Weekly Update From Councillor Guy Lambert

From choosing a CEO to the joys of Lovebox

On Thursday afternoon I meet with the Head of Finance to talk about how the financial case works for Lampton360 in buying or building residential property. Then a free evening and a largely free Friday which I spend enjoying bike rides now me and Pegasus are restored to rude health. Well, I can be rude, but the bike rarely speaks so offends nobody.

Later on Friday it’s a small reception at El Centro Civico, as they might well say in Bolivia,  to meet with the candidates for our Chief Executive post. Four of them are shortlisted. I am reminded of a former client of mine who was interviewed for the job of Clerk to the Corporation of London. He told me he was required to put on funny clothes (doublet and hose if I remember correctly) and stand on a platform in the Guildhall to answer questions from members (there are 125 of them, including 25 aldermen) such as ‘How would you describe your management style?’ Some people might think that is fun, but I’m not one of them. Equally, hanging round El Centro, nibbling on soggy samosas and trying to impress up to 60 of Hounslow’s finest – I’ll rephrase that, Hounslow’s elected members – and a couple of dozen senior staff doesn’t sound like a picnic either. We give our confidential feedback to the Labour political assistant, who will pass it on to the final interview panel. One of my most positive hires in private industry was a bloke who was recommended to me: I met him over a couple of pints in a pub in Swiss Cottage and asked HR to make him an offer. He accepted and became a stalwart of the organisation. About 20 years later I heard recently he is moving on (inevitaby to join Crapita, which needs a bit of talent). The public sector necessarily has a more elaborate approach to recruitment. Anyway, we heard yesterday, Wednesday, that one of the four has been offered the job and accepted. He was the one I thought the best so all’s well in the world.

A busy weekend started with surgery in the Mission Hall. Melvinator is on one of his own missions to Norfolk so I take the place he usually occupies. Anyway, the jungle drums have obviously beaten out a tattoo so everybody knows the proper councillor is not there and no substitute will be accepted, so I spend the time talking to the lovely Kathy, who looks after the centre, ruminating on the history of Brilliant and what happened to the Running Horse after he had a Yard named after him. Then I cycle over to Lampton Park for the Joint Services Day. I run into the usual suspects (Mayor, Leader, Hounslow Highways people, bin people, Winston from Hounslow cycling, much lamented former councillor Lynne Green, etc) and a fun time seems to be had by all. I then went down to Bell Square, where the Liberty Unbound – performance by disabled people - event was taking place. Unfortunately I hit the lunch break so didn’t hang around too long and continued on a decent bike ride down by the Thames in the glorious weather – perhaps not too much of that left now. The weather, that is. The Thames will probably last a while, provided Thames Water don’t pinch it all to supply their leaks.

Sunday it’s down to the river in Chiswick for TideFest. Fortunately this scary-looking beast was on the Chiswick side of Kew Bridge. I had a beer and a sarney courtesy of the City Barge and met a few people I knew of but hadn’t met, like Chiswick Calendar publisher Bridget Osborne and Chiswick’s well known photographer Jon Perry. I remarked to Jon that if I was capable of getting up in the morning as early as he is my career might have taken a turn for the better.

Then it was off to Ealing for the Brentford Festival. It seemed even busier than usual and everybody was having a good time. Some of us wished we were eight again so we could roll around without being inebriated.

Talking of early starts, Monday I was at Brilliant station with two of my female admirers. Well, two females. We were reminding people of what a mess Tory ideology makes of our train service and how much we want local trains in London to be run by TfL.

In the afternoon we had a meeting of the cabinet with senior officers. The main discussion was about savings, where we have some excruciating decisions to take. Then from excruciating to crucifixion – a public meeting at Gunnersbury Park with the CIC management and people from the Lovebox festival. It’s fair to say that the audience was not packed with Lovebox fans. Actually it was split three ways, I thought, between those who are implacably opposed to such festivals taking place at all, those who reluctantly accept the necessity but can we PLEASE have it better organised and a small minority who actually welcomed it (but please sort out some issues that arose). [See also Lovebox - The Apology, from Friends of Gunnersbury, Ed]

On Tuesday I put on my bib and tucker and went into the centre for a meeting starting at what I now consider the ungodly hour of 10.30 am. This was an ‘awayday’ for the Lampton360 board and the centrepiece was a presentation from a consultant about the recycling and waste scene across London. It seems that many boroughs are coming up to change and many of them are considering a model similar to that adopted by Lampton. There are great uncertainties in Wasteworld, partly around emerging government policy on things like return deposits and partly around the evolution of demand for recyclable materials, which is notoriously volatile.

Wednesday was a free day with Boston Manor Residents Association in the evening. Always a pleasure to attend this when I can and the pleasure enhanced by a couple of soothing pints afterwards with our newly-elected Labour comrades in Northfields ward followed by a wobbly zoom down our wonderful new cycle lane.

The delights of Thursday can wait until next week’s episode.

Councillor Guy Lambert

September 7, 2018