Joanna Biddolph has lived in the Gunnersbury part of the ward since 2014, having lived in Chiswick for 30 years before that. Her first home in Chiswick was on Devonshire Road, in a flat above what is now La Trompette. She was elected in 2018, representing Turnham Green ward, and re-elected for the same ward, but expanded and renamed Chiswick Gunnersbury ward, in May 2022. Her hair wasn't grey in 2018.
Her background is in politics, lobbying, corporate communications and reputation crisis management. She was on the stairs of Conservative Central Office at 3am on 4th May 1979 when Maggie Thatcher came back to thank them after her landslide victory. Nothing beats working for a political party through a general election that you win — though she has been lucky to have had other highly memorable experiences. Two stand out in particular. She organised the Tory Reform Group's 15th anniversary celebration dinner, on 8th November 1985, at which Harold Macmillan made his famous selling off the family silver speech. She was in the press gallery, as head of press for the Corporation of London, on 24th November 1992, when HM The Queen spoke, in a hoarse voice, of her annus horribilis. In 1998 she went freelance working for local and international charities, large corporates and small businesses including several independents in Chiswick which she had been keen to support since moving to Chiswick.
After being elected in 2018, Joanna set up the Chiswick Shops Task Force specifically to support independent shops, bars, cafes, restaurants and service businesses that were struggling before Covid made it even worse. She published a major report, Ensuring a Thriving Retail Economy in Chiswick, which she used to lobby cabinet members and officers in Hounslow Council, government ministers, backbench MPs and civil servants. Now, with a cost of living crisis, she remains as keen as ever to do what she can to help loyal local independents not just survive but thrive. With independents in 18 shopping roads in Chiswick Gunnersbury ward, including the longest stretch of Chiswick High Road (a destination and a through route since Roman times) and the western sides of Devonshire Road and Turnham Green Terrace, there is always something to do. When shoplifting emerged as a huge problem, she organised a meeting for traders with the police team; later, she organised a second meeting for the police team to report on its actions and listen to traders. She was the Conservative Group's retail spokesman from 2019 to 2024.
Residents are rightly demanding, continually pushing for better, not wanting the Labour council to get away with lowering standards here. Housing is the heart-breaking issue with overcrowding in social housing, many going through no-fault evictions, appalling conditions in housing associations and badly-run houses in multiple occupation (HMOs). Joanna was the group's housing spokesman from 2022 to 2024.
Unearthing how an ever-changing, ever-expanding Labour council works, and how best to support everyone she and her fellow councillors serve, is a continuous process. Restructuring departments hides weaknesses; processes are buried in fog. She is far better now at digging for facts, tenaciously refusing to take no for an answer, using the knowledge she has gained, and continuing to learn, while fighting for Conservative principles.
Joanna is known for her determination, persistence and resilience, showing that even when attacked — as she often is — by political opponents, she bounces back with no loss of enthusiasm. She has the ward, and its residents and business ratepayers, at the very front of her mind. Whether the issue is crime (shoplifting, drug dealing, car theft and theft from cars, burglary), heart-breaking (vulnerable residents in terrible housing, homelessness, badly run housing associations), dangerous (dodgy pavements, crossing the cycle lane, the floating bus stop), overdevelopment (campaigning against inappropriate high-rise shoebox blocks of flats), festivals in Gunnersbury Park (too many, too loud, too often and taking up too much space), policies driven by Labour ideology (LTNs, the bus gate, parking restrictions) or frustrating (bureaucracy and what she calls blah blah blah responses from the council), she aims to continue working hard with the same level of proactive, keen, focussed energy she had at the start.
