Christmas Cheer, Rivercourt Road and Council Budget Blues

Chiswick Homefields councillor Jack Emsley reports back

Cllr Jack Emsley

November 23, 2024

This week saw the starting gun for two very different things: it marked the beginning of the Christmas season with the High Road lights switch-on event, and also marked the beginning of preparations for Hounslow Council’s budget for the next financial year with a briefing for local councillors on the state of our local economy. It’s safe to say one was much more enjoyable than the other!

Christmas Cheer

I like to start these blogs with the good news, so will kick off by saying a big thank you to the team behind the Christmas lights switch-on event on Chiswick High Road earlier this week. The event was a roaring success, with a large crowd gathered to enjoy mince pies and hear the Chiswick School Choir sing festive songs. The lights and Christmas tree themselves look great, and the festive fun isn’t over yet: the event also marked the beginning of this year’s Christmas Scavenger Hunt for children, with 50 brilliant local prizes on offer. Full details and entry forms can be collected now from Chiswick Lighting Company, 30 Devonshire Road and they must be submitted back there by 5 pm Friday 13 December - good luck!

Rivercourt Road

Plenty of Chiswick Homefields residents have been in touch over proposals from Hammersmith and Fulham Council to restrict access to Rivercourt Road. Whilst many understand the reasoning behind the decision, there are rightly concerns over the impact these new restrictions will have on local traffic, particularly on the already congested Chiswick Lane.

In their promotional poster about the changes, H&F are already suggesting using Chiswick Lane as a diversion route, which is particularly concerning and should be challenged. Chiswick Homefields councillors have raised this with Hounslow Council to ask what discussions have taken place between the two local authorities and whether any assessment of the impact on Chiswick Lane has been carried out. As this isn’t an issue we can directly challenge due to it being a decision by a different local authority, we’re also in touch with councillors in Hammersmith and Fulham to share our concerns.

Emmanuel’s Hollow

I wrote some months ago about new funding being secured to improve the Dukes Meadows area, including much needed work on a facelift for Promenade Approach. The second big part of the overall project will be to restore and uplift the area of Dukes Meadows known as Emanuel's Hollow, next to the new footbridge and the steps from Barnes Bridge. The area is currently quite neglected, having been an effective staging ground for building work on the footbridge, and will benefit from the funding.

Following an initial meeting which Councillor Gabriella Giles and I attended earlier this year, the brilliant Dukes Meadows Trust is now assisting the council with a consultation to understand what local residents would like to see from a regeneration project in this area. A short survey can be found here, and will be open for responses until 20 December. Please do take a look and write in with your thoughts and suggestions!

Hounslow’s Finances

Opposition councillors were given a rather sombre briefing about the state of the borough’s finances on Wednesday, ahead of Hounslow’s local budget being unveiled in January. The briefing came on the back of the disastrous budget from Rachel Reeves which has had a number of knock-on effects for the council: the measures taken by the new Labour government mean that optimism over interest rates cuts and inflation remaining steady has dampened, which in turn means the council will have to pay more for goods and services. With the Labour administration already facing a £30 million black hole in its finances, this piles on additional pressures.

The second bit of bad news was that the government still hasn’t confirmed whether it will fully fund the additional costs for local authorities of its damaging decision to hike up National Insurance tax. This tax increase will cost employers like Hounslow Council around £900 extra per employee on an average wage – a crippling figure. Whilst Rachel Reeves insisted this jobs tax would help improve public services, at best it’s caused massive financial uncertainty and, at worst, it will lead to another big increase in council tax to try to plug the gap. So much for no increases in taxes on working people…

We had to wonder, hearing this, whether Labour councillors had bothered listening to any of these warnings given they’re set to propose a motion at next week’s borough council meeting praising the new Chancellor's budget. It’s almost as if party loyalty trumps sticking up for our borough’s residents and businesses for Hounslow Labour councillors.

The final alarming issue highlighted in the briefing was the state of the council’s Lampton Services business. Opposition councillors have long questioned Lampton’s value for money, particularly as services seem to get worse every year despite council tax going through the roof. Full details are set to come in the next few weeks, but it appears Lampton is set to make a loss of over £10 million this year, which the council will have to fund. That’s a third of Hounslow’s funding gap being eaten up by a failing council-run business – it’s clear the financial problems facing the council are not only caused by poor government choices, but by poor financial management by this administration.

Cllr Jack Emsley

jack.emsley@hounslow.gov.uk

07977 396017

COUNCIL DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Tuesday, 26 November : Borough Council

CONSERVATIVE COUNCILLOR SURGERIES

Chiswick: Every Saturday from 9.30am to 10.30am at Chiswick Library (the eight Conservative councillors take this surgery in turn).

Gunnersbury: First Saturday of the month from 10am to 11am at The Gunnersbury Triangle Club, Triangle Way, off The Ridgeway, W3 8LU (at least one of the Chiswick Gunnersbury ward councillors takes this surgery). 

CONSERVATIVE COUNCILLORS and CONTACTS

Chiswick Gunnersbury ward

Cllr Joanna Biddolph joanna.biddolph@hounslow.gov.uk 07976 703446

Cllr Ranjit Gill ranjit.gill@hounslow.gov.uk 07976 702956

Cllr Ron Mushiso ron.mushiso@hounslow.gov.uk 07976 702887

Chiswick Homefields ward

Cllr Jack Emsley jack.emsley@hounslow.gov.uk 07977 396017

Cllr Gerald McGregor gerald.mcgregor@hounslow.gov.uk 07866 784821

Cllr John Todd john.todd@hounslow.gov.uk 07866 784651

Chiswick Riverside ward

Cllr Gabriella Giles gabriella.giles@hounslow.gov.uk 07966 270823

Cllr Peter Thompson peter.thompson@hounslow.gov.uk 07977 395810  

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