Weekly Update From Councillor Guy Lambert

Finding out the Council of the Year presentation wasn't at the Dorchester

Off I went in the general direction of Park Lane. I reluctantly decided not to attempt cycling there in a dinner jacket and so there I was outside Goddards awaiting an E8. An elderly gentleman was crossing the High Street aided by two walking sticks and caused me a bit of delight by remarking that I was dressed too posh for Brentford. I found my way out of the labyrinth which is Hyde Park Corner subway system and advanced up Park Lane, until I saw a number of gentlemen in monkey suits and gorgeous ladies in evening gowns entering the hotel.

The concierge waved me in and I gave my name to a young woman with a clipboard and commenced to put on a bit of champagne. I was surprised to see nobody I recognised and by the third glass of champers I was WhatsApping to ask people where they were. Sadly there was no connectivity, but presently we were gonged through to dinner and at this point I began to smell a rat.

The dining room looked like this, which I didn’t think was very Local Government Chronicle.

When I looked at the stage, I saw the event was in fact for an outfit called Bridelux at the Dorchester. I can only apologise to the Guy Lambert who was refused entry because their name had already been crossed off the list.

I immediately didn’t bother to make my excuses but simply left, and proceeded a few metres up the road to the Grosvenor House for an event that was a great deal less pink. I was obviously devastated to miss the opening speeches but the grub was OK and there was a little red, white and amber flowing so that sustained me as we went through various award presentations. As the evening unfolded I was delighted to hear that West London Waste Authority had won the small team of the year category and that Hounslow won ‘Highly Commended’ – which is awarded for a close second place – in the Future Places category, but the tension built as we waited for the BIG ONE. And Wow, Wow and thrice Wow, we won it. I am so proud to be a small part of this, but the council officers, all our members and the Hounslow public are all part of this achievement.

Naturally, a few people express cynicism about this but this is a very prestigious award, the best a Local Authority can get, and is independently judged by people from both within and outside local government. Us politicians can take a bit of stick but of course it’s not us who do the hard work and the council officers deserve everybody’s respect. They have done a fantastic job in really difficult circumstances and they deserve plenty of respect and enjoyment.

So that was an evening out, and having taxied home at a late hour I was not in the tip-toppest of shapes to speak at the AGM of the Cleaner Hounslow Reference Group the next morning. Katherine Dunne had an even harder time because she had to speak first, but we both managed, after a fashion. Anyway, the meeting was quite well-attended and lively debate ensued. We have an enormous agenda of cleaner, greener, air quality and climate emergency activities and we really appreciate the excellent engagement we have from residents. We will not achieve our targets without enthusiastic support (and challenge, which is not backward in coming forward!). We are very keen to expand our team of Environmental Champions so if you want to help in any way or need support for what you already do please do sign up.

There are no prescribed activities – it’s up to you what you do, but it will help you contact like-minded people and share ideas.

On Saturday morning I had agreed to do the surgery that The Melvinator normally does at Mission Hall, since Mel had a doctor’s appointment. Unfortunately we’re not back in the surgery routine yet so nobody had unlocked the door. Still, it was a nice day and I was able to do alfresco surgery in Mission Square. There were only a couple of punters and it didn’t matter hugely.

On Sunday, one of our regular meetings of our not-yet-Charity The Good Consumer. We are wrestling with mounds of data at present and fortunately one of our number thinks this is great fun and he’s creating very complicated Excel spreadsheets which the rest of us mugs are trying to populate. I’ll explain more about this once we get nearer to having something usable, but the idea is to help people who care about various ethical commitments to decide where they would prefer to shop – very woke of us I suppose.

In the afternoon I was booked for the Zooterview © panel for Labour candidates for Ealing council, but as it turned out they had overprovided interviewers so I wasn’t needed.

On Monday afternoon I had a meeting in Watermans Park with the landscape architect, council officers and people from the Friends Group. We are about to start important improvement works to the park, which means it will be closed apart from the Thames Path for a few weeks. These have been developed in close consultation with the Friends group and local schools, amongst others, and I think they will really improve this park by the riverside.

This picture is a bit hard to read but unfortunately it’s a long, thin park like its borough. I’m pleased we are finally getting this done, and if we have to close it for a bit, better in the winter.

Then I had the Lampton Health and Safety committee. Not my specialist subject but important they are focusing on it – there are a lot of potential accidents where bin lorries, recycling processing plants, chainsaws and Stanley knives are involved. I was in charge of H&S for a while at Honeywell when I worked there and we used to get alarming things like ’bruised leg on desk drawer when getting up’ for which the remedial action was ‘remember to close drawers before getting up’.

On Tuesday I had an invite to the Duke of London in Catherine Wheel Road. They had a launch event for the new Lotus Emira, apparently the last petrol car Lotus will ever launch. This feels like quite a coup, though they are launching at a lot of different places. There is a story that LOTUS stands for Lots Of Trouble Usually Serious but I’m sure that is no longer true. It looks pretty cool and if I had £70K burning a hole in my pocket, drove more than a few hundred miles a year, and reckoned I could get in and out of it without splitting my trousers I’d be very tempted. Anyway, the event was fun , and they had a Lotus 79 which Mario Andretti drove back when LOTUS also stood for Lots Of Trophies Unparalleled Success.

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Later on I had a meeting with the council leader and chief executive about the developments currently going on or about to start in Brentford. There is a lot of concern about the impact on the town in the short and indeed longer term, some of which I shared. The meeting was reassuring, though there are things I cannot yet share because of current negotiations – more soon I hope.

Then it was the trading companies shareholder board. This is the formal quarterly review of the progress of the companies led by the Chief Financial Officer of the council and which I obviously attend. The companies’ situations are not without risks but there are also some really good opportunities, some which may come to fruition in the next month or two.

In the evening, the next of the series of public Zootings © about progress in Boston Manor Park. There was a presentation from the landscape architect, followed by one from the natural park manager who has recently taken up her position. These meetings have been quite fractious, but this one was more appreciative. The team have improved their communication markedly and having an enthusiastic and qualified park manager has made a big difference, though some are still sceptical about the overall ecological impact.

I was then a fly on the YouTube wall for the Overview and Scrutiny committee as they scrutinised the Medium Term Financial Strategy, which seemed to go well.

On Wednesday we had the Lampton Community Services board (nothing terribly new) then a special Labour group meeting in the evening where we again discussed the Medium Term Financial Strategy. We will do OK financially this year but next year and thereafter we will get increasing pressure from ever-reducing central government support and ever-increasing demand. You will be aware of the National Insurance hikes which supposedly help social care: but from a council perspective they increase our employment costs (most of the cost of social care) by 1.25% , squeeze carers incomes by the same amount (when many are thinking it will be more remunerative to stack shelves) and provide precisely diddly-squat of extra income for councils. Masterful.

Round again to Thursday: I had to go into Hounslow House this morning for some media training. In the afternoon a site meeting about a proposed development on the A4 then a Zooting © about the data we’re collecting for the Good Consumer.

In the evening I have Planning Committee, but I must say this has been a hard week and I feel quite worn out. Not too much tomorrow so I daresay I’ll recover.

Cllr Guy Lambert

November 13, 2021