Cheap Shots, Community Champions and Charities, Badly-run HMOs

Meetings of the full borough council can be both easy and impossible to predict. Of the six meetings a year, only four (soon to be only two) provide opportunities for we opposition councillors to hold the council to account by asking questions and debating motions. Some in the group are good at getting up and speaking spontaneously. Not me. I like to write my contributions word for word (even the introductory “Thank you, madam mayor”) though I almost always add scribbly changes during the meeting if others make points affecting what I had planned to say. The Labour group sometimes taunts us, alleging that our speeches are written by others. They often make preposterous claims and each time I wonder if they are, in fact, confessing their own tactics, in the manner of a narcissist’s accusations.

This time, the leader of the council Shantanu Rajawat accused us of being climate change deniers. He must have nodded off – or been absorbed in checking his phone or chatting with the Labour group whip – during motions proposed by us or to which we have contributed. His attempted cheap shot, to headline-grab, was not founded in fact. We might not agree with the way this Labour council is tackling climate change – tinkering from an ideological standpoint – but we all know it must be tackled – seriously and by looking at big issues pragmatically with a wide view, acknowledging where hoped-for improvements are not being made and policy approaches and changes are needed.

The agenda included debates on the council’s new transport strategy (lots of waffle, lots of spin, very little detail and, yes, more restrictions on our lifestyles are at its core, without assessing their likely impact on local economies); more changes to the constitution, cutting the number of times the opposition can propose motions (down to two a year, diminishing democracy still further, as highlighted by group leader Cllr Peter Thompson); Heathrow airport (there’s unity across political divides for a better not bigger airport); the council’s pay policy (even if the increasing gender pay gap is because more women are in lower paid jobs, why is that the case?) and councillors’ allowances.

It’s a bit of a tradition for me to speak about allowances, still making the same points I first made six years ago, so I blew the dust off last year’s speech and adapted it for now. An independent review panel looks at councillors’ allowances nationally, including payments for additional roles, known as special responsibility allowances (SRAs). Its most recent review, valid now, urged councils to re-set allowances which it considers to be significantly too low across the board nationwide.

Now is not the time to do that and the current policy – to increase allowances in line with staff pay – will continue. The panel recommends that no more than 50 per cent should receive an SRA; in Hounslow, 75 per cent of councillors are rewarded additionally. Unsurprisingly, we would like the number of SRAs to be cut by abolishing 15 non-job roles including cabinet assistants. Cabinet members have hundreds of staff working for them, why do they need another? The full list of SRAs is here.

The current basic allowance, paid to all Hounslow councillors, is £13,048. As I always say, each of us must prove we’re worth it.

You can watch the whole meeting on the council’s YouTube channel. I suggest you have a stiff drink at your side. Or a stress ball. Or both (the recording is in two parts).

Mayor’s recognition awards

The mayor was back in her red robe, frilly white collar and ceremonial chains on Friday afternoon, hosting a recognition reception to honour local champions for the outstanding and inspiring work they do in our communities. Each councillor is invited to nominate one person and I knew, immediately, who to recommend: Denny Anthony, youth officer at the Hogarth Youth and Community Centre. A youth worker for Hounslow Council, when funding for the centre was cut in 2018, Denny and his team transferred to the Hogarth Trust whose trustees took over to ensure the centre’s important work continued, improving the lives of young people, many disadvantaged. Denny represents the interests of young people more widely, too, ensuring their needs are embedded in policy including protecting them from crime. His warm, calm and unflappable personality quickly wins confidence and respect, inspiring others. Tea served in cups and saucers, cakes on stands, it was a charming occasion.

Denny Anthony of the Hogarth Youth and Community Centre receiving his certificate from the mayor, Cllr Karen Smith, with his colleague, senior youth worker, Naomi Alleyne and Cllr Joanna Biddolph

DKMS and becoming a blood stem cell donor

Before Covid, over 30,000 people came to work in Chiswick every day. It’s much less now but numbers are creeping up on midweek days. Businesses in wards seldom contact councillors; they just get on with it, commuting in and out, enjoying our shops, bars, cafes, restaurants and service businesses during lunch breaks and before going home.

I had no idea that DKMS, an important blood cancer charity, had been based here for 12 years and was profoundly moved by its work, described through real-life life-saving stories during a networking event at Chiswick Town Hall. DKMS operates in seven countries, providing blood stem cells to people with blood cancer or a blood disorder. It doesn’t run a blood bank, or a blood stem cell bank, it runs a donor register of people willing to donate blood stem cells if they are a match with a patient.

Four out of 10 patients will not find a match. Only seven per cent of the eligible population in the UK are registered and, of them, only a tiny proportion are from minority ethnic communities. As potential donors need to be between 17 and 55 years old, my immediate thought was that, surely in this hugely diverse London borough, our academies and schools could help shift the figures. I have suggested that the council works, cross party, to introduce DKMS to students, parents, staff, support staff and wider school communities, to build its register.

If you are the right age, would you like to help? Come to the town hall on Sunday, 6 April between 11am and 4pm to learn more and provide a cheek swab to find out if you are eligible to be a donor and join the register.

Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs)

If you live next to a badly-run HMO you will know about it. Dysfunctional recycling and waste; dirty mattresses tossed into the garden; noisy tenants disrupting sleep; revving motorbikes through the night … they have been a constant in Chiswick Gunnersbury ward and particularly in the Gunnersbury Park Garden Estate conservation area. There, residents (of whom I’m one) have struggled with increasing incredulity as the number of registered HMOs has crept up from 32 in 2021 to 52 today in five of its seven short roads. We’ve seen a lot. One party house took 15 years to resolve; at another, the landlord was fined £130,000 after far too many years of complaints; a night-time fire in a garage illegally used for business storage including flammables; extensions without planning permission with exposed live wires and intermittent water/heating; it’s horribly real and really horrible. There are others elsewhere in the ward, just as distressing. Of course, not all HMOs are badly-run; many are peaceful shared houses and flats that run efficient responsible households.

The council is now consulting on its HMO policy including bringing smaller HMOs, such as in blocks of flats, into its scope. I’ve already made several recommendations but each day seems to bring more, based on new revelations. Please comment so that we can protect residents from rogue landlords. The deadline for responses is 21st May.

Councillor Joanna Biddolph

Chiswick Gunnersbury ward

joanna.biddolph@hounslow.gov.uk

07976 703446

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY 2025

Anyone can attend public meetings of the council at Hounslow House which is fully accessible. Most meetings take place on the 6th floor of Hounslow House which is at 7 Bath Road, Hounslow TW3 3EB.

2nd April: 7:00pm: Overview and Scrutiny Committee

8th April: 6:30pm: Cabinet Question Time in Brentford

15th April: 7:00pm: Cabinet

Important Current Local Issues During weekends, residents can still access council services on-line or via emergency numbers:

To inform the council of an emergency, please call 020 8583 2222

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 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 Gabriella Giles gabriella.giles@hounslow.gov.uk 07966 270823

Cllr Peter Thompson peter.thompson@hounslow.gov.uk 07977 395810

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