Well, there is Brentford Today & TV #Debate not Hate# - which is very on the ball and does cover a wide area of the borough. But - one of the things about getting older is the remembrance of days past - when local reporters turned up at council meetings and waylaid councillors or even 'phoned them at home, and people knew who councillors were, and even went along to council meetings to hear for themselves. All gone along with the Dodo, everything is sanitised and there is precious little discourse. Also the council had an active and in touch Press Office - that seems to have been replaced by a 'Comms' section , problem being as I remarked to a senior council office last week, that they do not seem to 'comm' much at all outside of Hounslow House, and it now seems the majority of the people who were there now work from home. There are just some jobs you cannot do from the end of a laptop. Personally I like Guy Lambert's poodle through his week, which is a damned site more than we get from most of them, and he answers e-mails and deals with them himself instead of just doing the 'Postman Pat' - just forwarding correspondence from constituent to officer, and not following anything up. But similarly how many people buy and read a daily newspaper now? I do, but that is another thing that younger people don't do, and we all know how social media warps things, and that is widely read. Really, you get what you deserve, so to change things get involved locally, ask the awkward questions and stand your ground.
Vanessa Smith ● 380d