In recent pre-election videos, Cllr Peter Smallwood boldly praised his own track record of transparency. He told voters,
“We hope you think we have been visible, we are regularly on the Ruislip Community Facebook page, we send letters and leaflets to keep you updated with our work, we engage with Ruislip residents’ associations, community groups and schools.”
– Cllr Smallwood, Facebook, 6th May 2026
This echoes a video he posted prior to the RRA’s Autumn 2025 AGM, where he filmed himself stating he was “enroute to the RRA AGM – an important event for councillors where we can be asked questions and held to account by the lovely people of Ruislip“.
The reality on the ground paints a vastly different picture.
The Missing Member
Despite his claims of robust engagement, Cllr Smallwood has completely avoided the RRA’s last four committee and public meetings. This sudden vanishing act coincides perfectly with our published articles regarding the Cowley Meeting Hall and Theo’s Café scandal.
Cllr Smallwood attested the Council’s seal on that highly discounted lease for a former Conservative councillor, yet he has avoided direct questions from residents about why he signed it. The Council has since changed the rules so that he (or any other Councillor) wouldn’t be asked to do it again.
Graceless in Victory
This defensive, cloistered behavior reached a petty climax at the election count on Friday 8 May. After the results were declared, an RRA committee member observing the count approached Cllr Smallwood in a nearly empty room, extended his hand, and politely said, “Peter, well done”.
Cllr Smallwood actively shook his head, refused the handshake, and walked away. If our elected representatives cannot handle a basic, polite congratulatory handshake from a resident who dares to look at the numbers and ask difficult questions, it speaks volumes about their fragile relationship with accountability.
Taking the Credit
The recent TfL bus fiasco at Ruislip Station provided another glaring example of this administration’s style of “engagement”. On 12 May, the RRA formally wrote to all local ward councillors, detailing the exact issues causing chaos for residents – including the step-free access problems, the empty timetable cases, the 2024 poster at Stop D, and the actively misleading LED screens.
Read 14th May Facebook post
Facebook post
14th May at 18:05
A number of residents have been in contact regarding the recent bus changes around Ruislip Station, so we wanted to provide a quick update.
The Council was only informed by London Buses of these changes extremely late last week, shortly before they were implemented. There was no consultation with the Council beforehand, which is disappointing, particularly given the impact the changes have had on residents, visitors and public transport connections around the station.
TfL and London Buses are currently describing this as a “temporary measure”, however there is concern that this may not be as short-term or straightforward as first suggested. At the moment, TfL have not been entirely clear about the precise reasoning behind all aspects of the changes, and that is something we will be challenging directly.
We have asked to attend an on-site meeting next week with Council officers, London Buses and TfL to discuss the situation in detail. We will be pressing firmly for this to remain temporary and for solutions to be found as quickly as possible.
One of the key concerns being raised is the impact on the H13 service and the importance of maintaining proper public transport access to Ruislip Lido, particularly during the busier months of the year. Clear and reliable transport links are important not just for residents, but also for visitors, families and local businesses in the area.Residents have also raised concerns around signage, bus information displays and the clarity of temporary arrangements around the station. Those concerns have already been raised with London Buses and we will continue encouraging clearer communication to passengers, especially for those unfamiliar with the area.
Unfortunately, much of the area directly affected is not under Council highway control, which does make resolving matters more complicated, but please be assured that officers and local councillors are actively engaging with TfL on this matter.
We will continue to keep residents updated as we know more.
Two days later, Cllr Smallwood took to his Facebook page, presenting these exact issues to his followers as if they were his own discoveries. When he announced an upcoming site meeting with TfL, the RRA explicitly asked him to include a committee representative. This did not happen.
Instead, he held the meeting behind closed doors and rushed back to Facebook on 19 May to claim that the updated signs and screens were the direct result of “our intervention”. He happily stripped the RRA’s research to make himself look proactive, without offering a single word of acknowledgement or co-operation to the residents who handed him the issue on a silver platter.
Read 19th May Facebook post
Facebook post
19th May at 17:25
Today we held a meeting at Ruislip Station with representatives from Transport for London and Council officers regarding the ongoing bus issues around the station.
The reasons TFL took this decision are as follows. The following was shared with us by TFL: “Clearly this is not ideal but I understand he explained in a bit more detail the safety issues and why the decision had to be taken. In terms of the process that was taken to temporarily withdraw the services, where there are immediate safety and operational concerns as part of our responsibility as a transport operator/authority a decision will have been made through our Bus Operations team and Head of Bus Service Delivery.”
Annoyingly the changes to bus arrangements were a TfL operational decision at short notice, not a decision taken by the Council. However, local councillors and Council officers are actively intervening to support residents, improve communication around the current arrangements and work towards a longer-term solution that would allow all buses to return into Ruislip Station.
Following our intervention, additional signage has now been installed at the station, with further signage due to go up at the bus stops at the bottom of the High Street to help residents navigate the current arrangements more easily.
We have also been assured that the app and live information systems have now been corrected and updated. We made clear the strength of local feeling and the disruption these changes have caused for residents. If anyone finds issues please do contact your ward councillor.
We have now requested an urgent follow-up meeting to discuss how this situation can be unpicked as quickly as possible and how services can be resumed more effectively, including, if possible, the return of the 278 into the station itself.
At this stage, residents should be aware that these arrangements are unlikely to change immediately, but discussions are ongoing and we are pushing for progress as quickly as possible.
We have also requested that Council communications channels are used to remind residents and visitors of the current arrangements ahead of what is expected to be a busy weekend at Ruislip Lido and impact on H13, including that Tier 1 parking enforcement will be in operation and reminders about the location of nearby car parks.
We will continue to work hard to lobby TFL to get our bus station back to normal.
Scrutiny Hypocrisy
The ultimate disconnect lies in financial accountability. At the Annual Council meeting on 14 May, Cllr Smallwood delivered a speech praising the Select Committees (he Chaired one, and sat on another) for having “really stepped up the level of scrutiny and challenge across the Council,” specifically highlighting the deep examination of budget assumptions and financial pressures.
Cllr Smallwood speaks about scrutiny he'd just voted to end
Minutes earlier, he had voted in favor of constitutional changes that completely stripped routine financial scrutiny away from those very committees, funnelling it into a single, smaller Audit Committee with severely limited opposition representation.
This wasn’t an accident: chairing his committee’s meeting in March, he had already suggested that finance staff needn’t attend future meetings as they had been doing this year.
Councillor Smallwood is perfectly happy to use the RRA’s name to inflate his social media credentials, and eager to use the RRA’s legwork to secure easy political wins.
But when it comes to answering direct questions, facing residents in a committee room, or displaying basic decency at an election count, the facade crumbles.
Read More
- The illusion of engagement: Stolen credit, slashed scrutiny, and refused handshakes
- Theo’s Café Update: A missed deadline, an ICO investigation, and a Police report
- After Cowley Meeting Hall: Hillingdon rewrites the rulebook to move debt out of sight
- Fewer eyes on the money: Why residents should challenge Hillingdon’s new scrutiny system
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