CPZs, IBAF, A4, Grants and highways

Councillor Matt Harmer's irregular update

Firstly – I know – it’s time to talk about CPZs. This Thursday 20 March our Area Forum will meet at 7.30 to discuss the latest on these ongoing sagas. I’ll start by saying that the meeting is open to the public and your attendance is very welcome. It’s at Brentford Free Church, just down Boston Manor Road from the library.

Now, I know that there is a belief in some quarters that installing these things in our local streets is the primary purpose for our existence and that if we can’t find an excuse for introducing them then we would somehow lose magical powers and whither away into little piles of dust. (Mind you, we’ve not tested this for a while so I suppose nothing can be ruled out). Anyway. When we decide that these CPZs are going to be introduced we always ensure that we go back to residents and ask how it went for them. Last year the roads around the Lord Nelson got a CPZ and earlier this year we asked for views on whether it should stay or go.

You can see the results here (pdf). To save you a click I can say that of the 67 residents that returned the survey forms, 62 felt that the CPZ had improved the situation on their road. Of course, lots of people didn’t respond and so I suppose it depends on your opinions on CPZs as to whether those who didn’t respond were happy or were so worn down by the whole process that they couldn’t face responding. We also asked a question on whether or not the CPZ should be expanded to Saturday and I’d be interested in hearing your views on that, either in advance or at the meeting. The majority of respondents indicated that they were happy with operational times but a number have asked for Saturdays to be included, perhaps to help with football traffic.

The results of the survey that we have done – at residents’ request, honest – on Whitestile and Windmill Roads and Challis Road/Clayton Cres/Ealing Rd will be known soon and reported to our next meeting on April 17.

But that’s not all for CPZs. We also have results for the roads around Griffin Park. That report can be found here. It will tell you that residents on Braemar Road, Brook Road South, Ealing Rd (w), Grosvenor Rd, Lateward Rd and  Clifden Road voted in favour, New Road was tied and Mafeking Avenue against – by quite a long way. So there’s a decision to be made on whether to have all the roads or some of the roads included. A decision that I will be sitting out, living as I do on Ealing Road. Any views on this let me have them and I will pass them to fellow ward councillor and Chair of Thursday’s meeting councillor Mel Collins. There’s a fair bit to get through but Mel’s usually fine about inviting contributions from anyone visiting the meeting so, again, please feel free to come along.

We’ve also got someone from Transport for London along to talk about the A4 and I know that this will attract interest. The Mayor of London has made it fairly clear that he’s not prepared to increase the pedestrian crossing times at the crossings on the A4 and there will be discussion on other suggested changes. Again, you are very welcome to come along. You can see a full agenda for the meeting here. (And please remember that we have other bits of business too so whilst the meeting starts at 7.30, the bit that you are interested in may not come straight away. We’ll try to keep things interesting. And if you arrive before 7.30 there are generally some excellent biscuits available along with the tea and coffee kindly supplied by the church).

That’s enough about roads for the time being. There’ll be a bit more soon but we can have too much of a good thing.

* Funds Found *

Local charity Pathways have contacted me about a new £25,000 one year funding programme HOPES & DREAMS for young people aged between 14 – 21 in Ealing and Brentford. Individuals can apply for the grants as can voluntary and community based groups who work with young people. The aim is  to reach out to those who are striving to make something of their lives and the hope is that the grants available will help them realise their hopes and dreams. The first quarter’s funding round is now open; the first quarter’s deadline date is 30 April 2014. Individuals can apply for a maximum of £500 and groups for a maximum of £2,000.
 
Full details to be found on their website.   And if you apply or someone you know applies, please do let me know.

* Waste watchers *
 
OK, back to roads. As you may know, the management of much of what happens on our local roads – collecting rubbish, resurfacing pavements etc - is taken care of by an organisation called Hounslow Highways, a partnership between the Council, VINCI Concessions and Ringway . And judging by your emails back to me, many of you have views on this. Well, Hounslow Highways is recruiting 20 volunteers from the community to act as independent assessors of Hounslow Highways’ work throughout the wards in Hounslow.
 
There will be one lay assessor per ward. The assessors will be recruited in March with an induction in early April this year. So if you have thought that you would like to be able to get to know more about how these services are delivered, here’s the chance. You’ll get training and induction and perhaps your very own hi-vis jacket. You’ll be asked to give feedback on how the work is done and get and generally, from my reading, be a critical friend of this really important part of what we try to do. A day a month is asked from each volunteer plus a quarterly visit to local offices. There’s more on this, including how to apply, at Hounslow Highways’ website and you can write for more info at businessmanagement@hounslowhighways.org. Deadline for applying is 31 March 2014.

* Can I help? *

Finally, please get in touch if you think I can help, either by emailing matt@mattharmer.com or calling 020 8560 7033. In the meantime, thanks for reading.


My mailing address is:
Matt Harmer
153 Ealing Rd
Brentford, Middlesex TW8 0LF

My telephone:
020 8560 7033

March 17, 2014