Forum Topic

I have nothing to do with the Ivybridge Estate ...

but as a long term resident Of Isleworth I am aware of the huge problems which were going on at the Estate and over the years the amazing partnership of Councillor led with residents, in changing the area.I am quite shocked at the thread about the tabletop sale and comments made on it.  Wonder if somebody could sit down, have a think about this and work out a way forward in partnership.Please.

Sarah Felstead ● 3347d16 Comments

I've no doubt she is, and I've no doubt too that she is conscientious and dedicated to her brief.That doesn't alter the fact however that an administration so demonstrably dead set against proper community participation that it is prepared to hound "offenders" through the courts has invested considerable (and ongoing) financial resources into an area where any kind of investment at all would strike most as counter-intuitive - and this at a time of severe cutbacks being forced upon local authorities by central government.  Herein lies the paradox.It is somewhat telling that when a well-known Isleworth residents' leader recently inquired as to the names of these engagement officers she was told that this was classified information and couldn't be given out!  Presumably it was intended that they would "engage" from behind a screen?

Phil Andrews ● 3341d

Ayesha works with our group she is lovely

Simon Anderson ● 3341d

In the latest "Hounslow Matters" a little gem of information. Community engagement Team - Michelle Hutchinson 020 8583 2454  e-mail -  michelle.hutchinson@hounslow.gov.ukAyesha Hameed 020 8583 2405 -  e-mail - ayesha.hameed @hounslow.gov.uk"If you are running a community event, community project or have a community idea then please contact us".

Vanessa Smith ● 3341d

The answer - for what it's worth - is that the council and local councillors should let tenants and residents associations which are duly constituted get on with their business. If that means they fall out and fight like cats in a sack so be it. I can honestly say that we (when we were councillors) only ever attended such a meeting if we were invited for any reason, apart from that we were too occupied elsewhere to keep poking our noses in where they were not wanted.

Vanessa Smith ● 3343d

Phil, you cant even say your going to make a complaint about something the council did not do without having a complaint made against you by the council...

Simon Anderson ● 3345d

Phil you are absolutely correct however the Local Councillors and MP should support the group working for residents and be there if the group needs their help and that's it.

Simon Anderson ● 3346d

Vanessa is absolutely right.  Between us we have seen these issues from all angles, everybody doing their best and not always with the desired outcome.  But there is one, very basic lesson that remains constant throughout all of this and that is that the best people for running a residents' group are invariably the residents.  One would have thought that would have been axiomatic, and yet...

Phil Andrews ● 3346d

You are totally correct, the issue in the past on this estate was you had a resident group run by all Labour supporters/members who either refused or threw off residents who supported the ICG (me included). Then the URA was set up by residents from both NITA and IVYTAG which Phil over saw as a councilor at the time. For a while it was ok but it became clear the ex NITA members were not happy with the ex IVYTAG members being on the committee and they did not like another member who went to the Chronicle and attacked the URA so they threw him out. Then a new chair took over and the members agreed to allow Paul fisher to be a member to advise on matters (when he was not a Councillor) but a local Councillor took offence to this and had words with the chair at the time trying to dictate what they can and cant do but he refused to listen to them or be dictated too. Then 2yrs ago the URAI got a new Chair. IVYTAG was reformed last January and we were told by the lead member of the council you can have more than 1 group now and we got the full support from the community partnership unit at the council who came to the estate and spoke with the Langdale to work with us. And as i stated for the past year or so we have worked very closely with the Langdale and between us we have done some great work for the estate. We have left the URA alone and they have left us alone. But i am afraid political interference is trying to ruin this work by trying to stop residents working with us by sending out a letter stating residents should go to the URA if they have a problem (not us). Its surely up to the resident who they go to and politics should not be involved in either group. I only want to work with the council and continue to do the great work we are doing on the estate with the council because believe it or not there are some great employees of Hounslow Council (inc at the Langdale) who work very hard and want to work with us to improve this estate.

Simon Anderson ● 3346d

Sarah, I think Phil, Paul and myself have seen this from both sides. Being involved in several local issues that have arisen near me, has only served to show how intransigent some of the current crop of councillors are. Look at Brentford and the Wheelie bin saga for an example of how not to 'engage'. Who could believe that the Leader of the council would behave in such a childish, bullying way? There seems to be a desire of some councillors to be all seeing all knowing, and they are most definitely NOT. Being a representative for local people means talking and meeting with them, and above all listening to them, we even have the ridiculous situation of no-one saying who the hell these 'community engagement' officers are, could someone, anyone, please explain how you can engage with people who are anonymous. Then there is the conservation officer who will not meet local amenity groups as 'she has her own projects' - it is like something from the Mad Hatters tea party. What is so stupid is that local people, groups, residents associations etc. could save the council time and money if the council would actively work with them - but they seem resentful if us plebs have the audacity to ask or question any of their plans. Yes, they have policies, enough to paper a decent sized house, lots of fine words which unfortunately never morph into action, and leave a deep sense of resentment and frustration. Take the Church St. saga, the support given to a very tiny number of people against the vast majority who have to put up with the consequences, how bonkers and arrogant do you have to be to do something like that?

Vanessa Smith ● 3346d

I am very remote from Ivy Bridge but it seems the the estate has had a chequered life, from the staircases collapsing while being built, that stopped construction for about a year. To what seems, from postings on this board, that a Mafia type organisation is trying to take it over.

Bernard Allen ● 3346d

That was how it was post-2006 Sarah, for a time.  I agree with you that it is something we should continue to aspire to and to work towards.

Phil Andrews ● 3347d

The impression given is that the Local Labour Group form an unreasonable impenetrable wall but I thought the work at Ivybridge started under the old Labour Group and was sound ground for the Community group to add to.Whatever whatever whatever.  Please work together and take the best from everyone to make it wrk.Please.

Sarah Felstead ● 3347d

SimonThis is why politics should never become involved in tenant affairs. Whenever it does it invariably ends up undermining the good work done by residents.

Phil Andrews ● 3347d

Phil, i have to say that for the past year or so IVYTAG has done some great work on Ivybridge with the Council officers at the Langdale Center. But i do feel politics have now got involved hence why things have changed. We both know that certain individuals don't want IVYTAG because of those that run it and i feel they will do everything they can to get rid of us starting with ruining the great relationship we have had with the Council and local police. There are some great people in the council who want to help make a difference to the estate, especially at the Langdale Center and want to continue to work with us to do wonderful stuff on this estate and we want to work with them because its inportant we all work together to make Ivybridge the best estate in London but i do feel certain people are messing this all up which means the estate suffers which is a total shame.

Simon Anderson ● 3347d

I'm aware that it sounds comically naïve in retrospect, but I honestly believed when we left office in 2010 that we had demonstrated a better way when it came to engaging residents, and that our successors might have seen the benefit in continuing how we left off.When I assumed the Housing portfolio at LBH in 2006 I fought like hell just to establish a principle in our tenants' movement that all tenants should have an equal right of participation irrespective of whether or not they had a particular political affiliation.  Something which one might have thought would be so obvious to 99% of people that it barely needed stating was anything but obvious to those who for many years had enjoyed privileged status.When I eventually won the day I set about helping to implement the new model on Ivybridge, and the Labour activists there amongst the tenants movement seemed more than happy to get involved on that basis, and at least gave the outward appearance of understanding what it was that I was trying to achieve.  I even managed to upset a few of my more natural allies by making it a point of principle that we should not stoop to treating these people in the way that they had hitherto treated others.  I really wanted to make a completely fresh start, in a new spirit of co-operation and goodwill which I felt had a good chance of keeping hold even once we were gone.Sadly when Labour regained power in the borough in 2010 they reverted to the old ways with indecent haste, if anything with a vengeance.  Not only had they not learned a thing, but they apparently considered their re-election not as a second chance but as a mandate for rampant, full-blooded, unapologetic cronyism and exclusion.  A situation in which even a ward councillor is routinely lambasted by other councillors for engaging with active tenants working to make their estate a better place for all to live in.  Sadly that is where we are today.

Phil Andrews ● 3347d

Its such a shame to watch all of this going on over the last few years and what you have read or heard is just the tip of the iceberg Sarah

Paul Fisher ● 3347d