Author Archives: loukit

by | October 30, 2021 · 09:37

Offenders and St Mary’s Tennis Club: the Community Payback Scheme

Local, low level, offenders have been carrying out unpaid work to tidy up some space in Osterley and Spring Grove Ward as part of the Community Payback Scheme.

Located at St Mary’s Tennis Club since Autumn 2020, they cleared rubbish on the nearby sports ground, trimmed overgrown bushes, painted boundary walls, the inside and outside of the pavilion, mown grass, undertaken planting and have currently been sweeping recent leaf fall.

Cut lawn, planting and tidying at St Mary’s Tennis Club, Musgrave Road

Before and after the Community Payback deep weed on Musgrave Road, October 2021

Not confined to within the boundary of St Mary’s, the participants, with equipment and bag supplies from Hounslow Highways, also litter pick locally.  They have, this October, done a smashing job weeding the rather special crazy paved edge of the Musgrave Road footway between Wood Lane and College Road receiving compliments from neighbours.

At St Mary’s, offenders are supervised (by Trish of the London Community Rehabilitation Company) and must wear orange high-vis jackets, allowing them to be easily identified by the public; recognisable as doing work to improve local communities.

The Community Payback Scheme is a nationwide programme run by the National Probation Service and sentences of between 40 – 300 hours can be issued to individuals by courts, depending on the severity of their crime and previous offences.

When an offender starts on a project, they are also offered online education, training and employment courses if there is a need and these contribute towards their unpaid work hours by up to 30%.

In general, and it’s nothing new, this initiative has offered visible improvements to local areas, helps to reduce fear of crime, and also equips offenders with essential life skills which aim to prevent them reoffending.

Meeting with council officers and the London Community Rehabilitation Company, December 2020

Following my encounter with the offenders and Trish at Musgrave Road, last year, I arranged, as Mayor, a meeting between the service and senior officers of the London Borough of Hounslow with a view of offering more opportunities in similar settings and understand that a partnership is developing.

Also working at Gunnersbury Park, St Richards School, Hounslow Youth Centre and Hounslow Allotments and at various charity shops, Oxfam, Cancer Research and Sue Ryder; Community Payback completed 1132 hours of unpaid work within projects on the borough during the month of November 2020.

I have visited a couple of times since and remain impressed with the contribution to improving the Ward environment.

TL  30.10.2021

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by | October 23, 2021 · 14:19

Protected: Tony’s pictures from 9.10.2021

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by | October 20, 2021 · 05:45

Smoke without fire. Contingency planning exercise at The Paragon Thursday 21.10.2021

The London Borough of Hounslow Contingency Planning Unit has shared details of a London Fire Brigade exercise scheduled for Thursday 21 October 2021 at the University of West London site close to where the A4 and M4 meet Boston Manor Road in Brentford.

The Paragon, Brentford

Under the Civil Contingencies Act (2004), Category 1 organisations such as the council and fire service have a statutory duty to “test the effectiveness of their emergency plans by carrying out exercises”.

This exercise planned for from 1.00 pm, tomorrow 21 October 2021, will last approximately three hours and involve 12 or more LFB appliances as well as smoke machines to practise high rise fire and evacuation procedures. A briefing may be found here.

The event will therefore be very visible to the public, potentially from some distance away, including people of Osterley and Spring Grove Ward. Residents should be reassured but, obviously, if in any doubt the advice is to still call 999 who will appropriately field calls.

The organisers have worked with the council’s traffic team and Transport for London to put in place arrangements to minimise any traffic disruption with the large number of Fire Brigade appliances taking part.

The LBH Contingency Planning team will be at the exercise with LFB on the day assisting with coordination of some volunteer students from West Thames College who have kindly agreed to be ‘evacuated’ from the building and testing some of the council response arrangements on site.

TL 20.10.2021

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by | September 30, 2021 · 23:45

Pothole Pledge 2021 Programme Continues in Osterley and Spring Grove Ward

The Council’s Pothole Pledge for 2021 has completed the initial first phase of 14 roads across the borough, four of which were resurfaced in Osterley and Spring Grove Ward during August 2021: The Grove from Harvard to Spring Grove Road, Thornbury Road from London to Spring Grove Road, Weston Gardens and Thornbury Avenue.

The Director of Environment meeting my resident at Weston Gardens May 2021

Hounslow Highways is gearing up for 50 days of continuous work between October and Christmas to complete another 34 roads, five more in our Ward: Wood Lane north of Great West Road, Borough Road, part of Grove Road, Ridgeway Road North and Osterley Avenue.

Weston Gardens, Thornbury Avenue, Borough Road, Wood Lane and Osterley Avenue were earmarked because residents raised matters with Ward Councillors or contacted the council direct. The surfaces of most of those and of Ridgeway Road North, Thornbury Road and The Grove (not my preferred part) have also been the subject of numerous of my FixMyStreet reports to Hounslow Highways.

On a resurfaced Thornbury Avenue September 2021

The full list of roads completed and those to be treated can be found here.  All roads will be closed to vehicles traffic for the duration of the works.  Some will be completed in a day; longer roads may take up to 4 days.  Closures will take place from 08.00 and 17.00 each day the highway crews are on site treating the roads.

Wood Lane and Ridgeway Road North are part of the H28 bus route and London Buses will arrange bus stop closures and diversions for the days in question.

Current state of Ridgeway Road North

Residents on affected roads will be written to, advance warning signs put up two weeks before works start, and cones and barriers put out the day before.  Resident entry or exit at the closed areas, will be marshalled through the site by an operative at a maximum speed of 5 mph.  There will be approximately an hour where no traffic will be permitted when the new surface is laid down.

Whilst all of the borough’s roads are not perfect, the Pothole Pledge has dealt with the roads that our residents and citizens nominated as needing treatment and has built on the work of Hounslow Highways over the years of their contract.

Borough Road to be fixed following residents’ approaches to their ward councillors

For the second year running Hounslow’s roads have been independently assessed, by the London Technical Advisors Group (LoTAG) as the best in London, see the report here.

Road surfaces do deteriorate and, when noticed, potholes can be reported to Hounslow Highways via FixMyStreet.

TL 1.10.2021

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by | September 18, 2021 · 12:25

24 hours left to respond on train timetable proposals

 

 

A big shout to the Windsor Line Passengers Association which, because of the Hounslow Loop rail route between Feltham and Chiswick, has many members across the London Borough of Hounslow.

I recently received a copy of the WLPA’s response to the South Western Railway consultation on timetable changes from December 2022.  They have a number of concerns about the effects of proposed changes, not least scrapping (rather than post Covid lockdown reinstating) the whole loop journey from Waterloo to Waterloo via Chiswick, Brentford, Twickenham and Richmond.

No South Western Railway proposal to reinstate the full Hounslow Loop service

SWR’s proposals also continue to ignore the very long term need for a two trains per hour Sunday service.  A necessary change for getting to matches at the Brentford Community Stadium as well as leisure and shopping further in to London and an alternative to traversing the Ultra Low Emission Zone.

The consultation ends on Sunday 19 September 2021 and the document with method of response can be found here.

The WLPA case can be found here and my response is here; readers are free to copy as much or as little to assist with writing to South Western Railway.

Whether a regular or occasional user of the trains on this route, please consider joining the Windsor Lines Passenger Association.  Membership is usually £4.00 per year but is currently FREE and an application form can be found here.


TL  18.9.2021

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