Residents Avoid Bribery Risk by Bringing Coffee
Brentford West councillor Guy Lambert reports back
Brentford West councillor Guy Lambert
October 23, 2025
Boring old man here. My ‘innovative’ coffee morning has happened!
On Friday I visited a resident in Grosvenor Road. She has a council home with persistent issues with damp. I'm afraid this is a familiar story: work is done time and again which fails to deal with the fundamental problem. There is a lean-to at the back with a nice slate roof but inadequate (or poorly installed) flashing means that water gets in through the cracks and affects the wall between the lean to and the kitchen behind.
The other repeating is in the middle of the house. The lady of the house, who has a building management background, is convinced the problem is rising from underneath the floor which is inconveniently paved with stone or ceramic tiles.
I suspect (as does the tenant) this means the floor will have to be taken up and the source identified and fixed. The house on the face of it is immaculate but that is because she constantly repaints it. She demonstrates but running a finger across a pristine wall and shows me white fingers!
She is getting good responses from Lampton Services but between them and the Housing people she is sceptical that they will not (again) deal with the symptoms not the disease. This one will run in my casebook. Remember Dr Finlay's casebook? My Aunty Betty always referred to it as Dr Finlay's bookcase.
In the evening I attended a birthday party at the 6 Bells pub. This is for a dear friend of mine that I met through the Labour Party. There were a lot of Labour party chums there and somewhere in the ethernet there is a picture of her sitting on my knee but neither of us has seen it (it is entirely innocent if anybody is looking for scandal!).
I was told that the landlords at the 6 Bells are going to move on. I have seen several regimes fail to make this pub successful despite good people working hard at it. It puzzles me that this happens to a handsome building quite near the centre of town, and a town which has not in general experienced the decline in pubs seen across the country: during my 10 years as a councillor we have lost two pubs but gained 2 new ones, which says something about what a convivial town Brentford is.
On Saturday I had my coffee morning. If as some suggested I was buying votes it was not very successful because it seems most people bought their own!
I noticed and was rather taken by the windows in the church I had not previously noticed
A call out for Big G and Queen Vicky.
About a dozen people appeared for my event, which was about as many as I could easily deal with. Having spent a few hours leafletting streets around and about (probably too early) I actually got an impressive turnout from those invitations - a round number. Yes, that one. But I had a good group of people from my ward, from Syon and Brentford Lock ward and even one from South Ealing. We had interesting conversations about the town - the lack of shops and the lack of an Arts Centre the most notable comments.
After that I had a few other things - a visit to my doctor in Chiswick (yes, on Saturday),then a very brief attendance at Watermans Park where the Friends were doing some gardening.
Not overrun with friends and I made my excuses as I would probably kill all the shrubs. Then I was up at the church again, meeting two people from Windmill and Whitestile Roads who have a very vexing problem with a man who (apparently) likes to vandalise cars. They have a lot of video evidence and police involvement, but the problem is not being dealt with in a way they find constructive - just a formal caution. A related problem which was news to me: a part of Windmill is Hounslow on the West side and Ealing on the East side. The street itself is in Ealing so this poor chap cannot park outside his house because he is in a Brentford CPZ and the CPZ outside his door is in Ealing so he isn't eligible. He has to risk a ticket when helping his disabled mother-in-law to access her home. These border problems are annoying, whether it is vines from the allotments trying to invade or irritating parking issues. I have a good relationship with councillors on the other side of the border, but these things are a pain.
Talking of vines, there has been some effort to deal with the problem from a Ranger form Ealing, The court case on this matter remains pending when I and the residents decide if enough has been done!
On Sunday morning I cycled my favourite recreational route through Dukes Meadows in Chiswick and on the Putney Bridge, back along the cycle lane on King Street, CHR etc. Years ago, we blocked the bridge under the railway in Dukes Meadows which was used by cars avoiding Hogarth Roundabout by blocking the bridge with planters. Herberts (again years ago) relocated the planters but that was addressed also a long time ago. Blow me, they have done it again and added an autograph. Reported.
Then off to another park - Boston Manor, where I had been told there was an event run by Refugees Welcome Hounslow volunteers. I was late for a lot of the event, but it was still going. Contrary to propaganda, I did not see a single 'man of fighting age' but a lot of women and children. It was lovely to see and I salute the volunteers who make the effort to make people welcome in this cruel world.
The bloke in the hat is not a refugee but a harmonica tutor and volunteer. He was making an effort to solve a maze using a wobbly thing he was standing on to move a dot on a tablet. He was nothing like as talented than the refugee girls who I watched doing this before him.
Monday evening I was at the History Society for a talk on Brentford man JMW Turner, now properly plaqued on the wall of the Weir pub. Rather embarrassingly I dropped off during the talk. I hope I didn't talk in my sleep.
It was actually a very interesting insight to Turner and his life and there were a number of old friends there. After all it is history!
Main thing this week was a session I had on Wednesday with Sue Sampson the lead member and a number of housing officers on the matter of Holly House. There have been renovations planned there since 2018 (!) and my first experience was nearly 4 years ago when Lara and I visited. It had not been in my ward before, and I was shocked by the state of the building, mainly a large hole in the wall. They started fixing the building in 2022 or 2023 and there has been scaffolding up for ages. But in April, the contractor went bust. I (and more importantly the residents) were promised a speedy restart of work. Here we are, 6 months later, and nothing done. Yes, it is messy from a legal point of view, but this delay is quite unacceptable. It was great to have senior people from housing there including the Director of Housing and we have strong promises of a new plan this week. \We wait with bated breath!
Nothing else of great importance this week. I am off to a motor museum (I am getting predictable) and auction today, Thursday, I am thinking about how to tackle the next election as an independent but of course there are other options with parties to the left of Labour (where I also am) circling the Hounslow fort. I'm not keen on parties in general but always willing to listen!
Councillor Guy Lambert
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