| Topic: | Re:The Leader speaks! | |
| Posted by: | Vanessa Smith | |
| Date/Time: | 11/02/22 10:42:00 |
From Brentford TV Debate not Hate: COUNCIL LEADER DEFENDS ACCEPTING HOSPITALITY. "I'm glad that (Brentford Today & TV) has acknowledged that there is no breach of the rules and the Code of Conduct has been followed." – Cllr Steve Curran at last night's Isleworth & Brentford Forum. He was responding to whether it was a good idea for him to accept hospitality from property developers and others in the Borough, including at Lord's cricket ground and Twickenham, and whether such meetings would be better if held in more formal settings. Although the question was posed to all the Councillors present, only Cllr Curran replied. The others remained silent on the matter – Cllrs Tony Louki (chair), Mel Collins, Corinna Smart, Sue Sampson, Daanish Saeed, Katherine Dunne, Richard Eason, Guy Lambert and Salman Shaheen. Cllr Curran said: "It's incumbent of me as Leader of the Council and Lead Member for Planning and Regeneration to promote the Council wherever I can. "That was done in 2010 under the leadership of Jagdish Sharma and we've had a very ambitious house building programme since then and that continues today. It's not just Brentford, it's Feltham, Chiswick, Hounslow town centre. There's an enormous amount of development going on and that's really important. We are a destination borough now. We've moved from ten years ago when we were a borough people just drove through or flew over to a borough where people want to live and work, demonstrated by the amount of investment we've attracted since 2010. "That's really important. People want to come and live in Brentford, to work in Brentford, to stay in Brentford, they want to bring up their children in Brentford and for them to be educated here – we just announced this week that all of our schools are good or outstanding. We were voted Council of the Year. "We're a borough that steps forward and we're backed, we've got a very clear agenda about sustainable jobs, sustainable homes, being carbon neutral by 2030, so I go anywhere and meet anyone at any time to ensure we meet our targets to build more family homes. "Last week in Feltham I had the privilege of meeting two care leavers who had just moved into their first flats, and a single mum with her child, and it was humbling to see how grateful they were to the council. The single mum said she cried when she got taken round that home. "I make no excuses about making sure against stiff competition from other boroughs in London who are all banging the drum to get multi-million pound investment so they are sustainable for the future. I am absolutely comfortable with the way this council manages its affairs around planning and regeneration." Fair comment welcome. Defamatory comment is made at your own risk. |