Chiswick councillor Amy Croft to lead on Infrastructure in Hounslow Labour’s senior leadership team

Hounslow Council’s new Cabinet appointees L to R: Lily Bath; Max Mosley; Madeeha Asim; Shantanu Rajawat; Tom Bruce; Samia Choudhary; Amy Croft; Ajmer Grewal; Salman Shaheen; Sue Sampson

Chiswick Riverside councillor Amy Croft appointed to lead on Infrastructre, Enforcement and Recycling

The Leader of the Labour group on Hounslow Council has told his senior leadership team what roles they will play in the new Cabinet, provided he is confirmed as Leader of the Council and the Cabinet members are endorsed at the Borough Council meeting on 26 May.

Chiswick Riverside councillor Amy Croft, Chiswick’s only Labour councillor, has been given responsibility for Infrastructure, Enforcement and Recycling, which is a wide brief covering roads, parking, rubbish collection and fines.

Cllr Amy Croft

“I’m really excited to potentially be taking on this role”, she told The Chiswick Calendar.

“An awful lot of my casework revolves around these issues and I am keen to engage with residents about how the services run and how we maximise the resources we have”.

Cllr Shantanu Rajawat announced his proposed new Cabinet last week, appointing three new Cabinet members to replace Shivraj Grewal, who lost his seat in the elections; Pritam Grewal, who chose not run for Cabinet again; and Katherine Dunne, former Cabinet Member for Climate, Environment and Transport.

He dropped Katherine from the Cabinet after she planned to stand against him in the leadership election, though in the event she didn’t, as she fainted at the party’s AGM on Monday and was taken home.

READ ALSO: Hounslow Local Election results: Labour reduced to majority of one

READ ALSO: Cllr Shantanu Rajawat re-elected as Leader of Hounslow Labour

The new members of Labour’s leadership team are Chiswick Riverside Cllr Amy Croft; Max Mosley, who lives in Chiswick and represents Brentford East ward; and Madeeha Asim, who represents Feltham West.

Those he is planning to keep in Cabinet from the previous administration are Cllr Lily Bath, Cllr Tom Bruce, Cllr Sue Sampson, Cllr Salman Shaheen, Cllr Samia Choudhary and Cllr Ajmer Grewal.

These are the portfolios he has given each of them:

Madeeha Asim – Children and Young Futures
Lily Bath – Health, Wellbeing and Adult Social Care
Tom Bruce – Regeneration and Economic Development
Samia Chaudhary– Transpormation and Customer Experience
Amy Croft – Infrastructre, Enforcement and Recycling
Ajmer Grewal – Communities, Culture and Safety
Max Mosley – Finance and Resources
Sue Sampson – Housing
Salman Shaheen – Environment, Transport and Public Realm

Katherine Dunne was elected by her fellow Labour councillors at the AGM to do the job of Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, overseeing the decisions of Cabinet.

Pritam Grewal has been proposed as Chair of the Planning Committee.

“We need to be ready to step into the administration when the Labour group collapses” – Cllr Jack Emsley

The new Leader of the Conservative Opposition group on the Council, Chiswick Homefields Cllr Jack Emsley, told The Chiswick Calendar it was by no means certain they would be endorsed at the Borough Council meeting on 26 May.

“We need to be ready to step into the administration when the Labour group collapses – and it will be when, not if”, he told us.

He has been busy trying to persuade other Opposition councillors – eight Reform, three Green, one Liberal Democrat and one Independent – to vote with the 17 Conservative councillors to stop Labour excersising control.

A working majority of one means all the Labour councillors have to turn up and vote, or persuade some of the opposition to side with them. At least one Labour councillor had booked a holiday for next week, as it is half term.

Guy Lambert (Green Party) and Theo Dennison (Independent), both former Labour Cabinet Members themselves, are amongst opposition councillors expected to vote with the Tories in a bid to stop Labour excersising control, while at least one member of the opposiiton has told The Chiswick Calendar they intend to vote with Labour.

(L) Labour’s Mayoral candidate Cllr Ranjit Gill; (R) Conservatives’ Mayoral candidate Cllr Michael Denniss

Ranjit Gill Labour’s nomination for the next Mayor of Hounslow

Cllr Ranjit Gill has been nominated as the Labour party’s choice for the next Mayor of Hounslow. The Labour councillor for Osterley & Spring Grove, who used to represent Chiswick Gunnersbury on the Council, defected to Labour last year, dramatically crossing the floor at the Borough Council meeting.

READ ALSO: Chiswick Conservative councillor Ranjit Gill crosses to Labour

The Conservatives have nominated their own candidate: Chiswick Homefields Cllr Michael Denniss.

“I think the vote might be closer than [Labour Leader] Shantanu thinks”, Jack told me. “Mike commands the respect of the opposition councillors and they won’t vote for Ranjit”.

Who becomes mayor has also become a key factor in the power struggle, because in the event of a tie the mayor holds the casting vote.