Changing Your Hounslow Council Password in Alaska

Ranjit Gill updates us on his week as a local councillor

Turnham Green's Councillors - Ron Mushiso, Joanna Biddolph and Ranjit Gill

I’ve just returned from a holiday in amazing Alaska where my council phone did not work. Nothing to do with signals in remote areas, it was the usual IT problems we’ve all encountered – it needed a new password. You’d think it would be a simple task but no. The council takes security of information seriously, and rightly so, but the restrictions are sometimes rather too complicated. The result? I was unable to communicate with residents and deal with casework. As soon as I got home I reset the password and guess what? The system didn’t recognise it and … well, that’s another long story with me pulling my hair out and various phone calls to the IT department who couldn’t hear me, but I could hear them. I’d managed to need help with my mobile on the day there were problems with the overall system at Hounslow House. Bad timing.

After more calls, the password was reset and I thought all would be fine. But, no. The problem did not stop there. No new emails were turning up on the phone. IT had to guide me through deleting the email account and reinstating it. What a waste of nearly two hours – their time, too, not just mine. Let’s not even start on the problems with my laptop … I must add, though, that it’s the system that is at fault, not the IT staff who are very helpful and always extremely patient.

Back up and running, I managed to send emails about a resident who had been waiting nine weeks for six rooms to be painted, a small window to be replaced and a new worktop to be installed – while also waiting to move in. The emails did the trick. Sometimes things happen due to no fault of any individual. It just needs a little nudge. We do quite a lot of nudging.

Audit and governance

We are all members of committees. As an accountant, being on the audit and governance committee was an obvious choice for me but the committee’s work, as its name indicates, goes far beyond number-crunching. We monitor the council’s whistleblowing policy to make sure it’s fit for purpose and easy to use. And we review the council’s risk register which covers issues such as safeguarding children, cyber security and Heathrow’s third runway. Two subjects have high-risk scores – the council’s medium term financial strategy and exiting the EU. The council’s budget for this year was set with an overspend and the overspends are increasing and thus this is a major concern which needs constant monitoring. The Labour council has failed to understand that you must have a better grip on budgetary control. It needs to learn lessons from Margaret Thatcher. And it needs to put its house in order. On exiting the EU, potential impacts include the loss of EU funding, a possible fall in demand for places in schools, and increased border checks affecting just in time deliveries.

Boundaries

The Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) is slowly moving through all 31 London boroughs, reviewing internal ward boundaries. The progress of the review of Hounslow is nearing its end but some disagreements remain. The LGBCE has recommended an increase to 61 councillors but a reduction from nine to eight in Chiswick. We are continuing to put up a spirited fight to retain Chiswick’s level of representation and believe that the borough deserves 62 councillors. I’m one of just three councillors overseeing this review, supported by expert and immensely helpful officers who know how to work LGBCE’s clunky map that makes the elector calculations on which this numbers game exercise is based. Each councillor should represent 3,636 residents so wards must be drawn with electoral equality uppermost in mind, while also respecting natural boundaries or communities. We have argued, as has the West Chiswick and Gunnersbury Society, that a new community will emerge from the blocks of flats being built along Capital Interchange Way and that its natural home will be Chiswick. That would bring in residents to make up the numbers needed for three councillors. The LGBCE disagrees, as does the majority party. The council will put in its official final report. We will submit our own proposal.

Chiswick Champion, Group Whip, Crime

I am extremely honoured to have been selected by Cllr John Todd, chairman of the Chiswick Area Forum, to be his deputy chairman. The role comes with an additional title – Chiswick Champion which doesn’t say what it does on the tin. It is not about championing Chiswick but about championing the area forum, developing its agenda to encourage residents to attend and participate. We are working on several ideas …

I am also delighted to have been re-selected as the group whip for another year and to work as a team with my eight colleagues tackling issues of concern in Chiswick – and throughout Hounslow – which brings me to the subject on which I lead for the group: crime. Having organised two public meetings, for residents to hear from and question our borough command unit (BCU) and the Chiswick police team, a third is due in September. There have been some improvements, but smash and grab thefts at our shops are now also on the agenda.

Life as a councillor is never dull. Apart from repeated IT irritations.

Cllr Ranjit Gill

Dates for diaries

● Borough Council: Tuesday, 23rd July at 7.30pm in Hounslow House
● Chiswick Area Forum: Tuesday, 17th September at 7.00pm in Chiswick Town Hall
● Chiswick surgeries: Every Saturday from 9.30am to 10.30am at Chiswick library, upstairs in the private room
● Gunnersbury surgeries: First Saturday of the month from 10am to 11am at The Triangle Club, The Ridgeway, W3 8LN, usually a group discussion but privacy can be arranged.

Councillor Ranjit Gill
Turnham Green ward
Email: ranjit.gill@hounslow.gov.uk
Phone: 07976 702956
Twitter: @rgill9

July 15, 2019