Local Authority

A campaign is underway to make Queen guitarist Brian May a Freeman of Hounslow.

May grew up in Walsham Road, Feltham and returned to the town last month to unveil a memorial to friend and bandmate Freddie Mercury, who also hailed from the area.

Now politicians want to recognise Brian himself by bestowing on him the highest honour the borough can give and raised the suggestion at a council meeting last week.

A landlord who illegally converted a Hanworth house into three flats and let out its outbuilding has been fined £20,000.

Paul Riat was prosecuted by Hounslow Council after refusing to reinstate the property in Hounslow Road as a single house and stop using the static caravan as a separate home to rent out.

The owner of a derelict pub in Hanworth has been fined for refusing to move building waste off the site.

Sukhvir Singh was ordered to pay £1,000 for repeatedly ignoring requests from Hounslow Council officers to clear the site of the New Moon in Main Street.

The collapse of a rail bridge in Feltham that caused travel chaos last month only came to light when when drivers noticed the track was sagging.

The bridge over the River Crane was damaged by raging torrents late on Saturday November 14, causing the closure of the line between Feltham and Waterloo for more than a week.

A 41-year-old motorcyclist died in a crash on the A316 in Hanworth on Friday afternoon.

The man, who was riding a black Honda motorbike, collided with the central reservation while heading southbound towards Apex Corner just before 3pm. An ambulance was called but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

A parade will leave the Royal British Legion in Cross Road ahead of a Service of Remembrance at the Hanworth War Memorial.

Residents whose bins are not collected should receive a refund from the council, according to one Hounslow councillor.

Hounslow Council has received £54,000 in fines from SITA - the company that runs the service - for failure to collect rubbish since it launched a new waste and recycling scheme in March.

More than 1,100 homes will see their fuel bills cut after Hounslow Homes received a £1m grant to improve insulation.

Households are expected to save up to £120 a year each once the housing association installs new cavity wall insulation in the homes across the borough with the lowest energy ratings. Hounslow Homes also estimates the project will cut CO2 emissions by 88,000kg per year.

The housing association's environmental adviser Rory Prendergast said: ''This grant will greatly assist us in targeting those properties which are the most expensive to heat and are most susceptible to fuel poverty. It will aide us in our efforts to tackle climate change at a local level, improve energy efficiency, and reduce heating costs for our residents.''

Hounslow students were shocked into thinking about road safety by a hard-hitting video of a fatal crash.

More than 2,000 pupils in Year 12 at schools throughout the borough attended the Road Safety day in Ealing earlier this month.

Aimed at 16 and 17-year-olds who have just started or will soon start to drive, the 'safe drive stay alive' film involved viewing footage from a real crash in which a teenager was killed interspersed with interviews with members of the emergency services and parents affected by serious or fatal accidents.

Community safety partnership inspector Adrian Baxter said: "This is a powerful and emotive project that sends out a very strong message to young people as they reach an age where they're allowed to drive."

Lower speed limits are being introduced at accident blackspots in Clockhouse Lane and Stanwell Road in Feltham.

Hounslow Council plans to reduce the limit in Clockhouse Lane - where 11 people have been injured in accidents in the last five years - from 60mph to 40mph.

In Stanwell Road the council is planning a reduction from 70mph to 50mph on the dual carriageway, with a further reduction to 40mph at the approach to the junction with Bedfont Road.