A Busy Christmas Schedule for Chiswick Councillors
Chiswick Homefields Councillor Jack Emsley reports back on his week
Cllrs Mushiso, Todd and Emsley at the Flower Market
December 10, 2022
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Chiswick! Whilst many start to wind down for the holidays, if anything things seem to be picking up for us Chiswick Councillors as we approach the end of the year - so much so in fact that I’m having to write this slightly later than usual on a crisp Saturday morning just before a meeting with residents in Grove Park to discuss local wildlife (apologies to the editor!). So, what’s been keeping me busy as your councillor in Chiswick Homefields this week?
Following last week’s High Road lights switch on organised by Cllr Joanna Biddolph, I joined Cllrs Ron Mushiso and John Todd at the Christmas Flower Market on Chiswick High Road. The chilly weather was offset by the very warm sense of community as local schools sang carols whilst market-goers picked up an assortment of winters plants. We came away with our wreath and a few other goodies for the Christmas table and – not only is the market a great community event, but it’s also full of great products!
On Monday I joined fellow Chiswick Conservative councillors for a meeting with our brilliant GLA Member Nick Rogers, who has been fighting our corner at City Hall incredibly effectively since his election back in 2021 on a diverse range of topics. Monday’s meeting touched on a range of issues, from the latest consultation on the cycleway on Chiswick High Road (you can send your comments to TfL via this link ) to successfully reversing many of Labour’s proposed London-wide bus cuts (including, of course, reinstating the 533s Chiswick stops earlier this year). We also chatted about a couple of other ward specific issues, including the ongoing saga of trying to install a pedestrian crossing at the junction between Hartington Road and the A316 – temporary pedestrian crossing lights were installed for about a fortnight, and then removed by TfL without actually building a permanent crossing. Make it make sense!
Talking of the A316, on Tuesday I joined the Dukes Meadows Trust and other local groups at the Bowls Club to meet with traffic officers from the council. The event was billed as an opportunity for local groups to engage with the council about local traffic schemes, and was a very constructive discussion about isues ranging from the impact of the Grove Park schemes on A316 traffic to parking on and around Riverside Drive during events.
I’m glad that these types of meetings with local groups are now taking place, although I still think it would have been much better to have the consultations before various schemes were implemented. The traffic officers who did attend were exceptionally helpful, answering some questions and taking a number of action items away following the discussion. I’ll be following-up next week to check on progress, as some issues seemed to have relatively straightforward fixes!
After an evening of catching-up on a few bits of casework on Wednesday (made easier by the fact that there was no football as a distraction), we welcomed Nick Rogers back to Chiswick on Thursday for our local Conservative Association Christmas Party. It was great to catch up with everyone to cap off a good year for the local party (holding ten seats on the council and increasing our borough-wide vote share in May’s local elections despite predictions of a Labour clean sweep), and as always a pleasure to hear from Nick (even if it was twice in a week) about how he's holding Sadiq Khan to account on London wide issues such as transport and policing.
A Christmas truce between Hounslow’s Labour mayor and local Conservative councillors
Friday was a double whammy of a Housing Committee meeting followed swiftly by the Mayor’s Christmas reception for councillors (which included our official council photograph).
The committee meeting gave me and fellow members a chance to prepare for Monday night’s Q&A session with the Director of Housing and representatives from Hounslow’s maintenance company Coalo about the level of service being offered to local authority tenants, as well as the large number of empty council homes in our borough. As of last month there were over 500 empty homes in Hounslow, around 1 in 20 council owned properties – that’s more than double the national average and, at a time where demand for housing is higher than ever, represents a worrying failing on the part of Hounslow Council.
All of that brings me to the present day (Saturday morning), where I’m trying to finish off this blog before a meeting with residents in The Lindens about an exciting number of recent hedgehog sightings. Ideally, the council should be working with groups like Wild Chiswick to protect hedgehogs through projects like the Chiswick Hedgehog Highway (see my previous blog posts for more, or visit the Wild Chiswick website to find out how to get involved). Grove Park is a hotbed for hedgehogs in London and, if we take action, could become a green sanctuary for our prickly friends in a city increasingly hostile to them and other wildlife. I’m always pleased to support that objective in any way I can!
So, that’s it for another jam-packed blog - hopefully it hasn’t arrived in the editor’s inbox too late!
Cllr Jack Emsley
jack.emsley@hounslow.gov.uk
07977 396017
CONSERVATIVE COUNCILLOR SURGERIES
We are back to our usual routine of holding face-to-face surgeries in Chiswick and in Gunnersbury.
Chiswick: Every Saturday from 9.30am to 10.30am at Chiswick Library (the eight Conservative councillors take this surgery in turn).
Gunnersbury: First Saturday of the month from 10am to 11am at The Gunnersbury Triangle Club, Triangle Way, off The Ridgeway, W3 8LU (at least one of the Chiswick Gunnersbury ward councillors takes this surgery).
Our Current Service Support to Chiswick
CONSERVATIVE COUNCILLORS and CONTACTS
Chiswick Gunnersbury (was Turnham Green) ward
Cllr Joanna Biddolph joanna.biddolph@hounslow.gov.uk 07976 703446
Cllr Ranjit Gill ranjit.gill@hounslow.gov.uk 07976 702956
Cllr Ron Mushiso ron.mushiso@hounslow.gov.uk 07976 702887
Chiswick Homefields ward
Cllr Jack Emsley jack.emsley@hounslow.gov.uk 07977 396017
Cllr Gerald McGregor gerald.mcgregor@hounslow.gov.uk 07866 784821
Cllr John Todd john.todd@hounslow.gov.uk 07866 784651
Chiswick Riverside ward
Cllr Peter Thompson peter.thompson@hounslow.gov.uk 07977 395810
Cllr Gabriella Giles gabriella.giles@hounslow.gov.uk 07966 270823
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