Battle of the DJs - Fantastic Isleworth Event Raises £1500 for Macmillan and Princess Alice

Battle of the DJs at Isleworth Working Men's Club (left to right) John, Steve Platt, Percy Fullicks, Benn Butcher and Kevin Green (acknowledgements to the Hounslow Chronicle)

Several local disc jockeys staged a mock "Battle of the DJs" at a packed event at Isleworth Working Men's Club last Friday to raise an incredible £1500 for Macmillan Cancer Support and the Princess Alice Hospice.

Many local commentators have reflected upon the way in which the local community came together to support this well-organised marathon of music. Community activist Paul Fisher commented on Facebook: "This is what makes Isleworth the best place to be".

The event was part-organised by local girl Jo Manwaring, whose partner Kevin Green was one of the DJs on the night. Jo has previously featured on this blog as the organiser of successful annual local coffee mornings, also in support of Macmillan.

One of those in attendance last Friday was popular Isleworth councillor Lynn Green, who donated £50 in cash as a raffle prize.

Following the enormous success of this community event talk is now rife of turning it into an annual bash. I say go for it.

Watch this Space

Well it's been over two months, but there is a good reason for that. The ICG will be contesting seven seats - three each in Syon and Isleworth and one in Brentford - at the local elections on May 22nd and the logistical work involved in making all that happen is horrendous for a small group such as ours without the backing of a sleek national organisation that candidates representing the big parties can depend upon.

Caroline Andrews, Shirley Fisher and Ian Speed standing in Syon. Phil Andrews, Patricia Doran and Paul Fisher are our candidates in Isleworth. And our lone candidate in Brentford ward, where we are standing for the first time, is Dave Cox (pictured), formerly the Chair of the now-defunct Hounslow Federation of Tenants' and Residents' Associations (HFTRA), which provided a voice for 24,000 tenants and leaseholders in local authority dwellings throughout the borough before being killed off in a council-sponsored coup.

For the next few weeks this blog will be used to update its readers on the progress of the campaign, and to focus on some of the issues deriving from it. To begin this process we will have a real blockbuster going up later, either this evening or tomorrow. So as they say, watch this space.

Deja Vu as Labour's Attempt to Bully Tenants Backfires

Former councillor Paul Fisher
 with Linford Christie on Ivybridge

Back in the mid-1980s the Labour Party in what was then Isleworth South ward launched a sustained offensive to take control of the New Ivybridge Tenants’ Association (NITA). In line with its general policy towards residents’ associations at the time it sought to achieve this by ensuring that whichever members it had in the catchment area were active on the association, and these would then be sustained and promoted at every opportunity by the ward councillors, who would use any influence at their disposal to have them elevated to the most senior Committee posts.

On Ivybridge the Labour offensive was helped along by the fact that one of the people who had been elected to serve on the fledgling Committee was a member of the fascist National Front. Alan Minehan was himself an inoffensive and mild-mannered man, a fact conceded even by his critics, but nevertheless he was a member of an avowedly racist party serving on a tenants’ association on a multi-cultural estate. There were quite valid concerns about the message that his presence on the Committee would send out to estate residents.

Not that I accepted them as valid at the time. For in 1987, when it all began, I was still the NF organiser in the area. Taking its cue from Labour the local NF had also developed a strategy of attempting to infiltrate residents’ groups, and it was not unreasonably assumed that his presence on the NITA Committee had been part and parcel of that strategy.

As it happens though the assumption was incorrect. The first I knew of Alan Minehan’s involvement with the association was after he had been elected to the post. I distinctly recall my sense of surprise when he strolled into the Victoria Tavern in Isleworth that very evening, after the meeting, and told me all about it. He said they had asked him to be Treasurer - I advised him against it, counselling that the man holding the purse strings would be the easiest person for an adversary to set up once his presence on the Committee had become known to the local political establishment. But I told him also that he should hold firm and resist any attempts by anyone to boot him off on the grounds of his politics.

Sure enough, a storm blew up and the appointment made the headlines of the local newspapers. The councillors objected to his appointment and a number of his fellow Committee officials, most but not all of them Labour members, called upon him to stand down. Acting on my advice, he stayed put.

Looking at those events in retrospect I see them now in a very different light. Were a similar thing to occur today I would oppose the presence of a member of a racist political party at the top table of a local residents’ group with every fibre of my being.

However none of this detracts from the fact that Labour’s motivation in opposing Minehan, as both he and I suspected at the time, was primarily a cynical and self-serving one. This was borne out by subsequent events. Just as I had predicted, once he had been removed from the Committee a similar purge was conducted against other non-Labour members, none of whom had anything to do with the NF or held racist views of any kind. And the defection of one of the "approved" group's number to the cause of the purged residents confirmed the accuracy of our suspicions for once and for all.

In those days, as now, there were divisions within the ranks of the Labour Party locally. When a Feltham councillor by the name of David Archer, now sadly deceased, wrote to a local newspaper urging Alan Minehan to leave and denounce the National Front as a resolution to the estate’s sorry predicament I wrote back to attack him for his comments. It is only now that I understand his motive for making the suggestion, far from being hostile, was to offer us a way out of the impasse that had been created which would have well and truly scotched his party colleagues’ plans for the association. Through my own limitless arrogance and stupidity, a golden opportunity fell to waste.

Now let us fast forward 26 and a bit years, and to an incident which has truly demonstrated not only the paucity of Labour’s claim to have been acting out of the loftiest principle back in 1987, but that they have learned absolutely nothing from the emergence of the ICG and its not inconsiderable success, notwithstanding our election defeat in 2010, during the long intervening period.

A couple of months ago former ICG councillor and leading local activist Paul Fisher was co-opted to the Committee of the United Residents’ Association of Ivybridge (URA), the successor organisation to NITA. Unlike Alan Minehan, no claim of racism or fascism could conceivably be laid at Paul’s door. Nevertheless, prior to the URA’s last meeting its officers had been contacted by the local Labour group demanding that it reverses its decision to co-opt Paul.

Apparently Labour in Isleworth still operates under the peculiar misapprehension that it can decide who may or may not serve on the management committee of a local residents’ association. However, unlike in 1987 the association today is truly independent. Even the one high-profile member that Labour has on the Committee, who had been pressured by his party to lead the charge against Paul, told them to do one, and Paul’s continued presence on the Committee was reconfirmed by a unanimous show of hands.

Anybody who doubts that, even if the wake of 2010, the goalposts have moved significantly in the community’s favour in its dealings with the dictators should consider the experience of Paul and the URA and reflect upon it.

Isleworth: Remembering our History, Defending our Future

Christine Diwell and ICG Chair Ian Speed lead a 
massive residents' campaign to save Isleworth Library

I spent an interesting few hours last week attending the Annual General Meeting of The Isleworth Society (TIS) at Isleworth Public Hall. Although I have been a member for many years it was the first AGM that I had been to for quite a while as it almost invariably seems to clash with something else in my chaotic life schedule.

AGMs in general are, as a rule of thumb, fairly mundane affairs in which the business of electing a Committee and of hearing last year's minutes is conducted to the exclusion of anything remotely interesting to any but the anoraks. TIS AGMs, however, do not follow this rule. Instead once the routine business is done there are tea and snacks, a raffle, and then a "Part Two" which is an integral feature of the meeting.

The elections to the Committee confirmed the current incumbents in situ, which now includes Paul Fisher who was co-opted a few months back and whose continued membership of the Committee was unanimously supported. Although he is not the first ICG member to take up office in TIS he is undoubtedly the most high profile, and his welcome elevation would appear to endorse the ever closer working relationship that the two groups enjoy. A relationship which one must say is something of a "no brainer" when one considers the convergence of interests that exists between us.

On this occasion "Part Two" comprised a fascinating talk by TIS Secretary Christine Diwell, whose great talent for holding an audience seems to grow with every presentation she makes. Even though I had heard much of the talk on a previous occasion my attention was as undivided as it had ever been.

I could not help but be struck by the sheer size of the meeting and the support that it drew from around the Isleworth community. Although the ICG is the larger of the two groups in terms of core membership we could only dream of bringing out half the number for one of our AGMs that TIS achieved last week. That TIS was also able to use the event to generate probably a three figure sum for its funds only served to underline the professionalism of the whole enterprise.

It would also be fair comment to say that the attendance was from the senior end of the age scale, and whilst both TIS and the ICG aspire to recruit more active young people I feel it would be wrong to underestimate the power of the grey activist base - retired, affluent by comparison and, in this day and age, still surprisingly capable when it comes to pushing out leaflets and participating in such things as community clean-ups as well as relentless lobbying.

It occurs to me that the ICG would appear to have morphed organically into an "action arm" of a wider movement, a movement that is given depth and meaning by the activities and the powerful presence of civic organisations such as TIS. It provides a potent combination, and in my view is a model that communities around the borough that find their independence and their unique character under threat from the soulless and unrelenting attentions of the planners and the politicians should seek with some urgency to replicate.

The dilemma of having a nuclear option without a gun

Of all the big party politicians (that's big parties, not necessarily big politicians) my favourite by some margin is Dr. Vince Cable, Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for nearby Twickenham and currently the government's Business Secretary.

Not only is he a brilliant economist and a political big player by anybody's standards, but the man also has a likable manner, exudes honesty and integrity and generally comes across, in the simplest of parlance, as being "a nice bloke".

It is not only his televisual persona that persuades me of this. I have met Vince Cable on a few occasions, chatted to him in Marble Hill Park when I happened upon him on a family outing, and also had the chance to exchange a few brief words when he came to offer local residents his support at two brief public gatherings outside West Middlesex Hospital and Mogden Sewage Works earlier this year.


What really warmed me to him on those occasions was his very genuine humility. The body language was that of somebody who considered himself to be a guest on our turf and, whilst of course not deferential, his manner was respectful in a "thanks for inviting me into your living room" kind of way.

It didn't have to be like that of course. A man of his political stature could have strutted into focus, stood in front of the residents who had gathered to meet him with a pretentious "look at me" kind of grin as the cameras clicked away, then hopped into a big black car and been whisked off with an insincere royal wave to his next photo opportunity. Let's face it, it's been done in these parts before and not so very long ago.

Instead once the formal business had been done he hung around and chatted to ICG members every bit as much as to his own party folk who had turned out for him.

Today it would seem he is to be found wiping a little egg from his face. Not in the literal sense in the manner of a John Prescott or a Nick Griffin, but egg of a metaphorical kind following a report in the Daily Telegraph that he has allegedly made comments to the effect that he has the power to bring the coalition down and could walk away should the relationship between his party and the Conservatives begin to go rotten.

His exact comments, which he seems to admit to having made, include the following:

“Can I be very frank with you ... I have a nuclear option, it’s like fighting a war. They know I have nuclear weapons, but I don’t have any conventional weapons. If they push me too far then I can walk out of the Government and bring the Government down and they know that.”

Speaking personally, I don't feel there is anything particularly dishonourable about what Dr. Cable has said.

I can of course understand why, as a member of the government, he is a tad embarrassed. But my immediate feeling was one of "I know just how the man feels".

Not that I am making a comparison of scale or importance between the coalition of which I and the ICG were a part when managing Hounslow and the one that governs our country today, naturally. But whilst the scale might be vastly different, the principle remains the same. It is a peculiar feeling indeed to have at one's disposal the means to cause a nuclear explosion without being in possession of the necessary tools to swat a troublesome fly.

I have related before how the senior officer team during the 2006-2010 coalition administration in Hounslow was mobilised to action the demands of the senior coalition partner and to frustrate those of the junior partner (the ICG). Whether this situation was deliberately inspired by our partners, or whether it was officer-driven insubordination that our partners simply ignored, is largely immaterial. Historically speaking the only fact worthy of record is that it happened.

It was 12-18 months before the local elections that the first signs of this bad faith began to make itself obvious to us. It was probably less than twelve months before we went to the polls when it had become a problem of such magnitude that ICG members began to speak openly of walking away.

We had the nuclear option, and more than once we considered using it. We knew our partners were desperate to deliver a fourth 0% budget in 2010, a few months before a general election at which they had high hopes on both a constituency and a national level. We knew we could damage these hopes and dent our partners' aspirations within the borough.

On the other hand we had a responsibility to those who had elected us to exercise power wherever we could. We were making some good progress in our own backyard, and on the Area Committee, in spite of the quite brazen and blatant non co-operation of the Environment Department at and between its meetings.

My colleague Paul Fisher had just completed a year on the Executive in which he had performed magnificently and had every reason to look forward to a second. Another colleague, Jon Hardy, had just joined the same body and both I and he were keen to showcase his undoubted talents. Call it poor leadership if you will, but it just did not seem right to me to pull them away in their prime, and that is even assuming I could have done so.

As the months rolled on the nuclear deterrent failed increasingly to deter. The closer the election came, the more cynical it would have appeared to have pulled out. Chief officers made noises to the effect that it was all a misunderstanding and that they would like to talk through our difficulties with us, although clearly they were simply playing for time and we knew that was the case. If I had had a political pistol I could have held it to certain people's heads and had a good chance of achieving some justice. But all I had was a nuclear trigger which, if detonated, would have blown us up along with the quarry.

Fortified by the belief that the local elections of 2010 would once again result in No Overall Control and that there was a good chance we would be in a position to return to the negotiating table with a much stronger hand than we had played before, we let it ride. In the meantime our partners and the chief officers both impatiently counted the days until the election of the Conservative majority administration they both assumed was on the cards had come about.

In the event of course we had miscalculated, and our partners had miscalculated even more so. The rest is history, but valuable lessons have been learnt.

In the meantime I find myself reflecting upon the fate of the Liberal Democrats in the current government coalition. The equivalent situation, I suppose, would be the Civil Service openly undermining the Lib Dems but I don't think the comparison is an exact one. There is too much scrutiny around the place for this to be permitted to happen.

Instead the Fifth Column the Lib Dems need to be looking over their shoulders at is, in my view, the national press. There is a strong Conservative bias in these circles and, if the same tricks are used against the Lib Dems as were used against us, this is whence the real poison will come.

It would appear that the big man from Twickenham was deliberately set up by the guttersnipes of the Telegraph. It is going to be a long four years.

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.

Community at the ready

Well, we now know for certain what everybody had already assumed - that the general election will be held on the same day as this year's local elections, on Thursday, 6th May.

Naturally this will complicate things a little, not only because it is likely to induce a higher turnout in the locals as those attending the polling station are likely, once they are there, to use their other vote, but also because voters will by May 6th have been inundated by the national media with big party politics and the challenge for us therefore is to keep them thinking local.

The ICG will not be taking part in the general election. Our leadership has made it clear that we would like to see the back of the incumbent MP Ann Keen as we feel it is important that borough residents have Members of Parliament who are prepared to work with the local authority regardless of which party or parties happen to be in office at the Civic Centre. However now it is upon us my view is that we will not be devoting too much attention to the shortcomings of our MP, but rather will be concentrating our efforts on getting our own people elected onto the council.

The ICG is fielding a total of nine candidates - Councillor Phil Andrews, Councillor Paul Fisher and Andy Sibley in Isleworth; Councillor Caroline Andrews, Councillor Shirley Fisher and Councillor Jon Hardy in Syon; and Tricia Doran, Cheryl-Ann Khan and Martin Murphy in Hounslow South.

Our policy platform is fairly simple - we wish to empower our community. Whilst recognising that the local authority has an obligation to provide for those who cannot speak out for themselves and who need help and assistance we will not use this as an excuse, as the previous Labour administration did, for exercising political control over the rest of the community. We want to see active, vibrant and independent civic societies, associations and amenity groups operating throughout the community, even if sometimes it means them challenging us as elected members. The Community Group does not consider it has anything to fear from an engaged community.

Whilst our Conservative coalition partners supported our Empowerment aspirations throughout the last four years, we feel their primary interest is low tax and that in the event of an all-out Conservative administration the community agenda is likely to be sidelined. Whilst we support the drive for low tax, we in the ICG see it as a means to an end rather than the end itself. Thus it is our view that the best result for our community at the local elections on May 6th would be once again for the ICG to hold the balance of power on an authority that is under No Overall Control.

ICG councillors will continue to put their own constituents and wards first and will fight for any resources that become available. We will not relent in identifying Section 106 and other funding for local projects, cohesion initiatives and general improvements for those we represent.

We are not satisfied that the new administration which assumed office in 2006 and of which we have been part has completely succeeded in changing the culture within the council bureaucracy. We believe the PIP process, whilst very welcome, was primarily cost driven and that the co-operation of chief officers with this project and with general budget setting has led our partners to look away while our own Empowerment agenda has been frustrated and obstructed by elements within the senior management. Some substantial rectification of this situation is likely for us to be an essential precondition of any future coalition agreement.

Lastly (for the time being) we will continue to provide a voice for the community on such vitally important local issues as Mogden. The campaign against the nefarious activities of Thames Water has demonstrated the value of elected members throwing their weight behind a successful organic initiative by residents.

At the time of writing we have less than thirty days to underscore all the valuable work that we have currently done to open up the process of our local government still further. ICG activists will be unrelenting in our efforts to secure four more years in which to implement our objectives.

Vince Cable MP supports residents' battle against Mogden Pong

Residents of Isleworth and Hounslow South received a very welcome boost yesterday (Thursday) morning when they were visited by Dr. Vince Cable MP, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, who joined Liberal Democrat PPC Councillor Andrew Dakers and eight ICG councillors and prospective candidates at the gates of Mogden Sewage Treatment Works to support our efforts to put an end to Thames Water's callous mismanagement of the plant.

Nearly 1,400 residents are currently engaged in a court battle with Thames in which they are seeking an injunction to compel the water giant to honour its obligations to the surrounding community. ICG councillors Paul and Shirley Fisher have given evidence at the High Court in support of the residents, and Councillor Dakers has attended the court to offer his moral support.

Included in the photo above are Cheryl-Ann Khan (Hounslow South prospective candidate, third from left), Tricia Doran (Hounslow South prospective candidate, fourth from left), Martin Murphy (Hounslow South prospective candidate, ninth from left), Shirley Fisher (Syon councillor and prospective candidate, eighth from left), Caroline Andrews (Syon councillor and prospective candidate, seventh from right), Paul Fisher (Isleworth councillor and prospective candidate, sixth from left), Andy Sibley (Isleworth prospective candidate, third from right) and myself (Isleworth councillor and prospective candidate, far right - no funnies please!).

Dr. Cable's support has always been welcomed by Hounslow and Isleworth residents in the absence of any contact from their own MP.

Worton residents asked to draw up shopping list

Councillor Paul Fisher and I spoke to Worton residents of all ages tonight at a meeting called by Residents of Worton Estate (ROWE), the residents' association, to discuss how to spend £419k of Section 106 money which we recently discovered was owed to them.

The money had been made available at the time of the new build on Worton Green but ward councillors had not, shall we say, been encouraged to know about it.

Chairing the meeting was not always easy as residents young and old wanted eagerly to put their ideas forward, and many insisted upon doing so in unison. Play and sports facilities for young people, a social club for older people, security gates and landscaping along the riverbank were all mooted as possible projects.

Paul in particular has been a powerhouse when it comes to identifying funding that is available for spending in the community. It is absolutely criminal that so much has been returned to developers because councillors and council officers in other areas have made no effort to grab what is there on behalf of their local residents before the deadline has been reached.

Of course money isn't everything and in the hands of politicians of a certain mindset could be and has been misused, but our practice has been first to secure the funds and second to ask the residents what they want done with it. That is the ICG way, and a lot of people in the communities we represent have been empowered with the means to determine their own priorities.

Mogden Litigation goes to the High Court

The Mogden Residents' Litigation against Thames Water is finally being heard at the Royal Courts of Justice in Central London, in a case which has been scheduled to take place over several weeks.

It would be inappropriate for me to comment on the court proceedings on this blog whilst the case is still live, but we are hopeful that local residents will emerge vindicated.

Pictured right are Liberal Democrat councillor and Prospective Parliamentary Candidate Andrew Dakers, who has publicly called upon Thames to cover the storm tanks which are responsible for most of the odour generated by the plant, and ICG councillor for Isleworth ward Paul Fisher, who gave evidence to the court last week along with Councillor Shirley Fisher, who represents the neighbouring Syon ward.

St. George's Day - the "Bigger Picture" comes into focus

Back on 12th August 2008 I commented on this blog in an article entitled "Seeing the Bigger Picture", following a visit to the London Mela in Gunnersbury Park: "Imagine 75,000 people attending a St. George's Day festival, bedecked with English flags and populated by British people of all cultural and ethnic backgrounds, with food, music and dance from South Asia, China, the Caribbean, as well as from the UK. A festival which would flaunt the proud Englishness of the diverse society which we enjoy today. What better way could there possibly be of putting across the message that we are an integrated community, contemptuous of prejudice and disharmony, diverse yet cohesive, brought together by the common values that unite us in a society in which Everybody Matters?"

Almost two years later, thanks largely to the efforts of my dynamic ward colleague Councillor Paul Fisher who is also the council's Lead Member for Community Engagement, residents of Ivybridge will be one of several communities in the local area that will be staging parties to celebrate St. George's Day with the support of the Isleworth & Brentford Area Committee (IBAC).

And here's the exciting bit - the Somali community, now thoroughly integrated into the residents' movement on the estate, has offered to play a leading role in the celebrations, which will stress the sense of common identity that people from different backgrounds enjoy on the estate and throughout our local area.

It is a source of great pride to me that these relatively recent arrivals to our village have become organised and contribute vociferously to our local community life. Their leaders pull no punches in highlighting areas of specific concern to Somalis as a group, but what really is encouraging is their desire and determination to play a full and active role in the life of the wider community also. Their ethos is one which strikes at the very heart of what Community Cohesion is about - eradicating disadvantage whilst encouraging responsibility and a sense of citizenship amongst their own.

The old ways, which encouraged separation and suspicion with a view to garnering votes from perpetually weak and frightened minorities, have been well and truly consigned to the scrapheap.

The key to reclaiming St. George's Day from the far-right is not to suppress it, but to re-present it an the image that is appropriate to the age in which we live. As a celebration of a diverse and tolerant England it provides us with a powerful tool for driving the Cohesion agenda forward.

People Getting Ready

The community movement in Hounslow received another significant boost last week with the emergence of a new popular movement - the Cranford Heston Alliance (CHA).

ICG councillors Paul and Shirley Fisher were the guest speakers at a very well-attended launch meeting which was supported by local residents, traders and even political figures and dignitaries from the Indian sub-continent.

The new organisation is spearheaded by former Labour councillors Sarbjit Gill and Parmod Kad MBE. Its aim is to sweep away the party political domination of community life in Cranford and Heston and to give the community a real voice in local affairs.

Resident Amar Singh Dhaliwal (front, right) said: "Local residents are fed up with not being able to get anything done around here and have even had to resort to contacting councillors from the opposite end of the borough with their complaints. What we need is real local representation which puts the people first".

The CHA has indicated its intention to field candidates in the 2010 local elections, and its campaign will receive active and practical support from the ICG.

Out and about with our community

Well actually it was too cold to be out and about, but last night Councillor Paul Fisher, myself and some officers from Hounslow Homes hosted a very small but useful meeting of residents from Isleworth's Worple estate at the Bridge Link Centre on Ivybridge to discuss some ASB and other problems they've been experiencing on the estate.

One hears surprisingly little from the residents on the Worple. Percentage wise, little of our casework comes from there and attempts to form residents' groups amount to so much hard work. And yet at the 2006 local elections the polling district comprising the Worple estate was the most solidly pro-ICG in the whole of Isleworth ward, out-performing even the loyal Worton. One likes to think they are contented and that they trust us, but it is never wise to take people for granted and the estate needs and deserves the same TLC as anywhere else in the village.

Once that meeting was over we drove across to Boston Manor to join another gathering of residents. Boston Manor is in Brentford ward - not represented by ICG councillors - but Councillor Andrew Dakers, with whom we enjoy a good working relationship, was there are we are always happy to lend our support to Linda Massey from Friends of Boston Manor (FOBM), who does a fabulous job as a volunteer and is always so gracious and level-headed in her dealings with the local authority even when she is feeling let down. The meeting was chaired by John Bradley, of Green Party fame. I'd never seen him chair a meeting before and he is actually quite fearsome!

Then this afternoon it was back to the Bridge Link where Councillors Jon Hardy, Paul Fisher and Andrew Dakers joined officers from Housing and myself in a meeting with a large contingent of Somali residents. One can understand the frustration of families of six, seven and eight living in two-bedroom flats, but that is the reality of the housing crisis and they were surprisingly understanding under the circumstances.

On the whole I find meetings with residents more enjoyable and productive than meetings with politicians. If nothing else, it helps remind me why I am a councillor. Meetings of the Area Committee have become much more enjoyable and dynamic since the community began to play a bigger role, and this is a development that we want to encourage still further in the months ahead.

A month flies by

I've done it again, haven't I?

This time virtually a month has flown by since I last got around to updating this blog. Again this has been purely down to pressures of work, not just in my councillor role but also the need to make a living and keep the kids in food, pocket money and everything else they seem to have become expert in demanding at strategic times when they know my resistance is not at its best.

Since I last posted I have had the honour of attending the annual Remembrance Day parade in Isleworth, which in terms of public support was certainly the most popular that I have ever witnessed. Councillor Paul Fisher laid the wreath at Isleworth War Memorial on behalf of the community of Isleworth whilst Councillor Shirley Fisher represented the Mayor in the absence of Councillor Dr. Genevieve Hibbs, who was unwell (Councillor Jon Hardy meanwhile laid the wreath on behalf of the Mayor at Brentford War Memorial). It is was a pleasure to see the Mayor, Councillor Paul Lynch, arrive at the Isleworth Royal British Legion after the event and spend some time speaking to ex-service people, councillors and other members of the public, and he made a return visit some days later to present the Poppy Organiser Ron Andrews ("Dad" to some!) with a badge of recognition for all his hard work at a special event for those of us who had assisted with poppy selling, which this year saw yet another record collection (an achievement repeated over the last several occasions), this time in excess of £21,000.

One activity which I took part in later in November and which is worth mentioning was a canvassing exercise on the Worton estate. Not canvassing for votes (this time), but calling on locals on behalf of the residents' association - Residents of Worton Estate (ROWE) - seeking their views on what improvements they would like to see at the Community Centre. I found people by and large surprisingly receptive and positive. Whilst as a seasoned canvasser the patter tends to come naturally in any event, I was ably assisted by the indefatigable Kim Dobson, who first asked if she could stick with me because she was nervous and then barely let me get a word in once the doors had been opened!

Kim is a truly dynamic example of the kind of community activist who has been let off the leash by the election of community councillors and the emergence of a local Area Committee dominated by a community leadership ethos. I'm biased of course, but I really do believe it would be a tragedy to throw all this energy and positivity away by reversing these exciting advancements when we go to the polls in May 2010.

On the 24th it was Borough Council, and I felt compelled to make what had probably been the most difficult speech that I'd ever given there when the time arrived to discuss a raft of budget proposals which had been submitted for consultation. It is to the credit of the Leader of the Council and the Lead Member of Finance that these proposals were being presented early in the process for consideration - under the old Labour administrations they usually came to us on the night in March that the decision was to be taken! Nonetheless due to a combination of what I believe to have been the understandable over-zealousness of our Conservative coalition partners in wanting to publicly promote their low-tax agenda in the run up to both the national and local elections and, I suspect, a certain amount of mischief-making on the part of some senior officers and chief officers of the council, the process had bypassed the Community Group entirely and thus I argued that, under the circumstances, it would be unreasonable to expect us to take joint ownership of it.

Bizarrely the opposition Labour Party would appear to have stepped up its attacks on us since I delivered my speech, suggesting that they would probably prefer the Conservative budget to pass through unhindered, I suspect both for propaganda purposes and also because they fear the challenge of having to present a credible alternative budget which somehow manages to reconcile their expressed concern for the well-being of our public services with their own new, imposed low-tax position. With the demographics at the council chamber being as they are it will be interesting to see how this all pans out.

At the Annual Meeting of my Church the following evening I was re-elected as a Deacon, for which I really am grateful as with my various duties I have not been as active with the Church in recent times as I would have liked to have been in. It truly was humbling to be reassured by my fellow members that they still considered my contribution to be worthy of acknowledgement in this very important way.

On Tuesday this week Councillor Paul Fisher and I were with a gathering of residents from Heron's Place as well as representatives of various local civic and amenity groups discussing the proposed extension of a footpath along the river with planning officers from the council. Many of the same residents and activists were also present at the meeting of the Isleworth & Brentford Area Committee (IBAC) two days later at which a frank and vigorous debate took place on the local authority's plans to move towards electronic-only access to planning documents, a laudable objective in an environmental sense but one which has sold residents short by being so clearly money-driven.

Last night a goodly number of us met at the recently reopened Magpie & Crown in Brentford to take stock of where we stand with friends and enemies, opponents and colleagues as we drift closer to the confused scramble that will be the May 2010 local elections. Judging from the mood of colleagues - old faces and new recruits, several of them former adversaries - I believe we will be ready for whatever is thrown at us and will emerge from the contest stronger, more knowledgeable, better organised and more streetwise than we have ever been before.

It's a fair cop guv!

I've got the hump with my Community Group colleague Councillor Paul Fisher at the moment.

It was Paul who, acting in his capacity as Lead Member for Parking at the London Borough of Hounslow, introduced free parking for the first hour to the new car park in Brentford High Street. In doing so he made struggling businesses along the High Street more attractive to passing trade, a particularly needed boost during a time of economic hardship. Now drivers can stop to buy a newspaper, eat at a café, or even get their hair cut or do a bit of shopping without having to factor in the additional cost of parking their car in order to do so.

The problem for me yesterday morning was that, in a senior moment amid my eagerness to cross the road and distribute some leaflets to residents at Brentford Lock, I forgot to get a ticket from the machine which would have told the attendant at what time my free hour had commenced. As a consequence I returned to a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN), leaving me a cool thirty quid lighter for my empty-headedness.

Yesterday was only the third time that I'd ever received one of these damned violation things. On the first occasion an over-eager attendant ticketed me in a council car park which I was entitled to be in. On the second (in neighbouring Richmond) I entered a bus lane ever so slightly sooner than I ought to have done in order to effect a left turn. Both times I appealed to the Parking & Traffic Appeals Service (PTAS) and won my case. This time though it is different. It's a fair cop guv.

Under recent government legislation we as councillors are not permitted to interfere in the issuing and progress of PCNs to our constituents, much to the chagrin of many of them. Most weeks we are contacted by somebody or other who wasn't aware of the regulations, their ticket fell off the windscreen or whatever. Sometimes their challenges are clearly frivolous, at other times they appear on the surface to have some kind of case. All we are able to do is explain the appeals process to them.

I shouldn't be ungenerous. In Paul's hands the parking regime has become much more customer-focussed, more flexible and responsive to particular local needs, and less profit-driven. This is how it should be.

I hope the residents of Brentford Lock enjoyed our latest leaflet and, if any of them are reading this, please be impressed by the sacrifices we make to get news and information to your letterbox.

Thames Water tells councillors: "We won't speak to residents until we get our way over Section 106!"

Wednesday, 23rd September 2009 is a date that will be remembered for a long time to come in Isleworth activist circles. It was the date on which local politicians of varying hues, as well as not a few officers from the London Borough of Hounslow, were finally able to see for themselves what we in Isleworth have had to put up with for years in our dealings with the unrepentant pollutant that is Thames Water. Those who may have laboured under the polite misapprehension that we are perhaps a tad too militant, and distrusting, in our dealings with our neighbour from hell were at last given cause to understand it is why we and our residents adopt the stance we do.

Councillors Andrew Dakers, Ruth Cadbury, Barbara Reid and Brad Fisher joined their ICG counterparts Jon Hardy, Paul Fisher and myself at a meeting of the Thames-led Mogden Residents' Liaison Committee (the holding of which is a legal requirement under the terms of the Legal Agreement between Thames and the local authority following earlier court action) and witnessed for themselves the spin, the persistent sleight of hand manoeuvring and obfuscation of this wealthy public utility which prefers to fight its neighbours in court than dip even furtively into its own rather vast pockets to honour its legal and moral obligations.

Sadly Ruth and Andrew had moved on to other engagements before the piece de la resistance was delivered shortly before the close of the meeting. The Section 106 terms which were laid out by the council's Sustainable Development Committee on that night of shame in March have yet to be agreed to by Thames, and yet astounded members and officers heard Thames deliver its ultimatum - that until we signed off the agreement, on its terms rather than the ones approved by SDC, they would not send out any information to residents about what was happening at the site.

Meanwhile members of the press who had been asked by the Mogden Residents' Action Group (MRAG) to attend the meeting and witness events were refused entrance at the gate.

Despite the tight grip which Thames maintained over the conduct of the meeting, the councillors and members of MRAG were able to ask probing questions about the management of the site. As is so often the case, "new guy" was in the hot seat and his response to most questions, as was doubtless his brief, was that he couldn't answer them because they referred to matters and incidents which predated his arrival at the plant.

One could be ungracious and point out, as is certainly true, that some of the councillors who quite clearly took the residents' part at the MRLC meeting would have served those residents a whole lot better by not having capitulated to Thames at SDC in the first place. Nonetheless there was a definite sense about the place that the game was finally up. No amount of private briefing of senior figures on the council, as one member of the Thames party let slip at the meeting had taken place very recently, will change the fact that the residents are increasingly in control of the situation, and that in the long term resistance is futile.

Sri Lankan community united in Hounslow

Later on Saturday morning I joined my colleagues Councillor Paul Fisher (Lead Member for Communities - Engagement & Safety), Councillor Shirley Fisher (Chair of IBAC) and Councillor Andrew Dakers (Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group) as guests at the Inaugural Ceremony of the Sri Lankan Community Centre. Paul had been instrumental in working with organisers prior to the event on behalf of the local authority to ensure that it all ran smoothly.

The event, addressed by the Mayor of Hounslow Councillor Paul Lynch, heralded the opening of the first registered centre of its kind for the Sri Lankan community, in Hanworth, following the cessation of hostilities in the mother country. Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims participated in this enjoyable, entertaining and well-attended celebration of unity and peace. Speeches by the Mayor and the Sri Lankan High Commissioner were followed by dancing and an impromptu chat session hosted by a local Sri Lankan resident who entertained those present whilst the finishing touches were applied to the sumptuous feast.

For a useful pictoral record of the event please see below. Most of the photos are supplied courtesy of Sesatha.co.uk:


Councillor Shirley Fisher is greeted with leaves by a young host...


...and lights a candle to mark the launching of the event.


The Assistant High Commissioner does likewise.


Andrew Dakers and Yours Truly listen attentively to the Mayor's speech. The High Commissioner is far right of the photo.


Paul and Shirley show their appreciation for the local impromptu entertainer.


A colourful display of dancing...


...from the youngsters too.


Together after the event.

ICG raises the game on Community Engagement

A lot has been happening politically in the ten days or so since I last blogged, but probably nothing so significant as the Report carried through Executive by Councillor Paul Fisher on Tuesday which put the meat on the bones of the successful Motion on Community Empowerment put to Borough Council by the Community Group back in July.

The Report introduced the findings of the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) who had been commissioned towards the end of 2008 to look into Hounslow's general approach to the subject of Community Engagement. Engagement is, of course, one of those all-embracing buzz words that is used by councils of all political complexions but actually understood in its proper sense by few. To many it is an unnecessary and unwelcome distraction in which boxes have to be ticked before a piece of work can be done. What it actually is in its true sense however is a recognition that as members and officers our role is to offer the services to local people that they actually require from us.

Not wishing to cramp Paul's style I watched the meeting at home on the webcast and was amused by the tempered protests of one Executive member who complained that the Report had undertones of New Labour. Those of us who came together in an Isleworth pub in 1994 and who have been fighting ever since for our community to be elevated to its rightful place in the collective mindset of the local authority machine would not associate this project with New Labour, of all people, in a million years. Empowerment is about taking elitism and control-freakery out of our local politics.

There is a discussion still to be had about the developing role of Area Committees, which was lifted from the Report as it was felt it was a subject deserving of a separate discussion in its own right, however with this Report having been given the nod the dynamic is clearly for more local democracy, not less.

Paul's excellent Report was just the lastest manifestation of the Community Group's determination to have all the most significant aspects of its political programme incorporated into the process before the May 2010 local elections. Its passing was a massive development in the relentless onward march towards a people-focused council in Hounslow.

ICG in the news for all the right reasons

The most gratifying thing about being involved with the ICG is that while our opponents whinge about our success and bitch about things which may or may not have happened twenty or thirty years ago, we just get on with it, and get down to doing the things that really change peoples lives for the better.

As Lead Member for Housing Jon Hardy has barely been out of the news over the past few weeks. The New Build at Convent Way is progressing, with badly needed new homes for our tenants. Also on Jon's watch £1.3m of funding has been allocated to completely eradicate the shortfall in the Aids and Adaptations budget.

Syon councillor Shirley Fisher took pride of place in an excellent report in the Hounslow & Brentford Times featuring our very well-supported public consultation on how funding for St. John's Gardens should be spent. The community around St. John's is very well-organised and resourceful, and has been a great source of strength to us as set about developing a community-driven ethos throughout the two wards which are under our jurisdiction.

Meanwhile her husband, Isleworth councillor Paul Fisher paid a visit to Hounslow Toy Library in his capacity as Chair of the Community Investment Advisory Panel to deliver them a cheque for £14,500 (see above), which is additional to the £10,000 which they receive on an annual basis. Paul commented: "I was kindly invited by Mrs. Matthews to see what they do and how they struggle each year to make ends meet. I was when I visited instantly struck by the love, care and total devotion shown by those to the disabled children in Hounslow and their parents who use this facility that I immediately made enquiries in how I could further fund them."

Working together on Worton

This afternoon I spent a very productive hour or two on a walkabout on Isleworth's Worton estate in the company of two new but very keen officers from Hounslow Homes, Residents of Worton Estate (ROWE) Chair George Langridge, the indefatigable young peoples' champion Kim Dobson, and fellow ward councillors Paul Fisher and Dr. Genevieve Hibbs.

One of the issues we were keen to resolve was the apparent lack of communication that persists between Community Payback and Hounslow Homes, which has resulted in young people gathering up waste and dumped material from the alleyways and storing it into piles, only for it to be redistributed about the place again when it goes uncollected. It isn't actually as straightforward as it sounds - Hounslow Homes not unreasonably require notice whilst the nature of Payback's activity can vary at short notice according to weather and other conditions. With goodwill and determination we will get there.

The alleyways behind the houses have long been a bone of contention. Flytippers routinely use them as a venue for dumping their wares. Gating them off and issuing keys to neighbouring residents does not seem to stop them - at least one household would appear to be making its key available to the tippers. Closure could be an option but residents who have bought their homes also purchased the right of access from the rear and for us to remove that could lead to a compensation claim.

Some highways matters were also discussed at some length, with problems still following on from the introduction a few years back of the one-way system.

On my way around I picked up two items of casework from residents - one of them, by a curious coincidence, by telephone from somebody on that very estate.

The ROWE Community Centre itself is starting to look good. The toilets, which had been in such a state of disrepair that the Association has had to turn down potentially lucrative hall bookings, had now been brought up to spec thanks to some grant funding from the Isleworth & Brentford Area Committee (IBAC). More money is expected from the Rainbow Project to renovate the building still further.

It is in everybody's interests for residents, councillors and officers to pool their thoughts and ideas and to work together to improve the living environment on our estates. Things seem to be really looking up in places.