Ignoring Democracy is Routine in Hounslow
Councillor Joanna Biddolph reports back on a busy couple of weeks
Cllr Joanna Biddolph
October 18, 2026
As Labour’s majority in Hounslow continues to slide downwards, with just over a week to go before Cllr Athwal’s fraud case is heard at court, and the shameful behaviour of a couple of Hounslow’s Reform councillors, potentially putting three seats at risk, it is clear that Labour is rushing through its flagship policies as fast as it can, while it can, regardless of local opinion. Hold on to your hats; it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
CS9 on pavement : “The usual misleading claptrap”
Every time I’m near Chiswick High Road, someone I have never met before mutters under their breath, or much more perceptibly while raising their arms in despair, as they wait to cross the road wherever along C9 we're standing. It doesn’t matter whether it’s because a cyclist is racing through a red light, or because waiting for the green man always makes pedestrians feel they come last, residents' sense of irritation, frustration and condemnation (of the council) persists.
Build it and they will come, they said. Let it bed-in, they said. They didn’t come - user numbers are still low, even after adding delivery cyclists. And it hasn’t bedded-in - judging by the many mutterings I hear and the gesticulations I see. Dislike (I’m being polite) of the cycle lane persists.
So, when a re-imagined (one of Labour’s favourite words) version of the original Cycle Superhighway 9 (CS9) was announced via a nonchalant email, it was time to act. And act residents did. One took to X with a series of 12 very helpful Tweets, eviscerating the scheme, starting with what would surely win an award for the best opening line for a novel: "The usual misleading claptrap from LBofHounslow to justify spending even more money on Cycleway 9", it starts, followed by "Apparently it's for 'safety reasons' due to 4 collisions involving cyclists there in 4 years . But let’s take a closer look at the facts …”
And that’s where the massacre starts. You can read every one of those extremely helpful investigative Tweets here.
Safety was not the motivation for reviving this scheme. Cyclists mounting the pavement at the Heathfield Road junction - to avoid a red light when turning left - was. How do I know this? Because it was one of the reasons why, in May 2023, I walked the C9 route with our then GLA representative Nick Rogers and four TfL representatives to show them the many failures of the scheme and examples of cyclists’ bad behaviour. When a cyclist did just as we had said, swerving off the cycle lane and racing to Heathfield Terrace, eight TfL eyes lit up. Their original pavement vision was their answer.
Except that it is impossible for TfL, or LBH, not to review a bad original scheme and make it even worse.
Where will you walk?
Just look at that junction at Heathfield Terrace. Imagine how you would cross on foot or in a wheelchair, or worst of all visually impaired and unable to see, from west to east, east to west, north to south and south to north. No wonder Chiswick Wheelie, the master Tweeter mentioned above, calls it a “spaghetti-junction of cycle traffic”.
The cycle lane pushes onto the northern pavement in front of Vodafone and Holland & Barrett, crosses at an extreme acute angle to the south, while cyclists travelling west have three potential routes none of which is straight on, but straight on is what some cyclists will want to do. What about cyclists cycling east along Heathfield Terrace ... how will they join the pavement scheme? You really will need to hold on to your hats.
The whole scheme, including the wacky races route round the tree just west of the Catholic Church, is in the map below. It is terrible for pedestrians, especially people who are visually impaired, and simply rewards cyclists’ bad behaviour.
I fear for the businesses along the south side of Chiswick High Road. It seems inevitable that cyclists on Dukes Avenue will not want to join C9 on the road for a few yards, then spin past the tree. They will mount the pavement and race to the pavement track. It will be an anarchic nightmare, cutting off the businesses from their customers and reinstating the problems the Catholic Church objected to originally. What were the traffic planners thinking? By which I mean, were the traffic planners thinking?
It's not too late to say what you think. Email the cabinet member for environment, transport and the public realm, Cllr Salman Shaheen, and please copy it to me. Email: salman.shaheen@hounslow.gov.uk and joanna.biddolph@hounslow.gov.uk
By the way, TfL and LBH are aiming to inflict C9 on residents and business rate payers west of Brentford. It’s gone down just as badly in Isleworth as it did here - in case you were in doubt. Will anyone listen? We all know the answer to that.
What were the traffic planners thinking?
Changes to the planning process
This is another tale of Hounslow’s Labour group believing its own hype, imagining it rules the world, forgetting it represents residents and business ratepayers, and pushing through its policies regardless of its own constitution. "We make the rules! So we can break them!”, I imagine the leader of the council said, in the manner of Just William to Violet Elizabeth Bott.
While the focus for we Conservative councillors in Hounslow has been the Labour group’s attempt to circumvent its constitutional commitments, skilfully skewered by former Labour now Independent councillor Theo Dennison, that form of constitutional crisis prevented the council from meeting its legal obligation to approve the new national planning legislation before it comes into effect on 31st October. We should achieve that on Tuesday evening, at a special meeting of the borough council.
This Labour failure to act legally unfortunately hid the impact of changes to the way planning decisions will be made and it is highly significant, though no-one is sure what it means in every situation.
Known as the National Scheme of Delegation, planning applications will be in one of two groups:
- Schedule 1 projects, such as household applications, minor residential or commercial developments and prior approval applications, must be decided by officers. That ends the call-in process which has always been a valuable tool to challenge an officer decision, even though the process was tortuous and often despairingly unsuccessful for residents.
- Schedule 2 projects, such as major developments, are also delegated to officers but can be referred to the planning committee in certain circumstances, decided by the head of planning and the chairman of the planning committee.
The size of the planning committee also changes, capped to 13 members.
Who benefits? The developer. Surprised? Of course you aren’t.
Opportunity Hounslow 2026
Events held at the GTech are always well-run so I set off with high hopes of this all-day conference. I had to scribble my name on a name badge (noting that there were beautifully typed versions for Labour councillors who didn’t turn up) but let’s not nitpick; it might not have been deliberate. They hung rather fancily round our necks; we were thanked, by the council leader in his opening welcome, for “riffing the new lanyards”.
There was plenty of other marketing collateral: a well-designed programme, a sticker that doesn’t stick proclaiming support for West London Orbital, a plastic bottle with the same snazzy Hounslow logo as is on the lanyards, all presented in a cloth bag also decorated with the jazzy logo.
Shortly after I was first elected in 2018, I started working, with a councillor colleague in each of the other Chiswick wards, on a retail manifesto for Chiswick. It was published two years later. That was six years ago. I couldn’t work out whether to be annoyed, or thrilled, when I heard speakers and panelists saying the council needed to … implement many of the suggestions we had proposed in 2020. The council wouldn’t fund our recommendations … but it will fund them now - for someone else to do.
What I hadn’t expected was that the conference would be a chance to play spot the deliberate mistake. Listed in section on the home page of the confident website for investors are the borough's opportunity areas: the Golden Mile, Destination Brentford, Future Feltham, Heathrow and Hounslow Town Centre. Except that the photo attached to the Hounslow Town Centre section is quite clearly of Chiswick High Road. It’s a couple of years out of date (as you will spot) but there’s no doubt. It proves to me that most people in Hounslow House have no idea where Chiswick is.
Chiswick High Road relocates to Hounslow Town Centre
Evolution not Revolution
If only we could expect evolution, not revolution, from a failing Labour council in a hurry to do its worst before it sinks. What are you dreading? The gridlock and failed local economy from the implementation of the LTNs that the cabinet approved in December 2020, despite them being rejected by the overview and scrutiny committee? That meeting took place virtually during the pandemic and I remember it well. The then leader, Cllr Steve Curran, said he "promised to ‘take on board’ recommendations made by the borough’s cross-party Overview and Scrutiny Committee but there is to be no change in direction for transport policy”. That approach still holds with the current leader. Hold on to your hats …
Councillor Joanna Biddolph
Chiswick Gunnersbury ward
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
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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