| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Just what are the Tories and Junior Tories doing to our borough? | |
| Posted by: | Phil Andrews | |
| Date/Time: | 04/03/09 18:07:00 |
| Dave I don't understand your last sentence. The tenants who will identify areas of spend will, of course, be Hounslow tenants. I don't know where you get the idea that they will be tenants from anywhere else unless, as would appear to be the case, you believe that the dozen or so people who sit at HFTRA meetings are the only tenants we have in Hounslow? Contrary to your allegation that they will be excluded, HFTRA will in fact be involved (at my insistence) in the panel which will decide which initiatives identified by tenants will be taken up. I believe HFTRA has a very important role to play in the tenant engagement process but I do not take the view, as your party in office clearly did, that it should be employed as a gatekeeper to deter involvement by tenants not under a particular political discipline. The panel will also include the Chair of Hounslow Homes and officers from both Hounslow Homes and the London Borough of Hounslow. The Hounslow Homes delegation will include the Chief Executive (I'm sure the previous Chief Executive would have loved to have been involved in such a progressive project but sadly he left). You are however correct to say that I do retain a veto, which I would use only under exceptional circumstances if the process was being subverted. I had the same power of veto when considering applications for the Rainbow Project (another empowerment initiative introduced by the current administration under my portfolio) but it was never used. Anybody who witnessed the antics of the various tentacles of the Old Guard during the Hounslow Homes Management Review as I struggled to introduce some fairness and democracy into the process of tenant participation (and largely succeeded) will understand why, until the democratisation process is complete, such a veto remains necessary. |