| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Hounslow Council support a unconstitutional and unfair Residents Group | |
| Posted by: | Phil Andrews | |
| Date/Time: | 17/03/15 16:57:00 |
| Yes and no, imho. There is obviously no point in residents remaining with the URA and trying to rescue that as the rules will be made up, ignored or changed at will by those within whose gift it is to do these things. This was always an inevitability and the only question remaining to be asked is why it took them so long. One must assume that uncertainty over the outcome of last year's local elections was the reason, and now that a substantial majority has been recorded there will be no limit to the havoc that will be unleashed upon what remains of the tenants' movement in this borough, and in Isleworth in particular where they still seem to believe they have scores to settle. I would also agree that for an independent group to pine for recognition from the very same people who have created the crisis in the first place and to wail about the unfairness of it all would appear desperate if not a tad pathetic. I do not however believe that tenants should just pack up and let them get away with it. Tenants' and residents' associations may not play the same pivotal role in our communities as they once did but they are often the beneficiaries of funding from various sources including the Council itself, and in any event the driving factor for those responsible will often simply be that for as long as they control these groups the residents themselves will not be able to, and potentially contentious housing or tenancy issues will never be raised. The rebirth of Ivytag was sad and a retrograde step but regrettably inevitable in the current circumstances. Residents need to recognise this and to work with Simon and others to help them to build it, to keep it active and in the news, and to embarrass the Council's association by contrast at every opportunity. |