Local Conservative Party Suspends Joanna Biddolph
Action taken against ward councillor after vote of colleagues
Cllr Jo Biddolph
March 25, 2024
Joanna Biddolph, the ward councillor who represents Chiswick Gunnersbury ward, has been suspended by from the Conservative group on Hounslow Council.
No reason has been given for the move with a spokesperson for the Hounslow Conservative Group saying that she was suspended 'following an internal investigation and subsequent vote by members'. The suspension is not permanent and Cllr Biddoplh says she will be automatically readmitted in three months.
She declined to give details of the reasons for the decision but said that she was touched by messages of support she has received from residents of Chiswick and the rest of the borough. She remains as a member of the Conservative Party and will continue to represent her ward as an independent Conservative.
Since been elected in 2018 for what was then the Turnham Green ward Cllr Biddolph has often been a controversial figure. Describing herself as a huge supporter of local businesses, she has lobbied for their interests and set up the Chiswick Shops Task Force. She has opposed Cycleway 9 and the new monthly markets saying she was representing the interests of local traders who were telling her that they had been negatively affected by them. She has consistently advocated against measures which might reduce the amount of parking in Chiswick which has brought her into conflict with the market organisers while her fellow Conservative councillors have been supportive of the ventures.
Her intervention into a dispute about the kind of trees to be planted on Turnham Green led to a delay in planting in what came to be dubbed the 'cherrygate' scandal.
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