Long Group Meetings With Keen New Local Councillors

Local councillor Sam Hearn writes about his week

Friday 20th July: The latest CPZ consultation closes on Monday and I am receiving enquiries daily from residents desperate for a scheme to be introduced as soon as possible. A number of residents living on private estates are concerned that they will not be able to buy permits and park on public roads within any new CPZ. In addition, there remains the problem of Strand on the Green School teachers unable to park in the grounds of the school. The only option offered by the Council is a £700 p.a. business parking permit for each teacher. Quite ridiculous. Neighbouring Boroughs are more lenient.

Saturday 21st July: Thank goodness I can access my Council emails via my personal computer. My new council supplied ‘device’ will for some reason only link with the Council’s systems when I am in the Civic Centre. We are meant to be operating without paper and using our ‘devices’ to access our meeting reports. Interesting how few councillors seem to be “paperless” at meetings. Nor does anyone seem to have resolved the issue of the confidential yellow papers attached to some reports.

Sunday 22nd July: Continuing the preparatory work for Mondays’ Group meeting, Tuesdays’ Borough Council meeting, Wednesdays’ Boundary Commission meeting and Thursdays’ Public meeting in the place of an Area Forum.

Cllr Sam Hearn

Monday 23rd July: Another long Group meeting. Our fault I suppose for getting so many keen new councillors elected in May. We are joined by two work experience interns who have been shadowing various roles at the Civic Centre during the day.

Tuesday 24th July: The Borough Council was a game of two halves. There was general agreement on most of the substantive reports tabled for the meeting and there was fulsome praise for Mary Harpley the Chief Executive who is moving on to work for the Mayor of London. Conservative Councillors were dubious about the new future strategy document which appeared only to identify numerous issues without providing any solutions – other than to set up discussion groups!

We were disappointed that Labour Councillors refused to agree with our motion that when TfL comes forward with revised plans for the Cycle Super Highway that these should be the subject of a second public consultation. The Lead Member seemed to think that there were only one or two small problems to resolve and that a decision could be made by Cabinet alone.

Finally we discussed Labour’s hubristic motion about how the local election result had revealed “overwhelming support” for Labour’s plans for the Borough. No matter that nearly two thirds of the electorate could no be bothered to vote. It was also baffling how residents were supposed to have given overwhelming support to a manifesto that was only published three days before the election.

Wednesday 25th July: The Councillors’ Boundary Commission Working Party met formally for the first time to elect a Chair and Deputy Chair. There are many months of hard work in front of all of us sorting out how many councillors the Borough needs and balancing up the ward boundaries so that they are of a roughly equal size in terms of electors. Chiswick residents are for example currently over-represented and Brentford residents under represented. This is the first review for 19 years.

Thursday 26th July: A warm evening for a well-attended meeting at the Catholic Centre. Conservative Councillors had to organise and pay for this public meeting. Hounslow Council refused to pay for an additional Chiswick Area Forum with full clerical support. It seemed wrong that residents should have to wait from 3rd May until September before they could engage with their new councillors in a public meeting. The last Area Forum was held in February.

July 27, 2018