Time For Another Police Meeting On Crime In Chiswick

Councillor Ranjit Gill on need for a crime update, local petitions and the cycleway

THE WORK CARRIES ON THROUGH THE HOLIDAYS

August is usually a quiet time at the council. Most folk are on a well-deserved holiday. Nevertheless, the council still has to function to provide services to its residents and councillors have their fair share of case work, be it dealing with complaints about bins not having been cleared for three weeks at a block of flats and the presence of vermin, or streets not having been swept. All it takes is a few emails to get the problems solved.

Amongst cases I’ve dealt with this month was one relating to the protection of young vulnerable kids. This is always a difficult subject, more so as it was the first such case I’ve had. When it comes to the health and safety of young children we cannot be complacent. We must act in the interest of the children. We must report it to the authorities for immediate action.

PETITIONS MEAN YOUR VOICES ARE HEARD

Brentford Fountain Leisure Centre; A petition has been signed by 180 residents highlighting issues such as sub-standard general maintenance, cleaning and repairs of the changing rooms, gyms, loos, swimming pools, showers and the communal areas at Brentford Fountain Leisure Centre. This is run by Fusion, on behalf of Hounslow council, and residents are fed up with inadequacies. The petition closes on Monday, 2nd September so if you would like to sign it, log on here: http://petitions.hounslow.gov.uk/Fusion/

STOP CS9 – the Cycle Superhighway now called Cycleway 9

We have been running a campaign calling on Hounslow council and TfL to rethink the route and have been on Chiswick High Road every Saturday this month collecting signatures for a petition. A lot of assumptions have been made, by various people including on the CW4 forum and on social media, that we are against cycling. We are not. We are for safe cycling to protect cyclists and residents. We are asking for an alternative route along the A4, as is being proposed by Hammersmith & Fulham council.

Last Saturday one resident remarked, ”We have a council that does not listen to residents, unlike the council for Holland Park!”. As well as not listening, has a decision already been made? A planning application for two extra tables and chairs outside a restaurant on Chiswick High Road has been recommended for refusal because CS9 will be running along that pavement. It looks as if minds are already set, doesn’t it. Officers have recommended approval but it hasn’t been approved yet. Even if it is approved, might that restaurant benefit from extra outdoor seating for the rest of the summer, before construction starts? What if the scheme is subject to a legal challenge and construction is delayed, perhaps stopped? With so many shops, cafés and restaurants struggling to win our business, approving an application short term, to boost business, would have been the sensible – and considerate – thing to do.

If you are against CS9 as proposed, there still is time to sign the petition – the deadline is just before cabinet meets at 7pm on Tuesday, 3rd September. If anyone has forms at home or in the office, they can drop them off at 433 Chiswick High Road (opposite the Clayton Hotel) so they can add them to the total which is currently:

2,770 on paper
1,765 online
4,535 total

BOUNDARY COMMISSION

Yes, I have been busy on this project yet again. We have submitted our own plans for Chiswick and Brentford wards because we disagree with the council’s proposals. Our plans call for retaining the current number of councillors for Chiswick – nine – and making the two new Brentford wards two councillor wards.

We had a request from Popes Lane (south side) and Lionel Road North residents asking to be included in Turnham Green ward as they feel more connected to Gunnersbury and Chiswick than Brentford. Cllr Joanna Biddolph and I visited some of the residents in those two roads and were happy to take up their suggestion. Thank you to all those who helped organise and signed the petition. If approved by the Boundary Commission, the Turnham Green ward would have extra residents, meeting the number of residents required for each councillor. We have suggested that the ward be called Chiswick Gunnersbury.

Under our proposals, Chiswick Riverside ward would incorporate the new Capital Exchange Way residential development plus the new stadium. This change was also suggested by the West Chiswick and Gunnersbury Society. We all believe those new residents will consider Chiswick, not Brentford, their home town. Chiswick Homefields will be expanded and include part the current Chiswick Riverside and the number of residents per councillor works for all three Chiswick wards. The magical number per Councillor is 3,636 residents.

CRIME AND THE FUTURE OF POLICING IN CHISWICK

Home Office figures show a huge rise in the number of knife crime offences with a total of 43,516 recorded in the 12 months to March 2019. Seventeen teenagers have been murdered in London this year. Parents are warning their seven-year-old children about knife crime and parents of under-18s are worried that their children might become victims to it.

With the above findings, I wonder why police from our local BCU (the Basic Command Unit that brings together policing in Ealing, Hillingdon and Hounslow) has reneged on its promise to return to Chiswick in September to report on progress made since our last public meeting and listen to the views of local residents.

With the government promising to tackle crime, perhaps the new deputy borough commander (Gary Taylor has left) would call for a rethink and keep the promise made to Chiswick?

STREET PARTY – 15th SEPTEMBER

The area at the top of Turnham Green Terrace, neglected for years, has been given a makeover by Abundance London in co-ordination with the Friends of Chiswick Back Common and with S106 funding from Hounslow. A perennial meadow is in flower and new benches have transformed the area. The nearby brick wall, along the tube line embankment, will be home to a new art project.

Soon the restored water fountain will be reinstated, thanks to Cllr John Todd whose enthusiastic campaign should mean less single use plastic is bought and abandoned and that we have somewhere conveniently local to fill our re-usable water bottles. The fountain is made of pink granite, with a rosette as a delivery spout. Thanks to a grant from the Heritage of London Trust, the four sections of the fountain have been dismantled, old plumbing removed, drainage restored and new piping installed. It has been cleaned and repaired and a new finial carved. If you’ve walked past, you’ll have seen the beautifully restored gilded lettering and noticed that the stonework has been waxed and polished. We’ll be drinking from it very soon.

All three – the piazza, the unveiling of the artwork on the wall and the water fountain’s restoration – will be celebrated on Sunday, 15th September during the Cookbook Festival (running alongside the Chiswick Book Festival). Turnham Green Terrace will be closed to traffic from 11am to 4pm for a street party with activities for all. I will be helping to put up the gazebos (we have just an hour to set up everything) and then maybe helping to press apple juice and generally enjoying the ambience. Do join in the fun!

DATES FOR YOUR DIARIES

Hounslow Cabinet meets to consider CS9: Tuesday, 3rd September at 7pm at Hounslow House (papers are online now)

Hounslow Borough Council: Cancelled

Chiswick Area Forum: Postponed

Councillors surgeries

Chiswick surgeries: Every Saturday from 9.30am to 10.30am at Chiswick library, upstairs in a 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

Email: ranjit.gill@hounslow.gov.uk

Phone: 07976 702956

August 31, 2019