Chiswick Calendar Blog - 14 April

You can read the original blog at the Chiswick Calendar site.

I got involved in local politics for two clear reasons: I love my Chiswick neighbourhood, and I have always thought it was better to fix something that I didn’t like myself than sit back and moan about it.

Believe me, committing to navigating the politics of Hounslow Borough Council is not high up the priority list of most twenty-six-year-olds.

There is a perception amongst many people my age, as well as some people in Chiswick that I speak with, that running is a fool’s errand because there is nothing that a Councillor can do to improve the lives of residents – but that is categorically not true.

You can see it in the way that just in the last few years Conservative Councillors led successful campaigns to save Chiswick Post Office, to keep Church Street open, and to transform the area between Edensor Gardens and Alexandra Gardens at Duke’s Meadows.

You can see it in the reverence that people in Chiswick have for Cllr John Todd, who has been a remarkable mentor to me since I got involved in politics in the Homefields ward.

But since moving to Chiswick over three years ago, I have also noticed the ways in which Labour Councillors have managed to introduce inconvenient changes that build up over time to make the lives of my neighbours worse. I want to fix them.

Too often local Councillors forget that the majority of people just want local services and schemes that work for them.

Quite simply, my driving focus if I am elected on May 7 will be to make it easier for everyone in Chiswick to go about their daily lives.

A particular frustration for me recently has been the chaotic way the Council has handled Hounslow’s e-bike contract which has had ramifications for people living around St Michael’s and All Angels.

Unlike the current youngest Councillor in the Borough, I don’t own a Lamborghini that I can park wherever I choose, so I find – as I know from my doorstep conversations that many people in Chiswick do – e-bikes a convenient way to get around West London.

Cancelling the Lime contract has resulted in a build-up of bikes on the Hounslow borders with Ealing and Hammersmith. Bikes are cluttering the pavements in Bedford Park to such an extent that the Bedford Park Society have had to dedicate some serious hard work to finding a new bay in the area.

At the same time, the number of e-bike journeys in the Borough has plummeted because of the lack of available bikes and the seriously confusing cross-Borough arrangements. The service we get is now worse than it was before.

It is true that enforcement of Lime bike parking has not always been good, but I think it is telling that when the Council assessed Lime’s competitors Voi and Forest they scored no better in the enforcement category.

The answer to the Lime issue was not a straight up ban, but strong enforcement oversight and the provision of more parking bays. That’s why we’re calling for a sensible return for Lime in Hounslow instead of the Council’s current fudge.

Small changes can make a big difference. Just ask anyone in Chiswick who has been impacted by the Liveable Neighbourhood, another example of a Council policy that does not work for residents and needs fixing. For me it isn’t a question of ideology, it’s a question of whether the schemes penalise the wrong residents and make traffic worse. I think they do and that they need reviewing.

Improvements in Chiswick’s transport links and accessibility are a great, if unglamorous, example of how who you elect on May 7 matters.

The strong Conservative team that I am part of will build on its record of hard work and local action to push for LTN reviews, an e-bike contract that works, and clarity over plans for long-promised all-day Piccadilly line stopping at Turnham Green and Step-Free access at at least one Chiswick station.

Alongside my dedicated ward colleagues, Cllr Jack Emsley and Mike Denniss, I will work tirelessly to keep Chiswick special, and to show through what we deliver that Chiswick Homefields continues to be well-served by having three Conservative Councillors.