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BrentfordTW8 · 09/14/2026 15:00:21

new.BrentfordTW8.com Communtity Forum

General election!

June 8th - oh dear Jeremy!

Vanessa Smith ● 3436d24 Comments ● 3432d

Hounslow going up market.

Instead of their frequent place in 'Private Eye's Rotten Boroughs' - Hounslow are given a dishonourable mention in today's 'Sunday Times'.The article is about councils "failing to investigate housing benefit abuses and possible planning violations because of the bonuses they get for the rooms in shared properties"."Tens of millions of pounds from a £6bn government fund to encourage house-building are being paid out for tiny 'micro flats' converted without planning consent and criticised as 'poor and dangerous' accommodation". Landlords are "dividing modest terraced houses into five or six rooms with lavatories and showers - or 'micro-flats' - to claim maximum housing benefit"."Jon Knowles, of the Hanworth residents Action group in S.W. London, who has helped uncover the scandal, said he had repeatedly tried to raise concerns with his local council, Hounslow. The council has officially labelled him a 'persistent' complainer and has said his communications with officials will be restricted. Knowles said: 'It is a total outrage that new homes bonuses are being paid out for these rooms. These properties are being used to charge exorbitant and unjustified rents'. The alleged scam also means some tenants can be landed with a full council tax bill for living in a small room"......"Hounslow council did not respond to requests for comment on the details of the alleged abuses".

Vanessa Smith ● 3438d6 Comments ● 3433d

Jim Lawes & Gerry Tan

Anyone heard from either of these chaps? Just wondered how they might be, and to wish them well. Gerry must be around 84 years old now, and our Jim is not far behind ...Sarah x

Sarah Felstead ● 3438d9 Comments ● 3433d

Bagging a piece of the road

A small no. of people in Brentford are seeing fit to regularly bag 'their' piece of the road by putting out cones to stop other people from parking there. (This is in streets without a CPZ.)I know what I think about it but would be interested to hear what other people think, also what they would do about it.Not that I'm wishing to start road wars or anything!P.S. I take it that this practice is illegal.

Anne England ● 4793d30 Comments ● 3434d

Skip Hire

Does anyone have any recommendations for reasonably priced Skip Hire in the area? Most of the companies I've tried want to charge upwards of £300 which seems excessive to say the least.

Mick Brent ● 3438d5 Comments ● 3436d

Isleworth stabbed in the back once again, the night democracy died.

Well didn't our councillors do us proud tonight over the Church Street decision? After a lot of speakers for and against the closure, councillors had their say. Theo Dennison concluded the data from the consultant and traffic department was 'inconclusive', but, the majority in favour of re-opening were 'guilty' of ruining Church St. by driving through it. Katherine Dunne almost sent the assembled locals to sleep with her ramble about how she likes cycling and on and on. Peter Carey was the only person who mentioned the fact that the vast majority (over 70%) of those who responded to the consultation wanted the road opened, and he had heard nothing to persuade him that that should not be upheld. The Dear Leader told the - by now weary - audience that in spite of what we may think they do have make hard decisions and they are not based on whether or not the electorate were in favour. (It had been pointed out earlier that the 700 odd people who wanted the road re-opened were half of some of the councillor's votes at the last election). According to him they are not swayed by their popularity (or not), if he really thinks that he's in the wrong game, politics is all about winning if you don't win you can't put your policies into play. There is always a political dimension, which clearly has passed this bunch by.Chief backstabber was Cllr. Mayne who moved the recommendation of officers, he rides a bike, he walks, he drives a train, and he obviously doesn't give a stuff for anyone who hasn't the physical wherewithal to do as he does. Thanks should go to Tony Louki who at least brought to officer's attention that there are three new schools going to be built locally two of which have no public transport links for children from this end of Isleworth, so will be transported by - car! And one another free school which will have children from all over, again probably coming in cars, thus adding to the horrendous conditions on Twickenham Rd. Sheila O'Reilly and Peter Carey also voted against the motion. Cllr. Sampson voted for and Cllr. Green abstained. For sheer pomposity it would be hard to beat Cllr. Collins, enough to make you scream, what no-one mentioned at all was that in a democracy the will of the majority must prevail. Roll on May 2018.

Vanessa Smith ● 3461d44 Comments ● 3437d

How not to conduct a public consultation - Church Street

Momentum Hounslow website's blog on the Church Street closure:https://momentumhounslow.org/2017/04/14/how-not-to-conduct-a-public-consultation/

Steve Scrivens ● 3437d2 Comments ● 3437d

New Secondary School for Brentford/Isleworth/Osterley

The submission for a new non-denominational, mixed, secondary school for 1150 children serving Brentford and Isleworth has been received by the Council.The school would be called the Bolder Academy and the proposed site is along MacFarlane Lane in Osterley (near the Tesco supermarket just off Gillette Corner).The proposed school is part of a larger plan for two schools and site swapping involving the Grasshoppers Rugby Club the site of which is to be vacated for the Bolder Academy. The proposal is that the Rugby Club will move to the northern half of the old White Lodge sports site along Syon Lane. The southern half of the old sports field is now taken up by the Nishkam all-through school (primary and secondary) for 1400 children which is currently under construction.To facilitate the Rugby Club move the Council is raising over £9 million to develop the northern half of the site and has also agreed to waive two years of rent arrears owed to the Council. £6 million will be in the form of a direct grant and the remaining money will be raised by selling SKY some of the council-owned Metropolitan Open Land adjacent to the proposed school site.A residents' campaign in Osterley fought a hard battle against building the Nishkam school on Metropolitan Open Land which had long been used for sports purposes. Despite overwhelming local opposition the Council's Planning Committee approved the submission at its meeting on 3rd December 2015.The main concern of the Osterley & Wyke Green Residents' Association (OWGRA) about the Bolder submission is that, even though problems of access to the school have been raised repeatedly, no satisfactory solution has been offered. Syon Lane is already highly congested and is in an area of very poor public transport (PTAL 0). As matters stand almost 3000 children and staff for both Nishkam and Bolder would all have to access the schools through Syon Lane. OWGRA has warned that this is both dangerous, unhealthy and will worsen already very congested traffic conditions and considerably increase levels of pollution.All the current information on the application is available through the OWGRA website: https://owgra.org.uk/the-bolder-academy/

David Pavett ● 3437d1 Comments ● 3437d

Hounslow sports centres - Fusion -

Have a new ap which is very user friendly, making booking a class, a breeze!

Sarah Felstead ● 3455d1 Comments ● 3439d

Do we still have the problem with the extremely long post titles?

Let us see!

Testing Testing ● 3441d1 Comments ● 3442d

Tidy Town

I have been trying to call Tidy town now for the best 2 days but cant get threw so i wondered if anyone else can help with my question?I know that if you recv benefits then Tidy Town will collect up to 5 items free but only once a year. What i need to know is does the year start the same as the start of the financial Year which is April?

Simon Anderson ● 3442d0 Comments ● 3442d

ENERGY BOOST TOMORROW

Energy Therapists will be at the London Buddhist Vihara, The Avenue, W4 1UD tomorrow, 10th April, between 11am and 1pm (last session 12.45). The session takes about 15-20 minutes and I am sure that you will feel really good at the end of that time, with lots of vital energy to enable you to enjoy the rest of your week! A number of therapists come in each month and give their services free. The Vihara kindly allow us to use the hall at no charge so a donation is most welcome as this enables us to give all donations to the Vihara.These sessions are not related to any religion, everyone is welcome.

Pat Smith ● 3445d1 Comments ● 3442d

Heads of terms have been signed

As you may know Morrisons will be going from Brentford in the new development plans and Brentford will be without a supermarket let alone a grocery store.In the new development plans it states that the heads of terms have been signed by M&S and by Lidl. Does anyone know what type of stores that these will be? E.g. Supermarkets or small corner shops open from 07:00 - 11:00If they are not supermarkets I will very sorry for all those shopping for food in Brentford

Richard Atterwill ● 3446d14 Comments ● 3444d

Time for LBH to be Redeveloped

Once again for the, umpteenth time in the history of the Hounslow Mega Borough the East -West divide has shown how it can wreck and impede the towns of the Borough.A hugely important vote and three don't turn up and no substitutes. And not a word from those who voted for apart from smirks, nudges and winks. Not very professional and not terribly dynamic. No justification to support a vote is as bad as only justifying to reject .Once again the same party members of the West End vote silently for a development in a place they never go to and vice versa.The towns and districts are simply too different and diverse for a one size fits all mentality.Maybe it's time this borough looked at further ways to improve and serve the local populaces better.A start would be two planning committees. One for the West End and One for the East End and only those from Wards wishing can be on those committees with A non voting chair from the opposite end of the borough.Then at least those on committee might know the places they are dealing with and the people they represent get better representation on what affects them and not what affects someone 10 miles up the road.As for Executives.... Well time for them to be reminded just who they are there to serve and anyone with other ambitions ...Find another Borough to mess up. This one is damaged enough already.

Raymond Havelock ● 3446d3 Comments ● 3445d

Morrisons Dev - Planning consent given by Council

I am bl..dy disgusted with the Councillors who voted for this development contrary to the Local Plan. This is what we residents believe to be the benchmark for any development. This absolute out and out greed as evidenced in Essential Living was compounded by Councillors whose dereliction of duty has been, quite plainly, evidenced. SHAME ON YOU. I am so incensed that I cannot seem to calm down. You can be sure that both the Brentford Councillors, Guy and Mel, voted against this as well as Sheila O'Reilly, Tony Louki and one other, I forget who. There was one abstainer and 3 gave apologies.We now need to ensure we start sending objections to the Planning Inspectorate/Secretary of State. GET ON BOARD NOW. Write to them and show them just how much you are disgusted with this decision which saw elected Councillors debase its residents.PLEASE NO 'I TOLD YOU SO' COMMENTS. GET ON BOARD AND WRITE A LETTER.

Eileen Henderson ● 3447d18 Comments ● 3446d

Passing the buck

Dealing with Hounslow Council is a pretty soul destroying experience most of the time and I think it's getting worse. It seems whoever you contact for whatever reason spends more time trying to duck out of dealing with you and your complaint than trying to resolve it. It is high time that people were reminded that the council is there to serve the needs of local people not to create an obstruction at every turn.I contacted the housing department regarding a rear access road that runs at the rear of the road where we live, this road and it's upkeep is, and always has been, the council housing department's responsibility. However, we always have to start a mini campaign to get them to come and do a bit of a clear-up and tidy once or twice a year. The rest of the time most people who use the road to access their garages do their bit and keep it in a reasonable state.The road does get a bit overgrown at this time of year and the end nearest the entrance does attract some small scale rubbish dumping, an old for sale sign, plastic bags of various unwanted items and so on. First of all I get a reply from the 'area manager' - who knew there was one? Can we talk about this - after I'd already sent a detailed e-mail - what's to chat about? I replied to say that there wasn't any issue apart from the fact that housing fail to maintain this area inline with the agreement we got when we purchased our house, so could they please just have a shufty and get it tidied? Now I get a reply saying they do do this three times a year!! Not in the forty years we've lived here they haven't and - sending me photos of the road I've told them about! Are these people for real? Now they claim they don't touch overgrowth - which they have in the past - and the householders whose responsibility it is will have to cut it - not unreasonable. I have asked if they now intend to write to these households to tell them to get weaving in accordance with their 'management' of the area.I think most people are happy to keep the area where they live clean and tidy but what are we supposed to do with old for sale signs etc.? In the time that taking photos and e-mailing has taken the clear up could have been done. A couple of years ago this department suddenly took in into their heads to foist on us a gallows gate at the entrance to this access at a cost of several thousand pounds, no-one wanted this or asked for it, and there it has been- locked back and never used - but an occasional clear-up? God forbid. Let's tell the punters a hundred and one reasons why we shouldn't do something rather than remember why we are here - it's called providing a service that we agreed to.

Vanessa Smith ● 3446d0 Comments ● 3446d

Market Square parking

Have I missed something: is parking now allowed on the market square courtyard? There were at least 6 cars parked on the square last night. So much for the community space and its expensive water features (when were they last working?) and lighting. How long before there is parking there day-time too?

Catherine Jones ● 3449d9 Comments ● 3446d

Another test

Can I start a new thread?

Testing Testing ● 3447d9 Comments ● 3447d

Very long first post

What impact does a first post have if it is .............

......very very very long

Testy McTestface ● 3447d1 Comments ● 3447d