Your chance to ask questions of the people who run Hounslow Council

Chiswick House

Hounslow Council holds Cabinet Question Time at Chiswick House

Chiswick House is to host the next Cabinet Question Time, where local residents can put questions to the people who run Hounslow Council.

The Cabinet is made up of elected councillors, selected by Leader Shantanu Rajawat to take responsibility for the various portfolios. The current Cabinet is:

Leader Cllr Shantanu Rajawat – responsible for strategy, resources and external affairs
Deputy Leader Cllr Tom Bruce – assets, regeneration and development
Cllr Lily Bath – adult social care, public health and health integration
Cllr Samia Chaudhary – education, children, skills and employment
Cllr Katherine Dunne – climate, environment and transport
Cllr Ajmer Grewal – residents support, communities and equalities
Cllr Shivraj Grewal – infrastructure, recycling and transformation
Cllr Sue Sampson – housing management and homelessness
Cllr Salman Shaheen – culture, leisure and public spaces
Cllr Pritam Grewal – community safety, customer experience and enforcement

Pritam Grewal became a Cabinet Member last month after Cllr Raghwinder Siddhu was forced to resign from his Cabinet post after the Solicitors Regulation Authority shut down his law firm.

READ ALSO: Hounslow Cabinet Member’s solicitors practice shut down under suspicion of “dishonesty”

The event on Wednesday 17 September will be chaired by Xanthe Arvanitakis, the Director of Chiswick House and Gardens Trust.

Leader of Hounslow Council Cllr Shantanu Rajawat

Cllr Rajawat said:

“We are delighted to be holding our next Cabinet Question Time at such a stunning location enjoyed by so many Hounslow residents.

“We’re committed to being a listening council and really value hearing first-hand from residents about the issues which matter to them, and hopefully being able to provide the answers. This is an opportunity for residents to help us improve how we do things and the services they receive.”

Lime bikes abandoned on the Richmond side of Chiswick Bridge

PLenty to talk about …

Chiswick Bridge likened to Checkpoint Charlie

There will be much to talk about. The recent decision to ditch Lime bikes and introduce two new operators, Voi and forest, has caused irritation to rental e-bike users because it means riders can no longer cross the borough border into a neighbouring borough which uses a different provider.

It has resulted, said Chiswick resident Dara Ó Briain, in Chiswick Bridge becoming like ‘Checkpoint Charlie’, with Lime bikes stacked up on the Richmond side and Voi and forest bikes on the Chiswick side.

READ ALSO: Dara Ó Briain likens e-bike borders to ‘Checkpoint Charlie’

READ ALSO: Lime bikes lose contract to Forest and Voi in LB Hounslow

Hounslow Council slammed over record on building new ‘affordable’ housing

Last week Chiswick’s Conservative councillors described the borough of Hounslow as ‘one of the worst performing councils for affordable house building in Greater London’ after GLA figures for the construction of ‘affordable’ houses in London revealed Hounslow had only started building one property in the period between March and June this year.

READ ALSO: Just one ‘affordable home’ started in Hounslow since April, and one in Ealing, new figures show

The Council Leader hotly denied the claim, saying that the focus on one three month period was too narrow a period to make a fair judgement, and arguing that the last Hounslow Council administration delivered 5,000 homes and the current administration was on track to deliver an additional 2,000.

READ ALSO: Leader of Hounslow Council hits back at Tory jibe that Labour is not delivering on housing

Visualisation of scheme viewed from Hogarth Roundabout; CGI Simpson Haugh Architects

Hogarth roundabout development gets go ahead despite strong local opposition

Also this month the Council’s Planning Committee, following the advice of its Planning department, has agreed planning permission for a mixed use complex of offices and flats between six and ten storeys high beside Hogarth Roundabout, to the dismay of local residents.

The planning permisison was granted despite strong objections from residents’ group the Old Chiswick Protection Society, Historic England, Hammersmith & Chiswick MP Andy Slaughter, Hammersmith & Fulham Council and Hounslow Council’s own conservation officer.

READ ALSO: Hogarth roundabout development gets go ahead

READ ALSO: High rise scheme at Hogarth Roundabout dropped from planning meeting at last minute

Gunnersbury Park Garden Estate

Planning decisions “inconsistent” and “unfair”

The Planning department have also been criticised for their inconsistent approach to individual planning applications for private residential housing. Residents on the Gunnersbury Park Garden Estate banded together to complain about it in March.

READ ALSO: Residents group get together to protest against Hounslow Council’s ‘overbearing and unfair’ planning decisions

Number of big events at Gunnersbury Park constitutes “a day and night takeover”

People who live near Gunnersbury Park have been unhappy with the number of events held in the park, the large numbers who attend and the antisocial behaviour that goes along with it – people urinating in their gardens and discarding rubbish, as well as the affect on local transport, blocking access to nearby tube stations.

READ ALSO: Row breaks out over Gunnersbury Park festivals

READ ALSO: Waterworks at Gunnersbury Park will go ahead despite residents’ objections

Though not strictly the Council’s decision, as Gunnersbury Park CIC runs commercial events at the park, funding from Hounslow and Ealing councils to run Gunnersbury Park has been almost halved in the past seven years – reduced by 48% since 2018, so the Trust which manages the park says it has to run so many commercial events to run the park effectively.

Frank Mercedes, who told The Chiswick Calendar about the damp, mouldy state of his council home last year

Poor state of Council housing stock

Councillors always tell The Chiswick Calendar that a large part of the correspondence they receive is about housing – specifically the state of the Council’s housing stock which leaves people living in damp and poorly maintained properties.

READ ALSO: Disabled Chiswick resident fears for his mental and physical health in damp, mouldy council home

READ ALSO: Chiswick resident criticises Hounslow Council for “traumatic mismanagement” of home repairs

A weedy street in Bedford Park

Glyphosate reintroduced for spraying weeds

Another hot topic over the past few months has been the reintroduction of Glyphosate for spraying weeds. It has been found to cause cancer in rodents and many local residents are opposed to the Council using it in our streets and parks.

READ ALSO: Glyphosate: Should Hounslow Highways be using it on the streets of Chiswick?

READ ALSO: Residents divided over Hounslow Council’s decision to bring back chemical weedkiller

The ‘wildlife corridor’ entirely cleared of plants; photograph: Roy Forshaw

Loss of natural habitats for wildlife in Dukes Meadows

Allotment holders in Dukes Meadows were upset to see the loss of a long hedge which had become home to a variety of wildlife species over many years.

READ ALSO: Hedgehog home and ‘wildlife haven’ destroyed to build private school sports ground

Thomas’s London Day Schools ripped out a bramble hedge with, they say, the permission of the Council to clear the site as far as the boundary with the allotments in order to install new sports pitches.

Chsiwick Riverside Cllr Amy Croft brought Council Leader Cllr Shantanu Rajawat to hear the concerns of local environmental groups about it and promised to report back on what exactly it said the private schools group could do, and how they will prevent any further loss of wildlife habitats.

Sign at the end of Chiswick Bridge warning drivers they need a permit to enter Grove Park and Strand on the Green

Grove Park survey shows residents still want changes to their Low Traffic Neighbourhood and are concerned about security

There is also the perennial question of residents’ parking. Although surveys show that Low Traffic Neighbourhoods are generally popular with residents and Grove Park residents are happy that there are far fewer commuters pouring through their area each day, they are still unhappy with the complicated system that was introduced, which still results in many local people picking up fines, and they want greater consistency of traffic management.

READ ALSO: Grove Park survey shows residents still want changes to their Low Traffic Neighbourhood

Security and the lack of policing was the other big issue raised in ther Grove Park residents’ survey – another hot topic which has been raised increasingly in recent years as our local police station has been shut down and we see fewer officers deployed in London.

Hounslow Council’s Cabinet Members: Top row (L to R) Council Leader Shantanu Rajawat; Deputy Leader Tom Bruce; Katherine Dunne; Lily Bath; Shivraj Grewal;
Bottom row (L to R) Samia Chaudhary; Ajmer Grewal; Salman Shaheen; Sue Sampson

Book tickets

Plenty to talk about then … Wednesday 17 September, 6.00 – 8.00 pm.

To book a ticket click here: Cabinet Question Time at Chiswick House

Residents can ask submit questions in advance online at Cabinet Question Time | Let’s Talk Hounslow, or alternatively can ask their questions ‘live’ at the event.

Read more stories on The Chiswick Calendar