From the Post Office to Posting Plastics - a Humdinger of a Week
Chiswick Gunnersbury councillor Joanna Biddolph reports back
Cllr Joanna Biddolph
May 24, 2025
It’s been a humdinger of a week, starting at the post office and ending with posting plastics. Actually, it didn’t start at the post office. First came the councillors’ surgery at the library.
The same and different
Surgeries bring the unexpected and, rather too often, the expected. Unexpected for me was being asked to help a resident navigate a complicated council form on a computer in the library. She’s not alone in not having her own computer or in finding online council bureaucracy tricky. She had been helped previously, at a surgery taken by Cllr Gabriella Giles, but now had to complete another form with its own quirks. Gabriella’s a whizz with technology; I’m a dunce having only ever worked with Apple Macs and finding anything else, and especially the keyboard, totally foxing. After half an hour or so, and luckily for the resident who had got the hang of the task and no longer needed my bumbling, I had to leave as another resident had arrived.
And that’s the depressingly expected aspect. Overcrowding. Another family of six living in a two-bedroom flat. Two parents, two teenagers, two under fours. The sofa is a bed. So, sometimes, is the floor. There’s one loo and it’s in the one bathroom. This is no way to live and I will, of course, advocate for a move. I’ve been here before, though, and learned the rule that a family of six needs a four-bedroom home – but there aren’t any. Even though they plead that three bedrooms would be better than two, the computer can only say no so they remain trapped. If there is a change, and this family is allowed to move to three bedrooms, I will have more applications to make.
I do not believe that people should be punished for being poor. Council housing built in the 1960s or so is not fit for 21st century life. Everyone I’ve met in these circumstances has ambition – for their children, their family, their futures. It’s not right there is no space to play, no space to socialise, no space to study, no space to grow – every space damp – yet they are invariably unassumingly, quietly and disarmingly polite about asking for better. Throw into the mix anti-social behaviour by, and intolerance from, neighbours upstairs or down or both and it’s hard to be hard-hearted like a computer.
Chiswick Post Office – what is going on?
You can’t cut short a discussion like that so I dashed off late to the post office to meet Cllr Peter Thompson to complete the final part of the petition we launched immediately afterwards. Chiswick Post Office closed without warning and without information about why. The priority is to get it open again, fast, so we have compiled a well-argued case and have asked for an urgent meeting. If you haven’t signed the petition, please do. We want to send a very strong message to Post Office Ltd showing just how vital Chiswick Post Office is to residents and to businesses.
A shredder unbunged at the Chiswick Repair Café
All of that meant I arrived later than I had hoped at this month’s Chiswick Repair Café. I’d missed the previous one and the heap of papers by my desk had grown awkwardly high as my shredder had stopped shredding. It was bunged-up with stuck bits. I’ve got a practical brain so of course I‘d delved into my tool box but none of the eight phillips head screws would budge. I needed an expert. Face-saved. The repair café’s specialist had as much difficulty as I’d had and it took him a lot of patience, perseverance and persistence to take it apart then alert me to the dangers of (by which I mean, very charmingly tick me off for) shredding something sticky. It now works like a dream and I’m delighted that I will contribute to the Chiswick Repair Café’s annual report on money and carbon emissions saved. Been meaning to get something fixed? The next repair café is on Saturday, 21 June at Christ Church on Turnham Green. Do check the helpful list of what they can do and prepare to be tempted by their delicious home-made cakes while you wait your turn.
Pride in public buildings
Chiswick residents cannot be accused of not caring about their home-town’s assets. The Grade II listed town hall; the library; and the railings around Turnham Green look dishevelled. As several residents have said. Several times. Latest news, thanks to residents’ persistence, is: the Grade II listed Chiswick Town Hall’s windows will be repaired, as Historic England’s guidance is to conserve not replace, in a phased programme over two years; the library wall will be repaired, the forecourt tidied up and the broken bench replaced; as for the railings around Turnham Green, as I type this it is seven months to the day since an assessment – to repair or replace – was promised.
HMO consultation
Back to housing. The slightly slower pace of May – council work winds down before the AGM which is next Tuesday – meant I had a chance to respond to the council’s consultation (whatever that means in Hounslow) on houses in multiple occupation (HMOs). One area of Chiswick Gunnersbury ward has 53 of them in five short roads. Family homes have been lost to bedsits. Yes, we need a mix of housing but this has caused a huge shift in what was a close-knit community. To pinch from Oscar Wilde … losing one family home is a misfortune; losing 53 family homes – which are in greatest need throughout the borough – is worse than carelessness. In other parts of the ward, HMOs are packed with people desperate to get away from damp and mould, mice, police responding to anti-social behaviour, awful waste management and threatening landlords. I had a lot to say.
Another eviction
In another prolonged eviction, with a resident living in intense insecurity for a year, there was a hoped-for happy ending when she moved into sheltered accommodation, though sadly not in Chiswick. Checking in with her a few days later, I discovered that she had woken on the first morning covered in bed bug bites. Can’t unpack; can’t buy furniture; can’t settle in. The first appointment to treat the flat is in the second week of June. I’ve asked for faster, hoping it would be done before the bank holiday – a hope unfulfilled. Were bed bugs reported by the previous tenant? What is done about cleaning flats between tenants? Is there only one contractor for this task? Every eviction experience seems to lead to new questions.
Pushing against pushing
In local government, it is often the small details that make a big difference. At one estate recycling point, the apertures of the bins were frustratingly narrow, putting off keen recyclers who, after pushing in as much as they can, didn’t want to leave an unsightly accumulation of stuff on the ground. It took a bit of a push for the plastics bin to be replaced so they no longer have to push when posting plastics. Now they hope for the same for paper and cardboard ...
I hope your long weekend is peaceful and restorative (including and especially residents dreading noise in antisocial hours from a large construction project in Ealing where the contractor has forgotten what it means to register as a considerate constructor).
Cllr Joanna Biddolph
Chiswick Gunnersbury ward
joanna.biddolph@hounslow.gov.uk
07976 703446
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY 2025
Anyone can attend public meetings of the council at Hounslow House which is fully accessible. Most meetings take place on the 6th floor of Hounslow House which is at 7 Bath Road, Hounslow TW3 3EB.
Council Meetings - Borough Council
- Tuesday 27 May 7:30 pm - Annual Meeting of the Council and election of the new mayor
- Monday, 9 June at 7.00pm - Overview and Scrutiny Committee
- Thursday, 12 June at 7.00pm - Planning Committee
- Tuesday, 17 June at 7.00pm - Cabinet
- 22 July 2025 7:30 pm - Borough Council
There is public access for these meetings via a direct lift from the ground floor to the Council Meeting Room
6th Floor, Hounslow House, 7 Bath Road, Hounslow TW3 3EB
Council Meetings – Audit and Governance Committee
- 15 July 2025 7.00pm
- 4 Nov 2025 7:00 pm
6th Floor, Hounslow House, 7 Bath Road, Hounslow TW3 3EB
Important Current Local Issues
During weekends and regular Public Holidays, residents can still access council services on-line or via emergency numbers:
To inform the council of an emergency, please call 020 8583 2222
CONSERVATIVE COUNCILLOR SURGERIES
Chiswick: Every Saturday from 9.30am to 10.30am at Chiswick Library (the eight Conservative councillors take this surgery in turn).
Gunnersbury: First Saturday of the month from 10am to 11am at The Gunnersbury Triangle Club, Triangle Way, off The Ridgeway, W3 8LU (at least one of the Chiswick Gunnersbury ward councillors takes this surgery).
CONSERVATIVE COUNCILLORS and CONTACTS
Chiswick Gunnersbury ward
Cllr Joanna Biddolph joanna.biddolph@hounslow.gov.uk 07976 703446
Cllr Ranjit Gill ranjit.gill@hounslow.gov.uk 07976 702956
Cllr Ron Mushiso ron.mushiso@hounslow.gov.uk 07976 702887
Chiswick Homefields ward
Cllr Jack Emsley jack.emsley@hounslow.gov.uk 07977 396017
Cllr Gerald McGregor gerald.mcgregor@hounslow.gov.uk 07866 784821
Cllr John Todd john.todd@hounslow.gov.uk 07866 784651
Chiswick Riverside ward
Cllr Gabriella Giles gabriella.giles@hounslow.gov.uk 07966 270823
Cllr Peter Thompson peter.thompson@hounslow.gov.uk 07977 395810
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