Forum Topic

Missed Opportunity by LBOH

Thursday I accompanied a council officer on his regular inspection of Coates Walk and part of Netley Road including the sheltered accommodation at Harnage House, which has a lovely garden. He is looking for maintenance issues and anything that might impact on health, safety or the general environment,It's a pity that the Council officer didn’t check on that area on Friday Evening when Brentford and QPR were playing.The area he was checking plus a lot of the Haverfield Estate was completely jammed solid with vehicles parked by football supporters. Residents returning home while the game was on had nowhere to park, they tried over the other side of the A4 but there was no parking on those roads either.The only outcome was to double park blocking the supporters vehicles in and putting an note on your vehicle to say how to contact them.This Estate is quite tight for parking at the best of times but to add the supporters vehicles to the equation creates a Heath and safety problem for all the Haverfield residents.If any resident needed a Ambulance or the Fire Brigade, these emergency services would not be able to negotiate the small internal roads within the estate.This was really a missed opportunity for the LBOH officer to check how Brentford at home impacts on the local community 

Bernard Allen ● 3569d10 Comments

"the council policy is to react to local demand by people who know the area intimately rather than imposing the views of people who " in most cases will not live in Brentford and may not even be resident in the borough."Well! Stone me is all I can say, my experience sadly is that they take no bloody account of what local residents want or think, and I doubt I'm the only one!The recent balls-up caused by the RWC is a shining example both Hounslow and Richmond letting the RFU do just as they pleased thereby increasing the inconvenience for local people, talk about rollover, it was pathetic. If you want to change things you have to get in their and stand your ground not waft around playing the big I am, and a couple of token meetings so poorly advertised you guarantee hardly and bugger will turn up doesn't cut it.

Vanessa Smith ● 3568d

GuyDuring the 2014 local election campaign your party colleague, Isleworth councillor Sue Sampson, told us on this very forum that local Labour councillors were "discouraged" from engaging through this medium.No "carping set" here Guy.  Your colleague.It may be that you take a different approach and if so that is to your credit.  But assuming that Sue was telling the truth (and who, knowing Sue and mindful of the unswerving faith that the Leader has in her, could possibly assume anything different?) any criticism of your administration's lack of engagement with users of this forum would appear entirely valid.

Phil Andrews ● 3568d

estate inspections are not about parking on match days but about whether pavements are causing a trip hazard, monitoring refuse disposal, checking if paintwork is in good condition and doors are working properly, and all those other little details about the state of the estates. On the estate where I live the Estate Manager sometimes inspects on his own, or on a pre arranged day with residents.On the walk round he will pick up on any issue including the gardens, hedges, pavements, roads and indiscriminate parking which can block the emergency services from reaching the housing.Sometimes this is a hard job because some roads and road side hedges come under different departments of LBOH, some under Hounslow Housing and some under Hounslow Highways, so he has to contact them to ask if they could look at the problem. On the last Brentford QPR local derby, if the estate manager was around on that evening he would have had a hard job to find a pavement or grass verge to inspect. This should have raised concerns with the manager,if a resident needed an emergency vehicle, it would have been extremely difficult for them to reach the housing on the internal roads.No doubt the  Haverfield Estate is in somewhat shared between two Hounslow departments which causes some confusion on which one to contact about problems on the estate.Some years ago we had a initiative at my place of work that run for a few years called SOD it, if you came across a problem, you, Have SEEN it, so you OWN it, then DO something about it. If that means if you cannot solve it yourself report it but stay with it until rectified, but reporting to Hounslow Housing isn’t the most easiest thing to do.Going by David Squire post, there are external forces that add to the parking problems, such as (if I have right) that Hounslow Housing are part of the problem with parking of there own vehicles, plus the displacement from the recent CPZ 's in local roads around the ground. I hope some sort of scheme is worked out soon, as I hate to read that an emergency vehicle couldn’t reach a property in the estate. No I do not live on the estate but have friends that do. I was also born in Brentford and care about a lot about it.Maybe if more residents like David posted on here, we may get a better idea of whats going on

Bernard Allen ● 3568d

It's worth considering a conversation with BFC but to be honest this is the first time I've heard of a specific matchday issue. The issue on Haverfield is  more than that, with (as David said) people who don't want to pay charges elsewhere, or who are not eligible elsewhere, parking there because it's one of the few remaining uncontrolled areas.As to Phil's standard comments (yawn) I'd merely say that I have my private address and phone number on the council website, I walk or cycle the streets pretty much daily, visit Brentford market most weeks, go to residents association etc meetings whenever I can, hold regular surgeries and am looking to find a way to do more frequent and less formal surgeries. I also do a weekly blog on here and regularly comment on the forum (contrary to what the carping set said would happen when I became a councillor).If you think I can engage better with the community, suggestions very welcome because I think that's a major priority for a local councillor.

Guy Lambert ● 3568d

We have a CPZ in the Isleworth area which applies on match and concert event days at Twickenham Stadium and this includes both the Worple and Ivybridge estates in the scheme and in general it all works very well though it is free of charge for residents as the RFU foot the billPerhaps the local councillors should be lobbying Brentford Football Club to see if they would pay for a similar scheme for the Haverfield Estate?

Paul Fisher ● 3568d

'There is only one answer. CPZ on the estate. What council will ever do this on a council estate? Political suicide.' - would it be political suicide if there was a vote for/against? This is how the CPZ came about in the streets 'from Ealing Road towards Brentford library'. There were three votes over a period of ten or so years and the scheme only went through on the third occasion. I didn't vote for the CPZ on any of the three occasions but it is here now andI have accepted it because that was the majority decision. Why should that be any different on a Council estate?

Anne England ● 3568d

With the introduction of CPZ from Ealing Rd towards Brentford library., together with the high parking charges at North Brentford and at the Alfa Lavel site. All visitors plus residents are parking on Haverfields. As there are no road markings its not policy to monitor the vehicles. The only time a traffic warden comes around is on match days. It is also a fact that some households have 3 or 4 cars . To add again , people in the walks Trimmer, Distillery , Coates and Perran have now where to park since the underground car parks were closed. In all the years I have lived on the estate match day parking was not a major issue busy yes. Just visit the estate during a working day you wont be able to park. Council workers turn up just after 0700 to work in Trimmer Depot , Large vans parked for days . We used to be able to report abandoned cars , cant now with no tax disc. It's a parking headache for us who live here. Double parking has got worse, mini cab drivers who park in residents bays cant get out start sounding the horns at 0400 fat lot of good if the owner is streets away. There is only one answer. CPZ on the estate. What council will ever do this on a council estate? Political suicide.

David Squire ● 3568d

GuyPlease don't be so touchy when I mention engaging with the community. I made no reference to estate inspections. I was speaking about the general attitude of your administration.Rather than crowing about the fact that a national political party with hundreds of thousands of members finally managed, at the fourth time of asking, to overcome a small, barely organised and politically untrained group of residents, why not commit some of your cleverness and expertise to the cause of creating a more positive mindset in this borough which views community input as an asset to be drawn upon rather than a challenge to its hegemony?After all, isn't inclusion what your new leadership is supposed to be all about? We are not your enemies, we are just people who happen to live and breathe in the streets and communities which you were elected to represent.

Phil Andrews ● 3568d

Dear dear Phil.As you should know having been a no doubt active and engaged councillor before you were voted out, estate inspections are not about parking on match days but about whether pavements are causing a trip hazard, monitoring refuse disposal, checking if paintwork is in good condition and doors are working properly, and all those other little details about the state of the estates.As you also should know, parking restrictions are introduced in response to petitions by locals who understand how these things work. There has been a degree of demand for restrictions in the Haverfield estate but I've only come aware of this by knocking on doors and asking people rather than anyone proactively raising it with me (CF Chestnut Avenue area where at least 3 residents have come to see me or mailed me, and where I think they are starting a petition)I'd be very sympathetic to (at least) matchday parking controls but contrary to what you imply, the council policy is to react to local demand by people who know the area intimately rather than imposing the views of people who " in most cases will not live in Brentford and may not even be resident in the borough."

Guy Lambert ● 3568d

It would also have been a good opportunity to consult with locals, whose knowledge of how these things work on major match days will always be better than that of officers who in most cases will not live in Brentford and may not even be resident in the borough.To a borough led by little people who feel perpetually insecure such a proposition would of course be anathema.  But to a more confident and enlightened administration it would of course provide a cheap and easy opportunity to gather intelligence and thus be better prepared.

Phil Andrews ● 3569d