Small Wins Over and Under the Layton Road Footbridge
Brentford West councillor Guy Lambert reports back
Brentford West councillor Guy Lambert
March 27, 2025
On Friday I went up to Layton Road to look at the work that had been promised by Hounslow Highways to clear the mess underneath the pedestrian bridge across the railway in Brook Lane North.
As a councillor, life can often be frustrating. About 9 years ago a resident contacted me after he had poleaxed himself by walking across that bridge in the dark. Some local hero had demonstrated his physical strength and mature approach to life by grabbing the tube steel banister and relocating its sharp end in the middle of the stairs. Getting the banister repaired was easy, but I was asked to get lights on the bridge. I went at it enthusiastically and with officers looked for solutions. Could we get the lights on the council estates at both ends expanded in some way to light the bridge?
I came across for the first time the split in the council between the HRA (Housing Revenue Account reserved for council housing on pain of death) and the general fund (everything else the council does). We never got anywhere with this so (over years probably) I persuaded officers in traffic to fix lights to the bridge itself. AHA, SW Trains wouldn't let us mess with their property and in any case, lights on the bridge would dazzle the drivers so was verboten. I gave up for a while then one day I walked over a pedestrian bridge in Chiswick, very similar to the Brentford one. This had rather elegant uplighters under my feet and would only, surely, dazzle owls. I discovered Hounslow Highways had fitted these so I demanded the same was done in Brentford.
Of course there was no budget but it was put on the list for later. But someone took the trouble to find out whose bridge it was. Not South Western Trains. Oh - what about Network Rail? Not guilty yr honour. Oh - was it Hounslow Council. Sherlock the council asset registrar indulged in a bit of archaeology and concluded that yes, it was a council bridge. So get on with it! But there is no budget. Find some!
Eventually somebody found some budget. Hounslow Highways designed a solution (downlighters from the banisters at danger of dazzling endangered woodworms, but they decided it would be OK after an Environmental Impact Analysis). That last bit I made up. Anyway a year or 2 ago There Was Light. I assume it's still there because nobody has complained recently.
I digress, not at all like me. Back to the mess in Layton under the bridge.
The lads from Hounslow Highways filling up the second vanload of mess - a mixture of bedraggled shrubs and rubbish.
Of course the trick now is to keep it that way. I'm suggesting it might be fenced off like the HRA bit on the right is (and always looks OK) and that we get some volunteers to maintain the planting. Hounslow Highways have said they will donate the shrubs or whatever. Trying to get my chums in Layton to commit, because this should be a pleasure rather than a pain. Also have asked Salman Shaheen whether he can do a mini-forest there.
In the afternoon I was in Chiswick with an outfit called Hearing Well. Something that is rather beyond me, and beyond the NHS. Friends told me that Hearing Well are exceptional and the man who runs it also volunteers and makes a regular donation at the FoodBox. In many ways it was a pleasure to go there and have my hearing problems helpfully examined and solutions sought. In one way it was not at all a pleasure because state of the art hearing aids are probably making the manufacturers rich but making me a lot poorer. But to be able to hear is essential to a councillor (though I wish I could turn them off sometimes in council meetings).
He told me it is not a magic wand and my hearing is still less than I'd like with the new aids, but they are definitely better and I am learning how to optimise them. Even old dogs...
On Saturday morning it was pleasure to see some young canoeists and kayakers in my stretch of the River Brent (I am not claiming ownership).
I think this is the work of London Kayak School who took the trouble to write to me to encourage me to carry on encouraging the council to support the retention and development of the facility used by Team Keane and the Kayak School at Ferry Peninsula. I have been enjoying seeing all the activity on the river over the last couple of years. Team Keane called me at the weekend saying there had been renewed commitment to their activities from the regeneration team. I await to see what that will bring, but it is SO important to Brentford and particularly to our poorly-served youngsters.
I saw a film in the afternoon at the Chiswick Cinema. Black Bag, which I disliked. Can’t wait for the Brentford one to open - today, Thursday 27th!
On Sunday I cycled up to Heston, to take a look at what the Heston Action Group are getting on with their Community Garden .
This is in a corner of an old playing field which doesn't look like it is much used. What they have achieved over a couple of years is remarkable. The Friends of Watermans Park are looking to do something similar - but more modest because less space. Waiting for news about funding from the community team at the council.
On Tuesday I spent some time on line with the Data Practitioners Network at Hounslow Council. This included input from a woman with an MSc in Sustainable Development who has been engaged with the Heston in the Loop project, plus some other quite eminent people who are looking to improve the way Hounslow uses data. There were many council officers there learning but I was the only councillor and the first time I have attended. Having said that, my technology worked only intermittently so I missed quite a bit, but what I heard was stimulating. I will be looking to do more about this, because it is a signpost to how councils (and others) will work in the future. Makes me feel out of date - I was in the forefront of this kind of thing but I realise now it is more than a decade since I was actively involved in technology or data management.
In the evening we had a very long and very uninspiring council meeting. I realised some time ago that I am not a natural politician. I am not good on my feet and I detest the way all parties indulge in squawking about how wonderful they are and how useless is the other lot. We now have 3 Independents, one of whom is very good at squawking and has a deputy squawker known as the editor of Brentford TV, but none of this has any effect on what actually happens. I have decided to play this game very rarely. The way the council runs is extremely effective at avoiding any real debate or learning in the political activities, of which the Borough Meetings are the shining example. It is the one thing that we as councillors have a responsibility to attend. Even Balraj Sarai managed to turn up twice a year as was in his contract, but frankly - nice man as he is - he did nothing else.
Wednesday by contrast started very productively. I have been trying for about 3 years to find out what's going on at the former Beecham/GSK sports ground on Swyncombe Avenue. The officer who used to inform me about such matters was off ill for nearly a year and has now moved to a new job in Islington where he lives (a huge loss to Hounslow) and since then everybody either didn't know anything or wouldn't tell me. I'm afraid that is the reality for a Hounslow councillor and I personally think it’s disgraceful, because this stuff matters to me.
OK I'll stop moaning. Salman Shaheen organised a meeting there with the new 'tenants' which are Middlesex County Cricket Club. Salman and I met Josh Knappett from Middlesex and Marilyn Smith. Marilyn I know very well as she lives in Brentford East and for a long time was head of planning at Hounslow. We crossed swords at times about planning matters (it is the nature of planning) and I knew she was sporty but I didn't realise how eminent.
So the fantastic news is that this will be the headquarters of Middlesex CCC women's team and activities and I am really delighted we have them in the heart of Brentford, at a time when women's cricket is well on the up. As Middlesex play their men's cricket at Lords, I think this site should be known as Lady's but I bottled suggesting that. It is actually known as Queen Elizabeth II ground, though I don't know where she polished her batting expertise.
They have completely refurbished the field - though there is more to do to get it up to professional standard. There was a robot lawnmower chasing us around the field, but it went off for a cup of tea when we went into the pavilion for a chat. The pavilion is quite impressive, but needs a lot of work to change it from being male-oriented and get it ready for use in anger to begin later this year. A real good news story.
After that I briefly met the panjandrums of Brentford Voice plus Theo Dennison. I was short of time and whilst we were inside at Sam's Cafe I was short of hearing even with me new tools (why does every cafe and pub find it necessary to have music on to exclude people with poor hearing). The meeting was about CIL - the contribution made by developers to council infrastructure - and Theo used to be in charge of that several years ago. I think Shantanu is in charge of that (and everything else!) and I think it's fair to say that the Brentford Voice people are as unimpressed by the invisible way these decisions are made as I am. Work needed. £2.5M allocated to a new boathouse in Dukes Meadow Chiswick to go with the £6m paid for a footbridge under a bridge, £400K allocated for undefined improvements to Dukes Meadow together with I understand £150K spent on making a road from nowhere to nowhere in Dukes Meadow recently. People in Chiswick complain they are ignored but as far as I can see they get a lot more attention than poorer areas of Hounslow. After all, there are already 6 boat houses in Chiswick so I remain determined to get one in Brentford where it is sorely needed to help poorer children to get on the water.
Later in the day I took my bike to Fudge's because it had started clicking, a bit like what a pirated Lime Bike used to do (now Limes squawk like a councillor in the Borough meeting). Last time I had this on a previous bike it ended with a pedal falling off which is at best inconvenient and at worst dangerous. The man at Fudges told me I needed a new bottom bracket, though I had not realised I had a bracket on my bottom. You learn as you live. This messed up my evening and I Lime biked home. The Lime bike had virtually no brakes (fortunately the delivery driver I nearly mowed down in Duke Road moved swiftly) and clearly had been bashed up because both sides of the handlebars were damaged and the bell switch was damaged. Last time I tried a Lime it had no power and I had to push it up the steep hill (!) that goes from Kew Bridge to Wellesley Road. That time they refunded me but this time I couldn't be bothered to complain, although cycling from Chiswick to Brentford cost nearly £10. When I left it it fell over despite being on flat ground in the official bay in Lateward Road. Seems the stand is not fit for purpose.
The day took me around the area which is now mainly Ballymore. The guide observed that Goddards vans were around every corner. This one is a recent arrival on Albany Road (there is a pair on the other side, and one in a Victorian house drive on Windmill, amongst many others). This one has a MoT which ran out in 2022 but all's well because it has Statutory Off Road status. But it is an eyesore, as are many of Goddards vans. Why they keep these things I have no idea. In the 1980s I moved house in Chiswick. I engaged the local company whose vans I had seen (!) and Goddards turned up as planned. I said the van wasn't big enough. The chap said he knew about capacity and it would all be fine. I asked him how many van drivers there were. I think he said 6 but I said why does it have so many vans. He said 'Mr Goddard likes vans'. That must have been the older Mr Goddard but it seems to have been inherited. Of course (as always) I was right and when it got to 3 pm with the buyers turning up at 4 he rang the office to call in another van. I had an awkward hour whilst Goddards were clearing the house whilst I made small talk with the unfortunate buyers.
Carrying on my way home I was reminded of the former housing office on the High Street. Some will remember that for a while there was a community bike repair place there - the Bike Hub. Local artist Wendy Mackenzie made a lovely sign for it and the bike hub was staffed by the lovely (and huge) Winston for a while. At the end of 2021 or early 2022 he was evicted at very short notice. I protested and was told it was needed urgently for housing for care leavers. I pointed out they had not even applied for planning permission to change use but was told they needed it empty for 3 months to prove it was not needed for community use. So they evicted a community user to prove it wasn't needed. A planning application was lodged on March 2022 and approved in July 2022. Nothing happened, Then there was a panic after the Watermans closure and somebody put up these attractive shutters to make Brentford look like West Belfast in the Troubles. I raised this with Tom Bruce at the time and he said they needed a new planning permission. There has been no planning application since 2022. At a time when we are desperately short of both accommodation and money, to leave this place like it is is scandalous.
What's happening in Heidelberg. Progress continuing. I suspect I will stop being able to see that building growing next to MSO marine will be denied in a week or 3 as the nearer building progresses on what currently looks like an ice rink.
Councillor Guy Lambert
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