Petition closes - without changing the Council's mind, but with an insult and a twist
Thank you for signing this petition. It's now closed, and we wanted to let you know what happened.
What happened to this petition
It closed with 325 signatures — and was submitted comfortably above the 100-signature threshold then required for a borough-wide petition. It was presented before the vote specifically so the Council could not claim we were trying to overturn a decision that had already been made.
The changes went ahead anyway. At last month's Full Council meeting, the Deputy Leader, Cllr Richard Mills, dismissed this petition as "a small petition," before telling Full Council that the administration would "not be held back… by those who continue to shout online without having the courage to put themselves forward and face the electorate." The threshold for a borough-wide petition was raised from 100 signatures to 500 — a fivefold increase — along with the other changes this petition asked the Council to reconsider.
The Council's own response to us confirmed that the Leader and Deputy Leader had given the petition "full consideration" before that meeting — and moved the recommendations forward regardless. Full Council adopted them, and we were told "no further action will be taken regarding the petition contents."
We later obtained, via Freedom of Information request, the Council's own admission that it held no data, time assessments, or cost estimates justifying these changes, and that the specific thresholds chosen were not benchmarked against any other borough.
Why we're coming back to you now
This month, it was revealed that Cllr Mills had spent at least six months anonymously posting on Facebook under a false identity — insulting residents, mocking petitioners, and dismissing this petition and others like it as the work of "keyboard warriors," while concealing that he was the Deputy Leader of the Council responding to his own administration's decisions.
We think that context matters. The 325 residents who signed this petition, under their own names, were told the administration would "not be held back" by people "shouting online". That dismissal came from a man who was, at that same moment, anonymously doing the "shouting online" himself — behind a Facebook nickname and avatar of a sunglasses-wearing lemon, without the courage to put his own name to it.
If you want to read more about what happened:
- The Ruislip Residents' Association's account of how Hillingdon Council's Deputy Leader Richard Mills has been insulting us and calling residents cowards for months, while disguised as a lemon wearing sunglasses — with screenshots and quotes — is at https://www.ruislipresidents.org.uk/richard-mills-is-delightfulyuzu/
- MyLondon's original story, "Calls for Hillingdon Council's Deputy Leader to resign," which includes Cllr Mills's "focus group" justification, is at https://www.mylondon.news/news/west-london-news/calls-hillingdon-councils-deputy-leader-34471201
- MyLondon's follow-up, with more residents' accounts, "Residents 'saddened' by Deputy Leader's conduct," which includes Cllr Tuckwell saying "For the avoidance of any doubt, I will not be asking Richard to stand down as Deputy Leader," is at https://www.mylondon.news/news/west-london-news/residents-saddened-hillingdon-deputy-leaders-34498515
There's a new petition, and we'd ask you to sign and share it too.
Please share it with friends and neighbours — on WhatsApp, on Facebook, or just by mentioning it. Every share reaches people we can't reach on our own. Please direct people to https://www.hillingdonresidents.org.uk/petition-remove-deputy-mills/
One more thing: HARA is an alliance of residents' associations from across Hillingdon — this petition, and the new one, only exist because people like you get involved locally. If you're not already part of your local residents' association, we'd encourage you to find and join one at https://www.hillingdonresidents.org.uk/residents-associations-in-hillingdon/
It's the same volunteers who produce local newsletters, update websites, track planning applications, write the FOI requests, attend the Council meetings, and do the unglamorous work behind stories like this one. More members means more capacity to keep doing it.
Thank you again for signing this petition. It may not have changed the Council's decision — but it's now part of the record of what residents were told, by whom, and why.