Councillors' Casework Figures Won't Be Published

Local councillor Sam Hearn writes a blog about his week

Friday 14th September:
Catching up after the additional group meeting last the night – what exactly did I promise to do? Then I begin focusing hard on the agenda for next week’s Borough Council meeting. Yet another fatuous motion from Labour asking us to agree that the Council should lobby the Government about action that is already in hand.

Saturday 15th September:
My turn to run the councillors’ surgery at Chiswick Library. A full-on session with five residents with a variety of issues; from flooded crossovers to the Council not responding to a leaseholder’s reasonable request for information on where to procure interior fire doors for a flat in a multi-storey block. The session takes an hour and a half and researching the issues and following up takes twice as long.

Sunday 16th September:
Residents are annoyed that the consultation on a new CPZ scheme in Chiswick Riverside is progressing so slowly. I try to respond in as positive and concise a manner as I can. There is a lot of anger and frustration.

Monday 17th September:
Only one councillor is absent from the group meeting and he is on the high seas. We run through the Borough Council meeting agenda for tomorrow night. There are two reports that need real scrutiny; one on the delivery of the Administration’s key pledges and another on the annual Youth Justice Plan. We have tabled three formal questions, and a motion on Heathrow accepted for debate.
Cllr Mushiso will ask what steps the Lead Member for Education has taken to publicise the increase in the financial resources provided by the Government to Hounslow’s schools in 2018/19. Cllr Biddolph will ask when residents can expect to see the regular publication of members’ casework figures. Cllr Todd will ask the Leader of the Council to explain exactly how his administration is “robustly defending the requirement for developers to deliver [so called] affordable homes”. Cllr Mushiso will lead the debate on his motion that the Council remains committed to a better not bigger Heathrow.

Tuesday 18th September:
I come into the Civic Centre to attend the first Task and Finish Group meeting to discuss customer service. There is a lot of blunt speaking. Improvements have been made but the issues are deep rooted and chronic.

At Borough Council the question on schools funding is side stepped. The Government has increased schools funding but it is apparently this was not a “real” increase. Pritam Grewal made the same speech that he made 12 weeks ago explaining why members’ casework statistics cannot be published. I receive the casework stats for the Tory councillors when I ask for them. What’s the problem?

Councillor Curran tries hard to explain why none of the new flats to be built in/next to the Gunnersbury Triangle nature reserve will be allocated to social housing. The debate on a 'better not bigger' Heathrow becomes snarled up in a legalistic wrangle over the unnecessary and long-winded last-minute amendment submitted by the Labour Party.

Wednesday 19th September:
In to the Civic Centre for a meeting the Head of Traffic Management to discuss a wide range of issues followed by a catch-up meeting with Alan Adams the acting Chief Executive.

Thursday 20th September: I receive a copy of a letter from TfL responding to matters raised at a meeting about CS9 on the 16th August. Amongst other things TfL acknowledges that there was very little preconsultation engagement with either local people or elected representatives. A quite astonishing admission when you think that TfL staff do this the kind of project work every day of the week.

Cllr Sam Hearn

September 26, 2018