Blog 518 25th February 2026

I forgot to mention the Cycling meeting that was due on Thursday evening. It was a damp squib for me because they had to move the meeting from the upstairs room at the Express tavern because the Cycling people had been gazumped (remember when that was all the rage) by what looked like a birthday party. Cyclists were relocated to the bar downstairs which meant I couldn't hear anything because of the background noise. This has become a real handicap for me 😥 in pubs etc at busy times.

LGA meeting on line on Friday was rather dull, and mainly about support for councils which now do have to hold an election following recent U turn. They will manage (councils always do) but for some it will be messy. It is quite a big change for those who use or deliver services. It will be costly also.

On Saturday I did one of my random explorations and decided it was time to explore Shoreditch, which is said to be nearly as trendy as me. I was going to cycle to Hammersmith and catch a tube but I cycled on and was rather pleased to cycle the whole way. On the way I went through Finsbury Square, where I once worked as a temp Accountant to a posh solicitor firm. This was in my hippieish era and I was sacked because the senior partner saw me coming in one morning and instructed my boss to (very reluctantly) sack me because I looked too "windswept". I declined to have my hair cut, shave off my beard and improve my dress standards so we parted ways. The pic was after the beard went!

Ah, youth. I then reached Shoreditch and as I had no guide or real research my initial thought was that it was not very different to Acton but I followed my nose and soon found myself at Spitalfields.

Elephants were roaming the streets and I espied a very large gherkin but none of these were threatening.

Absolutely buzzing inside with hundreds of stalls selling all sorts of stuff and many food outlets. Eventually I opted for a sandwich place called Crunch where they sold a very eccentric version of a hamburger - nice food but I was taken with the young men who were serving in a tiny space. All very smiley and welcoming. I asked them from where they came and the response was Thailand.

On Sunday morning I was back in God's Brentford. A woman from Wiltshire had sent me lovely letter during the week. She was brought up in Robin Grove and said she had been following my blogs for some time and enjoyed hearing about her old alma mater. She would like to see a picture update, especially about the new bridge, so I decided to wander along the canal beyond The Ham and make an approach to Robin from the blind side.

Was pleased to see the pictures on Brentford Bridge had been restored - thank you Dan Bowring, Janet McNamara, Octink and Hounslow Highways. Took a while but a result in the end.

I took many pictures on this trip but the ones I sent to Wiltshire were stolen by a magpie called Microsoft on the way so I need to find another way to send them and will interview some pigeons this weekend, so here's a taster from the new bridge showing the improved park and new trees at the end of the Grove

Having spent a while in the uncharted regions known as the Syon and Brentford Lock Ward, I was relieved to return to the civilised part of Brentford - Brentford West - via the footbridge in Church Walk. Even in civilisation I found flytipping and potholes in the Walk, which gave FixMyStreet a busy morning and it got a lot worse when I crossed to Glenhurst Road.

Ugh. This unholy mess results from inadequate waste management at the flats on the corner by the station, which have been a bane for some time. I chatted to a couple of locals, who are rightly very unhappy about this. I reported this, as did a neighbour, and I was delighted to hear from a council Enforcement Officer "I can confirm that a Community Protection Warning has been issued to the landowners in relation to the waste issues at this location". We'll be looking like eagles, in my case an eagle with cataracts developing slowly, to ensure this problem is solved.

In the afternoon, door knocking in New Road, Ealing Road etc and colleagues covered York and Layton Roads. Inevitably bits of casework emerge which I confess I have not yet got to progressing 😱

On Monday I had accepted an invitation from the University of Reading to attend a session about 'Inclusive Politics' at Portcullis House where MPs lurk, emerging like trolls from the subway that connects them to Parliament. Entering Portcullis makes Airport security look amateurish (rightly so) but eventually I made it to the Attlee Suite where the meeting was held. I hadn't realised who was behind this, but it was a special joy for me, because my much-missed ward partner Lara was the organiser. Seeing her made my week - a really warm and very talented woman and a treasured friend for me, and now a Green which is a bonus!

She says she will try to come to Brentford for one of our door knocking sessions and spread a bit of sunshine as she does wherever she goes.

The main learning for me - not really a surprise, but telling - was this

Sorry the picture is a bit wonky, but the message is really powerful. And don't let anyone tell you that people over 60 have the experience that young ones lack. Obviously this doesn't apply to me 😁 but older people tend to be set in their ways and resistant to new ideas. Now, where's my Horlicks?

On Tuesday a meeting with a colleague who has been appointed by the local Greens as the Brentford Queen of Shops, which works with my current obsession. In the afternoon I was up in Boston Manor Road to meet for the umpteenth time the residents who are still oppressed by vines coming over the back alley to attack their fence, shed and back garden. Ealing allotments do not (as far as I know) have any facilities to enrich Uranium but the cross-border negotiations to try to bring peace require a better negotiator than me. Donald Trump is busy elsewhere helping President Putin and Nigel Farage, and my aircraft carrier does not work on Boston Manor Road so I need a new approach before hostilities resume more urgently as the spring reinvigorates the vines.

In the evening the meeting in the Free Church organised by Brentford Voice about development in Brentford. Not much new was learned, though I am pleased by the plans to improve the Great West Road and in particular access across the horrible divide known as the A4/M4. In truth, there has been no progress on this matter throughout my time as a councillor despite a lot of time spent by me, residents, businesses and council officers trying to improve it. But the redevelopment of GSK, whilst unwelcome in many ways, provides an opportunity and I am pleased this is acknowledged and we are told this will be prioritised.

But my main concern is the town centre. This of course is not in my ward, but it matters to everyone in Brentford. I will not repeat my concerns about the inadequate approach to letting the council-owned empty shops but I confess (confirmed by a friend of mine) that I have a habit of descending into a rant. New approach needed, because the importance of this and its urgency has not receded.

Martin Case is in the Chair and Peter O'Brien the Director of Regeneration at the pulpit with Tom Bruce and Salman SHaheen in the picture together with several residents and a fraction of a Melvinator. Nice to see Mel out and about but his mobility is not what it was.

On Wednesday evening I cycled down to Chiswick Community SChool where they had put on a kind of Hustings which had the Leaders of the local political parties in attendance. SHantanu Rajawat was there for Labour, Peter Thompson for Conservatives, Gareth Roberts (he's a ringer from Richmond as there are none in Hounslow) for the Lib Dems. I am the de facto leader of the Greens on Hounslow council because I am the outstanding performer in a field of one. There was an empty chair labelled Reform It made me think of the day when Roy Hattersley failed to turn up for Have I Got News For You and was represented by a tub of lard.

There were many schoolchildren there, teachers etc and the Keynote speaker was Jo Coburn, for a long time a BBC Politics presnter and one I always admired. I didn't know she lived in Chiswick, nor that her two sons had attended Chiswick Community School.

I am careful about taking pictures of children for obvious reasons in these days but I must say the students put on an excellent evening and we were challenged with some good audience questions. Our rambling responses were strictly managed by one of the students with a bell.

I'm afraid I was a bit disadvantaged by my dodgy hearing in a room like that but I hope I answered properly and got my points over. There were also some written questions which I took away via the camera and will get to soon.

Well, that's my week. Today I am off to Hounslow House to meet some voluntary groups, then to Twickenham to atone for my previous smoking sin by what is now a standard lung cancer screening. Last time they told me I probably would not have cancer but they would find something else. They did, though it has not affected me - at least not yet! Wish me luck.

Some joy from the progressing spring in the alley behind Boston Manor Road.