A Busy Start to the Year

Chiswick Homefields councillor Jack Emsley reports back

Cllr Jack Emsley

January 20, 2024

In my last ChiswickW4 blog, all the way back in the first week of December, I wrote about a packed Borough Council meeting and just how much was going on in and around Chiswick as we headed towards the Christmas period. After a short break over the holidays, 2024 has started as last year left off – busy! From community art unveilings and food markets to preparing for the council’s annual budget setting meeting, here’s what I’ve been up to over the past week as your local Chiswick Homefields councillor…

Celebrating the Best of Chiswick

Last Thursday I made my way down to the George IV for the annual Chiswick Calendar Party, always a great event to kick off the year by recognising the amazing contribution so many individuals and community groups have made to our local area. There were a brilliant array of worthy award winners, each contributing huge amounts to our community in a variety of ways, and it was great to be able to celebrate them and the huge contribution they make to our local area.

Attendees were also treated to a comedy sketch with Jeremy Vine and outgoing local MP Ruth Cadbury recreating the classic Two Ronnies Mastermind sketch. The routine was great fun (and very funny!), and a reminder that even though we don’t share the same politics, Ruth and I clearly have a similar sense of humour!

W4 Plinth Goes Multimedia

Last weekend was the unveiling of the latest W4th Plinth artwork, where a crowd of us gathered at a very chilly Turnham Green Piazza to see the Giovanna Iorio’s beautiful new piece of art installed. This latest installation is a bit different, with Giovanna’s “soundscape” of Chiswick Bridge including a sound file accessible via a QR code that enables an audio as well as visual art experience. Well worth a visit and a listen!

A huge thanks as always to Abundance London for organising once again – they do fantastic work for our Chiswick community!

Dukes Meadows Set for an Upgrade

On Sunday I was at the Dukes Meadows Food Market to talk to local residents and shoppers about proposals to restore Promenade Approach. The Dukes Meadows Trust, a brilliant local charity, has over the past two decades done an exceptional job in restoring local amenities in the area, from two new playgrounds to the restoration of the promenade Approach gates (unveiled last year).

The final piece of the project is the restoration of Promenade Approach, a pathway linking Edensor Road to the Thames. Currently, the promenade is in serious need of some TLC, with broken tarmac, overgrown vegetation and a run-down pumphouse that often not only looks neglected but poses a serious accessibility problem to push chairs and wheelchair users after it rains. The Trust is working with AAB architects (and former Cavendish School student Tibor Babic, who was with me on Sunday to discuss the plans) to build proposals for the restoration, and is now seeking input from the Chiswick community. You can view the full proposals, and have your say on this exciting project, here.

Tackling the Budget

In years gone by, Hounslow Council would meet in the last week of January to have one final full meeting before the local budget is set, and that would have been the topic of today’s blog had it not been decided by the administration that we don’t in fact need to meet before the budget setting meeting. I’ll leave it to readers to decide if that’s a sensible move for accountability or not…

In any case, local Conservative Councillors have been busy preparing for the budget setting meeting at the end of February, where it is expected to be announced that the council will be increasing council tax and social rent by the maximum possible amount allowed. This is on top Sadiq Khan’s proposals for an inflation busting 8.6% rise in his council tax “precept” which will bring the benchmark Band D mayoral precept to £471.40 – an increase of over £200 since Sadiq Khan first came to office.

Expect Hounslow’s Labour councillors to make grand speeches about not having any other choice but to raise council tax and social rents by the maximum possibly allowed, a line which Sadiq Khan has been parroting since December. It all rings a bit hollow given the news that London’s Labour Party has found what the Evening Standard described as a “forest of magic money trees” in the City Hall budget this week, with £500million of extra spending confirmed, including a huge pay rise of tube drivers following threats from Mick Lynch and the RMT.

It turns out there’s plenty of money for Sadiq Khan to spend during an election year – I wonder what mental gymnastics we’ll be subjected to by Hounslow’s Labour councillors to justify the huge spending splurge whilst also attempting to justify yet another huge council tax hit…

Cllr Jack Emsley

jack.emsley@hounslow.gov.uk

07977 396017

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY 2024

Thursday, 15th February 2024 at 7:00pm Overview and Scrutiny Committee

Tuesday, 20th February 2024 at 7:00pm Cabinet

Tuesday 27 February 2024 at 7:30pm Borough Council budget-setting meeting

THEN:

Tuesday 26 March 2024 7:30 pm

Tuesday 21 May 2024 7.30pm

(The Annual Statutory General Meeting of the Borough Council)

6th Floor, Hounslow House, 7 Bath Road, Hounslow TW3 3EB

Open to the Public

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 (was Turnham Green) 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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