Action Needed Before We Become a Shanty Town Like Hackney

Brentford West councillor Guy Lambert reports back

Brentford West councillor Guy Lambert

July 17, 2026

I am going to try to make this shorter, partly because I am pressed for time, and because this is always too long!

On Friday we had a convivial meeting of the three Musketeers of the Green Party in my localest pub the Watermans Arms. I had been away and for an entirely different reason Rick Rowe had been out of his home. I am not going to dig through all the entrails of what happened a couple of weeks ago, but the fact that a retired MP has been murdered puts these things into my mind. Katherine Dunne and I were threatened a while ago by a guy who said we should be shot and he volunteered to pull the trigger. We did not take this seriously but people who actually believe in democracy need to just stop making threats, and those who do should be punished.

On Friday I did a ward patrol.

That reminded me I had a 'plan' (without actually much planning!) to find a way to publicise everything that is going on in Brentford. At present we don't have it - just bits here and there. Anyway here's some basic info about our most lovely park. Here's the message from our resident horses' mouths:

Open up the attachment to find out about our packed BMP Summer 2026 programme: ‘Escape’ game challenges, mosaic making, silent disco litter picks, family forest school, night walks and nature talks, Aug holiday clubs, discounted sauna sessions, BMP dog lovers photo exhibition, art and wellbeing activities.. and so much more.

And May upcoming events in BMP

• Mindful guided walk with BMP team for those with dementia and any memory issues: Thurs 21 May 12-1pm, free and drop-in, meet at Walled Garden. All welcome. (Next event in newsletter: 13 August 12-2pm.)
• Celebrating David Attenborough's 100 th birthday this year, we have a range of fabulous events for wildlife lovers, culminating in our half term Nature Festival (Sat 23 May 12-4, with Me-Time Pop Choir performance at 1pm) and a showing of his BBC documentary Wild London (Thurs 28 May 2.30-3.30pm, Hub).
• May half term Art in the Park Holiday Club with Tash for 6 yrs up  art creators  (10-12.30pm Tues, Wed, Thurs. Different natural art activities offered each day- eg. elder jewellery creation, stone painting, mosaic making, BMP tree ‘cookie’ decorating ).
• Final Toddler Woodland Adventure Club, Thursday 21 May, 1.15-2.30pm: Booking via Eventbrite.  Very limited places now.

  See you in the park

Tash and Vanessa

For clarity, neither Tash nor Vanessa are in fact horses, but far more of a pleasure to meet, and converse much more intelligently.

Outside – this .

Reported and I presume now departed.

On the corner of Glenhurst Road near the station. It is hardly a surprise that we end up with frequent fly tipping when the bins look like this on Friday.

I am trying to get a better answer

Disappointment about maintenance in New Road .

In Wales (for example) somebody would plant shrubs that survive a meagre availability of sunshine. In Hounslow we cut the grass on council estate 'gardens' .

On Saturday it was another park, Watermans. They are putting on their little concerts every Sat in July, 4pm to early evening. A number of music acts compered by my friend Edwin Addis. One surprising one was the man who is the subject of Edwin's and Ian's (his real name) book 'The Real Alfie.' A very inspiring book soon to have its second edition.

I didn't know Alfie could sing but he certainly did. Edwin read an excerpt from the book about how Alfie learned to read. He missed school altogether but had a job where his boss told him to write something. Eventually he had to admit he couldn't read and write. Some bosses are better than others: he told Alfie he would teach him, and he had to go in an hour early. The pair of them worked on it for several years and now he can read and write fine (though he said his spelling could be improved!). A really heart-warming story and he now has a book (that I genuinely loved) going into its second edition. I had to set aside my loathing of Amazon ....

Wouldn't it be good if bosses habitually did something similar? When I was a boss I did try to coach people but I did not do anything that remotely stretched as far as Alfie's boss - the kind of person who would actually deserve a British Empire Medal, but would never crave one or even think he deserves one.

Sunday was my surgery at the Digital Dock with Katherine Dunne and Dan Bowring. There was one 'customer', for once a man from my ward. I picked up a couple of pieces of casework now going through the mill.

Afterwards I made my favourite recreational bike ride down to Hammersmith along the River (wherever the burghers of Chiswick allow!) and back past the junk oops I mean antique market in the Chiswick High Road then a brief visit to the Clayponds Fun Day which I always supported when it was in my ward. Good to see it still thriving .

On Monday I had an invite to a Teams meeting apparently about Housing. I had no details but logged in. It emerged I had been invited by accident so I was ejected without comment. I was quite cross about that and made the point to the CEO who was leading it.

In the evening a green party Zoom session encouraging people to support efforts to replace Andy Burnham as the Manchester mayor. In one poll the Green Party is in a close second place behind Lab in first preferences but will get a lot of second preference votes and have a strong chance for Geraldine Coggins to defeat Labour's Bev Craig. Another poll has us in a poor third place behind Reform (but ahead of Conservative of course). In truth, nobody knows, especially as Farage's reputation is in tatters and Reform plunging in the national polls. I doubt I will make the trip there - too much on locally! Other Greens - give it a go. It will be fun.

On Tuesday I met with a friend who needs a bit of advice and support with her small enterprise, which is finding business very challenging. As people who read this will know, I am very keen to support small businesses in Brentford, which are good for all of us who live here. The council really does nothing to support them (despite what they say). Something I hope I can change, but in the meantime I will do my best to fill the hole in support.

On Wednesday, another visit to Lambert Lodge. Sue Sampson had agreed to attend (and she did) and we talked briefly (I couldn't stay long) about the difficulty of keeping the Lodge inhabitable when it is so much hotter than it was designed for. Sue will be looking for solutions, which is great to hear.

After that I attended an online session of the Improvement committee at the LGA. I need to put more into this because I find I'm one of those with nothing to say the ones I abhor in Hounslow! Or step down, which I may, but I think I have something to contribute.

Today I have private business. A Finnish friend who I have known for 50 odd years asked me to serve as her Attorney should she become incapable. She was then worried about her health and her pending knee replacement. I had a call from another friend from back then who lives closer to Satu in Hackney and had just been told she was in a care home. Her only relative is a son who lives in Spain - hence my role. So I am off to Walthamstow or Dalston or some other unexplored (by me) part of NE London. Last time I saw Satu in Hackney I cycled. Today is too hot and I'm too old, so I will take the Mildmay line to Dalston Kingsland. By the way, I think the rather obscure name Mildmay comes from this blighter.

So I made my way to Hackney. We (me included) get upset about our streets in various ways but in Hackney people living on the street have created a kind of shanty town like this, far more distressing than any I have seen in Hounslow. They were worse next to the care home out of the town centre where there was an (otherwise) empty forecourt with a couple kind of sunbathing next to their 'tent'.

Meanwhile empty shops are everywhere, usually with a lot of graffiti and fly-posting like these

Still plenty of Porsches and estate agent BMWs, mind you. There was also a mind-boggling amount of fly tipping. Hounslow is always near the top of the league for flytipping and we always thought that was because we are actually very good at clearing it thanks to the Hounslow Highways contract with onerous terms. Without a doubt, it is far worse in Hackney, but they will be far behind us in the league table.

This chimed in my mind with what I saw a few days ago in Liverpool: the townscape is really horrible in poor areas and much more pleasing in prosperous areas. Compare fairly pristine Chiswick where many people complain (in one case saying he lives in a toilet in his £4M house) whereas people in the poor areas of Hounslow, mainly out West, put up with it and - frankly - the council always left it to be, partly because they were safe Labour areas. We need a real challenge to different standards (informally - they are supposed to be the same) because if we don't address that this place will get more decayed, more discontent and more crime-affected.

See my ‘mini-blog part 2’ on my blog site.

Councillor Guy Lambert