Blog 546 8 October 2026
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 in my side that has continued - albeit gradually healing - for a week.
Italy is full of roundabouts (I wonder if councils get special funding) and I found I hurt quite a lot when doing a left turn, though not so much on a right turn.
Going down I had avoided nearly all motorways but decided to take the straight and fast route home.
Going south I saw the delightful Lake Geneva
The magnificent San Bernardo col
The Ferrari museum in Maranello
And lots of other wonders before arriving at the Adriatic seaside
And observed that Heras fences are international, even in ancient Italian towns
Where also - why have one 2CV when you can have 2 of them to publicise your B&B.
Getting back I had the delight of 270 unread council related mails and nearly 500 personal emails. I need to get more disciplined about what I subscribe to.
I got through the council ones and copped a lot of criticism from a local journalist (you know who you are - well lots of people know) for relating my rare but long travel in a Jaguar. My 'gas guzzler' rarely used in London is worth about the same as a 5 year old Astra and does 43mpg on a long journey but this is a cardinal sin for a Green. Much worse, obviously, than flying to New York, Australia or Delhi. Where do I buy recycled sackcloth and ashes to atone for my latest sin. Of course, other councillors and journalists would never consider doing something as odious as driving 1300 miles.
I am not going to bore you with a full blog, but a few things jump out.
Point 1
We have (Jack Emsley of the Cons, Theo Dennison the Independent and me) have cut off the attempt to get me kicked off the Planning Committee. Probably mainly because Theo is good at constitutional council law (the kind of stuff that drives me up the wall) and because the Conservatives have 15 councillors and a (paid for by the council tax payers) paid assistant to work on these matters. Labour seem now to have about 3 of them plus another paid for by the party out of its meagre (compared to Reform) income albeit about 30 times more than us impecunious Greenies.
Point 2
Us councillors have had an update about the Police Station and Watermans site. I have responded to Tom Bruce as follows:
Those with a memory will recall that my expulsion from the Labour party commenced with a comment I made in my blog on 7th November 2024.
“Later on Tuesday I get a letter from a cabinet member about progress on the police station and the Watermans site. Actually this letter was on Monday but we were told it was a great secret and not to be revealed even though the cabinet report was public and another member of the cabinet had already talked to MyLondon, who are obviously more trustworthy than ward councillors. It is fantastic news, and we hope by some time next spring we will get to the same position we were in about 6 or 7 years ago with someone looking to develop the sites.”
This came from a mail from Tom dated 4th November 2024 which among other things said
“We are in advanced talks with the HA and are confident of this being made public in the spring, however we cannot name them at the moment.”
There were repeated statements that we expected spades in the ground in Spring 2025, hence my comment about reaching the same position 6 or 7 years earlier.
It is Groundhog day.
It is all revealed here (sort of):https://talk.hounslow.gov.uk/brentford-arts-centre
Point 3
A Labour member of the council, Gurbashan Athwal of Heston East has been arrested for fraud and is due to be tried at the Uxbridge Magistrate's Court on October 27th. He is of course one of the two Labour candidtates who came a poor equal second in the ward where Green candidate Jasmine Deol, who joined the election fray at the very last minute, comfortably topped the poll in this previously safe Labour seat. Unfortunately the Green Party didn't have the money or capacity to stand more than one candidate in that ward. If Gurbashan is found guilty he must be removed immediately from his post and replaced by an honest councillor elected by local people. Currently he has had the Labour whip removed in the traditional manner which will allow him to stay on the council and prop up the current dodgy regime. Of course that was the practice with Hina Mir (fined £40,000 for immigration related offences) and Raghwinder Siddhu (married to the chair of the Heston and Feltham Labour party whose brother I understand is one of the Labour assistants paid for by the tax payer). That must not repeat if I have anything to do with it.
We live in interesting times.
Meanwhile, I have been out investigating one problem. A resident in Windmill Road has pointed out that there is an unholy stink coming from the drains next to her house (as well as a deafening noise coming from one of Thames Water's notorious clanging manholes. The stink was suppressed yesterday because there was a very unfamiliar environmental glitch - water dropping from the sky. Who would have thunk it?
There are at least 3 of these clangers on Windmill and several on the High Street. In the past I ended up writing to the CEO of TW and eventually some of these clangers got fixed (temporarily - it seems to be beyond everybody to make ones that last) so I will have another go when I have a bit of capacity.
Turns out I had dealt with another problem for this resident in the past where she, Ruth Cadbury and I eventually got a developer to finally agree compensation for damp they had caused. As a councillor, if people stop writing to you you think the problem is solved. In this case, it isn't. She got tired of chasing it and they still haven't paid the £2200 they promised.
I might suggest another trip to the small claims court.
Being a councillor can be frustrating - but much worse for the poor residents who have to live with things not working.
I will miss the mountains
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