Blog 521 19th March 2026

On Friday I did get up to my resident in Boston Manor Road. She has a difficult problem which I'd better not talk about. She is getting support from social services and from her daughter's school. Not much I can practically do but I can show some support and press the people who can actually help to step up - so that's my approach.

One of the learnings as a councillor - there are very many, and there are still new things all the time - is how hard life is for very many people who look to a casual observer to be doing OK. It is important as a councillor to stay in touch with your capacity for empathy. People are imperfect (councillors are imperfect, surprisingly) and the world is often very unsympathetic.

Cycling back to Heaven, this van was parked here, causing disruptions to buses and other road users, again. Recently I reported this and saw it recently with 3 parking tickets. By Friday they had been removed but, as it seems to park there most days for long periods, there were 2 new tickets by this Wednesday.

I hope they pay them, and local business Goddards see that this does no good for their reputation (with me anyway). Apart from anything else WIndmill Road as well as being a bus route, is a classified road B452) and the parking place is just before a bridge so has limited visibility. If a head-on accident results...

I spent the rest of Friday catching up on mails, including raising concerns about Boston Manor Park with the park people. Trouble with this is that they take a while to respond to complicated messages (fair enough) but residents are often impatient (also fair enough). Later I cycled down to Hounslow Highways to pick up some bags for the litter pick we had scheduled for Saturday. Returned with a roll of orange ones as opposed to the greens I expected. World is full of surprises but no, I am not defecting to the Lib Dems.

On Saturday morning I cycled the mean streets of Brentford West looking for varmints, better known as litter. It is an exaggeration to say I couldn't find any, but in reality there is very little in residential streets. There is a lot on the A4 in the tree filled area which is actually owned by TfL where a team of us cleared probably 20 years of crud in a previous litter pick and there is always a bit of action around the cop shop - which of course is privately owned. The Beehive car park and the alley behind Lidl used to be bad but is OK now, probably because I persuaded Hounslow Highways to add it to their regular cleaning. Not having an Elephant bike which could transport litter pickers any more (I gave it away) I drove but Saturday had gridlock for some reason (perhaps that ruddy van!). We concentrated around the Police Station. Of course, the landowner should do it and in the days of Steve Curran he told them to do it. Now it is more productive to DIY.

Not much, in truth. I censored the picture of me because that was the one that persuaded me to end my 'hairy protest' and visit my hairdresser Bea on Wednesday. Still not in her shop which is frustrating. Still it seems all the other shops, empty for 2 years, are under offer when any local buisness looks for premises.

Someone has persuaded Levy Real Estate from Regent St to actually mention 6 of the 9 empty units though none of them are said to be under offer. The community group eager to open a charity shop there (with 360 signatures on a petition) have visited with Levy. He reported "The agent sent to unlock wasn't the most enthusiastic" but to be fair, he did manage to find Brentford and I hope he survived the day without too much trauma. The agent said it was available but the council say it isn't, and thealleged other available locations in Brentford available from the council remain a complete mystery because nobody seems to be unable to find them.

I can only conclude the council wants to keep the shops empty or is hoping to attract Harrod's or Fortnum and Mason. The retail 'strategy' for Brentford remains a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma meanwhile the town is dying on its feet.

I expect the Cabinet will do a Reservoir Dogs themed video showing how well they are serving retail in these difficult days. Shantanu is Mr White, Tom Bruce is Mr Blonde, Shivraj Grewal as Mr Pink and Pritam Grewal as Mr Nice Guy.

I heard that Donald Trump was going to do a cameo as Mr Orange but I'm Nigel Farage will take the role as a substitute as he is desperate for earning a few quid to go with the £1M he has 'earned' personally on top of his MP salary and expenses (no doubt entirely legitimately claimed) and the £9M his 'party' company has extracted from an 'investor' from Thailand. I know many of you will want to contribute to Nigel's retirement fund (I hope a fund to be used very soon) but his Cameo service is sadly unavailable at present https://www.cameo.com/nigelfarage?qid=1773915404&aaQueryId=4385f3632c71438e92f318f944141ef9

That may have something to do with the article in the Guardian recently which might make him a bit coy. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-interactive/2026/mar/19/nigel-farage-cameo-videos-backed-cryptocurrencies-that-collapsed-in-value

On Friday evening we had been out in Reynard Way. Nice houses there and nice people , also in the flats on that road. They are hard for canvassers to get into. We were lucky that a couple of women were entering and invited us to come in. Great, and people were all welcoming, but there is another difficulty there. You can't get out either without a skizwostie (Liverpudlian word) to overcome the lock. I wonder if that is acceptable or even legal: what happens in a fire?

On Sunday we were out again, this time mainly in Whitestile Road. Again, I get a warm feeling about how we are welcomed across the Brentford roads we have visited so far. to canvass.

On Monday evening I talked to some leaseholders in Manor Vale about problems they have with their housing management and humungous bills. Weirdly I have 3 of these at the same time - one in Baltic Avenue, where the landowner is Housing Association A2Dominion, and one is Holly House where the owner is the council. I have never previously had any of these as far as I remember in 11 years and now 3 simultaneously.

On Tuesday an invite to the vacuum cleaner stadium (some people call it Hoover but that is SO last year) for the announcement of a "Civic Agreement" between LBH and our friendly neighbourhood University. I worked in the University sector for a period and when I read documents from the sector I realise I did well to escape

Yes, it says what it's about, but my small brain has to read very carefully to decipher. Bear in mind I entered school as a top elite pupil with a scholarship and exited University with a 3rd class degree which I claimed was a Gentleman's degree (though I was no gentleman). And that 52 years ago so my progress has obviously continued.

Anyway it was nice to meet a few new (and a few old ones) and had a good chat with one of my favourite officers who is leading on some actions the council is taking in Boston Manor Park, about which I had a bit of a grumble recently.

I zoomed off to Oxford Circus to meet some work chums from 20 years ago but like them I have been retired from proper work for a few years and my diary management is not what it was. I was supposed to be going on Thursday and I was a lonely drinker. Nice pub though, which reminded me of the Philharmonic (The Phil) in Liverpool, though this one is called the Clachan

Wednesday was rather a complicated day. A meeting at a private house in Windmill Road. I had heard on the grapevine that flood managing works are planned there. As I have probably observed (probably ad nausea) that nobody tells ward councillors anything so I have to pick up titbits from residents. Someone spilt the beans and I procured an invite to this meeting which involved Thames Water, the council, Hounslow Highways and of course a bunch of local residents. I couldn't stay for the whole meeting but it was great to connect, and I have the documents.

There is a long-standing problem with flooding there, which affects Windmill regularly, but also less frequently Whitestile and also Orchard and Glenhurst which are at the bottom of the hill which takes illegal immigrant water from Ealing and beyond, without even needing boats. It comes over here and swamps our local culture in the basements etc. I have been moaning about this since several years ago when there was a serious flood in Windmill and a horrible one in Whitestile which had the bonus of toilet paper and other unmentionables emerging from the street grids. Lovely jubbly. A bloke from TW who I admonished for parking his truck blocking the road told me a) he was just leaving and b) he would have to come with a bigger drill because some genius had disposed of surplus concrete mix down the said grids, which surprisingly solidified and blocked the drains. Genius.

I had travelled there on a Forest hire bike because my own was in for repairs again. Well two Forests in fact, because the first one had a saddle that went down whilst I rode along so I looked like a younger, fitter, better looking, hirsute (on the head not chin) version of this bloke.

After the meeting I made my excuses and walked down to see Merlin, the Duke of London (apparently, though ladies tell me he looks more like Prince Charming) to talk about shops, business rates, his plans, and the poor state of the High Street. What he does is a ray of sunlight, with 5 shoplets (now only 4) where there used to be a bookshop and various other Merlin places around town. My bike was resident in one of the shoplets. After that I went to Isleworth for my irregular shearing.

Then I was at the Kings Arms (late, sorry) having recovered my bike to receive a donation of a pint (thanks) and give a bit of insight about life as a councillor to a candidate who is likely to be a rival come May. At bottom, I'm a democrat, and this was a local man whom I know and respect. He would make a good councillor whatever party he represents.

One of the things as a councillor is you lurk in the streets and finds fault, Coming back from the pub I reported 2 flytips and one fly-poster.

Other things I noticed this week:

On Hamilton Road.. Urgh

When I was on Cabinet I proposed a new approach to street cleaning which would deal with this kind of mess by reorganising the way street cleaning worked. This was after the leader had announced at Borough Council that he was going to double the frequency of litter picking without mentioning it to me (the lead member) or any officer. We were the experts and thought it was daft and a waste of money. We completed the work we had been doing to change and presented to an enthusiastic cabinet. We agreed to do that. The then CEO said no. I said to the leader it was not for the CEO to say that - his job was to carry out the instructions of political leaders. He agreed and sent off a snotty email to the CEO. Officers presented our plan to the 'Senior Management Group' ie the then CEO and his board and they threw it out. By that time the Director of Environment had left and her deputy had departed temporarily undergoing cancer treatment. Nothing therefore done for 3 1/2 years until the leader he was back to his original pointless plan. I observed he must have been told to do this by his mum (though I have never met her and that may be libellous).

Next I observed a lot of cars parked illegally in the High Street

This was the most eye-catching, though there were 3 others at the same time, one of which had a parking ticket (hooray). I asked whether leaving a car like this counted as fly-tipping. A much more worthy misdemeanour to receive a £1000 fine with no means to appeal than a 5 year old leaving a Barbie doll on the pavement which is a current policy. Even a Ferrari owner would think twice about £1000 (maybe also a good socialist Labour councillor Lamborghini driver) when a normal parking ticket councts as small change at £110 before discount.

I received this through the pigeon post.

I did put this out (I think on Facebook) and asked people to play this empty house/commercial building game. I have done it with one of my old standing betes noir. the house on the NW corner of Gunnersbury Park which has been empty and a magnet for various kinds of naughtiness for about 20 years. I thought I had a picture but could only find it on Google Earth. This picture is from 2008 when it looks like somebody lived there. It is now a sad parody of what was a rather fine house. I tried 10 years ago with Steve Curran (Housing Director didn't want it) I said sell it but that seems to be against religion. I talked to Peter Mason the leader of Ealing who said he would deal with it (Gunnersbury is half-owned by Ealing) but he didn't. I reckon you could spend £100K on it and sell it for £1.5 Million (or provide a lovely house for someone who needs one) but it seems to be beyond the imagination of councils.

Finally (they cried 'ENOUGH') I met a friend of mine who volunteers at the National Archive in Kew. These 3 (and a couple more who were hiding) were telling me 'It's spring, lighten up'