Seven months ago, Perivale Resident Billy Higgins came to a Full Council meeting to ask Labours Cabinet member Cllr Mahfouz for help in dealing with huge problems he and the other residents in Cotswold court were experiencing.
Rubbish collectors missed collections at Cotswold court regularly and when they didn't miss them, they left a terrible mess. Cllr Mahfouz promised to make sure the service would improve.
Billy also pointed out some anti social behaviour problems that he and residents were experiencing and asked for CCTV to be installed so the Council could catch the culprits who regularly gathered around the back, used and or sold drugs and left used condoms for residents to clear up.
He also wanted CCTV to keep an eye on the rubbish collectors too as he felt they were not doing their job properly.
This was around the time that Labour Perivale Cllr, Ed Rennie had returned from his five month holiday and was shamed into agreeing to pay back 4 months of his allowance.
Billy asked that this money be used to pay for the CCTV he was asking for. Cllr Mahfouz at this stage appeared sick of the site of Billy and made all sorts of promises just to get rid of him.
One of those promises was CCTV. Another was that he would keep in touch with Billy. Seven months later and many phone calls later to the Police, Billy is still waiting for his CCTV and hadn't heard from Cllr Mahfouz even once.
So he returned to the scene of the promise, not the scene of the crime, (that was Cotswold Court) only to be told that he would have to ask the Ward forum for the money.
The promise wasn't delivered on and now Billy was told he had to go cap in hand to a ward forum that has no money.
After the meeting Billy said"I have better things to do with my time than come to Ealing Town hall to be fobbed off with promises that the Council has no intention of keeping. I would have preferred if I was told we have no money and sorry for your troubles. At least that would have been honest. Instead Cllr Mahfouz made all sorts of promises and hasn't kept any. I'm not going to go away so he'd better find money somewhere. He's going to keep his promise to me and the residents of Cotswold court".