Councillor Joanna Biddolph's blog for chiswickw4.com looks at recent embarrassing and inappropriate behaviour by Labour councillors during this week's borough council meeting and later; the application by the Gunnersbury Park CIC for a blanket 10-year planning permission for large events; another heartbreaking eviction; the defection to the Conservatives of Cllr Vickram Grewal; and the Christmas lights switch-on in Chiswick.
Christmas is a time for giving but this year Christmas has come early with what numerous people are describing as “the gift that keeps on giving”. It’s Hounslow Labour. First, Cllr Farhaan Rehman – hardly ever heard, not often seen, in the council chamber – his bright blue Lamborghini was seen parked, in the car park under Hounslow House, in a disabled bay but without a Blue Badge on display: not once but twice including during Tuesday’s borough council meeting. In an act of penance, he stood down as chairman of the council’s licensing committee – a regulatory committee – and paid £160 to charity.
This is against the backdrop of numerous residents and business-owners receiving £1,000 fines for fly tipping cardboard - with zero evidence that they had done so.
While many of us were thinking “you couldn’t make it up”, cabinet member for climate, environment and transport Cllr Katherine Dunne (chief cheerleader for closed roads, cycle lanes, floating bus stops and Chiswick’s loathed bus gate) lost her rag, not for the first time, and told my fellow Chiswick Gunnersbury ward colleague Cllr Ron Mushiso to “F*** off”. After turning off her microphone. I saw it – it’s a distinctly easy phrase to lip read – and immediately asked the mayor to intervene. Cllr Ron Mushiso heard it and did the same. There are rules about behaviour – including respect, politeness and courtesy – that we are expected to follow, as set out in the council’s constitution.
A few days later, Cllr Hina Mir’s car was seen parked in a disabled bay in the same car park also without a Blue Badge on display. As I said, Hounslow Labour is the gift that keeps on giving.
That’s not all. As anyone in reputation crisis management knows, there are rules that must be followed if you have done something wrong. You admit it. You say sorry. You say you what you will do to ensure it won’t happen again. You do it. You tell others what you have done. So what do Labour and Cllr Katherine Dunne, in particular, do? They deny it. According to a Labour spokesman, “ Councillor Dunne does not recall using any offensive language.”
I couldn’t help recalling HM The Queen’s comment, “Recollections may vary”, about a dispute in the royal family. I saw and Ron heard. Our recollections cannot not vary.
I can’t forget another Labour denial. If you have followed all the work we have done, as the Conservative group, campaigning against Labour’s road and driving restrictions, you will remember the meeting (a call-in to the overview and scrutiny committee) of Labour’s proposals for the LTN dubbed the South Chiswick Liveable Neighbourhood. Astonishingly, the chairman of that committee and that meeting, Labour Cllr Sayyar Raza, claimed to have had “hundreds of emails” in favour of the scheme. As an FOI request revealed, I had received 74 emails (71 against, two in favour, one unclear) 73 of which had been copied to Cllr Raza. So how many had Cllr Raza received? One more than I had received: 75. How did Labour respond? A spokesman said that Cllr Raza had been “speaking figuratively”.
Guidance for councillor's in Hounslow
Gunnersbury Park makes blanket 10-year planning application for festivals
This is another case of “you couldn’t make it up”. Complaints from residents about intolerable sound levels; thudding lower frequencies that shake sofas and rattle windows and doors; appalling waste management (including human waste); drug dealing; inadequate care of the land compacted by many thousands of festival-goers; stewarding; and many other issues … had led to some improvements. Then, this summer, the Krankbrother festival took everyone back to the Lovebox/Citadel festival that shocked the neighbourhood in 2018. Residents in Stamford Brook experienced it loud and clear. Organisers insisted that the licence for decibels and lower frequencies had not been breached. Very few believed it.
The Gunnersbury Park team appeared somewhat contrite at the Chiswick Area Forum last Junemaking some concessions including to be more transparent and to communicate more effectively. Another magical illusion.
There was no mention at this year’s formal feedback session two weeks ago of the park’s intention to apply for a 10-year blanket planning permission for its festivals. It already has a blanket 10-year licence which denies residents a say about individual festivals. Why follow one disastrous decision with another? And this is after professing there will be more transparency and more effective communication?
Local residents have already analysed the application and can give pointers on key issues. Let me know if you would like to be put in touch with them. Meanwhile, the application is on the council’s planning website with the reference number: P/2025/3274.
Another heartless eviction
Away from the silliness of the politics in Hounslow, the stark reality for residents continues. Another plea for help through a horrible eviction landed in my computer last week. As before, there is no doubt that the eviction will take place. Yet still the council insists that it cannot rehouse the family until after the bailiffs have claimed the keys and the family is at Hounslow House with their suitcases. The family has done nothing wrong. The eviction came after the family asked the landlord for reasonable repairs to be made.
A final gift from the Labour party?
This is different. And it’s very good news. Labour Cllr Vickram Grewal and I served on the council’s overview and scrutiny committee together from 2018 to 2022. That committee works cross party, putting politics aside, in the interests of residents and business ratepayers looking hard at council failures. Vickram and I were always aligned, especially so on the awfulness of some housing associations. So, it is particularly thrilling that he has crossed the floor and joined the Conservative Party, as another Labour gift that keeps on giving.
Back to Christmas cheer – please shop local this Christmas
The lights are on (some might not be, but will flash on and off again soon) and all Chiswick’s retailers hope you will shop locally for all your presents, food and drink, hair and beauty/grooming, clothes and getting in shape before – and after – piling on the pounds. Yes, the budget will affect huge numbers of Chiswick residents, with “where shall we move to?” being discussed as families see outgoings increase in what some say are petty, peevish, vindictive actions. My point, though, is – if you are going to shop, please shop in Chiswick to help our hard-working traders survive … as the budget wasn’t great news for small businesses, either.
Meanwhile, my Conservative councillor colleagues and I are looking forward to more gifts from Labour …
Councillor Joanna Biddolph
Read Councillor Joanna Biddolph's blog as published on ChiswickW4.com: https://www.chiswickw4.com/default.asp?section=info&page=councillorsblo…
