A Not So Short Write-up of This Week's Borough Council Meeting
Chiswick Homefields councillor Jack Emsley reports back
Cllr Jack Emsley (right) at the borough council meeting
February 4, 2023
This week’s councillor duties were mainly centred around the big Borough Council meeting on Tuesday. The meeting was our first of the year, and the last before February’s big budget-setting meeting. You can catch all of the exchanges from Tuesday by watching here, or alternatively you can read-on for a not so short write-up of the highlights (and lowlights)…
Questions on refugees and traffic
After a slight delay in agreeing on the minutes from the last meeting (my colleague Cllr Ron Mushiso rightly asked that direct reference to our group assistant be removed as he has no right of reply as a council employee), we were onto questions to cabinet members (a rather grand term for those lead Labour councillors who are in charge of borough policies).
I was first up, asking the council leader to explain why there had been so many delays in the council getting the promised £350 monthly payments to those taking part in the Homes for Ukraine scheme. He said that delays can be caused by a number of reasons, but I was able to secure a sort-of-commitment by the leader of the council to “explore all avenues available” to support the 70 host families still awaiting their first payment.
My colleague in Chiswick Riverside, Cllr Gabriella Giles, also asked a question on the Grove Park traffic schemes (one of these days I’ll be able to write a blog without having to talk about these poorly implemented schemes!). Cllr Giles asked whether Labour’s head of traffic and transport, Cllr Katherine Dunne, accepted that Hounslow Labour’s poorly implemented traffic schemes were causing problems with visitor access, increased speeding and confusion regarding access via Thames Road. After saying that she “stood by” the council’s current traffic policy, we were treated to the stock boilerplate on how the council is great at consultation. I’ll leave it to readers to decide whether that’s true or not…
Shaking up housing
After questions, we moved onto motions. Following a motion about local government finance (which was really just an opportunity for Labour councillors to lay the groundwork for a council tax increase later this month, but also allowed Labour’s Cllr Rhys Williams to reveal he’s an avid reader of our weekly Chiswick W4 Blog), my colleagues Cllr Joanna Biddolph and Cllr Gabriella Giles brought forward an important motion about the state of housing in the borough.
Three images of social housing in Chiswick
The motion called for the council to work with the government during Michael Gove’s urgent review into housing to assess the state of damp and mould in rented accommodation, and to prioritise enforcement to drive up standards in social housing. After two passionate speeches about housing issues in both of their wards, I had hoped to speak about the issues residents have been bringing to my attention in Chiswick Homefields. Unfortunately, Labour’s John Stroud-Turp (who has made a political comeback as a councillor in Isleworth after being rejected by Chiswick residents at the ballot box back in 2018) decided this wasn’t a subject worth debating. After a slightly bizarre party-political speech which seemed to rubbish his Labour colleague Sue Sampson’s public statement welcoming the government’s urgent review, he used a bit of constitutional trickery to ensure no other councillors could speak by cutting short the debate – what was he afraid of hearing?
Labour rejects Borough of Sanctuary proposal
We then moved on to the final motion of the evening, this one on refugees and migrant communities in Hounslow. This Labour motion made a number of good points about the valuable contribution migrant communities make to our borough, and the fantastic work voluntary groups such as West London Welcome do to support asylum seekers.
The only concrete action this motion asked the council to actually take, though, was for the council leader to write a strongly worded letter to the Home Secretary about the governments migration policy. As I noted in my speech on the night, whilst I’m sure Cllr Rajawat is a fantastic letter writer, I think we can do slightly better than that as a council.
Us councillors are elected to make a positive difference to our local community, so I proposed an amendment to the motion (ably seconded by Cllr Peter Thompson) which replaced the politics of letter writing with the politics of action by asking the council to become the latest UK Borough of Sanctuary. For those who haven’t come across it, the City of Sanctuary movement works with individuals, groups and organisations in every area and in every sector to encourage inclusivity, solidarity and compassion for people forced to leave their home countries. A number of local authorities have already passed motions unanimously to become cities and boroughs of sanctuary, and so I had hoped we’d be able to put aside our party-political differences and vote through the amendment.
Isleworth’s master of the constitution had other ideas, unfortunately, and as before, cut the debate short after Cllr Thompson and I had spoken.
It was incredibly sad to see almost every Labour councillor vote against what should have been a non-partisan motion on strengthening our borough’s commitment to supporting refugees. That being said, I do just want to mention Chiswick’s lone Labour councillor, Amy Croft, who bravely went against her colleagues and voted with us to support Hounslow becoming a Borough of Sanctuary. It’s incredibly difficult to vote against the Labour whip on Hounslow Council (I’m told it very rarely happens), and I imagine it’s made even more difficult to do so as a relatively new councillor. Amy deserves a huge amount of credit for defying the local Labour party at Tuesday’s meeting and voting with her conscience as opposed to voting the way she was told to. Her colleagues could learn a lot from her.
That, more or less, was the end of the meeting and, if you’ve made it this far, is also the end of my blog. Hope to see some of you at today’s Flower Market!
Cllr Jack Emsley
07977 396017
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
Tuesday, 21st February at 7:00pm: Cabinet
Tuesday, 28th February at 7:30pm: Budget Setting Meeting Borough council
Thursday, 2nd March at 7:00pm: Planning Committee
Tuesday, 14th March at 7:00pm: Chiswick Area Forum
Tuesday, 28 th March at 7:00pm: Cabinet
CONSERVATIVE COUNCILLOR SURGERIES
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).
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
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We've always done that and won't be changing, in fact we'd like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you'd like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |