Forum Topic

Cllr Hanif Khan, Hounslow Council and Hounslow Cycling. A Troubling Relationship?

What was interesting yesterday was watching Cllr Khan witness the chaos he has caused along with his fellow Councillors in Chiswick whilst trying to not take responsibility.  What was also interesting was the support those protestors got from all the bus drivers and representatives of the Emergency Services as to the madness of the changes.  One bus driver said the bus company were looking into it, their schedules were shot.However, what is potentially much more serious for the Council and the Councillors and Officers involved was a clear and consistent theme as to a lack of governance on decision making in the Council and numerous questions arising of conflicts of interest.  These centre on the relationship between the Council, Councillors and Officers and the London Cycling Campaign - Hounslow Cycling.  In particular the names of 6 individuals of the London Cycling Campaign kept coming up, and two are councillors, Cllr Guy Lambert and Cllr Katherine Dunne.It now appears that some have found that these two Councillors, Cllr Lambert and Cllr Dunne are not only members of London Cycling Campaign, but along with Cllr Khan have in fact been approving their own cycling schemes. If this is the case, the vested interests would seem very clear.  How many schemes they have self signed off is unclear but it is understood the Council are now investigating with fears that this could raise many troubling questions of the Council.As I have said before and I say again it is quite clear that I was right not to join Hounslow Cycling.  It is doing Cyclists no favours.  Neither is the Council.

David Riley ● 2193d4 Comments

Are there any plans for an FOI request?

Russell Pearson ● 2193d

What nonesense.It a desperate attempt to craft some dark conspiracy theory you have got this completely the wrong way round.Whatever you think about the Hounslow Cycling Campaign they could not have been more transparent about the way they have gone about things. Their members have been prolific on this forum and elsewhere making their points and arguing their case. They have behaved exactly as any lobbying organisation should have done in a democratic society.To try and present them as some sort of eminence gris is to profoundly misunderstand what is going on here. Hounslow Council are desperately cash strapped and are doing what is necessary to get funds. The closure of Turnham Green Terrace provides no practical benefit to cyclists in Chiswick. It is currently providing a huge amount of cashflow to council coffers. Cllr Lambert was assured by council officers that there was no financial benefit to closing Turnham Green Terrace - he was lied to.Hounslow Council are not being manipulated by the HCC. Rather they are using them to put a more acceptable gloss on what are effectively fiscallty confiscatory policies targeted mainly at an area of the borough that made the mistake of not voting for them and are unlikely to ever again.If you are looking for a hidden hand here, it is HM Government you should be considering. The disbursement of funds is specifically restricted to the type of schemes that Hounslow are implementing and they are not drawing outside the lines of the guidance from government. Policy is essentially been drawn up by Boris Johnson's friend Andrew Gilligan, a man whose views on surface transport in London make Paul Campbell's look balanced and sane.It is this alliance of an essentially hostile council and an indifferent poorly managed government that has led to the current situation in Chiswick.

Paul Corcoran ● 2193d

A case for Hanlon’s Razor?“never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity".

Russell Pearson ● 2192d

Sounds Chiswick Tea Party conspiracy theory in overdrive - again.

John Stroud ● 2192d