From 'Rock' Musical Rehearsals To Chairing Chiswick Area Forum

A week in the life of a local councillor

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

Friday 29th May: Into the Civic Centre to pick up papers and drop in for a chat with the staff in Democratic Services. Refresh my memory of the agenda for the Chiswick Area Forum and consider how to insert matters raised by councillors into the business of the meeting. All of this assumes that I will be re-elected as Chair of the Area Forum for another year.

Saturday 30th May: With friends from Chiswick for a long walk on the South Downs Way. The weather is kind and the scenery amazing. Good to recharge the mental batteries but physically exhausted by the end of the day. It must have been the limoncello or the sloe gin.

Sunday 31st May: Another rehearsal for the Rock and a Hard Place musical. Not sure who wishes to be Vice Chair of the Area Forum. Cllr John Todd has done an excellent job in the last year. No doubt all will be revealed. Re-read papers for the Area Forum and then cut and paste comments from emails.

Monday 1st June: Several residents are querying why Hounslow Highways do not reply to emails. Will suggest that a representative of HH be invited to attend a future meeting of the CAF.

Tuesday 2nd June: Re-elected as Chair at the Area Forum meeting. Councillor McGregor is elected as Vice Chair. He will sit on the Council’s Enforcement Committee. Fortunately he has already completed the necessary training. Surprisingly few members of the public were present given the topics under discussion. We were able to finish our deliberations before 9.30pm.

Thursday 4th June: Attended the Civic Centre to observe the Planning Committee dealing with the application to build a temporary school on part of the Brent Lea recreation ground. There was a solid two hours of presentations and debate concerning this single application. Cllrs Todd and O’Reilly asked sensible and penetrating questions as did local Brentford Councillor Mel Collins. Several members of the Committee made little or no contribution to the proceedings. Cllr Hughes, in proposing the motion, made a strong case but I am not sure that I heard the councillor seconding the motion speak other than to indicate that he was seconding the motion. The application was granted. The issue of what can be done on Metropolitan Open Land may well come back to haunt us in Chiswick and indeed other parts of the Borough.

Friday 5th June: Ground Hog Day: Into the Civic Centre to get my I-Pad and Laptop re-synced. I have been unable to receive or send council emails for the last week.

June 8, 2015