Making Plans for a Petition Against the Cycle Superhighway

Local councillor Sam Hearn writes a blog about his week

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Friday 8th December: Catching up on emails. Some more support for the campaign to re-route the Cycle Superhighway away from Chiswick High Road. I spend a little time clicking through the internet-based training sessions for trustees provided by the Pension’s Regulator. No more falling asleep at the back of the lecture hall or claiming that the family gerbil ate your homework.

Councillor Sam Hearn

Saturday 9th December: My turn to run the Councillors’ surgery at Chiswick Library. Once again I ‘enjoy’ a quiet session with only one or two clients. This provides me with another opportunity to catch up on council emails.

Sunday 10th December: Making plans for a petition to Hounslow Council’s Cabinet asking them to reject Transport for London’s plans to run a Cycle Super Highway along Chiswick High Road.

Please also note that the consultation on Heathrow’s third runway finishes on Tuesday, 19th December.

Monday 11th December: I attend the Children and Young Peoples’ Scrutiny Panel in the place of Cllr Peter Carey. At this meeting the Scrutiny formally received the annual report of the Hounslow Safeguarding Children Board and various reports on the effectiveness of the services provided to vulnerable children. The subject matter is the stuff of nightmares; child trafficking, female genital mutilation and child sexual exploitation.

All of these matters are taken very seriously by Hounslow Council and its various partner organisations. Legally all councillors are ‘corporate parents’. The Panel also considers the Hounslow Cabinet’s response to a “could do better” report produced by a multi-agency inspection team that evaluated safeguarding services across local bodies that work with young people and their families.

Tuesday 12th December: I attenda workshop at Chiswick Town Hall sponsored by Barclays Bank and organised by Chiswick Homefields Councillor Gerald McGregor. The event was aimed at older residents and sought to raise awareness of common frauds and scams particularly cyber-crime. We all need to know how to stay safe online. Excellent presentations were given by local employees of Barclays Bank, Hounslow Trading Standards Officers and the Police. Councillor McGregor plans to run another similar event in February.

Wednesday 13th December : Met up with council officers and a representative from Hounslow Highways to walk some of my ward’s streets on a regular ward-about perambulation. We list cracked pavements and potholed roads and reflect on some residents’ (supposedly bad) habit of planting flowers around newly planted street trees. It was accepted that Grove Park Gardens was pretty much full of potholes from end to end. Unfortunately there was a reluctance to agree that a new road surface is required. The five year investment programme has come to an end. We also debated the need to ‘crown top’ several trees in Wilmington Avenue. I am looking forward to the promised deep clean of local streets – many roads and pavements are still cluttered with rotting leaves.

To Guildford in the evening to join some of my wife’s work colleagues on an outing to a so called adult pantomime being performed at The Star Inn. Enough said.

Thursday 14th December: Canvassing with some keen council candidates in Hounslow West. On to a local Party fundraising event hosted by Patrick Barr, one of the candidates selected to run in Chiswick Homefields Ward. Our guest speaker, booked many weeks ago, was Stephen Hammond MP a newly minted rebel. The merits of party loyalty over sticking to one’s principles will always be problematic.

 

Cllr Sam Hearn

December 18, 2017

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