I Won't Say I Told You So

That's how the song goes anyway.

It could, of course, have been written by the ICG for those mugs who voted in support of an application by Thames Water to expand its stinky Mogden operation back in 2009 on the grounds that (a) it would "reduce smell" and that (b) the London Borough of Hounslow would be able to exercise "more control" over the selfish, relentlessly profit-driven activities of the water utlity through the watered-down and thoroughly useless Section 106 agreement that Thames condescended to sign as part of the approval process.

The ICG told the sorry shower that comprised the Sustainable Development Committee that the grounds were flawed on two counts. Namely (a) it wouldn't reduce the smell but would increase it, and (b) the London Borough of Hounslow has never had any intention of exercising any kind of control or restraint whatsoever over Thames Water, which imposes its odours on the surrounding community with absolute impunity.

Guess what happened?

The following is an excerpt from a letter written by the resident-led Mogden Residents' Action Group (MRAG) to Isleworth councillor Ed Mayne on June 10th:

"Residents are thus astounded to learn that, without any consultation with MRAG or community groups, the Council elected of its own volition, to remove the out of hours call centre for victims to ring so that Environment Officers can take 24/7 H2S readings and thus build a case to enforce Abatement Notices. Residents were led to believe that this call centre and the associated costs for Council Officers to investigate complaints is funded 100% by Thames Water as a pre-condition of the S106 agreement and it was agreed that this would remain in place until 2013 when the upgrade of Mogden is completed. Why then, and on whose authority was this vital function removed just before the summer months when odour escaping the Mogden premises is at its most severe?

"You will also be aware that residents requested, and were granted GBP 150,000, within the S106 agreement to enhance and beautify the environment around Mogden in residential areas most affected by Mogden's mismanagement and negligence over the last 14 years. We have repeatedly requested information on when consultation with residents will commence in order to define how the £150K will be spent, but we have received no response."

So there you have it, so supportive is the Head of Environment at LBH of the residents who pay his not unsubstantial salary that he has withdrawn an important facility that was provided as a condition of acceptance for the expansion project at no cost at all to the borough!

And what have the elected members, who are supposed to be running the council, done about it?

Well, Councillor Mayne has offered to facilitate a meeting between residents and the new Lead Member for Environment, Councillor Colin Ellar, and this offer is in the process of being responded to.

We can only hope that Councillor Ellar and his administration will take the necessary measures that we would have taken had our coalition partners backed us post-2009 to sort out the utter disgrace that is Hounslow's Environment department for once and for all.

Keeping on the scent at Mogden

Last night (Wednesday) I spent a useful couple of hours at Mogden Sewage Works attending the quarterly(ish) meeting of the Mogden Residents' Liaison Committee (MRLC), an ad hoc body set up by Thames Water as a means of maintaining a regular dialogue with councillors and officers from both Hounslow and Richmond and with local residents, the majority of whom are organised around the Mogden Residents' Action Group (MRAG).

I attended in my capacity as an MRAG official.

Thames as always provided an update of what they claim to have been doing to help alleviate the ongoing problems of odour and mosquito blight that their operation inflicts upon the surrounding community.

There seems to be a widespread if not unanimous agreement that liaison between the water giant and residents' representatives seems to be being conducted in a more cordial atmosphere than has hitherto been the case, which of course is a very good thing, but Thames do in my view remain slippery at times and their dealings still do need to be monitored at close quarters.

The duty to involve residents in one particularly important project was considered by Thames to have been discharged by its willingness to brief the Environment Department at the London Borough of Hounslow. But despite the expertise and professionalism of the Environmental Health officers on the frontline Thames managers must be aware of the almost pathological unco-operativeness that was demonstrated by chief officers towards councillors involved with Mogden under the previous administration and which, I imagine, will be continued under this one. If Thames really does want to demonstrate goodwill towards its neighbours it will involve them at source rather than bypassing them in this manner.

In fairness I did pick up some genuinely positive vibes from the Thames management. Some questions submitted by e-mail from MRAG's Steve Taylor, who was unable to make the meeting, were read out and addressed by Thames, interestingly to the annoyance of a Hounslow Conservative councillor who protested loudly and angrily.

After the meeting I took the brief opportunity available to me to speak to Councillor Ed Mayne, one of the new elected members for Isleworth ward. I asked him how he was getting along in his Executive post as Lead Member for Community Safety, a post I myself held for the first three years of the previous administration. The officer team that works in and around Community Safety in Hounslow is truly fantastic and I told Ed that he was privileged to have been given such an exciting role. I am sure he will build well upon the fine work that I hope I did between 2006 and 2009, and the excellent work that I know Paul Fisher did after that.

I believe the four MRAG delegates did themselves and our community proud with their polite but relentless questioning at the meeting, sometimes on matters which were highly technical and requiring of considerable attention to detail. They are possibly the greatest local example of all of why, whilst councillors and officers play an important role, community is and always will be king.

Hounslow's new administration - "helping officers to bring about culture change at the Civic Centre"!

I was pleasantly surprised this evening to see that Councillor Ruth Cadbury, Deputy Leader of the London Borough of Hounslow and Labour councillor for Brentford ward, has finally updated her blog. The previous entry having been made on May 30th, it would have been easy for the cynic to have concluded that her readers had served their purpose and that it was felt there was no longer any cause to be served in keeping us mere mortals up to speed with what was happening in the borough under the "control" of her new administration (regular readers of Ruth's blog will know that "control" is a word that appears with an almost obsessive regularity in her esteemed columns, a feeling of being in "control" is very important and comforting to our Ruth as any who know her will confirm).

But before I comment on the content of her latest offering, let me just issue a little disclaimer lest I be accused of engaging in offensive political posturing. When the election results were announced on May 7th I straight away made clear my position that I felt the new administration should be given a chance. I stated publicly that I personally would not bad mouth the new regime gratuitously but would instead adopt a neutral position, offering praise where praise was due and criticism where criticism was justified.

In my view Ruth's latest encyclical most definitely warrants criticism as its purpose clearly is to soften up local residents for the service cuts which, only a few months previously, she would have had the hoi polloi believe were the sole preserve of non-Labour administrations.

Inevitably said cuts will not be her fault, nor that of her party. They will instead be down entirely to the old administration at the local authority, and to the new Conservative/Liberal Democrat government. Natch.

"I fear we could be returning to an era when homeless families were lucky if they got into a hostel. Local Councils, with less funding, will be expected to up the pieces," she says, somewhat ignoring the fact that such an era has long been with us already as was only too evident to me during my time as Lead Member for Housing.

But the real classic is the following sentence:

"We have told our officers that we will support them in turning round the culture of the Council."

Excuse me? They will support the officers in turning around the culture of the Council? Shouldn't that be the other way around?

It seems clear from the above that the bad old ways of officers directing policy and strategy and elected members merely offering words of comfort are set to return. If, indeed, they ever left us. When I think of how brazenly the Environment Department in particular raised two fingers to the Community Group councillors in response to every reasonable request when we were part of an administration that was allegedly member-led (and would truly have been had the ICG not been so thoroughly undermined) it isn't really difficult to see how this lot are going to be led a merry dance over the next four years, is it?

Ruth has a talent for uttering memorable words and phrases that so characterise the local mentality of the organisation she represents. It was she who happily declared during a council debate a few years ago her party's view that lying to potential voters during election campaigns was simply "politics" and therefore acceptable.

Now it seems she leads an administration which is going to support officers who are going to being about culture change in Hounslow!

I promise I'm not making all this up - take a look for yourself.

LATEST NEWS: Residents launch LBH Watch

A powerful new resident-led monitoring body has been launched with a view to highlighting and addressing some of the major flaws in the Civic Centre bureaucracy that came to be identified during the last days of the previous council administration.

Endless battles at IBAC (Isleworth & Brentford Area Committee) between elected councillors and intransigent and belligerent Chief Officers revealed some very fundamental deficiencies in the member-officer relationship in Hounslow. ICG councillors in particular encountered a metaphorical brick wall when attempting to open up the process of local government and to introduce more accountability and openness.

Delivering its launch statement, LBH Watch Chair Ian Speed emphasised that the new body enjoyed cross-party support, and its current members were drawn from all across the local political spectrum.

The full statement reads:

"Following the local elections at which all community and third party representation on Hounslow council was wiped out and replaced with a classic two party system only, a group of concerned residents have formed to address any democratic or performance deficits the London Borough of Hounslow may have in administering or delivering its services in your area. The issue that has caught the imagination of most members of the group is Planning, as administered by the Environment & Planning Department and the local Area and council wide Strategic Development Committees. However, we would be very happy to hear from any citizen who has concerns about the way LB Hounslow delivers or administers its services.

"We are in the process of designing a website with the following key elements:

• A High level section for borough wide issues such as Customer Service standards.
• The key contentious isssues for each of the Area Committees (mainly planning issues and traffic management).
• A self-help section giving residents a guide as to whom to write to or complain to if they are not happy about the way a service is being delivered or administered.

"We would be interested in hearing from any member of the Hounslow Borough Community who would like to contribute concerns via email or attend one of our meetings. The next meeting is on the evening of Monday 2nd August.

"We have created an email address at lbhwatch@aol.com. Please email us or text/leave a message on 07835 379595 if you wish to attend a meeting".

LBH Watch has also published a list of six Aims and Objectives, which are as follows:

• We believe Hounslow council services should be run according to best practice within the law.
• We believe council officers, however senior, should be fully answerable to councillors and local residents and taxpayers.
• We believe in greater democratic leadership and outward accountability for decision-making to local people.
• We believe that council staff and members should respond to residents' concerns in a prompt, honest and comprehensive manner and act with impeccable integrity at all times.
• We believe Hounslow council services should be delivered as transparently and cost-effectively as possible.
• We encourage members and officers to adhere to the spirit of the Motion on Community Empowerment as approved unanimously by the previous council."
  

The range of talents and expertise that LBH Watch is already able to call upon is quite simply vast. It will use every means available to highlight bad practice and to bring answerability and transparency to our local government.

I envisage LBH Watch playing a seminal role in ensuring that the concerns of the community are heard during the four years of the current council administration and maybe beyond. Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you think you may be able to help.