Next Chiswick Area Forum Returns To Virtual Format

RNLI, Great Marlborough Estates and West Chiswick & Gunnersbury Society to speak

A Chiswick Area Forum meeting held before the pandemic
The Chiswick Area Forum before it had its makeover

The third new look Chiswick Area Forum takes place this week at 7pm on Tuesday, 18 January. It will be held virtually on MSTeams this time so residents and businesses can watch/listen/take part from home. The meeting has reverted to being held virtuallly as Hounslow Council wants to limit the spread of Omicron/Coiv-19.

Three locally significant organisations will, in the Chiswick Community Matters section, explain their work, the challenges they face and how the council can help them. Chiswick RNLI will speak about its important work as the charity that saves lives.

Great Marlborough Estates will bring us up to date with progress at Empire House on Chiswick High Road and the two plots of land it owns nearby.

And the West Chiswick and Gunnersbury Society will talk about what it does to protect and enhance the character of its specific area of Chiswick and to champion its residents.

The Chiswick Future section promises to be hard-hitting, focusing this time on supporting the local retail and hospitality economy, with presentations from three local business owners, one from each ward in Hounslow’s Chiswick.

Kambiz Hendessi of Lizard Fashion on Turnham Green Terrace, Paul Fitzgerald of PR Hair on Strand on the Green and David Lesniak of Outsider Tart on Chiswick High Road will speak. All three will explain the challenges they face in their businesses, in their specific locations and generally, and how they believe the council can help them in good times and bad and especially after a prolonged period of very difficult trading.

The public forum will take place as usual, as close to 8.30pm as possible, giving residents a chance to ask questions of councillors. Those attending will be able to ask questions of the presenters, too.

The link to the virtual meeting will be published on the day.

Councillor Joanna Biddolph, chairman this year of the Chiswick Area Forum, hopes residents will attend and ask questions of councillors. She said, “The area forum gives residents and business owners the chance to quiz their councillors collectively and in public. My aim this year was to encourage more people to attend, by making the agenda and format more attractive, and to open up the lives of the many organisations we live alongside, always wondering exactly how they work but not often having a chance to find out.

"There can’t be many of us who haven’t wanted to know what was going on behind the hoardings around Empire House, or been curious about what next when the hoardings came down exposing its empty structure. We are all proud of the Chiswick branch of the RNLI and think we know how it works - but is there more going on than we think? There are local champions all over Chiswick, beavering away on our behalf but what exactly does the West Chiswick and Gunnersbury Society do? We’ll find out on Tuesday.

"I’ve also wanted to bring alive subjects important to all of us about the future of our community. We’ve discussed public transport in Chiswick and the challenges of achieving net zero. It’s no surprise that, as founder of the Chiswick Shops Task Force, I’ve wanted to look at the future of our retail and hospitality economy particularly after the many disruptive and damaging changes that have been forced on our hard-working traders, in addition to the impact of COVID-19. We’ll hear first-hand from three business owners about the challenges they face now.

"I hope residents and business owners will log on to join us online. We can’t offer you coffee or tea this time, but you can pour the drink of your choice and join in from your favourite comfy chair. We’ve got what I hope you will agree is a very interesting agenda."

AGENDA

7pm Tuesday, 18th January 2022

1. Apologies for absence, etc

2. Chiswick Community Matters
The Charity that Saves Lives - RNLI with Wayne Bellamy
The Future of Empire House - Great Marlborough Estates with Grant Lipton and Dean Clifford
The Life of the Gunnersbury Groundlings - West Chiswick and Gunnersbury Society with Marie Rabouhans

3. Public Forum (to start as near to 8.30pm as possible, lasts half an hour)

4. Chiswick Future - Supporting our retail and hospitality economy
Kambiz Hendessi of Lizard Fashion (Turnham Green ward)
Paul Fitzgerald of PR Hair (Chiswick Riverside ward)
David Lesniak of Outsider Tart (Chiswick Homefields ward)

5. Urgent business

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January 15, 2022