Charville Lane Estate petition update

Regular visitors to the site may remember the residents of Hoppner Road, Romney Road and Raeburn Road approaching me about issues of flytipping in the garages at the back of their estates a couple of years ago.

Along with members of the local UKIP branch, I knocked on doors and raised petitions firstly to clear up the flytipping and then to secure the area around the garages and green areas to ensure a safe and pleasant environment for the residents.

After meeting with a council officer and contractor on site, things had gone quiet for a while but an email was received today to inform me that a survey is going out to residents about proposed changes to the area including bollards and fencing to sort the problem once and for all.

I have reproduced the information below and would encourage all residents to engage to make sure that the best solution is found to finally solve the issue.

Credit must also be given to new Charville Councillor Nicola Brightman who has discussed this at length with me and has been working behind the scenes to ensure that action is taken – a welcome change from previous Labour Councillor John Oswell who sent me a dismissive email telling me to keep my nose out.

 

Protest against Powerday

During a Council Planning Meeting on 17th December, Powerday once again submitted an application to develop the site of the Old Coal Yard on Tavistock Road in to a waste recycling centre despite it being close to a major area of housing.

A demonstration was arranged earlier today (30th December) by West Drayton ward councillor Jan Sweeting (Lab) where all members of the local community were asked to attend and show our opposition to the scheme. UKIP Hillingdon agree with this stance and were happy to turn up and lend our support to the protest

If the application is successful, we will see Powerday lorries bringing 450,000 tonnes of industrial waste per year in to the heart of our community and further congestion on both Yiewsley and West Drayton High Streets as well as Swan Road.

The deadline for comments to the Council on the application is 27th January – You can make your voice heard by going to the following link on the Council website http://w10.hillingdon.gov.uk/OcellaWeb/planningDetails?reference=18736/APP/2015/4457&from=planningSearch

Alternatively, there are a number of petition forms in local shops on West Drayton High Street.

Powerday have been turned down before when they proposed their development of this site – Working together as a community we can make sure they are turned down again

The English floods – What the Politicians won’t tell you

The news over Christmas has been full of the wet weather conditions wreaking havoc in the North of England and along the Scottish Borders. Whilst the media is full of talk of the cause being down to ‘climate change’ the reality is somewhat different as laid out here by Philip Walling in an article reproduced from The Newcastle Chronicle –

Amid all the devastation and recrimination over the floods in Cumbria hardly anybody mentions one factor that may not be the sole cause, but certainly hasn’t helped.

That is the almost complete cessation of dredging of our rivers since we were required to accept the European Water Framework Directive (EWF) into UK law in 2000.

Yet until then, for all of recorded history, it almost went without saying that a watercourse needed to be big enough to take any water that flowed into it, otherwise it would overflow and inundate the surrounding land and houses.

Every civilisation has known that, except apparently ours. It is just common sense. City authorities and, before them, manors and towns and villages, organised themselves to make sure their watercourses were cleansed, deepened and sometimes embanked to hold whatever water they had to carry away.

Residents turn out in force to protect the Green Belt

As previously reported on this site, the Green Belt at Hayes Park (Home Farm) has been put up for sale on the Rightmove website, with such phrases as ‘Prime development land’ being used in the advertisement.

After an initial public meeting organised by John McDonnell MP that was very well attended and interest from the local Gazette newspaper, residents organised a photo shoot with the newspaper where all were urged to attend and show the strength of feeling against the move.

A number of public spirited locals have distributed window signs and spread the word about the event across the Charville ward and the result was seen this afternoon where a large crowd attended and were backed up by riders from the local stables who use the area to exercise their horses.

Local residents form up just before the Gazette photoshoot

The view from Hayes End Road

Children with their ponies arrive to join the protest

One of the home made banners that was on display

A view across the park

One of the banners made by the children

The crowd starts to disperse after pictures were taken

Any attempts to build on the site will be met with strong protest, as today has shown.

The area surrounding already suffers from flooding during wet spells, which will get worse should the fields be concreted over. Added to the loss of wildlife, increased traffic and degradation of air quality that losing our ‘green lung’ would bring, there are far better places for developers in the area to be looking at in Hayes which has a number of brown field sites available.

If you would like to get involved in the fight to save our Green Belt, regular updates are  posted on a local residents Facebook site http://www.facebook.com/friendsofhayesend

A committee is also being formed to organise resistance, if you would like to be involved then you can contact the office of the Hayes MP via email mcdonnellj@parliament.uk

Four years ago, working together as a community, we managed to stop a proposed development on the site. Working together , we can stop it again

Save Hayes Park Green Belt

Tomorrow (Saturday 22nd August) sees the first of the protests against the sell off of the Green belt at Hayes Park.

The meeting point is at Mead House Lane (Off of Hayes End Road) at 1.30pm, with The Gazette in attendance.

Banners and posters will be provided as the local community unites to send out a message that we want to keep our open spaces in Hayes

Why not pop down and show your support?

Labour – Putting party politics ahead of local people

In a recent post, I highlighted issues in the Charville ward in Hayes that had been brought to my attention by local residents. These had been relayed to the local councillors to look in to, which elicited the following response from Labour’s John Oswell

Cliff,

I did’nt realise that you lived in Charville ward and that you are a representative there, just who do you represent?, if you look carefully I think you might just find that the ward has three elected Councillors and guess what, you are not one of them.

Can I suggest that you leave Charville matters to elected ward Councillors who actually are all very active on ward issues and that is without any help from you, I might add,

Cllr. John Oswell. 

Heathrow Villages – History on your doorstep

With the sun shining brightly this morning, I decided to show my wife around some of the landmarks in Heathrow Villages

With the ongoing fight against the new runway and the rubbish and pothole issues that are frequently highlighted by our representatives in The Villages, it is good to highlight some of the positive aspects of life in the area and to take some time to look around the sites of historic interest that Heathrow Expansion would blight

The Great Barn, Harmondsworth

Referred to as ‘The Cathedral of Middlesex’, the Barn was constructed in the 16th century and was still a working building up until the late 1970’s.

Restored by English Heritage in conjunction with The Friends of the Great Barn, it was re-opened to the public in April and can now be viewed on the second and fourth Sunday of each month between April and October.

Situated behind the historic St Mary’s Church, my wife and I were treated to a tour by local expert Justine Bayley, who pointed out a number of facts about both the building and it’s reconstruction that highlighted the level of craftsmanship that has enabled the structure to survive for centuries with hopefully many more to come.

For more details on The Barn please visit http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/harmondsworth-barn/

The next days available to view are 14th and 28th June

 

 

The Barnes Wallis memorial

Just around the corner from The Great Barn is the relatively recent memorial to the famous inventor Barnes Wallis, who developed the revolutionary ‘bouncing bomb’ that RAF Lancasters of 617 squadron used to destroy the Ruhr dams in 1943. The leader of the raid, Wing Commander Guy Gibson VC, was one of my boyhood heroes so it was good to see the architect of the raid remembered in this way. Barnes Wallis had previously designed the Wellington bomber, the mainstay of RAF Bomber Command in the early years of World War 2 and went on to play a key role in the development of the Tallboy and Grand Slam weapons that were used to sink the battleship Tirpitz and wreck well fortified underground weapons factories in Germany respectively.

The immaculate state of the memorial is a tribute to local resident Armelle Thomas, who was instrumental in its construction and spends time making sure it is always well kept.

Cranford Park

Cranford Park is a haven for wildlife and one of the prettiest walks in Hillingdon. Amongst the numerous plant and insect life, the park is also home to such birds as the Skylark, Meadow Pipit and Nuthatch along with birds of prey such as the Kestrel and Sparrowhawk.

We kept to the pathways whilst visiting in order to not disturb the nests of the Skylarks, which they build on the ground and are very busy at this time of year.

A number of them were noticeable in the air with their distinctive calls, drowned out only by the noise of the Greater Airbus and Boeing that were in evidence on the flightpath in to Heathrow on a regular basis!

Heathrow Villages have been local communities for centuries, with settlements at the ground where the park now sits dating back to The Bronze Age. Seeing the beauty and the history today makes me more convinced than ever that a Third Runway at Heathrow must be stopped to preserve the area for many generations yet to come.

 

Talking about the 99.7%

In light of the recent highlighting of a small number of UKIP misdemeanours in the national media over the last week, the following article went up on The Huffington Post from our North East MEP, Jonathan Arnott, earlier today. It lays out far better than I can what UKIP is really about….

I’m one of the 99.7%.

In the media, we hear a lot about the 0.3% – those candidates for Ukip who’ve said or done stupid things, things which neither Ukip nor anyone else in the country would. They’ve had the oxygen of publicity for far too long. I want to talk about the 99.7%, about what we believe.

We’re the champions of democracy, the people who believe that if your MP is involved in a scandal you should, if you have enough support, be able to force a vote to remove them. We’re the people who put that into practice: when Douglas Carswell MP and Mark Reckless MP joined Ukip, both of them immediately put themselves before the voters in their constituencies and asked them to re-elect them. They did. But before Ukip came along, politicians who defected never bothered to consult the people that matter: you. We’re the people who want the public to be able to force politicians to listen through calling a referendum on key issues, to drag democracy kicking and screaming into the 21st Century.

 

Green and Pleasant Land – In The North Only

The following letter was published in this week’s Gazette from our Townfield UKIP ward spokesman, Bernard Fagan. It is worth contrasting the reality faced by a local resident such as ‘Barney’ with the gushing praise for our ‘vibrant’ area on the website of the Aylesbury councillor and Milton Keynes resident who the Conservatives are parachuting in to the seat for next year’s General Election

I was intrigued in your lead article by Zoe Drewett by the comments therein attributed to Councillor Bianco (Top of tree for many of our green spaces, Gazette, September 17)

Heathrow expansion – A view from the Villages

A message from UKIP Heathrow Villages spokesman, Bryan Tomlinson………

Bryan Tomlinson   UKIP Representative for   Heathrow Villages

6-1-14

 

Dear Heathrow Villagers,

I hope you all had a happy and restful holiday and are all prepared for an exciting 2014.

To start with, I’ve got my fingers crossed that a couple of thousand of you are sick of being used and abused by the old fashioned and failing Westminster political parties and put your trust in your local UKIP neighbours.

Heathrow Villages get a rough deal from everyone and UKIP want to help put things right. The Conservatives and Labour don’t even put up council candidates that live among us so what do they know?

 

The No 3rd Runway campaign is a people first and politics second issue and even though Tory and Labour HQ are not to be trusted, we at UKIP Hillingdon stand side by side with John McDonnell MP in opposing Heathrow expansion.

 

We accept his invitation to a Public Meeting Regarding the Airport Commission Interim Report on Thursday 16th January at 7pm to take place at

William Byrd Primary School

Victoria Lane

Harlington.

 

This campaign is as important as it gets, as Heathrow Villages will be uninhabitable if we have another runway and take off/landing flight path built just south of the M4.

Our friends in Harmondsworth will lose their homes and community but the rest of us won’t be too far behind.

 

We must stick together so please support the No 3rd Runway Campaign by turning up on Thursday 16th.

 

UKIP Hillingdon have cancelled plans for a meeting prior to John McDonnell’s to show our support for his sterling efforts and we will be organising a follow up meeting in the near future.

 

Power to the People and see you soon,

Bryan, UKIP Heathrow Villages.