Is your street listed?

At tonight’s West Area Meeting there will be a report on the Highways Program for 2013.  Here is the agenda.  The additional document in agenda item 2 lists the various streets in the West Area of the Borough.

West Area Committee Meeting – 1 December 2011

I attended my last Council Meeting before Christmas.  Here is the agenda.

A lot of concern was expressed by Councillors regarding the two planning items that came to the Committee for consultation (agenda items 2 & 3).  The main item relevant to Feltham North was agenda item 4.  The people have spoken and therefore a CPZ will not be extended to include Mill Way, River Gardens, Roman Close and The Vale.

The highlight of the night was Agenda item 9.  The Headteacher at Feltham Community College has impressed many people and the improvements at the school have been stunning!

Back from a week away

Whilst I mostly kept on top of my emails whilst away, I did not update the blog as I had intended, especially regarding the Council’s Annual General Meeting.  Here was the agenda for the meeting that took place on 24 May. 

The Election of Mayor and Appointment of the Deputy Mayor

My Group supported the Labour nomination of Cllr Amrit Mann for Mayor and his choice of Deputy, Cllr Ajmer Grewal. I spoke on behalf of the Group and do believe that this is a good choice.

Future of Area Planning Committees

There were some very strong feelings about the above report. It was very clear that both the Labour and Conservative Groups have differing opinions on the report. My Group did not have a Group Position on the matter, instead all Members were given a free vote. The Labour Group supported the recommendations in the report. A minority of Conservative Group Members, including me, also supported the report. A majority of the Conservative Group Members opposed it. It was a very interesting debate with some excellent contributions, especially from Liz Mammatt who spoke against. My feelings on Area Committees are pretty well known and I believe that the report is a sensible compromise between my position and that of the majority of other Councillors who believe and value the Area Committee component.

Phil Andrews has commented on this decision on the chiswickw4 forum. His views on Area Committees have always differed to mine but I do agree with the following comment he made:

“I would have been more reassured had the Report been presented to Borough Council in the name of the Lead Member whose responsibility it is, rather than of the chief officer”

I have attacked the Labour decision to remove the name of the relevant Lead Member from reports. Amongst my reasons for supporting the report were:

1. I was supportive of what was written in the report bar some minor clumsy remarks, which did not alter what the report was trying to achieve;
2. One of the hardest things to explain to constituents is the quasi-judicial nature of planning. It is reasonable for residents to assume that Councillors have been elected to represent opinion in their ward. With Planning & Licensing, local representation (which I am as passionate about as anyone else) is over-riden by the legal requirements placed on Councillors. Were planning decisions not to be quasi-judicial or Councillors were allowed to have pre-determined views about planning applications then the case for more planning applications being determined at an area level becomes stronger than at present;
3. Some Councillors enjoy and are more able when it comes to certain areas, in this case planning. This enables the planning enthusiasts to run with the decisions that require Member approval;
4. The financial consideration cannot be ignored. I find it difficult to justify the structure (that does not exist elsewhere in London) when services are being cut elsewhere.

An inaccurate remark made in response to the previous posting epitomise the difficulty with planning, a difficulty which will still continue to a lesser exent without Area Planning Committees, namely the difficulty that local representatives have when it comes to Planning. I know that there were decisions taken (rightly in my view) by the West Area Committee in recent years to over-turn certain recommendations. Residents were pleased with those deciions but the planning inspector overturned each one. Hardly a good outcome for anyone.

I concluded my remarks by stating that I went into the meeting as a strong supporter of the report but became less enthusiastic by a very bad decision from the Labour Group to remove Cllr John Cooper as Chair of SDC. He was very important in such a transition and I know he has looked at this objectively. Cllr Cadbury considered the removal of Cllr Cooper to be irrelevant to these changes. She is wrong. I expect some feedback on the above.

Establishment of Formal Council Bodies 2011/12

I do have concerns about some of the Labour Group decisions but the worst one of all was the removal of Cllr Cooper. Planning is a quasi-judicial matter and he had the respect of both Groups and others.

Notification of the Appointment of the Executive

I was not given the opportunity to ask questions about some of the changes but some would have been:

1. Why has Housing been removed from Cllr Cadbury’s portfolio?
2. What has Cllr Gupta been taken away from Education?
3. Isn’t the portfolio given to the new Lead Member, Cllr Curran, too large for one person? Why does he have Corporate HR also?
4. Why has Budget Strategy Responsibility been taken from Cllr Dennison and given to the Leader?

But a well natured meeting.  One of those where I could say that it was unfortunate we no longer have webcasting of the Borough Council meetings.

West Area Planning Meeting last night

Yesterday evening, we had a short agenda which turned out to be a good thing as item 4 – ASI House, Raleigh Road – needed a lengthy consideration.  In all my time as a Councillor, I have never seen so many residents attend the Area Committee.  Feelings among the residents were clearly running high.  That being said, as Councillors we needed to consider the matter with an open mind.  With one exception, the Committee was unable to support Officers Recommendations (to approve) as it had serious concerns about numbers and parking.

The meeting was a tough one to Chair and I thought that Gill Hutchison was first class.  One of the best performances I have seen from anyone in the Chair and I am someone who always praises how impressive former Feltham North Councillor, Mick Hunt, was as a previous Chairman of the West Area Committee.  Likewise for Feltham & Heston Conservative Association President, and former LBH Councillor, Tony Gurrin.  Not everyone can Chair meetings and very few do it brilliantly.  Gill knows how proud of her I was last night.

Pedestrian Island in Staines Road

I think that residents in Staines Road, Feltham and surrounding streets will be very please to know that there is an update to the fight for improved pedestrian access on Staines Road (near the junction with Pentelow Gardens.

Here is a link to the West Area agenda for 15 May.  And, here is a link to the relevant agenda item.

If residents have any questions, please let me know.

Last night’s West Area Committee Meeting

Please see the agenda for last night.

We received a really uplifting presentation from Harlequins Rugby League Club.  It was great to hear about some of the successes of young people from Feltham and other parts of the Borough.

I would also like to hear any suggestions that residents may have in really to agenda item 8. I made the point about constructing a strong argument against the closure and that agreeing we did not want it to close was the easy part.  Let me know if you have further argument against the closure.