Democracy is Dead in Hounslow as Trust in the Council Plummets

Chiswick Gunnersbury councillor Joanna Biddolph reports back

Cllr Joanna Biddolph

August 24, 2025

Political parachutes prove that democracy is dead in Hounslow

There was much talk about the way Labour selected its councillor candidate for the Cranford by-election, held on Thursday, 21st August (more on that later). Not for them a local selection process with hustings for the final few candidates (which is how we Conservatives select our council candidates). Instead, Labour’s national executive committee imposed its favourite on local members – providing a parachute candidate. A request for a media interview with Brentford Today & TV was denied, with the candidate’s voice not heard beyond the doorstep. The Labour candidate in the Syon and Brentford Lock by-election in March was also muted. Labour’s tight control over what its candidates say is no surprise given that its backbench councillors are similarly restricted, some reading from scripts from which they cannot deviate. Others do not speak during borough council meetings or in committees; their sole responsibility is to put up their hands to vote as instructed.

Parachuting-in doesn’t only apply to Labour council candidates. There is a political parachute scandal building in the council’s overview and scrutiny committee’s housing and environment panel of which I am a member. Usually, the first meetings of the scrutiny committee and of its panels in each municipal year (which starts in May) are congenially sparky cross-party discussions about which subjects to scrutinise. Possible topics are written on sheets that are stuck on the wall with post-it notes and coloured marker pens provided for councillors to comment with a yes or a no, ticks or crosses, or more substantial comments for or against.

This year, there was no such democratic discussion. I knew something was up when I walked into the room a few minutes early to find … nothing and nobody. I’d expected a buzz of busyness with officers putting out the stationery, sticking up sheets of paper, setting the scene for a debate. The panel chairman arrived, opened the meeting then told us that the main scrutiny committee had instructed the housing and environment panel to look at land ownership in the borough.

Instructed? What? Land ownership? Why? How will that help residents living in badly-run HMOs with mice, damp and mould, filthy communal areas, appalling waste management, police raids? Or tenants of housing associations whose leadership promises action then does nothing, or bodges repairs, or gets it wrong? Various attempts were made to justify this tangential task but I wasn’t buying it. Nor were three Labour councillors, two of whom, like me, had served on this panel before and knew it could be highly effective. We put up robust arguments including that this is a task for officers talking to each other, perhaps with a bit of online searching. The chairman stood firm. Loyal, ambitious Labour councillors tried to help strengthen the case, unconvincingly. Four of us continued to challenge them. We had gone to the meeting with long lists of topics we thought ought to be scrutinised, and suggestions for getting to the bottom of failed policies. We were extremely unhappy that a topic had been parachuted-in. And the panel should not be instructed.

I objected formally to the scrutiny officer team. Back came several paragraphs of blah blah blah. I have escalated it up the organogram. It was then, as so often happens, escalated downwards. It’s been pushed back up and I expect an answer very soon. Do I think it will be positive? If it isn’t, there is another strong story to be told about the denial of democracy in Hounslow.

What happens when an HMO (house in multiple occupation) loses its licence?

It isn’t only HMOs where the front garden provides tell-tale signs of poor household management. A slew of waste, mattresses dumped, black sacks piled high – all also occur, though rarely, at other properties. It is fact, too, that not all HMOs are badly-run: some provide chic modern living behind their front doors. But when things go wrong at HMOs, life can be very grim for residents at the mercy of landlords with a don’t-care-won’t-change approach.

I’ve been supporting a couple of tenants at one appallingly-run HMO in Chiswick Gunnersbury ward, pushing for improvements including by talking to the landlord whose management style is horribly hands-off. Late this week I discovered that his HMO licence had not been renewed and, as requests for him to rectify had failed, he was to be served with the maximum fine of £30,000.

That’s quite a result. Or is it? What happens now with the tenants who continue to live in terrible conditions? Justice for Tenants provides advice to tenants of their rights and can help residents of HMOs reclaim up to a year’s rent paid while the property is unlicensed. If you know of any renters living in disrepair, or worse conditions, not only in HMOs, please encourage them to contact Justice for Tenants.

Chiswick Post Office

This remains the talk of our town with residents and business owners stopping me and asking when the post office is going to open. Actually, many more say they believe it will never re-open and that Post Office Ltd is stringing us along, waiting for a moment to tell us the door will remain shut.

I’ve been talking with the postmaster from the start and, on Wednesday, met him with Cllr Peter Thompson (leader of the Conservative group of councillors) to see how we could help him re-open its doors. The Post Office’s arguments don’t hang together. Chiswick Post Office has a huge customer base and provides an extraordinary range of services; its premises are far too large and the space needs to be reconfigured with a large area sub-let to reduce costs; the postmaster has worked hard to rebuild its former poor reputation; residents and businesses need it to re-open. We are suspicious of motives.

What is clear is that our petition has made Post Office Ltd stop and think. We don’t think its thoughts are thoughtful enough and are continuing to press them to re-open the door. The postmaster told us he could open instantly – he continues to pay his team so they are available to return as soon as the door us unlocked. We are extremely unhappy about the silence and have renewed our request for a meeting with Post Office Ltd.

If you haven’t already signed the petition, please do so. Let’s keep up the pressure together:

Cllr Joanna Biddolph, Chiswick’s postmaster Daxesh Patel, Cllr Peter Thompson

Outside the closed Chiswick Post Office

When is a planning committee decision pre-determined?

At the most recent planning committee meeting – the big item on the agenda was the controversial redevelopment of 1 Burlington Lane – two residents could not stop themselves from shouting objections from the public seats, both shocked at what appeared to be decisions that had been pre-determined. This is not allowed – yet, at the five recent call-ins through which I have supported residents, it has seemed that pre-determination exists and blatantly so.

The lawyer in attendance explained that there is a difference between pre-determined – when councillors have already made up their minds – and pre-disposed – when councillors, because of their political beliefs, are highly likely to support a particular development or policy. I find it semantically unconvincing, just as I do when a councillor – undoubtedly ideologically pre-disposed to approve an ugly, far too high-rise, aspiration-free block of shoe-box flats – says they have an open mind.

The words pre-disposition and pre-determination are interchangeable in a council where … democracy is dead.

A not so verdant Forest of e-bikes

The other talk of the town is the unexpected switch from Lime bikes to new providers Forest and Voi just when Lime seemed to be making progress to meet residents’ demands for improved geo-fencing, better management of the chaotic parking of its bikes in bays, and (arguably) fewer bikes dumped randomly at the riders’ convenience.

Thanks to a Tweet from Chiswick resident, comedian Dara O’Briain, the story made national news on the BBC website, BBC London News, ITV News, The Standard and The Guardian. The council’s response was unapologetic and pushed blame on the lack of a London-wide agreement, for which there seems to be huge support. Parents have been forced back into providing a taxi service for their kids who can no longer cycle to and from their friends in other boroughs, and workers whose commute through several boroughs must now switch providers, and pay more, mid-journey. It seems as if the decision was made by people who have their own bikes and don’t need to hire one to get from a to b or who are not skilled in joined-up thinking.

What I’d like to report is that, while waiting for the E3 bus on Friday evening, I heard a familiar if different-sounding clackety-clack, clackety-clack, clackety-clack of a hacked bike. I turned to see what I assumed would be a Lime bike, its rider working hard to push it through a hostile borough. It was a Forest bike.

A by-election and elections to come in May 2026

The result of the Cranford by-election (polling day was on Thursday 21st August) provides a useful snapshot of the local political temperature. Labour held the ward, its safest seat, but its vote was down by 1,000, more than the 951 who voted for it, and a drop of 12.6 per cent compared with its vote in 2022. We, the Conservatives came second, with 675 votes, a 10 per cent increase in vote share on 2022. Turnout was extremely low, half that of 2022.

Trust in Labour in Hounslow has plummeted.

Joanna Biddolph

Chiswick Gunnersbury ward

07976 703446

DEMOCRACY: DATES FOR YOUR DIARY 2025

Monday 13 October: Chiswick Area Forum - Normally at Hogarth Hall, Chiswick Town Hall, Heathfield Terrace, Turnham, W4 4JN, but moveable around Chiswick (please check the website). Meetings are open from 6.30pm allowing residents to meet officers of Hounslow Council in Adult and Child care Social Welfare, Education, Housing and Services

Council Meetings

Planning

Thursday, 4 September

Borough Council

• Tuesday 16 September 7.30pm
• Tuesday 25 November  7:30 pm

Overview and Scrutiny Panel

Thursday, 18 September

There is public access for these meetings via a direct lift from the ground floor to the Council Meeting Room

6th Floor, Hounslow House, 7 Bath Road, Hounslow TW3 3EB

Council Meetings – Overview and Scrutiny Committee

• Monday 18 September 2025 7.00pm

6th Floor, Hounslow House, 7 Bath Road, Hounslow TW3 3EB

Council Meetings – Audit and Governance Committee

• Tuesday 4 November 7:00 pm

6th Floor, Hounslow House, 7 Bath Road, Hounslow TW3 3EB

Anyone can attend public meetings of the council. Most meetings take place on the 6th Floor, Hounslow House, 7 Bath Road, TW3 3EB. Hounslow House is fully accessible. The nearest tube is Hounslow Central which does not have step-free access. Parking in local roads is limited.

Emergencies

You can report emergencies outside office hours by ringing the council on: 020 8583 2222.

CONSERVATIVE COUNCILLOR SURGERIES

Chiswick: Every Saturday from 9.30am to 10.30am at Chiswick Library (the seven 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 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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