Introducing Tom Cottew
Hillingdon East By-Election - May 2nd 2024
A by-election will be held on Thursday 2nd May 2024 to choose a new Councillor for Hillingdon East ward. This follows the resignation of the former Councillor
The Liberal Democrats have selected local member Tom Cottew who lives in the ward near the Uxbridge Road to stand as our candidate.
Tom tells us "I have lived in the Ward for almost 18 years. I am standing in this election, for the Liberal Democrats, because the Ward and the Borough have been let down by the Tories and Labour over a number of key issues."
- Hillingdon Hospital – planning permission has been given, but the Tory Government prefers tax cuts to funding its replacement.
- ULEZ – cooked-up by Boris Johnson and cocked-up by Sadiq Khan! Mayor Khan extended ULEZ much too quickly, without a properly-funded scrappage scheme – for which the Liberal Democrats on the GLA fought very hard - or engaging with the Councils bordering on London.
- Uxbridge Police Station – targeted for closure under plans started by Boris Johnson (again!) and continued by Sadiq Khan (again!). Reprieved (perhaps!) during the by-election campaign last year. If it is being kept, extra policemen will be needed to staff it properly and tackle rising crime.
- The Master Brewer site – Sadiq Khan imposed planning permission for 514 flats, with only 164 car parking spaces. The developers will take their profits and leave the Borough and the Ward with all the problems - not least the tidal wave of rogue parking that seems sure to follow.
- At the other extreme - Nelson Lane – what is going on with the 10 semi-detached bungalows there, all of which appear to have been unoccupied for a very long time?
- Libraries & Other Amenities – the cutbacks to the Central Library in Uxbridge were severe and seem to have come with little public consultation or warning.
- Cycling – my travels around this Borough by bicycle and wider, over the past 13 years suggest to me that the Borough has fallen well behind. Even Norfolk has shown more vision! This is a pity because the Borough has great potential to develop routes away from busy roads, so improving health, air quality and relieving congestion. Instead, the Toris prefer to make this another front in their ongoing culture wars!
Faced with this and more, local MP and Councillor Steve Tuckwell, has started a petition for a fish and chip shop in the middle of Uxbridge, having voted against one in 2019!
The Ward and the Borough deserve so much better than this!
The Election on 2nd May is the chance to make a start down that road by electing a Liberal Democrat Councillor.
Please let me know the things that are important to you by filling in this short survey.
If there are other things you'd like to raise with me, please email me using the button below the survey and I will read your views with interest. Thank you. Tom Cottew