| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Reisdents launch LBH Watch | |
| Posted by: | Phil Andrews | |
| Date/Time: | 29/07/10 15:57:00 |
| I think that is where we will have to agree to disagree Vanessa. I simply do not accept that the work of groups such as The Isleworth Society, Campion Concerns, Mogden Residents' Action Group and the various residents' associations should or even could be replaced by self-appointed "expert" politicians who, whilst they may have the talents required to fulfil their generic role, will usually lack both the specialist subject knowledge and the desire to concentrate their minds sufficiently on very localised but nonetheless important issues such as those that these groups address. The is no reason why those in the political arena, if they are honest and well-meaning, should fear the involvement of civic groups and the participation of residents. I have always regarded Labour's apparent unwillingness to treat with such organisations as an indication of its institutional insecurity. It is this assumption that The Party knows best and that our role as local people is just to keep quiet that has created the particular political situation that we have in our own little corner of the world. Yes, Labour won the 2010 local election and I accept that verdict. However I am not, in the interests of some false humility, going to pretend that the result was not the product of the freak happenstance of a general election being held on the same day. In effect those who are interested in local community issues (voters who ordinarily turn out for local elections) were outvoted by those who are not (voters who turned out solely because there was a general election). I make no apology for saying that it is those who are interested in their neighbours and neighbourhoods that I have time for and, yes, I have no problem with forcing the vision of those who care on those who don't. I have heard you condemn Margaret Thatcher (rightly) for her remark that there is "no such thing as society". Has it never occurred to you that the line you take, your dismissal of the notion of community and disdain for any form of interaction with it, is all but identical? You are quick enough to come onto this forum and complain when you feel the local authority is doing something it shouldn't, or not doing something it should. I wish there were more. But aren't you contradicting your own view that we should leave it all to the elected members and not interfere ourselves? Or do you believe your political affiliation gives you a right to comment that you would deny to others? We now have, once again, a local authority comprising just two political groups, Labour and the Conservatives. I've now doubt that is an arrangement you prefer. But what happens when the bureaucracy fails in an area in which the opposition has no interest? People have a right to know what is going on. The fact that most will never have the time nor the inclination to ever want to exercise that right does not make it any less of a right. People have a right to see plans, to consider such matters as whether they want a CPZ - or a new housing development - in their neighbourhood and to make appropriate representations. I have seen signs that at least some members of the new administration appreciate this simple fact. There is no reason why LBH Watch shouldn't be able to work with such people - we are there to help, not to frustrate. |