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 11 th March: Focussing today on my work as a Trustee of the local Conservative Association. I suspect most people would find this as dull as ditch water but it has to be done. I am still following up on lots of emails that are chasing up matters left unresolved at the Area Forum.
Saturday 12 th March: Continue the work of organising deliveries in my Ward for Zac Goldsmith’s Mayoral Campaign. Look online at the papers for next week’s Borough Council meeting. There appears to be nothing too controversial – but maybe I have missed something?
Sunday 13 th March: I attend a fundraising lunch in aid of Syrian and Iraqi Refugees at the Vicarage of St Paul’s Grove Park. This has become an annual event but this year the price has gone up in order to raise more funds. Instead of the traditional Lenten soup we tuck into some excellent Middle Eastern style food prepared by parishioners. The problems of Mesopotamia seem intractable but cannot be ignored. In the evening the trustees of the Conservative Association meet to run through the draft accounts and agree actions.
Monday 14 th March : At the Civic Centre in the evening to prepare for tomorrow’s Borough Council meeting. Our numbers are rather depleted but we cover a lot of ground. One brave soul asks if we should use these meetings to debate the EU referendum. There will be at least one public debate locally once the Mayoral and GLA elections are out of the way.
Tuesday 15 th March: At the start of the Borough Council meeting the Mayor allows Cllr Paul Lynch to screen a video about the Short Break Scheme for disabled children and their parents/carers and siblings, run by the Waterman’s Centre. The film is a real show-stopper.
The discussion about the revised Regeneration and Economic Strategy 2016-20 is genuinely interesting. However I fear that important sections of it will have to be revised after the Government makes its decision about the third runway. Lead Members accepted that Cllr Todd’s objections to aspects of both the Pay Statement and the Scheme of Members’ allowances were legitimate. These will be “remitted” to a Cabinet sub-committee reviewing governance issues. It is hard to understand why the salaries of the directors of the Council’s wholly owned subsidiaries should not be subject to public approval and scrutiny. All members supported a motion asking the Government to protect the funding for London’s Schools when the new funding formula is introduced in April 2017.
Wednesday 16 th March: The local Conservative Association’s AGM is on Friday and emails and texts are whizzing around. Our Trustees’ report to the AGM will be brief and largely positive. Well that’s the plan anyway. I have successfully negotiated an additional supply of the latest Zac leaflets for distribution in my Ward – a minor victory.
Thursday 17 th March : To Strand on the Green Junior School for the day time Governors’ meeting that we hold once a year. The commitment shown by those Governors who can attend is impressive. Until the Hounslow Cabinet makes its decision in April the issue of the proposed amalgamation of the two Strand Schools is still on hold. I wish that those making the decision could see how well the two schools work together on days like this. The uncertainty over the future of the two is extremely damaging.
The Government’s recent announcements about academisation threaten to make any LBH decision irrelevant. At least the options open to the two Strand on the Green Schools are becoming clearer. The New Strand SEN Centre is apparently developing well and now offers a high quality and much needed service.
March 18, 2016
