a 'cork tip'. In fact it was not a filter tip but put a bit of cork around the bit that touches your lips (or my mum's) with the dual effect of saving getting bits of paper and tobacco strands stuck on her lipstick without interfering with the access to your lungs of tar, carbon monoxide and all the other fabulous ingredients.
In the evening, I had the privilege that comes with being a member of the Steam Museum. It is so lively these days, with new initiatives regularly. This one is about Steam reciprocation. Not sure I entirely understand the concept but there was a couple of huge petticoats hung from the ceiling which billowed in the wind. perhaps created by steam engines, I don't know. There was a brief speech from the artist who made this installation and from the Museum director and reasonably-priced glasses of red (and white, I suppose). Good turnout, but not a place where it is easy for those if us with age-impaired hearing can communicate as easily as we would prefer.
Whatever, it was a pleasure to be there, with one MP and at least one more councillors and a number of friends.
Friday morning I was up at Adelaide Terrace. This is the terrace of houses on the north side of the A4 stretching westward from Ealing Road. This is not a blessed place, with the M4 looming almost overhead and a lot of houses in private rental and multiple occupation. Until recently there was a regular large flytip on the little island next to the A4 but we seem to have effectively scrubbed that out. I was called up by a man who lives in the terrace and he was joined by a number of neighbours. From the council side we had a man from the waste/recycling team and the massed armies of the Special Waste Service - both of the people who provide this service for the whole borough (according to the Labour manifesto!)
I remonstrated with people dumping lots of stuff on the pavement, but they said they were waiting for a skip to take it away. The landlord was there and I realised the house in question was the dreadful hovel from which I eventually managed to get a family rehoused from. I started having a go at him, but he is clearly investing in this house. He told me he had sacked the 'Housing Association' from Chiswick which was running the hovel back then.. When I went back at the weekend the mess had been removed, so I hope that is progress.
Getting back to the reason for my visit, the resident who had started this was worried (quite rightly) about flytipping and cleaning in general. In fact, apart from the above, Adelaide was OK except for graffiti (reported on FixMyStreet)
York Parade - the shops at the petrol station end - are a different matter. There are grit bins for the people in flats above the shops but they often overflow. Soon there will be more of them as the council provides an overdue solution for recycling but I found the existing bins are half full of street litter.
None of that should be in the bin (it is reserved for purple bags from flats) but there is no system to clear them: Lampton empty the bins of purple bags but they can’t take the other stuff so that needs a new approach.
That whole area is horrible with litter (including a used nappy - charming) and a dumped Lime bike providing extra bin capacity.
Lime say they will clear it 'as soon as possible'. I take that to mean 'if and when we feel like it'. There are a lot of small horrors there and I will try to address this. It is horrible for the people who live there, for whatever shops survive, and for the whole image of Brentford. I hate it.
Later I furthered by Green Party career by becoming the guillotine operator. I am not a violent man and I don't agree with capital punishment though I can fantasise about some necks, but this was just chopping up bits of paper to economise in a good climate-conscious manner. After that I went to the Express Tavern for a welcome and training event for our many new members, though in the way of these things only a dozen or two of our hundreds of new members made the event.
On Saturday morning we had a good turnout for our first effort to knock on doors. I am the bloke with the silly green hat (bought to protect my perfect skin at the Canal Festival). We knocked all the doors in Albany, Mafeking and Market Place. Reception was pleasant despite us having been too early in the day and quite a lot of people still in their dressing gowns - we live and learn (sometimes) and will be later next time we pester people. Quite a lot of people talk of loyalty to Labour to avoid letting more horrid people in. I understand that - I would do the same if there was a credible opposition from the Conservatives or Farage Ltd. But I am pretty sure in Brentford West the contest will be fought between Green and Labour. The only party that caused me any concern when I was Labour was Green, when Stephen Clark ran in 2022.
On Sunday I went up to Blondin Park, scaling the wall and entering Ealing where Linda Massey has her cafe lair from which she has a lot of influence in both boroughs! The reason for this visit was that Linda warned us that the reduction in the time we will have to deal with Junction 2 is at least partly because there is another festival in Blondin Park! Not surprisingly I have had no formal notice, but I work well with Cllr Paul Driscoll who is the Ealing Cllr. He has sent an email with 19 objections/questions to the organiser. In some ways this is worse than Junction 2: Linda has been told she won't be able to access her café/HQ and Northfields Football will not be able to play (and their field will likely be ruined). Hounslow residents are on 2 sides of the park and 3 of them attended this meeting as well as Linda and a couple of football supremos. This is not until August but we need to get some answers quickly.
On Monday I drove (!) to Hampton Court to a meeting organised by the Thames Landscape Strategy. I drove because time ran out to ride there. Or to put it more honestly, time never runs out but us mortals do not allow enough time for a journey. I am no expert on Hampton Palace though I did visit last summer. Navigation to the Garden Room involved me going in the wrong direction. Despite my recent experience with a guillotine walking around Henry VIII's palace makes your neck feel delicate.
The meeting was packed and naturally I was right at the back. Thankfully I could hear most of what was said but I could not read most of the slides. About 50 years ago 😮 I was trained by Honeywell how to do a presentation. One of the cardinal rules is not to put too much on a slide. Many presenters need to go to a Honeywell training. So many presentations I see are incomprehensible if you forget to stow your telescope down your trousers. Anyway it was interesting, and mainly about the impact of what President Trump says is the con job – climate change - already has and will have on the Thames. I remain of the opinion that these right wing zealots will see their support melting away like an ice floe as it always has in this country.
The slides were pretty but the message came from what was said rather than what I saw: the situation is serious and we need to get on with progressing to net zero. Thankfully we have good people in the Green Party and some in Labour, like Katherine Dunne who was there amongst a number of people I know.
On Tuesday evening it was the Free Church for an update on the Beeline - the nature reserve Brentford Voice are looking to create along the line of the old railway embankment which lurks undiscovered or unvisited between the High Street and the A4. Great to see the progress there and the plan they are looking to progress, gently because it is a sensitive site. People with real dedication can get these projects off the ground and this one is going nicely.
Soon it will look more like this. Well better than this because the vertical sign designed by Simon inc will not be blurry like this photo!
On Wednesday I went down to Dukes Meadows and met the officer who is managing the creation of a new garden area there. I have no problem - in fact I welcome - this idea which will deal with one of the long-term decayed area of what should be a wonderful area of the riverside. I query why it is to be called Emanuel Hollow, presumably after the exclusive and expensive (£29750 pa per pupil) Emanuel School from Battersea. They have a boat house there on council land, probably at a very favourable rent, when we can't afford a single boathouse in Brentford
On the other side of Barnes railway bridge the council has planned to build yet another boathouse with a budget of £2.5M. This is at the other end of the bridge under the bridge which was opened a few years ago at what I am told was a cost of £6M. Lovely of course, but why is the bridge and boathouse in a remote corner of Chiswick when we can't find £150K to create a modest boathouse in the middle of Brentford where hundreds of state school children have been introduced to the river and won medals at Henley?
To be fair, that site has been another derelict area since the old boathouse was demolished a few years ago so doing something with it would be sensible. It would cause the eviction of whoever has been living there in a tent for many months.
I'm not going to say anything more about the loss of our rowing provider in Brentford because I don't have all the facts. I remain very distressed by the changes, though at least some river activity survives, for now at least, with my Saturday mornings enriched by the sounds of children Kayaking in the Brent (mainly)
Since we're on rivers, I must mention between clenched teeth, that a meeting was held between the Friends of Watermans Park - a community organisation that was started by residents at my behest - and a bunch of councillors who more or less know the way to Brentford. My ward partner Emma, who like most Brentford councillors has shown no interest at all in the progress (or not) of the marina that should have been finished several years ago attended. I have been harassing the Leaders (Steve Curran originally who was very keen, latterly Shantanu Rajawat who was very tardy) to get this finished or replace the developer was of course not invited, but people tell me what happened there. Well, the council's options have been reduced, because the developer has gone bust, with the marina 5 years late and with no immediate prospect of it ever being finished. Unlike any other councillor, I know a lot about the marina, but there is no interest in my knowledge or the close attention I have paid for nearly a decade. They in any case refuse to answer my questions so my knowledge is incomplete!
The slightly better news is that, as the Friends report "It is still too early to know exactly how the joint venture arrangements will unwind, given the rights and objectives of the various parties involved. Nevertheless, we are cautiously optimistic that, once the position is clearer, the Council will be receptive to commissioning a feasibility study." As ever, I do not recommend that anyone should hold their breath!
That's enough (they all cried!)
A couple of days away next week, which no doubt I will tell you about in the next gripping episode.
Councillor Guy Lambert
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