A Week In The Life Of A Chiswick Councillor

More on wheelie bins and hunting down old planning applications

Cllr Sam Hearn, who represents the Riverside ward in Chiswick, is chairman of the Chiswick Area Forum. He has written this account of his life as a busy local councillor.

Saturday – 15th November: Phone calls to councillor colleagues about the wheelie bin “roll out” and other matters arising from the Area Forum.

Sunday – 16nd November: Looking through LBH web site for old planning applications trying to resolve a constituents concerns. Sent emails chasing up on unresolved casework.

Monday – 17rd November: Trying to arrange a meeting with Officers and seeking advice on legal/regulatory issues. Read and re-read a long complicated email from a disabled constituent who praised Councillor Lynch for his response to her earlier email. Realised that I had ignored her earlier email, because it was addressed to ten other people. My mistake.

Tuesday – 18th November: Investigating and answering queries about Wheelie bins. Not really what I should be doing?

Wednesday - 19th November: Leafleting in Ward and staying in contact with deliverers. Nice to receive a traditional hand delivered letter of thanks from a satisfied constituent – we do so much by email nowadays.

Thursday – 20th November: Casework relating to permission for tree surgery work and requiring more searching of planning records. Problems trying to print out important email attachments.

Friday – 21th November: Mid-morning meeting on site at small social housing project. At the Civic Centre for an afternoon meeting with Officers about a traffic report coming to the Area Forum in January.

November 22, 2014