Tag Archives: Hounslow Highways

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

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

Filed under Hounslow Highways, Neighbourhoods, Northumberland Estate, Sports, Spring Grove

Tagged as , , , , , ,

by | May 25, 2021 · 12:48

TW3.01 – Tales of the not unexpected

A couple of weeks ago when the Chair of Hounslow Council’s Labour Group released a statement on violence against residents in East Jerusalem, one correspondent on social media asked whether councillors didn’t have any local work to address.

A colleague, Councillor Salman Shaheen responded with a whole rake of items that he had been working on for his residents.  Salman’s retort prompted me to sincerely flatter the comrade from neighbouring Isleworth Ward.

I’m no David Frost, neither can I sing it like Millicent Martin let alone want to like Lance Percival, but here are some highlights from That Was The Week That Was from the currently longest serving councillor for Osterley and Spring Grove Ward.  Fresh out of the 55th Mayoralty, allow me to explain.

Sunday 16.5.2021

A more than an occasional issue at the wee Tesco on Spring Grove Road where delivery cages take up pavement space for often beyond the visit of the big trucks.  Particularly tiresome this time was the storing of these contraptions right up against one of the newly planted liquidambar styraciflua Worplesdon or Sweetgum trees.  This was reported to Hounslow Highways for enforcement via Fix My Street and am assured that this will not happen again … .

Illegally placed Tesco delivery cages endangering newly planted street trees

The Thornbury, London and Spring Grove Roads Triangle had been a badly regulated domestic and fly tipping hotspot for a long time before 2014.  Premises above shops were once accommodation for the family or staff running a business below but for many years the space has been sub divided and often short term tenanted.  This creates problems for household waste storage leading to outdoor mess.  The council’s recycling and waste team issue purple bags for waste from flats above shops and have placed a number of coffers at close proximity for their containment until twice weekly removal.  An improvement but mainly black bags still get dumped on pavements, added to by casual or opportunistic fly tippers; I always report this stuff to Hounslow Highways for removal via Fix My Street.  Occasional placement of cctv cameras does help identify perpetrators who are pursued and fined by the council.

One of many perps caught flytipping on Thornbury via Hounslow Council cctv and subsequently fined

Monday 17.5.2021

Visited Our Barn at Jubilee Lodge in Osterley Park to drop of some items commissioned for them to sell on behalf of the two charities (Our Barn and Hounslow Seniors Trust) chosen to profile and fundraise for when I was the 55th Mayor.  Their garden is looking lovely because members of the community have been busy maintaining it throughout and I got given rhubarb that day.

One of the many raised beds at Jubilee Lodge and source of my rhubarb gift

Following an earlier shout, was at Oaklands Avenue, within the Osterley Park Conservation Area.  Calling on neighbours either side who are concerned that improvement works next door had dragged for more than two years and not entirely as permitted.  The additional impacts of having an empty and unfinished house close by including rodent attraction, disconnected drainage and other fails in the property were getting them down.  A member of the council’s planning enforcement team is pursuing the owner to regularise and is already communicating with residents.

Messy and unfinished ‘improvement’ works at Oaklands Avenue

On Syon Lane with contractors, Hounslow Council and Hounslow Highways back in December 2020, I noted that a pedestrian crossing included as a traffic condition for the Bolder Academy planning permission was missing and suggesting that it was dropped.  No way Joseph! Happy that it was added in April for safe pedestrian access although it seems that the solar powered Belisha beacons require sunshine, reported but with the proviso that no trees are damaged in order to facilitate.

The nearly uninstalled zebra crossing on Syon Lane

Wednesday 19.5.2021

I was the guest speaker at the annual general meeting Osterley and Wyke Green Residents Association talking about my time as the rollover Mayor of the London Borough of Hounslow.  Tales of two years, some of the 340 events attended, 13 Borough Council meetings chaired, two Remembrance Sundays each at 10 war memorials, still making time to do casework and to try to represent my residents.  It was also a good reminder of the longevity of OWGRA with which I first developed a relationship during earlier planning events on the then United Biscuits site as well as working together on nonsense ambitions for other land in the Ward.

Thursday 20.5.2021

An alert of potential incursions in the Ward got me down to Wyke Green where I examined the integrity of the posts and padlocks surrounding the space, took pictures and reported to the council’s parks people and Ward Police team.  Osterley and Spring Grove Police Safer Neighbourhood Team were on duty, Saturday night, responding to my request to go look and discuss with the neighbour who raised it with me.

One of a few gaps potentially allowing vehicles on to Wyke Green

Friday 21.5.2021

A flurry of discourse on a social media site that will not be named resulted in a few visits and chats with residents the previous week with copious amounts of pictures taken, reports made to Hounslow Highways via Fix My Street and emails to the Director of Environmental Services.  The director, Mr Wayne Stephenson, already familiar with the issues rendezvoused for a whistle stop to locations from the Northumberland to Thornbury Road.

We met at Albury Avenue and on behalf of colleague Councillor Unsa Chaudri, who is currently engaged with residents on the state of pavements there.  The footways, a victim of pavement parking but moreso HGVs and skip lorries delivering on this narrow crescent these past 30+ years, will be focussed on as a result.

A drive in my motor via College Road to show Mr Stephenson the loss of integrity of half its 1992 vintage speed tables since a new road coating a couple of years ago; raised by a resident who scientifically measured and compared the differences.  On the ones affected by resurfacing, the current and previous speed limits were easily busted, the matter is, therefore, still live.

On to Borough Road where the previous week, more pictures of marked and unmarked road and pavement defects had been submitted after residents had been in touch.  I had visited in response to folk writing, some had been fixed but wanted to show the general state before a proper response from council officers managing the Hounslow Highways contract.

There are pictures of Borough Road surfaces but here’s an in situ and locally made gully grate there.

Quick visits over at Thornbury Avenue and The Grove to look at other surfaces reported and then to Weston Gardens, a cul de sac with a dozen properties and equal number of defects.  I had found with St Mary’s Crescent that the more a road’s potholes are reported and fixed, the further down the list a road goes for complete resurfacing; done now but it took five years since the first promise.  I introduced Wayne Stephenson to my resident contact there and agreed that while the space currently appears messy, Weston Gardens is very likely to get the full treatment soon, what little pavement and carriageway it actually has.

Messrs Atar and Stephenson at Weston Gardens, laughing at me

Our last stop was at Banksian Walk, part of the former carriageway to Spring Grove House, nicely planted with an avenue of yews but currently suffering ivy creep over neighbouring boundaries and the resident had been in touch.  Mr S agreed, more pictures taken and submitted with a service request to Hounslow Highways to manage the landscape plus one other to remove some graffiti on the wall there.

Ivy clad yew on Banksian Walk

Saturday 22.5.2021

Sidmouth Avenue and Crawford Close, near where Thornbury Park meets the railway and a neighbourhood that has sought council support for their projects and ambitions since 2014; residents, naturally, receive my assistance.  Excepting 2020, Saturday’s was the sixth annual neighbourhood tidy up and in seven years we’ve gone from a beyond brim skip to just 15 or so sacks of picked including from beyond these two roads, no longer any long term fly tips.

Skip being taken away from Crawford Close after the first community clear up back in 2014

On the way home via Kilberry Close to check, on Councillor Chaudri’s behalf, the occasionally abused estate based recycling facility there where the council’s Recycling and Enforcement Teams have been making efforts to “educate” and “encourage” residents and managing agents alike.  It’s Unsa’s case so I took pictures for her to share with the council teams.

This is a private site at Kilberry Close where LBH teams are encouraging owners to clear

Tuesday 25 May 2021

There.  Done for now.  Plenty more not to bore readers with but will be back with TW3.02 before too long.  I will, naturally, welcome comments from Osterley and Spring Grove residents.

TL 25.5.2021

© Tony Louki 2021 – No reproduction of any part without permission

Comments Off on TW3.01 – Tales of the not unexpected

Filed under College Road, Hounslow Highways, Leisure, Middlesex, Neighbourhoods, Osterley, Parks, RAs, Reports, Road works, Roads, Schools, Spring Grove, Thornbury Park, Thornbury Road, Traffic, Wyke Green

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,

by | April 14, 2019 · 15:42

The Biggest Ward in Hounslow Borough: Planning updates

There is often a misconception that local authorities are in charge of everything and can influence anything but the basic fact is that Hounslow Council is only able to deliver within the various Acts of Parliament made at Westminster.

In terms of town planning, the council is mainly limited by the content of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. Applicants turned down at the first stage of a planning application have a right to appeal to the government Planning Inspectorate and an aggrieved objector, for a fee, can also apply to the court for a judicial review; sometimes either may be pursued all the way to the Supreme Court.

So, todays wee update on aspirations familiar, new, and Oh! No, not that one again, advises of planning at its various stages here, in Osterley and Spring Grove Ward. Planning reference numbers are cited should anyone wish to seek more details on the Hounslow Council website Planning pages using the reference numbers quoted.

Should anyone wish to comment on so far undetermined applications, please write to planningcomments@hounslow.gov.uk

Adini, 891 Great West Road, TW7 5PD Ref: P/2017/5069

Southern elevation of approved Adini residential to Northumberland Avenue

Readers will recall a couple of applications from the owner operators of this site, one to modernise Adini’s commercial facilities, retaining the façade and another for residential to enable the development of the first. The council planning committee refused both applications but the applicant successfully appealed the housing element and the decision is explained here in the planning inspector’s letter.

Former Shell Garage and Contitrades House aka Gillette South Ref: P/2018/4691

Access Self Storage proposal: corner of Northumberland Avenue

This is the site on the corner of Northumberland Avenue and Syon Lane, much loved by itinerant waste collectors. Bar occasional open storage and a brief incarnation in 2017 as a temporary car park for BSkyB, this site was razed in 2008 in preparation for its development as a self storage facility then.

These past five years, the Canada based owners of Access Self Storage have made a number approaches to Hounslow Council Planners to build high and wide on this prominent corner site. Keenly scrutinised by residents and ward councillors the owners have come up with for what some may say is a more humane proposal which is likely to be taken to the council’s Planning Committee on Thursday 2 May 2019.

Osterley Station, Great West Road, TW7 4PU Ref: P/2019/0706

An application for lifts from street to platform level was approved before this councillor’s time back in 2009 but did not get built. A more refined scheme has now been submitted by Transport for London as part of the London Mayor’s ambition to improve access for all to the Underground.

Osterley Station Westbound platform where one of the lifts access would locate

There are some excellent architectural and railway history documents accompanying this application well worth viewing and the substantive commented upon:design and access statement; heritage statement.

Osterley Station Car Park

Readers will recall the December 2018 exhibition at the Indian Gymkhana with displays of proposals for housing on the Osterley Station car park. Following this event, Osterley and Spring Grove Councillors met with the optioned developer, Apartments for London, to feed back our own, and reiterating residents’, thoughts on their ambitions.

So far, no one has come back to us with either a planning application for what the developer originally hoped for or a suggested alternative but as soon as they do, a new exhibition and open meeting will be sought and residents advised and invited.

Domino’s 558 London Road, TW7 4EP Ref: P/2018/0741

In February 2018, the operator of this franchise applied to change their hours of operation from between 09.00 and 22.30 Monday to Saturday and 09.00 to 22.00 Sundays and Bank Holidays to 09.00 to 05.00 Daily, throughout the year. Planning officers considered both the application and responses from neighbours and refused the application and as a result the operator appealed to the Planning Inspector. The report giving reasons for refusal (mainly increased noise and disturbance affecting nearby residents during the night) has already been shared locally but can also be found here.

The inspector has begun the appeal process and has written to the council requesting any further comment from planners as well as residents. That letter can be found here and responses must be submitted in time for a 23 April 2019 deadline.

The appellant’s submission to the Inspector can be found here.

Farm Fried Chicken 481 London Road, TW7 4BX Refs: P/2019/1313 and P/2019/1318

481 London Road, Isleworth

In response to a local resident spotting a sign going up over these hitherto obscured premises, I raised various planning, conservation and licensing queries with numerous specialist council officers on 14 February 2019. At the time of writing, I appreciate the good work of the council’s planning enforcement team in getting (at least meagre) formal applications for the illuminated sign and change of use class from A3 (restaurant) to A5 (hot food takeaway).

To try to understand the applications, the only items to go by are drawings that attempt to regularise the sign and the change of use class.

Hours of operation of the takeaway are a licensing matter and should an application be made, will be shared here.

Warren Motors 585-603 London Road TW7 4EJ Ref: P/2019/0448

Once a common main road feature, the vehicle showroom is gradually disappearing, AFN Porsche and Marlborough Motors have long become Isleworth memories.

There is now a current application for the redevelopment of the Warren Motors site to provide two residential buildings of between part five and part eight stories to achieve 93 flats (comprising three studios, 43 one, 38 two and 4 three-bedroom flats).

The applicant’s agent has stated that the reason they have not held an exhibition or meeting is that the, “consultation process carried out by the Local Authority during the planning application will be more than sufficient. To carry out more engagement above and beyond this prior to the planning application consultation could risk causing consultation fatigue”. I have advised the Hounslow planners that I would be willing to chair a local event on this matter.

Telecoms mast opposite West and Penwerris Courts, Great West Road, TW5 0TJ (previously Ref: P/2016/5062)

 

A bit unusual this in the sense that from what I recall, wannabe applicants run their proposals by councillors first before making formal applications

On studying the telecoms company’s proposal there is little difference, in fact perhaps more obtrusive, to another proposal at the exact same spot in late 2016 which caused great concern locally and was refused by this local authority.

Almost all residents that would potentially face any equipment live in Osterley and Spring Grove Ward as well as the new Oaklands School.

Please forward any comments direct to me, tony.louki@hounslow.gov.uk or other Ward councillors for passing on to the council planners.

TL 14.4.2019

Comments Off on The Biggest Ward in Hounslow Borough: Planning updates

Filed under Council Business, Great West Road, Housing, Licensing, London Road, Middlesex, Neighbourhoods, Northumberland Estate, Osterley, Planning, RAs, Spring Grove, TfL, Traffic

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

by | April 30, 2018 · 11:22

Notes on a Conservative leaflet

Am grateful that while Unsa, Richard, our supporters and I have been talking to Osterley and Spring Grove residents at their doorsteps, one of our people has sat down and attempted to analyse the latest Conservative Party leaflet that started doing the rounds last week.

It’s a folded A3 colour sheet with a combination of local pictures and a few from internet stock. You do not need to have it in front of you to match what you read but please drop me a line for a copy if you live in the Ward and I’ll email one.

The supporter has written this in sequence and uses the word Tory or Tories, I prefer Conservative because that better describes a more narrow view on matters.

Here goes:

1: A new deal for Osterley and Spring Grove

  1. It is claimed that the Tories would “vastly improve” local services. Easily said. The deep cut by the government to the Council budget (now over £70m per year on the 2014 grant, and another £20m on the way) is not mentioned. There is no costing anywhere in the leaflet. The claims are hollow.
  2. The leaflet speaks of a Tory “master plan” for the area. Where is it? We have never heard of such a plan and, frankly, doubt that it exists.
  3. The Tories promise better roads, parks, libraries, youth services and waste collection without a costing in sight. This is to take the public for fools, expecting us to respond to any promises without asking any questions about how they will be paid for.
  4. They promise to end “waste and overspending” but give no idea of the scale or nature of the alleged overspending.
  5. They promise to “massively improve air quality” without a hint as to how this would be achieved.
  6. They promise an accessible Council which will listen and respond. Councillor Louki has been fulfilling that role as many residents are aware. It is one thing to moan and another to get things done.
  7. Councillor Sheila O’Reilly claims that for 46 of the last 50 years Labour has allowed the borough to fall into disrepair. A look around Osterley and Spring Grove makes it difficult to understand her claim. (The picture of The Grove in the leaflet shows anything but decay. It looks very pleasant.)
  8. The leaflet mentions a Tory Plan to revive the borough. Where is it? Why do they not give a link to it so that people can judge for themselves?

2: Wipe out waste

It is claimed that Tory financial management would save “millions”. How many millions? How it would be done? How does it compare to the £70m of government cuts the borough has endured?

It is claimed that the £28 million on a new waste and recycling centre has been entirely wasted but no argument is made to justify this claim. As the new service develops we think that residents will see for themselves how vacuous this claim is.

3: Fix the potholes

Hounslow’s streets are maintained under a PFI initiative instigated by the last Tory Council. It was negotiated to run for 25 years and leaves little room for the Council to determine matters. What are the Tories proposing in terms of a renegotiation of the contract? We are not told. Maneesh Singh says that a Tory council would “free up the money” to fix the potholes but he doesn’t tell us where it would be freed up from. The contractor fills and repairs potholes because Councillor Tony Louki reports them regularly, the Tories made just 23 such requests to Hounslow Highways in 2014 to 2017, only three of these in this ward.

4: A new deal for council services

This section repeats the extravagant claims of Section 1 (above) without a hint of costing in sight. This is to assume that residents can be satisfied with political fairy tales rather than grappling with the real problems.

5: Keep Osterley and Spring Grove special

The Tory candidates say that they will look after the special character of Osterley and Spring Grove which has been “forgotten by Hounslow Council for decades”. You wouldn’t guess from this that the Osterley Park conservation area was designated by the Council in 1998, the Spring Grove conservation area in 2001. You wouldn’t guess either that the Council has set up a new and enthusiastic conservation team which is currently reviewing the conservation areas and is doing so in consultation with residents.

The Tory candidates also say that they would work with police and residents to deal with problems of anti-social behaviour but say nothing of the problems of the massive reduction in police personnel and resources due to Conservative government cuts since 2010.

5: News Snippets

Candidate Cynthia Torto repeats the empty promises about air quality and claims that air monitoring in the area has been reduced but doesn’t say where or when.

It is claimed that Hounslow has failed to meet the demand for good schools, but Hounslow’s schools are performing well. The government website shows that the great majority of schools in Hounslow have a good or outstanding rating. So what are the Tory candidates referring to? They also do not mention two large new schools in Osterley and Spring Grove and a significant expansion of Isleworth & Syon School, using local funds.

Chiswick Conservative Councillor Gerald Macregor caught delivering the said leaflet on London Road but walking straight past a flytip

OUR CONCLUSION

We are all for robust debate in politics and welcome a challenge. It is therefore sad to see that the Tory candidates for Osterley and Spring Grove are prepared to produce such poor quality material devoid of facts, full of unjustified claims and empty promises and lacking in any genuine argument. Residents have seen the difference in having a Labour councillor like Tony Louki working for them and taking care of matters long neglected by a Tory Party that has long taken our people for granted.

TL 29.4.2018

Comments Off on Notes on a Conservative leaflet

Filed under College Road, Events, Great West Road, Hounslow Highways, London Road, Neighbourhoods, Northumberland Estate, OSG data, OSG documents, Osterley, Reports, Road works, Spring Grove

Tagged as , , , , ,

by | January 2, 2018 · 13:00

Long awaited improvements at Syon Lane

Looking at the photo archive kept for Syon Lane since late 2014, it is very pleasing that work with residents and Hounslow Council’s Traffic Team is about to bear fruit.

Syon Lane green verges to be protected between Gillette Corner and Macfarlane Lane

Not neglected but in parts worn and suffering from the impacts of limited resources to enforce and repair, funds were sought and now identified to remedy effects of haphazard parking on the green verges.

It’s an association going back to the last time of trying to represent this slice of Osterley and Spring Grove Ward in the 1990s when it was part of the former Isleworth North Ward. One concern then was the environmental impact of the new Tesco store to be built on the former United Biscuits factory. At the time, concessions and funding were won to sympathetically beautify and improve the access to the shops and homes between 38 and 150 Syon Lane.

Scoping the proposed verge protection works on Syon Lane, Isleworth

Later this month, works will begin to install bird mouth fencing around the green areas together with additional lighting, details shered with residents can be seen here and here.

Noting that this will improve the environment of one part of Syon Lane, residents’ concerns still remain for the environment further north along this busy road and these will continue to be pursued.

TL 2.1.2018

Comments Off on Long awaited improvements at Syon Lane

Filed under Hounslow Highways, Neighbourhoods, Osterley, Road works, Wyke Green

Tagged as , , , ,