Local councillor Sam Hearn's blog about his week

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 12th February: The result of the Cranford council by-election were disappointing. No great political earthquake. Labour polled twice as many votes as the Conservatives (1,268 v 638). However Labour’s share of the total votes cast fell from 62% in 2014 to 54%. Interestingly postal votes accounted for 61% of the total. Bizarre.

Saturday 13th February: Canvassing and delivering for Zac in Turnham Green Ward with our indefatigable GLA member Tony Arbour and seven others. A quick meeting with Riverside Ward Chair Mike Denniss to run through details of the forthcoming Ward AGM.

Sunday 14th February: I take a break from paperwork to drop in at Hogarth’ House (admission free) to see the small but perfectly formed exhibition of rare books from The Thomas Layton Collection. This high quality exhibition provides a peephole insight into the massive hoard of hidden treasures that wealthy Brentford Councillor Layton left to “the people of Brentford” in 1911. You can still catch this exhibition before it ends early in April. More details on the charity’s website www.laytoncollection.org

Monday 15th February: It is becoming clear that the publicity for the Hounslow Cabinet Question time event to be held at Chiswick Town Hall has to put it politely “failed to reach its target audience”. Local residents groups have not been contacted. A notice appeared briefly on Hounslow’s own website and twitter messages have apparently been tweeted.

Tuesday 16th February: Catching up on emails and suggesting to residents that they might like to take some of their issues up with the Hounslow Cabinet tomorrow night at Chiswick Town Hall.

Wednesday 17th February: At Chiswick Town Hall for the “Question Time for the Hounslow Cabinet”. The publicity for this event has been underwhelming so not really surprised that the turnout was low. The audience never consisted of more than sixteen people including two councillors. I stand to be corrected but the members of the cabinet and their retinue of sherpas from the Civic Centre probably out-numbered the audience. Most of the questions were raised by audience members from elsewhere in the Borough with complaints about their own local issues. Comforting to hear that when anything goes wrong in the Borough your trusty Hounslow Cabinet are not to blame. There is quite a long list of people and organisations who sadly seem to make a habit of letting us all down. Perhaps the next meeting should be at Fuller’s Brewery. Just a thought.

Thursday 18th February: A well-attended Ward AGM. A new and enthusiastic Ward Committee was duly elected. Members seem keen to learn from the lessons learnt the hard way during last year’s General Election campaign. There is however much to look back on with pride. Councillor Paul Lynch and I provide reports on our work as councillors over the last year and these are well received. There is never enough time to do everything.

February 22, 2016