Deprived of the Chance to Take on Admiral Nelson's Bananas

Brentford West councillor Guy Lambert reports back

Brentford West councillor Guy Lambert

July 4, 2025

On Friday I took the air around the place, which I think is owned by the council and is called Dukes Meadows. I am frustrated by it, because whilst it is supposed to be a haven for nature and leisure, far too much of it seems to me to have been dedicated to commercial interests, who I believe attract a very modest rent indeed.

Large chunks of the area are now usually empty car parks and I think that is a sad indictment of the way the council manages valuable assets (am I sounding like a broken record?)

A few years ago we spent some money regularising parking. A lot of the grass verges now have nylon (?) grids embedded in the grass to prevent rutting and little notices saying you have to pay at weekends. As soon as they went in one notice was removed by a vandal and most of the remaining ones are buckled where someone tried to pull them off. Never repaired, obviously.

Very little is actually parked there and when it is people prefer to park on the unprotected parts to avoid any risk of a charge, so they are still very rutted. There are also two tarmacked areas which are supposed to be for 'bus turning'. Great idea but in at least 100 times I have passed there I have never seen a bus turning. Occasionally there is a bus parked there like last Friday.

I think there was an event going on at Kings House school which has an enormous site and a large car park, but on this occasion there were hundreds of cars parked on playing fields as well as these two lost souls from Wiltshire.

On Saturday morning I had my personal surgery. I mean the surgery I have alone ha ha. No scalpels. 2 residents (well 3, but one was a husband of the enquirer) turned up. One wanted support in filling out the 11 page document she had to complete to apply for a Blue Badge - very challenging for people who are not used to complex paperwork. I helped as best as I could but she needs documents from doctors etc. I am slightly sceptical about Blue Badges: not that many people genuinely need them, but that a lot of people seem to get them with dubious need seem to get them anyway. Also, I know a lot of them get stolen and I still have not had a response from the council about whether CEOs (aka traffic wardens) have the information to recognise a dodgy one. After all, a dodgy one is not just fraud but also makes the user an accessory as far as I can see to a more serious crime- smashing car windows and nicking BBs. I also don't know where we are at making BBs electronic, which was promised at least 2 years ago.

The second person was an intruder from another ward - Syon and Brentford Lock ie she lives in Brentford rather than Brentford West which as readers may know is an area East of Brentford but not as far East as Brentford East. It was a good question: she is a leaseholder on a flat above the shops on the North of the High Street and she has seen smoke signals that the council is planning to redevelop. I have seen these signals too, but I can't interpret such smoke signals even though I am very interested what the plans are, if any. I passed this on to the ward councillors and also raised a member's enquiry so it will be interesting to see the answer.

After this it was t'regatta. I wanted to go anyway because a) it's a few steps from where I live b) I want to support Brentford Boat Club as best I can, c) I had been asked to be prepared to be a sub on the boat that councillors had agreed to enter in the pub tussle and d) I was sure it would be fun.

It was.

We had the scaries from Anima

The Black Dogs who had been training in the Watermans Arms (not sure Arne Slot would be impressed)

The Vikings from The Watermans Arm, looking to pillage

Bananas from Admiral Nelson (good for scurvy I suppose)

And the Kings Batmen (etc) from the Kings Arms.

There was a no show: some of the councillors had apologised and they didn't turn up. Nor did anyone else. Even if I didn't have an arthritic shoulder I would not back myself to win alone against these elite athletes from the pubs.

I never wanted to be expelled from the Labour Party but there are weeks when I wonder,

Later on I went to the building I always think of as Fuji Film but is now more Sega and Worley. This is oddly called 27 GWR and with the unique logic of LBH is next door to 1053 GWR. At least they are both odd numbers so I should be thankful for small mercies.

This was another session about the future of GWR. As usual I was the only councillor who could find the time/interest but there was a good sprinkling of local people who care about Brentford and the GWR. After the latest fiasco about the supports for the M4 and the man from the contractors suggesting he agreed trying to keep them safe would end up being inadequate, I am promoting a long-term idea to put it underground. There was an idea to do this with the A4 in Hammersmith that never went anywhere, but more recently there was a 'plan' from the Department for Transport to put it underground between Junction 3 (Southall/Cranford) and Junction 2 (the ramps in Brentford). This plan was a classic DfT proposal because 4 lanes of the M4 would emerge, presumably in Carville Hall Park and then all 4 lanes go up the single lane ramp up to the Chiswick flyover. They didn't see this as a problem because apparently it becomes TfL's problem after J2. Genius.

One day they will I presume have to replace the flyover because it will eventually become unsafe, especially as heavy electric cars cross it. Some other genius from Ealing who pontificates on social media says it is impossible. It certainly is possible, and probably inevitable at some point, so let’s get it done soon and save Brentford! Enough already. There were various people from around and about including people who had come to live in Chiswick from Western Europe quite recently, who are puzzled by the way UK does public realm.

One of the things I have been wondering about and talking to Salman Shaheen about is the jungly area between Great West Quarter and the railway. It's really hard to see and it is a weird shape but it is about 300M long and up to about 15M wide and it’s not much use to anybody. Several years ago, I chatted with the then head of parks but we never moved it on. This week a friend of mine linked this to the Gunnersbury Triangle, I remember a great deal of talk about this when I lived in Chiswick. It is a kind of lost world, surrounded by 3 railways so hard - but possible - to access.

This little wedge is geographically in Ealing Borough, owned by Hounslow and administered by the London Wildlife Trust. It was introduced to Lampton 360 several years ago and asked to develop a visitors’ centre, financed by half a dozen flats above it. Lampton spent a long time trying to get this to work, but it has lots of complexities including a lot of utilities related to the 3 railways under the ground. Before I was pushed out of engagement with Lampton they had agreed with the council and the Wildlife Trust that the latter would take it over and develop from their own funds or charity appeals. I was a bit ashamed to realise that I had known about this place for perhaps 30 years but never visited. So, on Sunday I decided to put that right. Nothing has been done about a visitors’ centre but it is nevertheless a fascinating place to visit.

If you didn't know you would have no sense that you are blocked in by railways, flat blocks and a business park, and I found my visit lovely. Very few people there and lots of different features - try it!. The entrance is just by Chiswick Park station and very handy for Sainsbury's.

Well, we have nothing like this in Brentford but if we could get the area between GWQ and the railway sorted we might have a reasonable if smaller imitation!

Not a lot of people even know it's there, and it is pretty well impossible to access at present, and maybe this is a pipe dream. I thought it would make some kind of adventure play place for children... or something. Probably owned by Barratts just to make things easier. Probably not. This picture is from the pedestrian bridge from Clayponds Lane, with Carville Park behind. Anyone interested?

That was quite a weekend and on Monday I decided to spend a bit of time on one of my hobbies - dreaming about jalopies. I found a 'classic' car auction near Woking. A few of the beasts are interesting and cheap so I went and had a look. The one that caught my attention was this.

Actually it is not this one. This one lives in Chiswick in a road I frequently cycle along and which I've always found appealing. The one in the auction is the same model in a colour I like less, but I love its quirkiness. I knocked on the door where it's usually parked and chatted to the owner. He told me he had had this lightly restored by a man in an arch near Ravenscourt Park station so I went and had a look. Blow me down, trying to find this garage I went past another of these. There have never been more than 400 of these in the UK and there are only about 120 of them left on the roads. I have no idea why, but I am going to go to the auction tomorrow and it is not impossible I will buy one if it's as cheap as I think it might be. What I will do with it is another matter, especially as I rarely drive my one car, so why would I want another? Whimsy.

On Tuesday morning I went up to Brook Lane North, where it meets the A4. Two people have contacted me about problems on that road. One is about people parking on corners which cause danger in this narrow and busy road. I have some ideas to improve that if I can persuade the parking supremos. The other is an accident which happened a couple of days ago. A man was riding his bike along the cycle lane on the A4 when he was hit hard by a car turning off the A4 fast, hitting him, throwing him in the air causing significant injury (not sure how serious) and then continued his journey without worrying about whether the cyclist had survived. One of the people who were alerting me had a video from a local doorway camera (I think). You hear a bang and a couple of seconds later a car goes past the camera, fast. I am trying to get this film and share it with the police and the enforcement people at the council. Horrible for me, worse for the people who actually saw it, worst for the victim of what to me is straightforward - a crime.

After that a haircut. My hairdresser is still lodging at a place in Isleworth but she us starting fitting out her shop in the new council block in Brentford High Street. Hopes she can move in this month. I know nothing about the other potential tenants. I have seen the supermarket fitting out a while ago, but they seem to have stopped, perhaps connected to the small street outside having been dug up. Last I heard of the lady with a gallery is she is still waiting for the council lawyers - a well-known syndrome. Don't panic, us taxpayers have only lost between 6 and 12 months of rent and Business rates and seen the High Street bereft of life. Everything is working wonderfully and one day perhaps they will spill the beans about who the 11 tenants are or I suppose they will eventually turn up in person if they haven’t by now given up. I hope all the other businesses will not have given up because the High Street is so dead and no passing trade.

I have been in the pub a couple of evenings this week talking to a local journalist about what is going on in Hounslow - mainly Brentford and Chiswick - and another ex-Labour councillor who is now a Green.

Today I met a physio at my doctor's place - in the new health centre in Chiswick. I have had the same doctor practice since before my daughter was born - about 40 years altogether - and it's great to finally some investment in the NHS local services. I've had a lot of advice about my dodgy knees which is very helpful and avoids messing about with hospitals. Ans Keir Starmer only announced that this morning.

That'll do. Auction tomorrow. I hope it all gets too expensive and saves me being an idiot.

You won't get a normal blog next week because if all goes to plan on Thursday I'll be in Sweden. I am hoping to give a bit of a travelogue: over the next fortnight I'm hoping to drive through UK, France, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Belgium, France and the UK. You thought I was a bit odd already. Now I am sure you are convinced I have completely lost it.

Councillor Guy Lambert