Allowances, the Lampton Group and Cleaning Up Staveley Gardens
Chiswick Homefields councillor Jack Emsley reports back
Cllr Jack Emsley
July 17, 2026
We’re deep into the summer holidays now, but for your Chiswick Councillors it remains business as usual. From surgeries to council meetings and some hands on work to keep Chiswick special, it certainly hasn’t been a dull few weeks on the job.
Wrong priorities at Borough Council
Two weeks ago was the first substantive Borough Council meeting of the municipal year. It was a five hour slog, finishing well after midnight, as councillors debated and voted on a series of reports and motions.
This was the first substantive meeting since the election, so was a chance to set the tone. Unfortunately, the agenda revealed that Hounslow Labour had learnt nothing from the seismic election results in this borough in May. One of the first items we were asked to vote on in the new term was a report looking to substantially increase councillor allowances, at a cost of £200,000 to the taxpayer. Is this really the most pressing post election issue for the local Labour Party?
There is a serious discussion to be had about fair remuneration for councillors, but these proposals were far from that. The independent guidance on allowances states that no more than half of councillors should receive a special responsibility allowance (an additional allowance paid on top of the basic rate for certain roles). This is to ensure these additional allowances represent value for money and are genuinely only used to support councillors who have large amounts of additional work due to their role as a cabinet member, or chair of an area forum.
Labour’s report saw an eyewatering 81% of councillors given this top up allowance, including all but four Labour councillors. This is completely contrary to the independent guidance, and will cost residents in this borough nearly a quarter of a million pounds.
The Conservative Group, along with all other opposition parties, voted against this damaging proposal. Despite the cross party agreement that this was wholly inappropriate, Labour used its wafer thin majority to vote the allowances through with a majority of two. Shameful.
Lampton still a concern
The now infamous Lampton group of companies, entities wholly owned by Hounslow taxpayers, also featured in the recent Borough Council meeting. The headline figure was a positive one - for the first time ever, the group had turned a small profit. But dig deeper and, unfortunately, there are a few nasty surprises.
First, the profit was wholly driven by an exceptional above expectations windfall from one entity, Lampton Recycling. It hid poor results from Lampton Greenspace (a £400,000 loss) and Lampton Development (another eyewatering £1 million loss). Relying on just one entity to drive profit is putting taxpayer money at risk, and highlights continued problems with the structure of the group.
More worryingly, buried in the report given to the meeting was an acknowledgement that an outstanding £1.7 million loan to the companies from Hounslow Council may have to be written off. That would be a huge hit to taxpayers in this borough already having to put up with hikes to council tax and cuts to services. It needs much more scrutiny before we’re forced to swallow such a huge sunk cost.
Cleaning up Staveley Gardens
Perhaps one of the longest running pieces of casework I’ve been dealing with is the overgrown pavement between Chiswick Cricket Club and Staveley Gardens. Residents have effectively been without a pavement in the main approach into the estate due to a lack of maintenance which, in addition to being dangerous for pedestrians, has also been a frustration for residents who have had to put up with an unkept estate despite paying large council tax bills.
Hounslow Highways did visit the estate a few months ago but failed to clear this section. After two years, Cllr Linden Grigg and I decided to take matters into our own hands and clear it ourselves. With huge thanks to Abundance London for lending us tools and support, we managed to clear most of the overgrowth and reveal a long forgotten pavement after just over three hours of work.
Cllrs Linden Grigg and Jack Emsley cleaning up
Of course, these issues of safety caused by poor maintenance shouldn’t fall to councillors and community groups. But we love where we live and represent, and we were elected on a pledge to keep Chiswick special. If that means rolling up our sleeves and stepping in alongside residents and local charities where the council is failing, we’re more than happy to do so.
Cllr Jack Emsley
jack.emsley@hounslow.gov.uk
07977 396017
DEMOCRACY: DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
Anyone can attend public meetings of the council. Hounslow House is fully accessible. Hounslow Central tube station is not step-free. The 237 bus stops nearby. Parking in local roads is limited.
Principal meetings are broadcast live on the Council’s YouTube channel
Planning Committee : 6 August at 7pm
Overview and Scrutiny Committee : 1 September at 7pm
Audit and Governance Committee : 2 September at 7pm
Planning Committee : 3 September at 7pm
Chiswick Area Forum : 16 September from 6.30pm
CONSERVATIVE COUNCILLORS CONTACT INFO
Chiswick Gunnersbury ward
Cllr Joanna Biddolph joanna.biddolph@hounslow.gov.uk 07976 703446
Cllr Vickram Grewal vickram.grewal@hounslow.gov.uk 07904 184099
Cllr Ron Mushiso ron.mushiso@hounslow.gov.uk 07976 702887
Chiswick Homefields ward
Cllr Michael Denniss Michael.Denniss@hounslow.gov.uk
Cllr Jack Emsley jack.emsley@hounslow.gov.uk 07977 396017
Cllr Linden Grigg Linden.Grigg@hounslow.gov.uk 07779 436258
Chiswick Riverside ward
Cllr Gabriella Giles gabriella.giles@hounslow.gov.uk 07966 270823
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