Backing W4 Businesses, Listening to Residents and Standing Up To Labour

Chiswick Gunnersbury ward councillor Vickram Grewel reports back

Cllr Vickram Grewal

September 7, 2026

There are few things I enjoy more than walking along Chiswick High Road, popping into our independent businesses and hearing directly from the people who make Chiswick such a great place to live.

In August, I spent time at Wild Bunch Juicery, one of my favourite independent coffee shops, for a couple of meetings. I have always loved the energy of places like Wild Bunch and Rhythm & Brew. They are busy, welcoming and full of the sort of character that you simply cannot manufacture. They are also run by people who have taken a risk, invested their money and worked incredibly hard to build something of their own.

That is what makes our local businesses so important. They are not just shops, cafés, pubs and restaurants. They are employers, community hubs and a huge part of what makes Chiswick feel like Chiswick.

Which is why I find it frustrating when I hear, again and again, from business owners about the rising cost of operating here.

Businesses across the borough, particularly in Chiswick, Cranford, Hounslow West and Heston, are raising with me the increasing cost of parking and the wider growth in council fees and charges. For a small independent business, these costs matter. If it becomes more expensive for customers to park and more expensive to operate, eventually somebody pays. It can mean higher prices, lower margins or fewer customers choosing to spend their money locally.

At a time when our businesses are already under pressure, councils should be asking themselves a simple question: how can we make it easier for businesses to succeed?

Too often, Labour seems to ask a different question: how much more can we charge them?

That is why the Conservative argument for enterprise matters. Economic growth does not come from endlessly increasing taxes, fees and regulation. It comes from people having the confidence and freedom to work, invest, employ and build successful businesses.

The Conservative Party has set out plans to abolish business rates for thousands of high street businesses, including pubs and shops, cut electricity bills for businesses, reduce red tape and tackle crime. The principle is straightforward: businesses create wealth and opportunity. Government should create the conditions for them to thrive.

And that principle should apply just as much locally as it does nationally.

Across Chiswick and the wider borough, you will see Conservative councillors championing business and enterprise. In Chiswick, one recent example is our local pubs on Strand on the Green. When The Bell & Crown and The City Barge faced being forced to remove their outside seating, with the prospect of daily fines, Conservative councillors stepped in to help find a sensible solution. The council subsequently agreed not to pursue enforcement while the pubs applied for the necessary licences.

That is the sort of local politics I believe in:working with businesses, finding solutions and cutting through unnecessary bureaucracy.

We should be proud of our pubs, cafés, restaurants and independent shops, not constantly looking for reasons to restrict them.

And the same principle should apply to residents. Just as businesses deserve an environment in which they can succeed, residents deserve a council that listens before making decisions that affect their lives.

Unfortunately, there are growing reasons to question whether that is happening under Labour.

Take William Hogarth School. Parents were understandably alarmed by reports that the possible closure of William Hogarth and Ivybridge Primary had been discussed privately among Labour councillors before the wider community had been properly consulted. The council has since said that no school reorganisation proposals will be implemented during the 2026/27 academic year, but the episode has understandably left parents asking whether decisions affecting their children’s education are genuinely being discussed with them before conclusions are reached.

That question of whether residents are being properly heard extends to the way under Labour, Hounslow Council itself operates. Labour is proposing changes to the Council’s constitution that would introduce a two and a half hour guillotine on Council meetings, limit questions from councillors to 30 minutes and restrict meetings to a maximum of two motions, with only one available to opposition groups or non-administration councillors.

These may sound like technical constitutional changes, but they are anything but. They mean less time to debate, fewer opportunities to question the administration and fewer opportunities for opposition councillors to raise issues on behalf of residents. More concerning still, these proposals were developed by the Labour Group without the usual cross-party deliberations.

Labour has a majority on Hounslow Council. Nobody disputes that. But winning an election does not mean you get to reduce scrutiny. A confident administration should welcome questions, welcome debate and be prepared to defend its decisions in public.

And if residents are concerned about having their voices heard inside Hounslow Council, they should also be concerned when decisions made by neighbouring councils have consequences for our communities.

That brings us to Weltje Road.

The proposed restriction by Labour-run Hammersmith & Fulham Council could affect thousands of journeys across Chiswick, Hammersmith, Acton and Ealing. Weltje Road is the last remaining point of access to the A4 between Chiswick Lane and Hammersmith Broadway, and an estimated 2,000 to 2,500 vehicles a daycould be pushed onto alternative routes, particularly Chiswick Lane. That is a road already carrying additional traffic following the closure of Rivercourt Road and Hammersmith Bridge.

So where is all that traffic supposed to go? Once again, it appears the answer is somewhere else.

What makes this particularly concerning is the apparent lack of meaningful consultation. An investigation by my colleague, Cllr Linden Grigg found no evidence that Hammersmith & Fulham officers engaged with Hounslow Council before progressing the proposals, despite the impact on Hounslow residents. Even 44 residents living on Weltje Road have signed their own petition opposing the measures. Yet ANPR cameras are being proposed, potentially followed by enforcement and fines.

There is a common thread running through all of this. Whether it is a business facing higher costs, parents wanting answers about their children’s school, opposition councillors seeking proper scrutiny or residents concerned about a road closure, people want to know that their elected representatives have actually listened to them.

Residents deserve to be heard, not dictated to.

That is why Hounslow Conservatives have launched our petition calling on Hammersmith & Fulham Council to keep Weltje Road open and formally consult Hounslow and other affected neighbouring boroughs before proceeding. If you live in Chiswick, Acton, Ealing or elsewhere in Hounslow, please sign it and make your voice heard:

Sign the Hounslow Conservatives petition to Keep Weltje Road open ⁠

For me, this comes back to a simple question: what is local government for?

It should support the people who live and work here. It should help businesses succeed, listen to parents, respond to residents’ concerns and provide proper scrutiny of its own decisions. It should not constantly be looking for new ways to charge people more, restrict what they can do or reduce the ability of elected councillors to challenge the administration.

That is why you will see Conservative councillors across Hounslow championing business and enterprise. We will stand up for our pubs, cafés and independent businesses. We will challenge proposals that make it harder for people to travel around our communities. We will defend proper scrutiny at Hounslow Council. And, most importantly, we will continue to listen to residents and give them a voice.

Back enterprise. Support our local businesses. Listen to residents. Protect scrutiny.

That is the Conservative approach. And I believe Chiswick and the wider borough deserve nothing less.

Cllr Vickram Grewal

vickram.grewal@hounslow.gov.uk

07904 184099

DEMOCRACY: DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Anyone can attend public meetings of the council. Hounslow House is fully accessible. Hounslow Central tube station is not step-free. The 237 bus stops nearby. Parking in local roads is limited.

Principal meetings are broadcast live on the Council’s YouTube channel

Chiswick Area Forum : 16 September from 6.30pm

CONSERVATIVE COUNCILLORS CONTACT INFO

Chiswick Gunnersbury ward

Cllr Joanna Biddolph joanna.biddolph@hounslow.gov.uk 07976 703446

Cllr Vickram Grewal vickram.grewal@hounslow.gov.uk 07904 184099

Cllr Ron Mushiso ron.mushiso@hounslow.gov.uk 07976 702887

Chiswick Homefields ward

Cllr Michael Denniss Michael.Denniss@hounslow.gov.uk

Cllr Jack Emsley jack.emsley@hounslow.gov.uk 07977 396017

Cllr Linden Grigg Linden.Grigg@hounslow.gov.uk 07779 436258

Chiswick Riverside ward

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