Personal Blog

I have an ambition to take Fridays off and do something different than sitting at my PC reading other people's problems and creating magisterial responses. Sometimes this works well (like a week or 3 ago when I went exploring in Coulsdon) but it depends whether I have the inspiration. At present, my inspiration tends to be drained by the shenanigans in the council which take far more than my mental and emotional energy than is really healthy. I will get back on track, meanwhi

When I was a tiddler - well tiddlier - Nov 5th was a day where I was taunted. Being called Guy was rare then (I asked my parents to rename me Dave but they refused) so all my super-creative school chums started calling me Guy Fawkes. Usually didn't last long. William Tell was on the TV so I became Lamberger Gessler You can see why... But my story today starts last Friday. I met a local friend in the Potting Shed. A former local journalist, which has of course become a threate

Quickly: I am back officially on the Hounslow website as a Green and group leader. I will say no more as this is all still being discussed. Phew. Back to normal stuff. This will be a short one because I have had a long session in West Middlesex's over-stressed A&E after a minor accident and other events made me busy on Wednesday evening (accident) and all Thursday supporting an old friend who is in a care home in Walthamstow. Late Thursday afternoon I had a walkabout with som

Those who read my witterings each week (some do!) may recall a statement I made a week ago: "The refreshing thing is I can report this without any fear of upsetting a whip or leader (we have neither in Hounslow Greens) which is a bit of a change for me!" It seems I was wrong, hardly a new experience for me. My erstwhile colleague Rick Rowe took exception to me sharing our discussions on this blog about the Green party motion about Zionism. He (without mentioning it to me) has

It has been another week that has been rather quiet in terms of new problems presented to me by residents. It's not obvious why that is but having another councillor in the ward who does stuff is novel for me after 3 years when my 'partner' did next to nothing. I have the usual more long-term activities carrying on. One that has taken some energy this week has been the future of water sports in Brentford. This remains precarious and I have had conversations with the lead coac

Fantastically annoyingly my blog application seems to have deleted all my honeyed text and left me with 2 characters, so I have to start again. Grumpy. Yes. I was away for a couple of weeks and not expecting to be back until late tonight (Thursday 8th) but actually came back earlier. I had injured myself by undertaking a very risky action - picking up a menu I had dropped on the floor. For reasons I can't really explain apart from the fact I am getting old, I had a sharp pain

Youngsters (under about 70) may be puzzled by this subject. Also true of most of those over 70 but this was a genuine headline in my local paper (remember them) in the 1960s. This was around the time I and my pals began under-age drinking c1969 and this appeared in my local rag, avidly consumed by my parents and family every week, the Heswall and Neston News and Advertiser (now RIP). A friend of ours who was a couple of years older had a job there as an ace local reporter and

This will be the last of these for a while, because next Wednesday I will be embarking at Dover (if white blokes in black uniforms allow) for a holiday which involves me driving to the heel of Italy, spending a week there, and returning on Thursday 8th October. Those who have been round for a bit will remember 4 years ago I planned a visit to the same place but ended up passing 3 weeks in hospitals. I hope this trip avoids such pitfalls! I will likely be blogging my travelogu

Turns out it has been quite a busy week. Starting with the repeated delights of planning. I sometimes worry why I fought to get myself on the Planning Committee (thank you to Liberal Democrat Roger Crouch who agreed a swap) because the meetings are often acrimonious and lengthy, and I am usually in a minority. sometimes the lonely one opposer! This time I was in good company on the matter of Gunnersbury Park. For the record, I don't think commercial events are the golden solu

This is a separate Brentford publication which I plan to develop in a way to keep track of matters that take months or years to progress. I also would like this to become interactive. I'm not sure how to do that in this web tool soin the meantime I welcome any feedback, ideas, potential additions etc. You can email guy.lambert@ hounslow.gov.uk Or you can leave a comment on the blog itself. Watermans replacement BW A priority for our town but nobody quite believes it is going

These days I am making a new habit of actually walking (!) around Brentford from time to time rather than usually cycling. This is good and bad, because on old geyser like me makes slow progress. I still cannot enter the paradise known as Brentford Dock, because the public footway is still locked out, hopefully for not much longer thanks to the determination of my Green colleagues and the Brentford Walks initiative. The good bit is that I keep meeting people: one of the benef

I have seen this film led by Chris Packham (and including quite a few people you will recognise) twice already. If you haven't it really is a must see and the first time it has been published online as far as I know. I learnt a lot about climate change and what is in store of us (for certain) and what will be in store if we don't change our ways in an uncomfortable way. WATCH IT You can join me at the Watermans Arms at 7.30 for a convivial drink and excellent food and mull ov

I've decided daft notices need a daft man to start a daft blog on this subject. I saw two in one day this week. This one is in Brentford a few yards from my home. There is a dedicated Right turn lane on the main carriageway just after the cut through through the park ends. Do they really think cyclists will get off the cycle lane, proceed on the quite narrow pavement which all of a sudden is dual use, and turn right from the ledt hand pavement? Perhaps one confused newcomer o

Well now, the bus shelter debate has broken out!. I did a bit of informal research and came to the conclusion that if you are heading to Ealing nearly every bus stop has a handsome shelter (with seat) but if you're heading for Brentford you need to bring your umbrella and a folding seat. All I can say is Well, following a bit of kerfuffle in social media I'm delighted to see Salman Shaheen has picked up the baton and demanded action. I have of course offered my two balcony ch

This has been a quiet week - perhaps everybody is on holiday!. OK I started with an evening meeting on the thorny problem of Holly House. I attended a session at our friendly local University in a room I am becoming very familiar with - perhaps I can claim some qualification? There were two representatives from the builder Niblock, 3 (I think) from the council housing team, 4 tenants and one councillor. Usually there are more residents but the usual very active leaseholders a

It is a nightmare to find planning documents but out of the 200 documents for Charlton House redevelopment I have found documents that show the general layout, and the commercial - probably shop - spaces on the ground floor. They add up to 1059 metres square which is quite a lot! Site Block A Block B Block C Block D So good provision for shops. Whether the council will ever let them is another matter!

A week ago I said "Planning meeting which is likely to be long, bitterly contested, and no fun. And I was eager to get back on planning. Am I a masochist? Answers on a postcard." No postcards received (Royal Mail ain't wot it used to be) but perhaps I should apply for the post of Oracle (not the software oligopoly, but I've just been hearing something about the real oracle at Delphi - not the global aftermarket car parts leader, either. I need to stop this before I disappear

Quite bizarrely I got myself very confused with my diary last Thursday. Cabinet member Sue Sampson had organised a Teams meeting about a matter that has been infuriating me for more than 4 years - the parking situation related to Orchard, York and other roads in the area which came impossibly tight when the small car park was closed in favour of new council houses on Windmill Road. We were promised action to improve this involving some existing little-used garages 3 1/2 years

On Friday I spent some time at Holly House, that small council block that has been so severely blighted ever since it appeared in my ward. It came after the boundary changes and I don't blame its blight on me becoming the relevant ward councillor, but as so often in the councilloring trade my inability to fix things in less than a century is frustrating. I'd love to share my wonderful photos but Google photos seems to have indigestion and gets stuck on downloading photos. I i

My comments about Hackney last week were rather misinterpreted. I don't think we have anything like the same problems with rough sleeping that are apparent in Hackney. We do obviously have some rough sleepers but they are tucked away out of the public eye. I hate that they find they have to live that way and will always do what I can to alleviate that, but the motivation for living rough is often complex and some cannot be encouraged towards a 'normal' life whatever the counc