Tag Archives: Aftab Siddiqui

by loukit | July 9, 2023 · 15:26

NatWest Bank Closure: Protest at 10.30 am Tomorrow, 10 July 2023

NatWest Bank, bailed out by the people to the tune of £46 billion and still 39% Government owned, are using spurious statistics, poor consultation and erroneous assertions to shut down the last remaining and accessible bank between Hounslow and Chiswick. It’s the only one with a customer car park and also located within the Council’s London Road 30 minutes free Stop and Shop parking facility.

Last bank standing: NatWest, 486 London Road, Isleworth

No amount of online, video or telephone banking can replace a human face to face physical transaction whether elderly or any other citizen within the 30% without the means, online savvy or inclination or just likes going out.

NatWest Isleworth: Elderly customer with their carer drew up to the front door to use this most accessible of bank branches

Recent pavement surveys by NatWest customer and Isleworth resident, Madhuri Kapila, show buoyant footfall at 468 London Road. There has also been a keenness to sign this letter to letter to NatWest Head Office and, so far, 150 customers, many elderly, greatly concerned and fearful of the closure, have participated.

NatWest Isleworth: Open during convenient hours 5 days a week

Daily attendance at the branch, of late, shows around thirty customers per hour, more if ATM users are included, translating to at least 750 user per week. NatWest profits for 2023/24 show a 50% jump to £1.9 billion in the first three months of the year; why should the company need to close a long established and well used branch operating from Freehold premises?

NatWest Isleworth Branch: Night safe

All of the many shopkeepers Madhuri has spoken to (NatWest did not reveal of having spoken to any of our traders in its public relations pieces), are greatly against the proposal. They see the bank as an anchor business for London Road as well as a banking facility for them and everyone else.

Last Friday, Madhuri and I visited NatWest Headquarters at 250 Bishopsgate to present the collected letters but no one was available to receive them nor this additional letter to Dame Alison Rose, Group Chief Executive Officer of NatWest Bank..

Ruth Cadbury MP also wrote this letter to NatWest Bank asking for a meeting and for the closure to be withdrawn.

Recently publishing a booklet for bank branch visitors, NatWest used a mixture of pre, during and post pandemic figures, with obscure graphics, to justify their current stance. The decision really did appear to have been made prior to any real consultation and, responses from NatWest since seem at best repetative and standard public relations deflections but at worse, some may describe as lip service and sham going through the motions.

Please show your support in any or all of these ways:

NatWest Bank Isleworth: Please maintain the Welcome

Download, complete and immediately return this letter to Keep Nat West Bank Open via email KNWBOpen@gmail.com

Ask that the closure decision be reversed. Email or write to Dame Alison Rose, Group Chief Executive Officer, 250 Bishopsgate, London, EC2M 4AA: or email alison.rose@natwest.com and cc KNWBOpen@gmail.com

Monday 10 July 2023 at 10.30 am. Join a peaceful protest against the closure outside NatWest Bank, 486 London Road, Isleworth, TW7 4DD.

Tell your friends.

Thank you.

TL 9.7.2023

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Filed under London Road, Neighbourhoods, Osterley, Spring Grove

Tagged as Aftab Siddiqui, Hounslow Council, NatWest Bank, Osterley & Spring Grove, Spring Grove, Tony Louki, Unsa Chaudri

by loukit | June 22, 2023 · 17:20

Seccombes: Insurers Authorise Rebuild

Following one of the longest tooth pulling events, Seccombes Builders Merchants Managing Director, John Seccombe has advised that, the end of discussions earlier this week between loss adjusters and insurance companies for both his company and the boy racer’s, meant that permission has been given to proceed with the reconstruction of the Syon Lane building.

Seccombes: Scaffolding up since 5.2.2023 when the poor driver lost control

Unlikely to commence before early July, Seccombes’ contractor is now discussing changes to the supporting scaffolding, up since early February, to enable safe working on and around the damaged building.

With changes, access can be created to dismantle the building in its entirety from the roof down to ground level. It will then be possible for the scaffolding to be removed. An assessment will then be made as to whether safe construction may begin without the tiresome traffic restrictions in place.

Seccombes: Temporary lights on Windmill Lane may be removed by the end of July

The footway here on Syon Lane is very narrow, presenting a danger to anyone working outside the wall and building. So, following assessment and discussion with Hounslow Highways, it will be clearer as to what restrictions will be necessary during the rebuild.

Seccombes are, expectedly, cautious about offering any timescales but it is estimated that the entire rebuild could take as much as eleven weeks; Mr Seccombe will keep providing updates with any changes that happen.

Seccombes: Rebuild likely to end late Summer

The company says that they values everyone’s patience and hopes that residents and visitors appreciate that there is light at the of end of the tunnel.

TL 22.6.2023

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Filed under Hounslow Highways, Middlesex, Neighbourhoods, Osterley, Road works, Roads, Sky, Traffic, Wyke Green

Tagged as Aftab Siddiqui, Hounslow Council, Hounslow Highways, Osterley & Spring Grove, Osterley Park, OWGRA, Syon Lane, Tony Louki, Unsa Chaudri, Wyke Gardens

by loukit | March 16, 2023 · 09:34

Borough Road War Memorial: Two new additions

Borough Road War Memorial College Plaque 3.3.2023

A new plaque was unveiled at Borough Road War Memorial on 3 March 2023 by the 57th Mayor of the London Borough of Hounslow, Councillor Raghwinder Siddhu. He was accompanied by residents, pupils (including talented bugler, Max), staff and trustees of Isleworth and Syon School, former Borough Road College lecturer, John Hunter, and Osterley and Spring Grove Ward Councillors Tony Louki, Unsa Chaudri and Aftab Siddiqui.

The Mayor and locals at the Borough Road War Memorial Plaque unveiling 3.3.2023

It records the names of former Borough Road College staff and students who gave up their jobs and education to take part in World War I and World War II, killed and never returned.

The installation features an engraving and faces Lancaster House, the main college building vacated in 2006, nine years after its takeover by Brunel University, and crest of the college.

Borough Road War Memorial unveiled 14 May 1921

I raised the idea for this new plaque in 2018 because the names of those who perished were not visible locally as Brunel University had previously removed an indoor memorial to its Uxbridge campus. During 2015, Brunel had made approaches to Hounslow Council to completely relocate the whole, almost 100 years old stone memorial too but this failed as it was strongly resisted by all Ward councillors at the time.

At Borough Road War Memorial: Restored Heston and Isleworth Borough Council light column

This memorial project also coincides with the installation of a rediscovered and then refurbished lamppost of the former Heston and Isleworth Borough Council, restored and recently installed by Hounslow Highways.

The names of the dead were shared by the Brunel University London Archives whose 2014 research is available via a QR code present on the plaque allowing access of detailed biographies of those named.

I am grateful to Miss Helen Bowman, Conservation Officer at the War Memorials Trust, whose sound advice helped us bat away Brunel’s cheeky claim; Vanessa Bevilacqua and colleagues from the Hounslow Council Transport Team for procuring the plaque; Sabeel Khan of the Hounslow Council Highways PFI Team for overseeing Hounslow Highways’ renewal and connecting of the light column; Hounslow Council Communications Team’s Mr Yagnesh Nakaraja for sharing pictures.

TL 16.3.2023

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Filed under College Road, Events, Hounslow Highways, Neighbourhoods, Schools, Spring Grove, Traffic

Tagged as Aftab Siddiqui, Hounslow Council, Hounslow Highways, Isleworth and Syon School, Osterley & Spring Grove, Spring Grove, Tony Louki, Unsa Chaudri

by loukit | November 12, 2022 · 03:56

Local traffic surveys

As intrigued as numerous residents raising the matter with Osterley and Spring Grove councillors, inquiries were made of the council’s traffic team regarding the counting hardware appearing on roads in the southern part of the Ward. Here’s what has been learnt so far.

Ridgeway Road: Traffic survey camera on a pole measuring bicycle and pedestrian directions.

Residents from different parts of our Ward often contact council officers and councillors about speeding and rat running, for example; Osterley Road is a regular as is Northumberland Avenue and, lately, The Grove.

All of the roads mentioned fall within the area of Spring Grove and North Isleworth that is currently under review for potential traffic reduction measures, broadly all roads to the south of A4, north of A315 London Road, west of Syon Lane and east of the Piccadilly Line.

Wood Lane: Pneumatic strip counter measuring vehicle numbers

Officers have advised that this is a multi-year project with the surveys, background and feasibility work being undertaken this financial year (to April 2023). For the next financial year they will look to engage with councillors, residents and other stakeholders on potential intervention measures with a view to perhaps trialling any measures that looked promising.

College Road: Traffic count data box connected to traffic recording pneumatic strips.

Obviously, Ward councillors here will be maintaining a close watch on developments here and insist on clear and extensively analysed consultation on any proposals arising.

Anything new in the interim will be reported here.

TL 11.11.2022

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Filed under College Road, Neighbourhoods, Osterley, Roads, Traffic

Tagged as Aftab Siddiqui, Hounslow Council, Spring Grove, Tony Louki, Unsa Chaudri, Wood Lane

by loukit | August 18, 2022 · 08:23

Gillette Building Tour

Bonnington Gillette Corner Hotel 2006 unrealised proposal

When Gillette owners, Proctor and Gamble, shifted the last of the Syon Lane production line to Łodz in 2006, the 42,000 square metre site was sold to Bonnington, the Ireland based international hotel and leisure firm. It had ambitions for an office park and a 500 bed hotel, later reduced to 300 beds then eventually none when the system of capital tanked in the late noughties and loans from the Allied Irish Bank could not be repaid.

More modern manufacturing plant used for film production

The site, is much more extensive than the three Grade II Listed elements of the Bannister Fletcher 1936 factory and office building, WFC Holden’s 1935 bank and the four separate cheeky cherubs lamp standards fronting Syon Lane. It extends beyond Syon Lane to include the former Pernod House on its corner with Great West Road and Harlequin Avenue making up the rear where later manufacturing buildings are now used for film production.

Extensive and uninterrupted space within the Grade II listed main building

After Bonnington, the whole site was bought after 2013 by the firm involved with the former EMI plant at Hayes, the Vinyl Factory Limited. They now say that applications to develop, extend and enhance existing film production and associated activities on the whole site are soon to be submitted to Hounslow Council, preserving the integrity of the listed elements there.

A chance discussion with Mr Matthew Rees, Hounslow Council’s Head of Planning Development, whilst visiting the former Williams Dye Works site recently, satisfied an eight year quest and yielded contact details for the Gillette Building owners. Arrangements for a tour for Isleworth and Brentford Area Forum (IBAF) Councillors followed, made for 5 August 2022; people from Osterley and Wyke Green Residents Association and Brentford Voice were invited too.

Main staircase to be restored subject to planning

The last time I went inside Gillette’s was in 1992 on a tour with my Acton College tutor group which also coincided with the planning application for building a Tesco store on the United Biscuits factory site. The event was an opportunity to nose, more than anything else, interesting to see the unfinished en suites on the first floor facing Syon Lane.

West facing ground floor former manufacturing hall

Planning applications are awaited but the developer has agreed to run a series of pre planning exhibitions and meetings on site in the run up to formal submission, perhaps later this year. As a member of the Hounslow Council Planning Committee, I shall be unable to make comment once proposals are lodged.

Main building, Listed south facing elevation towards th Bank

I do know, however, that my Ward colleagues Councillors Aftab Siddiqui and Unsa Chaudri are keen that any film production enhancement at Gillette opens up valuable work and training opportunities for the people of Osterley and Spring Grove as well as other parts of our borough. The owners are now briefed on the quality, practical learning delivered at West Thames College associated with digital film making, make up, hair and construction and we have put them in touch with college Principal Tracey Aust.