My Personal Festival of Imagination on Planning in the Borough

Brentford West councillor Guy Lambert reports back

Brentford West councillor Guy Lambert

April 3, 2026

As promised, I attended the council's Festival of Imagination. There was a lot of stimulating input from people associated with Hounslow Arts Centre.

A little bit about the Arts Centre: it has or uses a place within the largely defunct Treaty Centre once (and perhaps still) known as the Paul Robeson Theatre. I have been there a few times over the years. most recently for the panto there. On that occasion I made the mistake of driving and ended up with a parking ticket for parking in the deserted car park there having failed to master the payment machine. The people behind the Arts Centre are truly outstanding, but the facility is utterly inadequate. The centre closes at 6pm so you can only enter after then via the car park and you can only exit via the fire exit.

This time I cycled, managed to get in at 5.59 so could go up on the escalator. Many council officers I knew were there plus a lot of people from the Arts Centre and I suppose a few members of the public. Councillors were notable for their absence though perhaps the always friendly Rasheed Bhatti was there. The Great Leader Shantanu was there, read out a speech that somebody (him? an assistant? AI?) had written, had his photo taken and then made his excuses and left.

Well, after that it was a stimulating evening. I made some notes to myself. The next bit relates to one of about 10 of them. I may come to annoy you with the others in another effort!

Should we have imagination in our planning? Of course we should, but that is challenging when our planning of a development relies on encouraging commercial developers to buy sites and present their proposals. Our planners then look at them, and assess what has been proposed. It usually is short on imagination and big on prospects for profit. Based on what developers propose, planners must decide if there is anything that they can object to that will survive the potential for developers to appeal any restrictions they don't like and assess whether the council has the courage to follow through if they think the proposal is inadequate.

As it happens there has been a proposal to redevelop the very Treaty Centre where I was attending this shindig. It was largely closed a few years ago when Debenhams demised and there was a proposal for redevelopment which Shantanu and Tom Bruce don't like (nor do I) so they have a nice little film encouraging residents to Have their Say.

The application (as they do) has 247 documents poorly described and often pretty unintelligible for those who are not planning geeks. Tom encourages us to comment by clicking 'Comment on this application'. Although I have asserted I am really human (debatable of course) perhaps because of this or because the application has now been withdrawn, if there is anywhere to click I can't find it.

The bottom line is that the Treaty Centre will remain semi-derelict for another few years, and then very probably be replaced by a developer's view of what is a splendid (and profitable) new town centre for Hounslow. I know we are still in a challenging time for development, but Brentford is a lesson. I am happy with most of what Ballymore have built in the riverside (as are most people I talk to as opposed to those who comment on social media) part of the town centre, but the planning permission had already been approved before I was first elected 11 years ago, and it still is a very long way from being completed and there are no developed plans for sizeable chunks of the town to actually be rebuilt. And in Brentford we have the police station (derelict for at least 15 years), the Watermans site (saved from complete dereliction by the imaginative people who rent what used to be Max Factor offices). Of course the former Watermans centre, without a tenant, is in the hands of the council and entirely derelict. The new entry in the charts is what used to be Charlton House and the Albany Parade. All but two of the former retailers there have been chased away meanwhile there is new dereliction - 10 of the council-owned shops in the new building still empty and only one with any realistic prospect of being occupied.

Not much imagination in any of that. though a few local entrepreneurs keep a flame flickering on. But it is really not good enough.

The Arts Centre are doing rather wonderful things in Brentford as well as Hounslow. In addition to running the Potting Shed (a big success) and now also the Manor House cafe (same people but a different company) which are both good. Unfortunately, the Manor House can't offer a full menu because the boiler has been out for at least 3 weeks.

More excitingly, they run the Walled Garden Summer Season. I already have my tickets for Simon and Garfunkel but lots of great stuff on and last year’s shows were marvellous.

On top of that we have a brand-new Farmers Market already booked in and starting THIS SATURDAY!

I hear that an art market is next on their list.

Other great news - no thanks to the council - is the return of the Brentford Community Boat House charity (no House yet available) to Ferry Quays. It was such a joy to see Paul and Miranda Keane back on site this week. They are making a quiet start after the trauma they experienced with the arrival of the Brentford Boat Club - now debunked to Chiswick, apparently supported by the council - to join all the private boat clubs in Dukes Meadow. I remain of the opinion that the £2.5M the council has allocated to building yet another boat house for private clubs on council land in Chiswick, should be redirected to Brentford where there are zero current facilities, thousands of people who live near the river, the ideal site on the whole Thames (I'm told) for rowing for learners in particular, and enthusiastic support from local schools. Some local well-wishers have supported this, as has the commercial landlord and steps are in train to turn this into a much stronger and capable charity. Time will tell how this plays out but we really must support development of boating charity in our river and canal side town.

Last week there was a lot of upset in the area near the Ealing Road/Great West Road junction by terrible noise all night. This was caused by trenches being dug to provide more electric capacity to support the new development expected in Griffin Park. Somebody had insisted this be done at night so preventing half the people in Layton Road, Baltic Avenue and the flat blocks on the corners getting a night's sleep. There is a new manager at Hounslow Highways who I met on Friday. He told me that the work done so far had to be redone because of poor workmanship (probably couldn't see in the dark) but hereafter all during the day. Having said that, these works go across the roundabout which is TfL territory and they insist on working all night, so the horrors are not all over. Also, they will be closing Ealing Road at the junction which will cause a lot of traffic disruption including cars being diverted, probably along Layton Road. No fun at all and I hope at least it is done swiftly. Incidentally, somebody asked me what was going on at Griffin Park. The developer told me they were still awaiting approval of the Section 106 conditions. I wrote to the planners as follows:

This long- awaited development was approved unanimously by the Planning Committee on 4 September last year, 7 months ago. The site held its last match in August 2020 so this important site in the heart of Brentford has been derelict for 5 ½ years. How can we get the discussions about S106 to conclusion and see the blight which dogs Brentford begin to progress?

By the way, they already laid cables along half of New Road a few weeks ago. that happened before this new manager joined so I have no idea if the workmanship was up to scratch. Whatever, New Road is now I think the very worst in Brentford and has been for a long time. I will be campaigning for this to be resurfaced (if I'm still here after May 7th, as a councillor!)

On Saturday we were out with some young Greens from around London, canvassing in Riverbank Way and up Boston Manor Road and Boston Gardens. I remember Riverside Way starting when I looked down on that site from Honeywell House, now GW House. It used to be a big Fiat dealer then, but a business park was developed in the manner very trendy in the 1980s/90s. More recently, someone found it was more profitable to turn it into residences in the recent way where developers can do what they like with no reference to the council. So now it is a development of flats. It is rather a pleasant location and most who we talked to were quite happy. I did spot a hideous bit of damp in one of the stairwells which does not augur well but is not too near to residences (yet anyway!)

I thought we might have less enthusiasm for our message up BMR where the houses are more semis and detached houses unlike much of Brentford. But as ever, I didn't meet a single Reform supporter (though no doubt there will be some 'shy Reformers') and only one who identified himself as a Conservative. Just as local politics should be, we had a friendly discussion, ending with the resident putting out a hand for a handshake. I love Brentford, where 99% of us are courteous (except the keyboard warriors of course!)

On Tuesday I met with two of the directors of Manor Vale. This is an unusual development where some of the leaseholders have also become freehold owners whilst many of the leaseholders have not. There are some big bills for repairs to the fabric of the buildings and this is leading to some suspicion between the freeholders and leaseholders. It is quite complicated and I think there is room for better communication to ease this. In the end this is a freeholder/leaseholder commercial matter that I am in no position to really adjudicate, but the councillor's role is to try and spread a bit of mutual respect and straight communication. I will do what I can.

In the evening, an online meeting about The Bridge - the new name for Junction 2. Actually it is a slightly different event with different shows on different days.

That picture shows the timetable. It is probably less of an issue than the timetable suggests because the footprint of the events (and the number of tickets available) is a lot smaller. As the map shows there is much less in the 'meadow' areas and around the cafe, play park etc. The access lane to the meadow, which was long and narrow last year is much shorter and wider this year. Local people would rather this didn't happen at all, but it is of interest to a lot of people and up to around 30,000 people may attend over the 6 days, plus there is some income to the council to help parks to be maintained and developed.

If you want to be one of the 30,000, details are here . There will also be a thing called Elevate which gives young people the opportunity to 'shadow' during the event. Also, some free tickets for locals (a ballot during May) etc. see this slide and will be on their website soon at www.|we.events/the-bridge-community. I believe they will go up on the website shortly so don't be shy to apply or nominate local charities you'd like to have the benefit.

The councillor's duty here is to make sure the authorities (council, organisers, police) do all they should. They have their own idea (and they are the professionals) but residents - and sometimes councillors - see things from a slightly different angle, and it's important that is respected.

During the week I firkled around the ward, as I do raised various flytips etc for attention, plus took a look at this light in new Road. For a long time it didn't work. I'm not sure whether this is a new light or a repair of the old one but apparently it is far too bright. It is on a little council area and for reasons known only to housing they have installed a light which is different to the ones provided by Hounslow Highways, most council estates and every street in the borough. The Hounslow Highways ones can be controlled from their centre and they can adjust the timings, brightness etc remotely. There is one of these on the street less than 20M away so you might think it would have been a plan to use one of these. But they didn't and the one that is there is not adjustable and there is only one type of bulb (if that is the right word!). The housing people do have a cunning plan though - they can take the bulb out. To be fair, Hounslow Highways have had a problem recently where their control isn't working so as I noticed a lot of them were on all day .

There is a repeating problem with flytipping on the corner of Glenhurst Road near the station. At the weekend it was a mattress and various other bits and pieces.

Yesterday it was an ironing board, a chair and a wood panel. Today the ironing board was gone (but not its cover) as had the chair, but not the panel. We have enforcement on the case and we all think it is related to the nearby House in Multiple Occupation but nobody can prove it.

Today, Thursday, I was in the alley between BMR and the allotments in Blondin Park. I was with a Ranger from Ealing Council where we were looking at the invading force of vines that come over the alley and try to conquer the fences and garden sheds in BMR. Some effective cutting back has been done by the Ranger (thank you kindly) but the job is not complete and we also need to deal with 100 years of dead vegetation, tipping, etc. After the election (if I'm still at it) I will try to raise a posse to take their machetes and spades up there and make a long term solution.

Tonight I am with a couple of local heroes back on my permanent initiative to find an effective way to represent small businesses in Brentford. Meanwhile I keep banging on about empty shops. The very dozy estate agent sometimes has some of our empty shops on their website, sometimes not. Today they have I think 6 of them (I still believe there are 9 council owned shops without prospects for tenancy). Potential charity shop (which would provide an important service both to residents and to the centre generally by building shop traffic) visited a while ago and was told by the estate agent that it is available (still is on their website saying 'available'). The lead member at the council claims it's under offer, and they should look at other empty properties the council has in Brentford. It doesn't have any as far as I know and enquiries draw a blank. You would be forgiven for thinking the council and its political leadership is determined to undermine Brentford as a place where people can shop.

Enough, actually more than enough. See you all next week.

Councillor Guy Lambert