Council gives green light to historic plan to empower community
Last night at Borough Council, immediately after the Council Tax budget had been set at a 0% "increase" for the second year running, my Community Group colleague Councillor Shirley Fisher and I submitted the following Motion:"This council has by its actions this evening emphasised its determination to change the culture of the London Borough of Hounslow from one of a high-tax, bureaucracy-serving authority to one in which the interests and well-being of its residents are considered paramount."As a further means of emphasising that priority this council recognises and henceforth accepts as its core principle that it is the servant of the residents of the London Borough of Hounslow and not their master."This council undertakes to make every reasonable effort to engage with the community it serves, an early example of which being the well-attended and useful consultation event staged earlier during the budget-making process. It further undertakes to ascertain and to understand the wishes of the local community, and to uphold them and implement them as a matter of policy."This council undertakes to extend its support and assistance to all independent community organisations which can reasonably demonstrate that they represent the aspirations of the community they serve, without seeking to influence or direct those organisations in any way other than with their consent."Furthermore this council accepts as a fundamental principle the equal right of all residents to participate in all fields of community and civic activity, and deplores any action which might give office or other advantage to any on grounds of political preference or affiliation."This council therefore instructs the Executive member responsible for improving community engagement following Annual Borough Council in May 2008 to investigate and thereafter to implement measures through which the consultative and participatory processes may be improved, and all officers to recognise and to actively assist in the delivery of this policy."The purpose of this Motion was to give the Community Group's commitment to empowering residents pride of place alongside low taxation in the local authority's list of priorities.I introduced the Motion thus:"'Witness at all times, and when necessary use words'"These were the words of St. Francis of Assisi. By a happy coincidence, this has always been my policy at meetings of Borough Council. There are some who feel compelled to issue forth at every opportunity available to them, even when what they have to say has already been said by somebody else. When the Community Group speaks at this Chamber, it is because we have something to say. "When I think back over fourteen years to the formation of the Community Group, who would have dared to hope that, one day, that the thing we strove for, the thing we existed for, would be delivered in the Council Chamber and on the brink of becoming Council policy?"In 1998, when I first became a member of this Council, this Motion would not even have found a seconder."Our founder Tom Reader must be looking down at this place tonight, and smiling."This Motion is what the Community Group brings to the coalition, and to this administration."In recent times we in the Community Group have taken a lot of stick. For helping to drive through two low-tax budgets we have been accused of rolling over for our coalition partners."We have beend described as ersatz Conservatives."We have been publicly accused, by one former councillor who was here earlier this evening, of taking financial payments in exchange for our vote - an accusation which, incidentally, has found no detractors from his colleagues here in this Council Chamber."I have been described by one current councillor, who is not here tonight, as being 'a Tory rent boy' - whatever that means."We have been charged with being weak, being naïve, being a pushover – all this from the same people who, at the same time, would have others believe that we entered this Council with sinister intent and with a cunning masterplan of our own."Well, this is the masterplan, here before you tonight. It is called empowering our community."Some will instinctively shun this, such is their nature."Others will pour scorn, others still will fail to see its significance. 'What has this got to do with the budget', they will ask? 'What has this got to do with money? Isn’t this just a lot of words, a lot of rhetoric?'."Well no, it’s not about money. Because important though money is, local government is about people. All of us here, members and officers, are here to serve people."It is clear, from the conduct of some, that this is something which has long been lost sight of."What this Motion is, quite simply, is a blueprint for a new mentality, a new way of approaching our relationship with those we serve."It is the mentality which I brought to the Hounslow Homes Management Review shortly after I assumed my Executive portfolio, a mentality which found ranged against it a fierce and unholy alliance of all those whose instinct it is to dictate, to control, to dominate. A mentality which I overcame then and, with your help by carrying this motion, will overcome again now."Rather than just being a lot of words, rather than being mere rhetoric, this is an enabling Motion."It sends the message out to our residents, to our communities, that they are back in control."This Motion isn’t just a stand-alone message, it is a Statement of Intent."If this Motion is passed, the old days of the insular, self-serving bureaucracy will be laid completely and finally to rest within the lifetime of this administration. "That motivates me, and our Group, and the thousands of people who support our Group out there in the community far more than budget setting does. "You are being offered the opportunity tonight to make history – please support this Motion."Being late in the evening, the biggest challenge the Motion faced was to overcome the understandable desire of members present to wrap the meeting up and go home. Notwithstanding this, several councillors spoke to it.First into the fray was Councillor Ruth Cadbury, batting for New Labour. Ruth poured scorn and clearly failed to see, or at least to acknowledge, its significance. Clearly it had nothing to do the budget. Wasn't this just a lot of words, a lot of rhetoric?Not unreasonably, Ruth attempted to defend the old administration's track record on community engagement. Just as I knew she would, she pointed quickly to the fact that the old regime had actively helped residents' groups to secure grant funding, demonstrating at once the mentality which believes that the whole concept of community engagement revolves around money. Other members, from other parties, were on top of the game, and it didn't need me to point out that, inadvertently, she had actually drawn attention to what was in fact the crux of the issue. It has always been the strings attached to grant funding which has enabled New Labour to control our residents' groups, and to exclude others who are not of their number.She commented further that the Motion was the result of my alleged "obsession" with long-standing residents' issues in Isleworth, intimating that these were of little consequence. The obvious fact - the proverbial elephant in the living room - which is invariably missed by New Labour and others who think similarly is that the trifling matter of New Labour's historic control-freakery on the estates of Isleworth has directly resulted in its removal from power in Hounslow for the first time in 35 years and its replacement by the new coalition administration. No amount of denial takes them away from this fact. By denying this, they are failing to acknowledge the actual root cause of their demise. And as somebody said last night, those who refuse to learn from their mistakes are doomed to repeat them.She closed her uncharacteristically short contribution with the historic words "We don't care about Isleworth!"Notwithstanding her "what's all the fuss about?" position, she and her New Labour colleagues could not bring themselves to support the Motion, and (again uncharacteristically) urged that discussion on it be curtailed due to the time.However the Motion received the support of all Conservative, Liberal Democrat, West Area Independent and Chiswick Independent councillors in the Chamber (Councillor John Connelly of the Hounslow Independent Alliance was not present at the meeting).For the Lib Dems, Councillor Andrew Dakers enthused that the concept should embrace not just traditional residents' groups but also the budget making process, and other worthy initiatives such as the visioning project for Brentford High Street in which he, along with some other councillors (including Labour members), has been heavily involved. Had I had the opportunity to sum up at that late hour, I would have called upon the words of Mao Tse-Tung by means of an endorsement of his fine contribution - "let a thousand flowers bloom!"It was an interesting debate, supported with surprising enthusiasm by many including at least two maiden speeches in spite of the lateness of its introduction, and one which clearly rattled those who still hold dear to the old ways and who have learned absolutely nothing from their consequent rejection by the voters.The Motion has been passed, but the meat has still to be put on the bones. Watch this space.
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