Blog 542 27th August 2026

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 chairs which are suitably dog-eared to contribute to the exclusive image of Brentford, but a posh bench might be more appropriate even if nothing like as comfortable.

Watch this space, perhaps the worthy residents from Avenue, Grove, Eastbourne, Whitestile etc may soon have a new place to park their no doubt elegant bottoms and tempt them to our improving (slowly) town centre.

On Thursday I was called to an all-party discusssion with the leader and CEO etc about proposed changes in the council's constitution. This was a greatly urgent matter and I and Jack Emsley the Conservative leader attended via Teams, though nobody from Reform. Very difficult to make an immediate response and it seems it is not quite as urgent as we were told as they seem not to have progressed this. Jack has written a long email about it and I did my impression of Nick Clegg "I agree with Jack". Well, mostly. I may be locked up in the tower (perhaps the one in Gunnersbury Park?) because I am not allowed to talk to anybody about this so if you want to know what is proposed it will cost you

On Friday evening I had my 'induction' as a Creative Mile volunteer. Met with the lead volunteer and a bunch of others by St Faith's church (we could have sat in the bus shelter had we been tired or avoiding rain). In my rambling way, I had to investigate St Faith who seems to be have been a young woman from Agen in France who was apparently tortured to death with a red-hot brazier. No fun being a Saint.

We were supposed to wander around the sites involved in the Creative Mile, but I decided when we got to the Library that I knew all the sites and it was a bit of a waste of time for me (others were less Brentford-savvy). Here our head volunteer (or at least the one who organises volunteers) is telling us what's what.

At the weekend I concentrated a bit on Grit bins. It is a misnomer: they don't have grit but are similar to the yellow ones you see here and there holding grit for roads. But ours are black. They are provided for flats above shops to give them a place to put their rubbish, an innovation I brought in a few years ago to stop the bags being left on the pavement for rats, cats and foxes' delectation. I always had tussled with officers about this because they were slow appearing. Some were poorly made and replaced, but officers had a different view from me sometimes about where they should be placed. For several years they have worked well but they don't on York Parade on the A4, because they get filled with the kind of rubbish which should go in street bins (or be taken home 😱) and it turns out nobody empties this kind of rubbish.

Doing a bit of Sherlock I looked into the bins in Chiswick and it was much the same. We need a new approach.

On Tuesday a rather sad duty. The woman known to all as Flick was famous for delivering papers from the newsagent in Albany Parade until it was demolished. She carried on, by buying newspapers elsewhere, and was known around the town by her Hi-Vis jacket and bicycle, that I believe was given to her by a local celeb. I had met her only once but not someone I could forget. I learned a lot at her funeral, mainly that she was originally a musician, and a lot of Brentford love was on show, mainly from Mafeking Avenue where she lived.

Flick had long term health problems and finally was admitted to West Middlesex where by all accounts she was nursed beautifully, but passed away. Normally these alcoves at Mortlake Crem are full of flowers (hers arrived a little later), but this seemed a moving way of remembering her.

As I said last week, there is not much going on at present. I spend some time each day cycling around Brentford and thereabouts, usually involving a river or a canal - my spiritual homes! I do try to respond to residents but there is less traffic partly because I have an active ward partner n Craig. I continue sketching out a book which one day will be a light-hearted history of what happened to the 100 companies that were there at the start of the FTSE 100 in 1984. Amazing how much has changed in 42 years.

Main thing going on in Brentford is the plan to fell a lot of the trees around the library. This is said to be for safety reasons, but many local people (and at least one councillor) are very uncomfortable about this plan. There will be two sessions held at the library to explain the plan - Tuesday, 1 September, from 2pm to 3.30pm or Thursday, 3 September, from 6pm to 7.30pm. Both of those are difficult for me but I will attend on the 3rd at the start.

Oh, I might have mentioned it before but what was once a nice little grassy place near the back of Duke of London and a favourite walk of mine is now a derelict dump with a broken down fence. I am trying to get Hounslow Highways to sort it

A few yards from there there is a kind of fairy circle (as we used to call them when I was littler).

It is a gravelly circle which I suspect is supposed to be planted with a tree, but has become a parking space for one, or often 2 Range Rovers. And the council is boasting about its public realm, which I think they should be ashamed of (and this is another example).

And I have my next Planning Committee next week. A return fixture with Gunnersbury Park, and another development of flats where today there are commercial units. I must go and see what's there now (it's said to be underutilised).

Ah. I did. The threatened units looked extremely utilised to an amateur look. But what do I know? Cars and lorries and stuff outside warehouses means nothing, obviously.

Naturally none of the proposed flats will be affordable, in the LBH recent tradition. It may be a sensible development nevertheless but I will be looking for evidence that we cannot demand our policies are respected ("the strategic target is for 50% of all new homes to be affordable") The ones since I have sat on, including this proposal fall marginally short - in fact by a margin of 50% ie zero affordable against a target of 50%.

And I wandered to take a look at Watermans Park after last night's deluge, expecting a lush green park. Hmm

That's it for today. I doubt next week will be terribly exciting either, though my avid reader will be waiting on tenterhooks for my next episode..