Hogarth Roundabout, Market Birthdays and The Housing Crisis
Chiswick Homefields councillor Jack Emsley reports back
Cllr Jack Emsley
August 10, 2024
Despite August being peak holiday season for many in Chiswick, life in Chiswick (and our work as your local councillors) hasn’t shown any sign of slowing down. So, from TfL consultations to successful Sunday markets, here’s what I’ve been up to this week…
Hogarth Roundabout
Probably the biggest single issue in Chiswick Homefields, judged purely on volume of emails, is the TfL proposal to make changes to Hogarth Roundabout. Chiswick councillors had a briefing with TfL a few weeks ago to see the plans, and whilst the commitment to making the roundabout safer for motorcyclists is an important one, the proposed closure of access to Church Street seems, at best, poorly thought through.
This weekend marked the first of four drop-in consultation events at Hogarth’s House, giving locals the chance to discuss the plans with representatives from TfL. I spent a couple of hours at the event catching up with traffic engineers as well as the local community - including many from the Old Chiswick Protection Society and St Nicholas’ Church, who have developed a comprehensive and sensible response to the proposals.
It was clear from the event that there is a general consensus on the importance of making the roundabout safer, including the creation of a dedicated left turn on the approach to the A316 and a reduction in the speed limit. The proposed closure of access to Church Street from the roundabout presents a number of problems, though, not least the frankly ridiculous proposal to ask vehicles to complete a 180 degree u-turn on the A316 in order to access the area.
Not only is this manoeuvre dangerous, it presents the very real possibility of a massive increase in traffic on Hammersmith Mall and eastern Chiswick Mall. It seems to be a proposal with a large number of negatives and not a huge amount of positives…
The good news is that conversations with TfL, driven by the local community, have been exceptionally constructive. The closure of access from the roundabout to Church Street isn’t necessary for the implementation of the proposed safety features and dedicated left turn lane on the roundabout, which presents what is in my mind a fairly obvious compromise solution - go ahead with the bulk of the proposals, but ditch the planned closure of access to Church Street.
What would be helpful now would be for Hounslow Council to use its influence with TfL and join the community and ward councillors in speaking up and backing the obvious compromise solution which increases safety and maintains access to Church Street.
In the meantime, you can still have your say on the proposals by visiting the TfL website here, or joining one of the three remaining drop-in events at Hogarth’s House on Tuesday 20 August (4pm-7pm), Thursday 29 August (3pm-7pm) and Monday 2 September (3pm-7pm).
Market Birthdays
Chiswick has firmly established itself as the best destination in London for weekend markets, with a huge variety to choose from every Sunday on the High Road, Chiswick House and at Dukes Meadows. I feel like a broken record sometimes but the markets are brilliant at attracting large numbers of visitors who boost the local economy every single Sunday, as well as hosting an array of brilliant small businesses.
On Sunday I was at the monthly Flower Market, which was as busy as ever, and was reminded that September marks the Flower Market's fourth birthday. Four years on and it’s safe to say the original High Road market is going stronger than ever - I’m excited to see how they mark the occasion!
September must be a special month as it will also mark the 25th anniversary of the Dukes Meadows Food Market on Sunday 1st. This community run market has been a stalwart of Chiswick’s food culture and has been an amazing part of the wider transformation of the Dukes Meadows area. The team are planning a big celebration event with more details to come but, as I won’t have another Chiswick W4 blog until after that weekend, I want to use this opportunity to encourage Chiswickians to mark their calendars - you won’t want to miss it!
The Housing Crisis
Keen readers of my regular columns on other Chiswick news websites have seen my thoughts on the new Labour government’s decision to slash the target number of new homes in our borough by a massive 41% the other week.
At a time when the housing crisis continues to price people out and shift pressure onto the council’s housing department, we should be ambitious with providing homes for residents; instead, the government has drastically reduced the target of new homes in order to help Sadiq Khan, whose continuous failure to build enough new homes has directly led to the current crisis, save face. They’re putting the Labour Party before the interests of Londoners, and in the process breaking their election promise to build the homes and infrastructure we desperately need.
As I’ve written here many times since being elected, housing is the biggest issue we have to deal with as councillors. Whether it’s the council’s failure to properly maintain its housing stock or the heartbreakingly long list of people waiting for a much needed home, it’s increasingly clear that housing in Hounslow is broken.
All of these issues are of course exacerbated by the housing crisis in London. Rents are increasingly unaffordable, forcing families to seek council support or move out of our borough altogether. Home ownership is, for many young professionals, little more than a very distant dream.
Labour’s decision to slash the number of new homes, in direct contradiction to their election promise to ‘get Britain building’, looks set to make all of these factors much worse. As Cllr Peter Thompson said last week, our Labour council should be urging their government to reverse this decision to block the additional new homes we desperately need. I suspect, like always, we’ll hear radio silence instead.
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY 2024/25
Chiswick Area Forum is expected to be on Tuesday 24 September at 7.30pm
The Hogarth Hall, Chiswick Town Hall, Heathfield Terrace, Turnham Green W4 4JN
The Next Scrutiny Panel is expected to be on Thursday 19 September at 7.00pm Room 610. 6 th Floor, Hounslow House 7 Bath Road TW3 3EB
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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