http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00tdpz8.
Saturday, 14 August 2010
Syon under water
Acknowledgements to Leo Vermeulen for the photograph____________________________________________
Needless to say I've been picking up lots of horror stories from the Syon estate, which has suffered the full impact of the flood caused by a fractured water pipe.
Several people I know have been decanted to nearby hotels and word is that some dwellings will be uninhabitable for quite a few months.
Let's hope all the parties and agencies responsible for dealing with the situation are on top of their game and that normality can be restored in the quickest possible time and with the minimum hardship to local residents.
Tuesday, 10 August 2010
Residents are increasingly setting up their own "hyperlocal" websites - should councils be worried?
By Ian Tucker and Chris Arnot
William Perrin was looking out of the window of his flat on a chilly November night when he had his "Damascene moment". About 20 young people had broken into a Renault 5 dumped in his street in King's Cross, north London, stuffed it full of fireworks, and set light to the car, which exploded as he watched on.
He called the police but they didn't come. This confirmed what he suspected: that the area wasn't heavily policed and was "almost a no-go area". At the time, a combusting car was not an exceptional occurrence, sometimes youths would even add a stolen gas cylinder for an extra explosive kick. "At that moment I thought I had a choice: either move to the suburbs like most middle-class people or get stuck into community action." He chose the latter. That was nine years ago.
A particular irritant for Perrin was the number of broken streetlights in King's Cross. One winter's evening he found 50 broken lights in his area and reported them all to the various departments of Islington council responsible. "As a result of me making a lot of fuss over the months, we were one of the first local areas to get new lights," he recalls.
Next, Perrin turned his attention to abandoned fridges. But the phoning and emailing was taking over his free time. "I wanted to find a way of co-ordinating what was going on, of exchanging information," he says. His interest in improving his local neighbourhood led to him helping with the design of FixMyStreet.com, a website built by not-for-profit company MySociety. So maybe it was only a matter of time before he struck upon blogging as the solution to solve problems at a local level, and started his own site: www.kingscrossenvironment.com. Initial posts were about abandoned mattresses and white goods, uncollected refuse and burnt-out cars. Perrin found that blogging was more effective than sending emails and phoning council departments. "An email can be like a tree falling in a forest: if you don't know an email has been sent, you don't know about it. Whereas on the web it's always there," he says.
Five years on, his site is a substantial archive of local planning campaigns, environment issues, crime and antisocial behaviour – as well as information about new local shops and cafés.
Perrin found that, over time, a different local audience began to contribute. "This was partly due to the demographic changes happening in King's Cross, but also because previously people had found civic action too hard to engage with. Attending evening meetings, reading stacks of papers, listening to people talking in a Latinate language for several hours feels totally alien to modern values," he says. "The site gives a 21st century interface to a 19th century system. People have got involved because the time cost to them is so much less."
The website gets 400 to 500 views a day, has a network of 20 local people who send in local information, and a handful of core volunteers who do most of the blogging.
A year or so after starting the site, specific campaigns were beginning to dominate, and some campaigners wanted to set up breakaway sites. Perrin, who has never written a line of computing code, says people didn't realise how easy it is to set up a website. He produced a simple six-page guide to help.
In June last year, during a year-long sabbatical from the civil service, where he works as a government policy adviser, he set up TalkAboutLocal (talkabout local.org), which aims to give people across the UK a powerful online voice on community issues. "We want to help people communicate and campaign more effectively to influence events in the places in which they live, work or play," says the website.
Perrin, with funding from Channel 4's 4iP project and Screen West Midlands, employs two staff and some freelancers who train people at UK Online centres to teach aspiring local bloggers. As a result, dozens of hyperlocal sites are up and running, including by communities in Florence in Stoke-on-Trent (florencera.org.uk), Kington in Herefordshire (kingtonblackboard.org) and Heeley in Sheffield (heeleyonline.wordpress.com).
Perrin's work with TalkAboutLocal earned him a place at Downing Street's table last month, at a seminar on the coalition's "big society" plans. Perrin says he is "quite optimistic" about the concept. "One of the greatest prizes is a massive increase in civic action and people taking responsibility for working with public services in their neighbourhood instead of having public services do things to you," he says.
In King's Cross, he believes that local residents are more likely to get things changed than in another ward in the borough. "That's because what we have created through community action, through sheer hard work, is a very effective campaigning network," he says.
He admits, however, that a website on its own won't magically transform a neighbourhood. "But a neighbourhood that already has some effective social capital can benefit from having some sort of web resource that helps people network, understand what's going on locally and project their voices beyond the immediate physical boundaries of their estate or village," he says.
The question for local government is how it chooses to engage with these sites. Once a site begins to grow in popularity and is campaigning on local issues, should the council have a formal relationship with it – should it consult with it in the same way as it would a residents' association, for example? "The challenge for people who run councils is to respond to modern communications values. To make democracy respond as if it was any other modern good or service," says Perrin.
The Leadership Centre for Local Government has, with the Improvement and Development Agency, produced a guide and website (socialmedia.21st.cc) for councillors on how to use social media. Joe Simpson, director of politics and partnerships, says the question for councils is how do they move from communicating with their residents to having a conversation.
"Local authorities are at the beginning of that journey," he says. "We can't hide behind the facade that we're the professionals and can tell people what to do. The vast majority of people don't expect to get everything they ask for, but they want to know their views have been heard and understood. The key issue is going to be cuts. If people feel we are listening to their concerns we will get some buy-in."
In Birmingham, the council has so far failed this test, according to Stef Lewandowski. His website (bccdiy.com) set out to simplify and enhance the city council's new website unveiled last year. Lewandowski discovered through a freedom of information request that the cost of the city council's website was £2.8m. "We thought the figure was rather a lot," he says, "especially as the process for paying your council tax was nothing short of labyrinthine."
After he believed that his concerns were rather airily dismissed by a councillor at a public meeting, Lewandowski sat down the following morning and began downloading the site on to his laptop. The download took three hours.
Transforming the site into something that he regarded as more user-friendly entailed involving as many potential users as possible. He staged a Hack Day at Moseley Exchange, a cross between a community centre and a co-working space. More than 60 people turned up, including students and pensioners as well as computer programmers.
"Above all, there was a requirement for really fast access to the services that people need – bin collection times, for instance, and the opening times of your local library. So I built in a facility called 'Near me'. You tap in your postcode and find a page of useful services and events in your immediate neighbourhood."
Tap in the postcode B31 2LP on bccdiy.com and it reveals that a street lamp is out of order. "Again," it says. There is a map pinpointing the offending light, along with the date and time of a complaint by a woman who writes that her husband has just undergone a knee operation and had to use a torch to avoid broken paving slabs. From other postings we learn the exact location of potholes in roads – some fixed, some not – and the dumping of a shopping trolley in a pond. There is a list of planning applications, many of which will elicit instant objections.
"I like the idea of holding power to account, getting people more involved with decision-making in their area and making them feel part of the process, not separate from it," says Lewandowski.
Birmingham city council declined to comment on bccdiy.com but a spokesman pointed out that the £2.8m figure was for more than revamping the website. It covered a larger remit that he claimed had massively improved the council's relationship with residents – face-to-face, by phone and via the web.
Having taken on Birmingham council, Lewandowski is engaged in providing a similar service for every other council taxpayer in the country through diycouncil.com, which he built by downloading the contents of another site and adding content based on his work with bccdiy.com.
"In just a few hours – so far I've spent 20 hours on the diycouncil.com site – someone can make very interesting things happen with these tools. And with the coming push to have all public sector data in the public domain, we're going to see some innovative, surprising and exciting things being done very quickly outside the usual tender/commission/report cycle that the public sector is used to," he says.
"What comes next is that we collectively find ways to make that data meaningful to people in unexpected ways, some of which will work, many of which will fall by the wayside," says Lewandowski. "But the end result will be a smoother interaction between people and government. At least that's my hope."
Reproduced with acknowledgements to The Guardian.
William Perrin was looking out of the window of his flat on a chilly November night when he had his "Damascene moment". About 20 young people had broken into a Renault 5 dumped in his street in King's Cross, north London, stuffed it full of fireworks, and set light to the car, which exploded as he watched on.
He called the police but they didn't come. This confirmed what he suspected: that the area wasn't heavily policed and was "almost a no-go area". At the time, a combusting car was not an exceptional occurrence, sometimes youths would even add a stolen gas cylinder for an extra explosive kick. "At that moment I thought I had a choice: either move to the suburbs like most middle-class people or get stuck into community action." He chose the latter. That was nine years ago.
A particular irritant for Perrin was the number of broken streetlights in King's Cross. One winter's evening he found 50 broken lights in his area and reported them all to the various departments of Islington council responsible. "As a result of me making a lot of fuss over the months, we were one of the first local areas to get new lights," he recalls.
Next, Perrin turned his attention to abandoned fridges. But the phoning and emailing was taking over his free time. "I wanted to find a way of co-ordinating what was going on, of exchanging information," he says. His interest in improving his local neighbourhood led to him helping with the design of FixMyStreet.com, a website built by not-for-profit company MySociety. So maybe it was only a matter of time before he struck upon blogging as the solution to solve problems at a local level, and started his own site: www.kingscrossenvironment.com. Initial posts were about abandoned mattresses and white goods, uncollected refuse and burnt-out cars. Perrin found that blogging was more effective than sending emails and phoning council departments. "An email can be like a tree falling in a forest: if you don't know an email has been sent, you don't know about it. Whereas on the web it's always there," he says.
Five years on, his site is a substantial archive of local planning campaigns, environment issues, crime and antisocial behaviour – as well as information about new local shops and cafés.
Perrin found that, over time, a different local audience began to contribute. "This was partly due to the demographic changes happening in King's Cross, but also because previously people had found civic action too hard to engage with. Attending evening meetings, reading stacks of papers, listening to people talking in a Latinate language for several hours feels totally alien to modern values," he says. "The site gives a 21st century interface to a 19th century system. People have got involved because the time cost to them is so much less."
The website gets 400 to 500 views a day, has a network of 20 local people who send in local information, and a handful of core volunteers who do most of the blogging.
A year or so after starting the site, specific campaigns were beginning to dominate, and some campaigners wanted to set up breakaway sites. Perrin, who has never written a line of computing code, says people didn't realise how easy it is to set up a website. He produced a simple six-page guide to help.
In June last year, during a year-long sabbatical from the civil service, where he works as a government policy adviser, he set up TalkAboutLocal (talkabout local.org), which aims to give people across the UK a powerful online voice on community issues. "We want to help people communicate and campaign more effectively to influence events in the places in which they live, work or play," says the website.
Perrin, with funding from Channel 4's 4iP project and Screen West Midlands, employs two staff and some freelancers who train people at UK Online centres to teach aspiring local bloggers. As a result, dozens of hyperlocal sites are up and running, including by communities in Florence in Stoke-on-Trent (florencera.org.uk), Kington in Herefordshire (kingtonblackboard.org) and Heeley in Sheffield (heeleyonline.wordpress.com).
Perrin's work with TalkAboutLocal earned him a place at Downing Street's table last month, at a seminar on the coalition's "big society" plans. Perrin says he is "quite optimistic" about the concept. "One of the greatest prizes is a massive increase in civic action and people taking responsibility for working with public services in their neighbourhood instead of having public services do things to you," he says.
In King's Cross, he believes that local residents are more likely to get things changed than in another ward in the borough. "That's because what we have created through community action, through sheer hard work, is a very effective campaigning network," he says.
He admits, however, that a website on its own won't magically transform a neighbourhood. "But a neighbourhood that already has some effective social capital can benefit from having some sort of web resource that helps people network, understand what's going on locally and project their voices beyond the immediate physical boundaries of their estate or village," he says.
The question for local government is how it chooses to engage with these sites. Once a site begins to grow in popularity and is campaigning on local issues, should the council have a formal relationship with it – should it consult with it in the same way as it would a residents' association, for example? "The challenge for people who run councils is to respond to modern communications values. To make democracy respond as if it was any other modern good or service," says Perrin.
The Leadership Centre for Local Government has, with the Improvement and Development Agency, produced a guide and website (socialmedia.21st.cc) for councillors on how to use social media. Joe Simpson, director of politics and partnerships, says the question for councils is how do they move from communicating with their residents to having a conversation.
"Local authorities are at the beginning of that journey," he says. "We can't hide behind the facade that we're the professionals and can tell people what to do. The vast majority of people don't expect to get everything they ask for, but they want to know their views have been heard and understood. The key issue is going to be cuts. If people feel we are listening to their concerns we will get some buy-in."
In Birmingham, the council has so far failed this test, according to Stef Lewandowski. His website (bccdiy.com) set out to simplify and enhance the city council's new website unveiled last year. Lewandowski discovered through a freedom of information request that the cost of the city council's website was £2.8m. "We thought the figure was rather a lot," he says, "especially as the process for paying your council tax was nothing short of labyrinthine."
After he believed that his concerns were rather airily dismissed by a councillor at a public meeting, Lewandowski sat down the following morning and began downloading the site on to his laptop. The download took three hours.
Transforming the site into something that he regarded as more user-friendly entailed involving as many potential users as possible. He staged a Hack Day at Moseley Exchange, a cross between a community centre and a co-working space. More than 60 people turned up, including students and pensioners as well as computer programmers.
"Above all, there was a requirement for really fast access to the services that people need – bin collection times, for instance, and the opening times of your local library. So I built in a facility called 'Near me'. You tap in your postcode and find a page of useful services and events in your immediate neighbourhood."
Tap in the postcode B31 2LP on bccdiy.com and it reveals that a street lamp is out of order. "Again," it says. There is a map pinpointing the offending light, along with the date and time of a complaint by a woman who writes that her husband has just undergone a knee operation and had to use a torch to avoid broken paving slabs. From other postings we learn the exact location of potholes in roads – some fixed, some not – and the dumping of a shopping trolley in a pond. There is a list of planning applications, many of which will elicit instant objections.
"I like the idea of holding power to account, getting people more involved with decision-making in their area and making them feel part of the process, not separate from it," says Lewandowski.
Birmingham city council declined to comment on bccdiy.com but a spokesman pointed out that the £2.8m figure was for more than revamping the website. It covered a larger remit that he claimed had massively improved the council's relationship with residents – face-to-face, by phone and via the web.
Having taken on Birmingham council, Lewandowski is engaged in providing a similar service for every other council taxpayer in the country through diycouncil.com, which he built by downloading the contents of another site and adding content based on his work with bccdiy.com.
"In just a few hours – so far I've spent 20 hours on the diycouncil.com site – someone can make very interesting things happen with these tools. And with the coming push to have all public sector data in the public domain, we're going to see some innovative, surprising and exciting things being done very quickly outside the usual tender/commission/report cycle that the public sector is used to," he says.
"What comes next is that we collectively find ways to make that data meaningful to people in unexpected ways, some of which will work, many of which will fall by the wayside," says Lewandowski. "But the end result will be a smoother interaction between people and government. At least that's my hope."
Reproduced with acknowledgements to The Guardian.
Sunday, 8 August 2010
Ray Ferguson
I've just been informed by a mutual friend that Ray Ferguson, of Bedfont, sadly passed away on Friday. He had been suffering with lung cancer.
I first met Ray back in 1996. Having fairly much established itself in the south of Isleworth the ICG had had a letter published in a local newspaper inviting other independently minded individuals from around the borough to get in touch with us with a view to working together.
Ray was one of those who responded. Although a right-of-centre Conservative by disposition, Ray was a man of his own mind and was not completely happy with the direction his own party was taking. ICG founder Tom Reader (himself a Conservative) and myself visited Ray at his modest Staines Road home and we agreed to pool some ideas and resources. Ray and a couple of his associates attended an ICG meeting held at the old Jolly Gardeners pub in Twickenham Road, Isleworth and I even hand-delivered a few thousand leaflets for his newly-formed Hounslow Residents' Group (HRG). Ray lent us a PC, then a rare commodity, and a printing press but in the event I couldn't get either of them to work.
The HRG concentrated heavily on opposing the then rather substantial package of grants issued by the London Borough of Hounslow, then as now under Labour control, and it was indeed the case that many of these seemed to serve no purpose other than to sustain organisations that had delivered electoral and political support for the Labour Party. Indeed in one case it seemed likely that Labour was actually diverting public money to a group of activists in an unsuccessful attempt to arrest the growth of the ICG in Isleworth under the completely fictitious guise of an "anti-fascist" operation.
However the HRG's emphasis on opposing more or less all grants, and in particular its focus on single issue organisations, left some of us feeling uncomfortable and fairly soon the two groups effectively agreed to differ and to function separately. The goodwill between us remained but, in the view of many of us, there was no real common ground between the HRG's conservative ethos and the ICG's progressive communitarianism.
But whatever similarities or differences Ray and I may have had at certain times, one thing that always stood out for me was Ray's absolute honesty. In disagreement he was civil, but Ray was never two-faced or duplicitous. He was clear and open about the things in which he believed, and always took the trouble to call and offer his congratulations when I and my colleagues had experienced triumph, and his commiserations when we had experienced defeat. He called me on the telephone only a couple of months ago to express his displeasure both at the outcome of the recent local elections, and at some of the elementary political miscalculations by others, some of whom he considered friends, that had brought it about.
For those who knew Ray it was not possible to dislike the man. It was easy to disagree with him, but that is what honest discourse is about. He always demonstrated respect regardless of whether one agreed with him or not.
My sincere condolences go out to his family, friends and all who knew him.
I first met Ray back in 1996. Having fairly much established itself in the south of Isleworth the ICG had had a letter published in a local newspaper inviting other independently minded individuals from around the borough to get in touch with us with a view to working together.
Ray was one of those who responded. Although a right-of-centre Conservative by disposition, Ray was a man of his own mind and was not completely happy with the direction his own party was taking. ICG founder Tom Reader (himself a Conservative) and myself visited Ray at his modest Staines Road home and we agreed to pool some ideas and resources. Ray and a couple of his associates attended an ICG meeting held at the old Jolly Gardeners pub in Twickenham Road, Isleworth and I even hand-delivered a few thousand leaflets for his newly-formed Hounslow Residents' Group (HRG). Ray lent us a PC, then a rare commodity, and a printing press but in the event I couldn't get either of them to work.
The HRG concentrated heavily on opposing the then rather substantial package of grants issued by the London Borough of Hounslow, then as now under Labour control, and it was indeed the case that many of these seemed to serve no purpose other than to sustain organisations that had delivered electoral and political support for the Labour Party. Indeed in one case it seemed likely that Labour was actually diverting public money to a group of activists in an unsuccessful attempt to arrest the growth of the ICG in Isleworth under the completely fictitious guise of an "anti-fascist" operation.
However the HRG's emphasis on opposing more or less all grants, and in particular its focus on single issue organisations, left some of us feeling uncomfortable and fairly soon the two groups effectively agreed to differ and to function separately. The goodwill between us remained but, in the view of many of us, there was no real common ground between the HRG's conservative ethos and the ICG's progressive communitarianism.
But whatever similarities or differences Ray and I may have had at certain times, one thing that always stood out for me was Ray's absolute honesty. In disagreement he was civil, but Ray was never two-faced or duplicitous. He was clear and open about the things in which he believed, and always took the trouble to call and offer his congratulations when I and my colleagues had experienced triumph, and his commiserations when we had experienced defeat. He called me on the telephone only a couple of months ago to express his displeasure both at the outcome of the recent local elections, and at some of the elementary political miscalculations by others, some of whom he considered friends, that had brought it about.
For those who knew Ray it was not possible to dislike the man. It was easy to disagree with him, but that is what honest discourse is about. He always demonstrated respect regardless of whether one agreed with him or not.
My sincere condolences go out to his family, friends and all who knew him.
Monday, 2 August 2010
Dr. Who Fun Day on Worton - Community Spirit Alive and Well
It was at 12.10 this afternoon when I rolled up at the ROWE Community Centre on Isleworth's Worton estate, straight from Church. Usually ten minutes after the start of an event like this little would be going on beyond a few late arrivals hastily setting up their stalls.
And yet the ROWE Fun Day, with its Doctor Who theme, was already in full swing, with many kids outside enjoying the rides and others having their photos taken inside the Community Centre. Teas, coffees, cold drinks and hot dogs were being sold and members of the Committee were walking around the site selling raffle tickets (I was later to win a meal for two but I can assure everyone it was kosher - I'd left by the time the raffle was drawn!).
MC Andrews announces the raffle______________________________
ICG Committee members Tricia Doran and Cheryl-Ann Khan had set up a stall selling clothes, a tombola and a "prize every time" duck-fishing thing. Another few quid for the group's coffers, always welcome.
Back inside the building I made a new friend (photo to follow as soon as my daughter gets time to show me how to transfer it across).
Even cybermen were welcome at the event______________________________
Organising a vibrant residents' organisation has always been something of a challenge for the Committee of ROWE (Residents of Worton Estate). There have always been good people there to do the work, but usually just enough of them to achieve critical mass. However, possibly as a defensive reaction to the local political situation, ROWE seems to becoming more proactive and determined than ever before. The dozen or so people who were circulating around the event selling raffle tickets, providing food and drinks and generally marshaling events worked hard, and the very reasonable turnout was just reward for their efforts.
One of the many stalls at the Fun Day ________________________________________
Although I don't actually live on Worton I have a long historical association with the estate. My father was raised in Octavia Road, opposite the Green, and my aunt, uncle and cousins lived there until the middle of the 1990s. As a teenager I would encounter many of the youths from the estate, not always on friendly terms, at the youth club that was held every Monday night in the Hall at Isleworth Congregational, which I now once again attend.
Great food and drinks were on sale in the Community Centre________________________________________
I feel honoured to have been asked to continue my association with ROWE after ceasing to be a ward councillor in May, and was pleased to have the opportunity to help out around the place today.
Events like this reassure me that the spirit of the community in Isleworth will survive whatever short-term challenges are thrown our way.
Thursday, 29 July 2010
LBH Watch: Postscript
Following on from yesterday's blog article on the launch of LBH Watch I have been taken to task on a local community internet forum for referring to the group as "cross party". It is argued that by using this term I am attempting to imply that LBH Watch has the formal support of all the political parties, when what I actually meant was that its founder members are from across the political spectrum. I am happy to provide clarification.
What is more revealing though is the anger that the formation of the group seems to have invoked from forum users with a political axe to grind. My two critics hail from supposedly "opposite" ends of the political spectrum, one being a former Labour councillor and the other having Conservative leanings.
In the case of the Labour critic it would appear LBH Watch is opposed simply because it intends to identify bad practice whilst the Tory just seems generally pissed that ICG members are still active, lending some credence to my theory that the main objective of the recent Conservative election campaign (incredibly, over and above the desire to actually retain office and keep Labour out) was the sidelining of the ICG by means of a pincer movement involving both of the major parties.
I can confirm that LBH Watch will be just the first of many initiatives through which to compensate the community for the democratic deficit that the reversion to two-party hegemony must inevitably bring in its wake.
What is more revealing though is the anger that the formation of the group seems to have invoked from forum users with a political axe to grind. My two critics hail from supposedly "opposite" ends of the political spectrum, one being a former Labour councillor and the other having Conservative leanings.
In the case of the Labour critic it would appear LBH Watch is opposed simply because it intends to identify bad practice whilst the Tory just seems generally pissed that ICG members are still active, lending some credence to my theory that the main objective of the recent Conservative election campaign (incredibly, over and above the desire to actually retain office and keep Labour out) was the sidelining of the ICG by means of a pincer movement involving both of the major parties.
I can confirm that LBH Watch will be just the first of many initiatives through which to compensate the community for the democratic deficit that the reversion to two-party hegemony must inevitably bring in its wake.
Wednesday, 28 July 2010
LATEST NEWS: Residents launch LBH Watch
A powerful new resident-led monitoring body has been launched with a view to highlighting and addressing some of the major flaws in the Civic Centre bureaucracy that came to be identified during the last days of the previous council administration.
Endless battles at IBAC (Isleworth & Brentford Area Committee) between elected councillors and intransigent and belligerent Chief Officers revealed some very fundamental deficiencies in the member-officer relationship in Hounslow. ICG councillors in particular encountered a metaphorical brick wall when attempting to open up the process of local government and to introduce more accountability and openness.
Delivering its launch statement, LBH Watch Chair Ian Speed emphasised that the new body enjoyed cross-party support, and its current members were drawn from all across the local political spectrum.
The full statement reads:
"Following the local elections at which all community and third party representation on Hounslow council was wiped out and replaced with a classic two party system only, a group of concerned residents have formed to address any democratic or performance deficits the London Borough of Hounslow may have in administering or delivering its services in your area. The issue that has caught the imagination of most members of the group is Planning, as administered by the Environment & Planning Department and the local Area and council wide Strategic Development Committees. However, we would be very happy to hear from any citizen who has concerns about the way LB Hounslow delivers or administers its services.
"We are in the process of designing a website with the following key elements:
"We would be interested in hearing from any member of the Hounslow Borough Community who would like to contribute concerns via email or attend one of our meetings. The next meeting is on the evening of Monday 2nd August.
"We have created an email address at lbhwatch@aol.com. Please email us or text/leave a message on 07835 379595 if you wish to attend a meeting".
LBH Watch has also published a list of six Aims and Objectives, which are as follows:
The range of talents and expertise that LBH Watch is already able to call upon is quite simply vast. It will use every means available to highlight bad practice and to bring answerability and transparency to our local government.
I envisage LBH Watch playing a seminal role in ensuring that the concerns of the community are heard during the four years of the current council administration and maybe beyond. Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you think you may be able to help.
Endless battles at IBAC (Isleworth & Brentford Area Committee) between elected councillors and intransigent and belligerent Chief Officers revealed some very fundamental deficiencies in the member-officer relationship in Hounslow. ICG councillors in particular encountered a metaphorical brick wall when attempting to open up the process of local government and to introduce more accountability and openness.
Delivering its launch statement, LBH Watch Chair Ian Speed emphasised that the new body enjoyed cross-party support, and its current members were drawn from all across the local political spectrum.
The full statement reads:
"Following the local elections at which all community and third party representation on Hounslow council was wiped out and replaced with a classic two party system only, a group of concerned residents have formed to address any democratic or performance deficits the London Borough of Hounslow may have in administering or delivering its services in your area. The issue that has caught the imagination of most members of the group is Planning, as administered by the Environment & Planning Department and the local Area and council wide Strategic Development Committees. However, we would be very happy to hear from any citizen who has concerns about the way LB Hounslow delivers or administers its services.
"We are in the process of designing a website with the following key elements:
- A High level section for borough wide issues such as Customer Service standards.
- The key contentious isssues for each of the Area Committees (mainly planning issues and traffic management).
- A self-help section giving residents a guide as to whom to write to or complain to if they are not happy about the way a service is being delivered or administered.
"We would be interested in hearing from any member of the Hounslow Borough Community who would like to contribute concerns via email or attend one of our meetings. The next meeting is on the evening of Monday 2nd August.
"We have created an email address at lbhwatch@aol.com. Please email us or text/leave a message on 07835 379595 if you wish to attend a meeting".
LBH Watch has also published a list of six Aims and Objectives, which are as follows:
- We believe Hounslow council services should be run according to best practice within the law.
- We believe council officers, however senior, should be fully answerable to councillors and local residents and taxpayers.
- We believe in greater democratic leadership and outward accountability for decision-making to local people.
- We believe that council staff and members should respond to residents' concerns in a prompt, honest and comprehensive manner and act with impeccable integrity at all times.
- We believe Hounslow council services should be delivered as transparently and cost-effectively as possible.
- We encourage members and officers to adhere to the spirit of the Motion on Community Empowerment as approved unanimously by the previous council."
The range of talents and expertise that LBH Watch is already able to call upon is quite simply vast. It will use every means available to highlight bad practice and to bring answerability and transparency to our local government.
I envisage LBH Watch playing a seminal role in ensuring that the concerns of the community are heard during the four years of the current council administration and maybe beyond. Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you think you may be able to help.
A week away in Bournemouth
Last week my family and I spent a few nights on the south coast at Bournemouth, the first time we had been away en famille since we visited the Isle of Wight just before Christmas last.
That we were able to do so was purely a result of Caroline's diligence in collecting her Tesco Clubcard points. Unbeknown to me (until a few weeks ago) these can be exchanged for four times their face value on certain services and products, as a consequence of which we were able to spend four nights at the Britannia Hotel, an unpretentious but very pleasant three-star abode a few yards from the top of the scenic East Cliff, at no additional cost.
Bournemouth has one of the cleanest and, in my view, one of the most pleasant seafronts around. The town itself is unspectacular, and it is clear that the local authority invests most heavily in its attractions around the coastline. Although ordinarily I am not into flashy cocktail joints, being more of a traditional pub man, I do recommend the Aruba bar at the entrance to the pier - whether you are looking for a beer, some light food or something more exotic.
During the daytimes we tended to spend most of our time around the beach, where I became very sunburned (including on my scalp thanks to my severe new, "accidental" haircut) and each evening, after a swim, we spent an hour or two in the hotel bar with some light entertainment and several very cold glasses of Bulmers.
When it was time to leave we took a slight detour through the New Forest, where we stopped off at Burley for a cream tea and a close up view of the horses, which my animal-loving daughter Rosie particularly enjoyed.
Much though I love my home town of Isleworth and its very special people I do feel the need to get away at times. I think we'll visit Bournemouth, and the Britannia, again.
That we were able to do so was purely a result of Caroline's diligence in collecting her Tesco Clubcard points. Unbeknown to me (until a few weeks ago) these can be exchanged for four times their face value on certain services and products, as a consequence of which we were able to spend four nights at the Britannia Hotel, an unpretentious but very pleasant three-star abode a few yards from the top of the scenic East Cliff, at no additional cost.
Bournemouth has one of the cleanest and, in my view, one of the most pleasant seafronts around. The town itself is unspectacular, and it is clear that the local authority invests most heavily in its attractions around the coastline. Although ordinarily I am not into flashy cocktail joints, being more of a traditional pub man, I do recommend the Aruba bar at the entrance to the pier - whether you are looking for a beer, some light food or something more exotic.
During the daytimes we tended to spend most of our time around the beach, where I became very sunburned (including on my scalp thanks to my severe new, "accidental" haircut) and each evening, after a swim, we spent an hour or two in the hotel bar with some light entertainment and several very cold glasses of Bulmers.
When it was time to leave we took a slight detour through the New Forest, where we stopped off at Burley for a cream tea and a close up view of the horses, which my animal-loving daughter Rosie particularly enjoyed.
Much though I love my home town of Isleworth and its very special people I do feel the need to get away at times. I think we'll visit Bournemouth, and the Britannia, again.
Sunday, 11 July 2010
Read only if you are not squeamish...
For me the recent local elections were a bloodbath in more ways than one. On polling day I had to try to marshall the campaign from our makeshift HQ in St. John's whilst negotiating the peculiar phenomenon of a finger on my left hand which, for no obvious reason, periodically presented an upstoppable gush of blood with a velocity that rendered conventional sticking plasters singularly useless.
Over the next several weeks the small wound that this curiously gratuitous activity had generated expanded, first steadily and later rapidly, until a red, raw growth the shape of a mushroom but more resembling a small piece of finest steak burst throught the skin of my finger and took residence in such a position that made it impossible to clench my hand or to grasp objects without very considerable pain.
Having long taken the view that doctors are for wusses, I ignored the pain and inconvenience and put up with it for some time, assuming that the alien presence would tire of bothering me and disappear of its own accord. When it finally became obvious to me that it wouldn't I relented, but the locum at my local surgery had no idea what to make of it, and despatched me to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.
My initial visit to SW10 took longer than it might usually have done, as the specialist whom I was eventually to see was for some time preoccupied attending to the victim of a shooting, whilst a dozen or more heavy armed police officers surrounded the hospital building to ensure that the perpetrator of the incident didn't arrive to complete his work. Then when I was seen I was told within minutes that my mystery injury, rather than being some manner of stigmata sent to confer divine recognition of my organisational talent, was in fact a pyogenic granuloma, which medical anoraks or the just plain curious can read all about here.
I was given an appointment for an operation less than 48 hours later, which I had been told would be done under general anaesthetic but was eventually performed under local anaesthetic. Before this could happen my wedding ring needed to be cut off as my finger would swell to almost twice its normal circumference during the operation, and the doctor delegated an underling seemingly trained at Dewhurst to perform the task with maximum brutality.
Since undergoing that minor ordeal I have been trying to protect several stitches which, whenever I've presented them for removal, have invariably not been quite ready. I'm due another visit to my doctor tomorrow at which I'm hoping the dirty deed will finally be done.
Over the next several weeks the small wound that this curiously gratuitous activity had generated expanded, first steadily and later rapidly, until a red, raw growth the shape of a mushroom but more resembling a small piece of finest steak burst throught the skin of my finger and took residence in such a position that made it impossible to clench my hand or to grasp objects without very considerable pain.
Having long taken the view that doctors are for wusses, I ignored the pain and inconvenience and put up with it for some time, assuming that the alien presence would tire of bothering me and disappear of its own accord. When it finally became obvious to me that it wouldn't I relented, but the locum at my local surgery had no idea what to make of it, and despatched me to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.
My initial visit to SW10 took longer than it might usually have done, as the specialist whom I was eventually to see was for some time preoccupied attending to the victim of a shooting, whilst a dozen or more heavy armed police officers surrounded the hospital building to ensure that the perpetrator of the incident didn't arrive to complete his work. Then when I was seen I was told within minutes that my mystery injury, rather than being some manner of stigmata sent to confer divine recognition of my organisational talent, was in fact a pyogenic granuloma, which medical anoraks or the just plain curious can read all about here.
I was given an appointment for an operation less than 48 hours later, which I had been told would be done under general anaesthetic but was eventually performed under local anaesthetic. Before this could happen my wedding ring needed to be cut off as my finger would swell to almost twice its normal circumference during the operation, and the doctor delegated an underling seemingly trained at Dewhurst to perform the task with maximum brutality.
Since undergoing that minor ordeal I have been trying to protect several stitches which, whenever I've presented them for removal, have invariably not been quite ready. I'm due another visit to my doctor tomorrow at which I'm hoping the dirty deed will finally be done.
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
Linford returns to Ivybridge, residents returning to the driving seat
It's hard to believe that nearly a year has passed since sprint legend Linford Christie last hosted the Street Athletics project on Ivybridge, but he was back today (Monday) and it was great to see a similar turnout to last time from the estate community.
Speaking personally I enjoyed the afternoon, milling around amongst the crowd and meeting some old friends from the United Residents' Association (URA), the Isleworth Somali Association, Residents of Worton Estate (ROWE), Hounslow Homes and from the estate in general. The new Mayor was there in attendance, as was Councillor Sampson (apologies to her colleagues if they were there also, but if they were I missed them).
I hope this event, now in its second year, becomes a permanent fixture. It brings people together from across the estate community in a way that nothing else seems quite able to do. Over the past year or so there has been a real estate identity actively taking shape which completely transcends any cultural differences and I really do hope that this is not jeopardised in any way by the recent changes in political management. More than ever it is vitally important that residents take control and direct events on the estate themselves.
Later in the evening I spent a useful couple of hours at a meeting in Osterley discussing the launch of a new cross-party (and non-party) residents' initiative which I believe will have a seismic impact over the next few years and beyond upon the way the local authority engages with the community it exists to serve. I can't say any more about this particular project until it formally goes "live", as it will over the next few weeks, but it is one that I am excited by because of its almost limitless potential. More on this anon.
Speaking personally I enjoyed the afternoon, milling around amongst the crowd and meeting some old friends from the United Residents' Association (URA), the Isleworth Somali Association, Residents of Worton Estate (ROWE), Hounslow Homes and from the estate in general. The new Mayor was there in attendance, as was Councillor Sampson (apologies to her colleagues if they were there also, but if they were I missed them).
I hope this event, now in its second year, becomes a permanent fixture. It brings people together from across the estate community in a way that nothing else seems quite able to do. Over the past year or so there has been a real estate identity actively taking shape which completely transcends any cultural differences and I really do hope that this is not jeopardised in any way by the recent changes in political management. More than ever it is vitally important that residents take control and direct events on the estate themselves.
Later in the evening I spent a useful couple of hours at a meeting in Osterley discussing the launch of a new cross-party (and non-party) residents' initiative which I believe will have a seismic impact over the next few years and beyond upon the way the local authority engages with the community it exists to serve. I can't say any more about this particular project until it formally goes "live", as it will over the next few weeks, but it is one that I am excited by because of its almost limitless potential. More on this anon.
Thursday, 17 June 2010
Serving our community from "the other side"
One of the plus points of being an ex-councillor is that one is able once again to function as an "ordinary" community activist without placing the groups and organisations with which we associate into a compromising position.Back in 1998, shortly after I had been elected to the London Borough of Hounslow, the old Three Estates Residents' Association (TERA), of which I had been Secretary, came under an enormous amount of political pressure to relieve me of my office. This pressure, in the tradition of its originators, went on to manifest itself in the form of threats that essential funding would be withdrawn. Whilst this was of course blatant political posturing of the most appalling kind, it did have in its favour a vaguely plausible point, to wit that as an elected councillor I could have been perceived to have had a conflict of interests.
Now that that conflict no longer exists, I and I'm sure many of my colleagues will avail ourselves of the opportunity to become actively involved in the work of our community from the "inside" once again.
Today my wife Caroline, who for those who didn't know was one of the three elected members for Syon ward prior to the recent local elections, took advantage of two separate opportunities to do just that. The first involved a visit to the allotments in Park Road, where she is now a member of the allotment committee. Several ICG members and other well-known members of the wider community hold plots on Park Road, and the site is becoming very well organised. Allotment holders did not receive a very good deal under the last Labour administration, and although things may well be different this time around it is wise to be prepared just in case.
Later in the evening she was an invited guest at a Social to celebrate the launch of a new Rivers and Byways Leaflet held on the Cathja Project barge in Old Isleworth. The outgoing councillors (that's us!) were specifically thanked in an address by a representative on The Isleworth Society (TIS) for all the help and assistance we had given to them and Cathja during our time as members of the local authority.
There is always a huge amount of work to be done outside of the jurisdiction of a councillor, and it is pleasing to be able to get involved with some of that work once again as lay participants rather than from a perceived political perspective.
Tuesday, 15 June 2010
Defend Council Housing in Hounslow
This report from the House of Commons Council Housing Group, chaired by Austin Mitchell MP, slams "the grim failure of current housing policy reliant on the private market (which) reinforces the case for government to invest in first class council housing"
During the recent local election campaign our Labour opponents quite shamelessly, and shamefully, peddled the deliberate untruth that the Community Group had intentions to privatise the local authority's housing stock, even persuading one malcontent on the Ivybridge estate to circulate a leaflet completely inventing a meeting at which such a plan was alleged to have been discussed.
The facts, of course, are a little different. The "half-way privatisation" in the form of the Arm's Length Management Organisation (ALMO), Hounslow Homes, took place under the previous Labour administration, and when I chaired the Hounslow Homes Management Review in 2006/7 every self-interested tentacle of the local Labour octopus was deployed to resist any attempt by me to take the service back in-house.
Under the coalition administration the first local authority New Build (made possible by a long belated change in legislation) was authorised by the Executive at my behest in my capacity as Lead Member for Housing.
It will be interesting to see just how enthusiastically the new administration resists the trend towards selling off local authority housing stock.
During the recent local election campaign our Labour opponents quite shamelessly, and shamefully, peddled the deliberate untruth that the Community Group had intentions to privatise the local authority's housing stock, even persuading one malcontent on the Ivybridge estate to circulate a leaflet completely inventing a meeting at which such a plan was alleged to have been discussed.
The facts, of course, are a little different. The "half-way privatisation" in the form of the Arm's Length Management Organisation (ALMO), Hounslow Homes, took place under the previous Labour administration, and when I chaired the Hounslow Homes Management Review in 2006/7 every self-interested tentacle of the local Labour octopus was deployed to resist any attempt by me to take the service back in-house.
Under the coalition administration the first local authority New Build (made possible by a long belated change in legislation) was authorised by the Executive at my behest in my capacity as Lead Member for Housing.
It will be interesting to see just how enthusiastically the new administration resists the trend towards selling off local authority housing stock.
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