As a long and faithful supporter of Chiswick's retail, hospitality, leisure and service businesses, and especially valuing the independent businesses that make Chiswick unique, Councillor Joanna Biddolph has a long history of campaigning to support local businesses. From setting up the Chiswick Shops Task Force to lobby for local businesses then publishing a detailed report on Chiswick's local economy, to organising meetings for traders and the police to discuss shoplifting and other retail crime, to campaigning for more parking, increased street lighting, improved street cleaning and many other issues that are needed to make Chiswick an attractive place to live in and visit, Cllr Joanna Biddolph has fought hard to support businesses as they have faced challenge after challenge and never more so since the Labour was elected in July 2024.
During Covid, Cllr Joanna Biddolph supported businesses by distilling government and council briefings into quick, easy reads with key points at the top of the email, not buried at the bottom of long official documents. Her emails highlighted grants businesses could apply for and social distancing rules as well as promoted schemes such as the Conservative government's Eat Out to Help Out scheme and its £20 vouchers to stimulate shopping after lockdowns kept everyone at home.
When shoplifting increased - nationwide - it hit Chiswick's traders hard, leading to publicity in national news media as well as locally. Jo organised two meetings for Chiswick's traders with the police to discuss what could be done and to share tips and best practice when shoplifting is taking place. Later, she supported the ward police team's efforts to ban two prolific shoplifters from Chiswick and their continuing operation to remove a resident who receives stolen goods plus, of course, the dealers at the end of the chain.
Jo continues to support businesses individually and collectively, wanting to ensure that Chiswick continues to attract residents who want to live here for what it offers that is different from any town anywhere, and visitors. Chiswick has been both a destination and a through-route since Roman times and she wants it to continue to be so.
Media coverage 2026
- Struggling High Streets fuel sense of neglect for voters ahead of local elections: BBC News, 3rd May 2026
