Revolving Door at Council to Blame for Charlton House Debacle

Brentford West councillor Guy Lambert reports back

Brentford West councillor Guy Lambert

May 8, 2025

As promised, I was off to the Museum of Water and Steam. There were plenty of members there and a brief speech from the artist and the officials from the Museum Trust. Lots of (mainly) pictures and some other art stuff and visiting the museum is always a pleasure. The art is well worth seeing.

Good to see a bicycle honoured in the museum too though I don't see a steam engine and I'm not sure it would be a comfortable ride.

Now I was into Late May Bank Holiday and a visit to Donington Park for a session with my predilection - old bangers. I love the atmosphere in Donington and it is a lovely bit of countryside. Baked with sun on Friday but back to normal with cold winds and a bit of British Drizzle on Saturday and Sunday. I hook up with my best friend from school when we were both about 14. He is a distinguished motor racing photographer and gets access to the shelf over the pits.

Nice to see a car born in Isleworth (Fraser-Nash)

And 2 born in Feltham/Hanworth (Aston Martins)

I was hoping someone young, beautiful and naked would burst out from that bag, but I was disappointed.

Anyway there was a flock of Lotus Cortinas chased by a cheeky Mini to console me.

I stayed at a rather wonderfully-set hotel called the Priest House which is built where t'mill was as you can see. Next to the River Trent. Good to see civilisation has spread to Derbyshire in the shape of an achingly beautiful and modern traffic cone.

Back in London, I was trying to find out about weird and upsetting noises in the middle of the night which had been disturbing people in New Road, Hamilton Road and Layton Road. Chainsaws or something of that sort being taken out for walkies at 2am. People thought it was a deranged neighbour doing some night gardening. I checked with Hounslow Highways if they were aware of anything (they weren't) and I could see nothing very convincing from the affected roads, though someone sent me a picture of a tree that had been attacked, but probably not in the middle of the night!

All I could find on the A4 was some traditional rituals which are carried out everywhere by our friends Cadent but they do not do this in the middle of the night. Well, they rarely do anything during the day either and my guess is these excavations will remain for many weeks, but perhaps I'm getting cynical in my old age.

My latest theory it was probably down to our other chums Network Rail or whoever is 'maintaining' the Hounslow Loop railway to mess it up, sorry I mean make it pristine, before it passes to Great British Railways shortly so we can reconquer the empire. Oh no, I am confusing UK with the USA and USSR. Don't call it that, please. It is the Russian Federation and its planned new empire. And of course MAEBAABA (Make America Even Bigger And A Bully Again). Well, we're being nice to them and hoping they will give us some sweets.

Gosh my life is rather peaceful at present. I have a few open sores, like the alley between Boston Manor Road and the allotments in Blondin Park who are trying to Make Ealing Greater Again by taking the alley over by using Virginia Creepers. They are trying to creep up on our residents but we'll fight them on the beaches, in the fields, on the hills and in the streets, or anyway in the alley and the meetings of the Boston Manor Residents Association. This one has run as long as the dispute about the Chagos islands.

Then of course there is Holly House, the beleaguered council block near the station, which has been clothed in scaffolding for several years, provided by a contractor that has now gone bust. The housing people are trying to sort out a solution. They tell us: "In the meantime, we’ve spoken informally with the companies who worked with the original contractors on this project, and the conversations have been positive. While we can’t make any formal arrangements with them until the contract with TBG is fully ended, we’ve already agreed with the scaffolding company that they will carry out weekly safety checks to make sure everything remains secure. 

“We understand you’ve raised concerns about the door entry system, drainage, and the cleanliness and safety of the scaffolding. We’re working with our Repairs Team to assess what needs to be done."

All professional but as ever I'm concerned that the wheels of the council rotate too slowly and this will be something I will be pushing forward as fast as I can, as will Sue Sampson the Cabinet member.

Back at my headquarters Flat a Lago there is commotion. Horns blaring and I look out on a narrow boat traffic jam at the confluence of Brent and Thames. This exceptionally long one went out into the big river and turned around, which is tricky when you're as long as this one, and I decided he was in the Thames because there was no room to turn it around on the Brent or canal. So much excitement, I was palpitating.

On Tuesday evening I went up to Lionel Road South, where I have been following progress since before the first sod (I am talking about the ground, not a human) was disturbed on the construction of what is now the Vacuum Cleaner Stadium. I took a picture of The Melvinator on that occasion but I can't put my finger on it, but this shows at least the outfit which was used on the day. The Melvinator is the one on the left (in all respects)

Well, this meeting was about the 'Duffy Site' which I have been carping about for a decade. When the stadium was built there was no affordable accommodation but that would be provided if the sums add up on the Duffy site. Mysteriously the Duffy site was delayed and guess what, there is not much money left. So on Tuesday I was there to look at what the plans are now. Apparently they had applied a while ago and now the planners have persuaded them to provide a few more affordable homes. There will now be 58 out of a total of nearly 300 which is better than a slap in the face with a wet fish though not as good as a dinner dance at the Ritz.

They told me this would be put on their website by now, but if they have done that Ecoworld have effectively hidden it from me. Fortunately, I took the trouble to make pictures of their display. At the time I visited I was the only person there not from the developers and their chums so this is obviously causing a huge excitement in Brentford East.

Another thing that seems to be duffed up is the redevelopment of Charlton House, Albany Parade etc. It seems the council is now busy appointing learned consultants: "the council's independent cost consultant recommended a number of options to progress the scheme. The recommended option is to appoint a multi-disciplinary design team to redesign the scheme... in order to secure a design that is affordable within the HRA's budget"

This brings on a bit of nostalgia for the days when I was overlooking Lampton companies. We had a major scheme in Feltham known as the New Road Triangle and in the early days this got into similar cost troubles. In those days, Lampton took it on themselves to change from 'prestigious' constructors to others which would respect the budget we had for the council (and some Lampton owned) homes. This was successful, and all the interim reports came in saying we were achieving build under the budget, eventually leading to me attending a 'topping out' event when the construction was finished (in those days my arm was in a sling!) I am now less fat, more hairy, and older.

Why the council try to do this themselves rather than "having a dog and barking themselves" is a mystery to me but this fiasco has exacerbated the appalling story of the rehousing of residents (eventually resolved) and businesses (not yet, and in some cases never will be).

I'm afraid that this disaster for Brentford must owe something to the loss of a leader, CEO, Finance Director, Environment Director and at least 2 Housing Directors and other very competent people in 3 years. I can't bear the thought of having Charlton joining the catalogue of failed or severely delayed developments in the heart of our town.

Councillor Guy Lambert