Involving People In Government

Cllr Mitch Wicking is first West Somerset Councillor to use blog technology to provide a better service to constituents

2008-03-01T00:48:00.000-08:00

West Somerset Councillor Mitch Wicking (Independent) contacted me yesterday (29th February 2008) to announce that he has implemented a blog to improve communication between himself and his constituents in West Somerset.

He has also instituted a blog to enable public discussion about his proposal with Peter Jaques and Ruth Gavenlock to use the old West Somerset Council main reception and meeting area as a West Somerset Cultural Centre for the district (West Somerset Free Press 29th February 2008).

This is a great step forward for West Somerset and shows that there is at least some willingness amongst West Somerset Councillors for a greater interaction with their public.

As I said in my recent article bemoaning the lack of use by West Somerset Councillors of this new method of communication:

It costs nothing to set up a Blogger blog.
It enables councillors to ask the opinions of their constituents on locally important matters and permits a two way discussion.
It enables Local Government Councillors to share in local constituents expertise and ideas and to automatically share the results of their discussion with all their other constituents.
It is better than having them turn up and try to speak in a nasty little Council room, or standing freezing outside as happened recently over the issue of a swimming pool closure in West Somerset.
On a blog, councillors can share in the closely and intelligently argued comments of constituents.
Discussion on a blog is vastly more useful to everybody than a few minutes nervously making a one way speech standing in front of a full Council Meeting.

However, a willingness by local councillors to more openly discuss matters with their constituents must be matched by a willingness of the public to make the effort to get involved.

The list of local people who could benefit from a West Somerset cultural centre is very long indeed but includes the following:

Artists
Crafters
Musicians
Exhibitors
Students
Tourists
Young people
Retired people
Small businesses
Local people who just want a friendly place to meet and chat

It is vital that these people and others who would benefit from these blog communication facilities show their support by using them.

Bye for now

Rob

Lack of UK Councillor blogs prevents constituent feedback and promotes anger and frustration.

2008-02-18T02:31:00.000-08:00

According to my search engine query 'west somerset councillor blog', not one West Somerset Councillor has a blog. (See update from Cllr Mitch Wicking).

(I went through the search results for page after page. There were councillors from elsewhere with blogs, just not West Somerset. If I have missed one, I will be happy to put an entry sending people to it from my regeneration blog. Let me know and it will be done.)

It costs nothing to set up a blogger blog. Nothing! That is zero!

It enables councillors to ask the opinions of their constituents on locally important matters and permits a two way discussion. It enables Local Government Councillors to share in local constituents expertise and ideas and to automatically share the results of their discussion with all their other constituents.

It is better than having them turn up and try to speak in a nasty little Council room, or standing freezing outside as happened recently over the issue of a swimming pool closure in West Somerset.

On a blog, councillors can share in the closely and intelligently argued comments of constituents.

This is vastly more useful to everybody than a few minutes nervously making a one way speech standing in front of a full Council Meeting.

Read more about the need for Local Government Councillors to use free blogs such as Blogger to talk with their constituents and the consequences if they don't.

Regeneration Discussion Forums

2008-01-08T07:23:00.000-08:00

Today I found a search term that successfully identified where online interactive local discussions about regeneration were taking place. After several unsuccessful attempts, the search term that seemed to work best was 'regeneration discussion forums'.

It seems that the word 'discussion' makes all the difference; and how pleasing it was to see that other Councils have already taken the step to providing public interactive discussion on regeneration. Also, there are plenty of private individuals who have also jumped in and managed to get people to use their regeneration discussion forums.

I've put some details about research so far into regeneration search terms on my Exmoor and West Somerset regeneration blog.

Bye for now

Rob

Community forums for Exmoor and West Somerset

2008-01-07T07:45:00.000-08:00

Rod over at the Catalyst Social Business Blog suggested two community forum resources which look good for helping to build local communities.

Netmums is a national UK organisation whose mission is:

To help families have fun with and enjoy their children;
To bring people together to make our local communities more lively and friendly;
To make it unnecessary for any mum to feel lonely or isolated;
To make sure every parent has access to all of the local support and advice available - from other mothers and from professionals;
To give mothers a voice, locally and nationally, on issues of importance to them.

They have over 345, 000 members throughout the UK. It is a members only site but membership is free and immediate and it's open to dads as well as mums. The local site for Exmoor and West Somerset based on my post code of TA24 is Somerset. I signed up and it looked packed with information for people with kids.

UKVillages says about itself:

Launched in April 2000, http://www.UKVillages.co.uk is now widely recognised as the national and local community website for the UK, providing a fully interactive home page and tailored portal for over 31756 villages, towns, cities and suburbs in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. One of the fundamental features of each of the UKVillages.co.uk home pages is that every community shares information with its neighbours - we strongly believe that no community exists in isolation, and the structure of UKVillages reflects this. UKVillages offers local people a means of sharing information and promoting their community and its activities and services to a wider audience, it allows tourists and visitors the chance to research trips and holidays around the UK, and gives businesses and organisations a unique opportunity to show how they support, and contribute to community life, at the same time as reinforcing their brand and key marketing messages. Independently owned and managed, The Sunday Times chose UKVillages as one of the Top 50 British Brands on-line.

There is a snazzy map facility you can click on to see local communities. Close to me are West Luccombe, Stickle Path and Five Bells near Watchet.

Both look as if they would merit further examination.

Your comments or suggestions are welcomed

Bye for now

Rob

Encouraging public involvement in Local Authority decision-making

2008-01-04T07:57:00.000-08:00

Keith Ross, Leader, West Somerset Council, made some interesting points in his response to my post entitled UK Parliament starts to talk to the people with new online consultation site that I decided to reply to his points with a separate post.

I have just been viewing your blog. It is interesting to note the lack of reaction. I would like to agree that communication is the way forward to develop all aspects of the District.

It has always puzzled me that so many people are 'lurkers' as they say in the discussion boards business. But it is a fact that a lot of people are shy and would prefer to look on for some time before coming forward publicly.

One way of successfully getting people involved that I have observed on a number of occasions is simply to keep asking. After a while, people give in and speak up. Often, when they do, it is surprising how much they have to contribute.

However, I'm afraid that getting more people involved is a long haul task and not a quick fix. It is something that we need to be pushing at constantly. I firmly believe that the more people we have on board and engaged in the public debate, the more people will join in and enhance the public debate.

We can all talk about the benefits of talking but frequently we talk about talks. We need points to action.

As far as talking and not acting is concerned, I'm a firm believer in action. Indeed, many really useful things can be achieved quickly and with minimum fuss and cost. Your good work in Dulverton mentioned in your comment is a good example of 'getting the ball rolling'.

Another might be my Christmas 'Goodwill on the Web' initiative that involved people promoting regeneration by linking up with other local web sites as published in my Christmas Free Press letter.

I also believe that medium term plans and long term plans should grow out of 'getting the ball rolling' quick-result short term plans so there is a constant flow of regenerative actions moving our community forward. All too often, long term, capital intensive plans seem disconnected from short term quick-fix plans.

The Council is refreshing priorities as part of the process of developing a new corporate plan, medium term financial strategy and 3 year rolling budget. Community priorities as developed by the West Somerset Strategic Partnership are fully taken on board in the process. My concern, and probably that of most residents, is that the Community Strategy possibly does not represent the majority of the community. That is something we can all talk about ...

As far as the Community Strategy is concerned, unless there is a system to engage the public in open debate, I find it hard to see it can properly be called a 'Community' Strategy.

A better title would be Councillors' Strategy or an Officers' Strategy. Surely, a Community Strategy starts with a proper communication system that not only enables but initiates community dialogue. In West Somerset, we simply do not have any such a system.

Interestingly, I don't think it matters too much whether it is a 'Council System' or a privately managed system. Indeed there could be many linked systems. (I'm assuming they would be largely Internet based but with a real world footprint too).

There is a lot to be said for organic growth of public discussion systems out of the community. What is absolutely vital is for the Council to throw its weight behind all community developed systems that emerge and for Councillors to be willing to engage in them.

Hopefully, your pioneering willingness to engage in considered public on-line debate will encourage others to follow.

Interestingly, a multiplicity of connected local discussion systems, instead of a single Council based system, may actually contribute significantly to the regeneration of our local economy because of it's encouragement of a diversity of local Internet information based businesses.

Maximising systems provision within the local community would be beneficial in maximising the 'buzz' which would attract more people to participate which would then bring more information into the mix.

If we in West Somerset are talking online about rural regeneration, you can be sure that there are 'lurkers' from other areas listening. If they like what they hear, they may decide to come and join us and contribute to the 'buzz'.

Using the example of your wife's work, talking about the 32 mile moorland hike online attracts more people who then talk about and promote the 32 mile hike themselves, continuing the good work done in the past to promote this excellent institution.

but how do we involve more people in the process?

Traditionally, it is probably fair to say that the good people of West Somerset and Exmoor rather preferred to keep things 'close to their chests'.

Today, much of the work that needs to be done to regenerate this area is about changing these old ways because they simply do not work in the modern world.

Sophisticated discussions systems can be put in place but they are of no value what-so-ever unless we can persuade people to use them.

Ultimately, the success or failure of the Exmoor and West Somerset area depends on the abilities and energies of the people who live and work here and their willingness to use modern systems to work closely together to achieve our common aims.

I actually believe that recent unpalatable events locally have marked a watershed for Exmoor and West Somerset and that, with goodwill, 2008 will be a very good and productive year.

In line with my earlier point about encouraging people to get involved in policy debate, I actively welcome all comments which can be submitted below. Neither I nor any other individual can have all the answers and it is only through a process of discussion that we can find the optimum policies and plans to improve our local area.

Bye for now

Rob

Questions for the Prime Minister Gordon Brown 2007

2007-10-08T04:50:00.000-07:00

If Prime Minister Gordon Brown believes in consulting with the people, why doesn't he introduce a system of e-democratic forums in 2007 in which the ordinary people of the UK can forensically examine UK policy and make suggestions.

What is he afraid of?

More on e-democracy and Prime Minister's Question Time

Gordon Brown must let the people speak through e-democracy not a snap General Election

2007-10-05T06:06:00.000-07:00

Gordon Brown must let the people speak through e-democracy not a snap General Election this Autumn 2007.

The time has come to return to a genuine democracy where everybody in our society is able to take part in the debate.

Public debate in the UK today is shared between media, political parties and lobbies with the odd snap General Election and is largely meaningless. The so called National Debate is self serving and superficial.

Governmental consultation systems are in the dark ages. They are hierarchical, bureaucratic and lack contributer audit or feedback.

Yet we have the information technology to enable the best thinkers in our UK population to voluntarily take part in and forensically analyse policy options locally and nationally.

We should use this collective intelligence of the people and use it fast.

Releasing the thinking power of the people could produce workable answers to important questions such as:

rural regeneration
affordable housing and
does more money from longer working hours make people happier.

And when the decision is taken to adopt a policy, the people will already be in favour of the changes because they will have genuinely contributed to deciding it.

Gordon Brown or whoever is eventually Prime Minister this Autumn 2007 must focus on releasing the energy and wisdom of the ordinary and extraordinary people of Britain to make better decisions for our country.

Call it e-democracy or the people's wiki, it doesn't matter. It should be done and done now.

If it is not done then the people are entitled to ask the question.

Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Sir Menzies Campbell - why are you afraid of the considered opinions of the British public?

Bye for now

Rob

Local Government e-democratic forums success in Swindon

2007-05-31T01:51:00.000-07:00

For a great example of how e-democracy can grow organically, pop over to talkswindon.org.

According to Geoff, the chatty person behind TalkSwindon:

A few months of networking and getting to know local councillors has paid dividends. The forum is thriving, expanding at a sensible pace and good, worthwhile results are being achieved through interaction of councillors and members of the public. Swindon Borough Council has been using Talkswindon as part of its public consultation for the restructuring of the Residents Parking Scheme for the last 10 months.

Perhaps, private initiatives will move the e-democracy agenda on faster than any Government intervention.

Bye for now

Rob

UK Parliament starts to talk to the people with new online consultation site

2007-05-29T01:24:00.000-07:00

The UK Government is at long last inviting opinions, information and comment from all the people, not just the great and good.

Consultation is limited to specific issues, driven by particular Parliamentary committees who are consulting for a limited time but it is a start.

The next step is to get people to participate in the forums.

http://forums.parliament.uk

The two consultations that are currently available are:

Medical Care for the Armed Forces - Defence Committee

Local Government and the Draft Climate Change Bill - Joint Committee on the Draft Climate Change Bill

Have you first hand experience of health care in the armed forces? The Defence Committee would like to hear from you.

How should local government be involved in the drive to reduce carbon emissions and combat climate change? The Joint Committee on the draft Climate Change Bill would like to hear from you.

Bye for now

Rob

(Rob Hopcott - online author)

Tough on bad government, tough on the causes of bad government

2007-05-10T04:07:00.000-07:00

Jack Straw, campaign manager for Gordon Brown's imminent challenge for the position of UK Prime Minister, has been arguing the case for a written constitution.

What a great e-democracy opportunity to involve the public in an issue which many, who are concerned with justice, better government and human rights, feel strongly about.

Jack Straw and Gordon Brown should set up these forums at once so that we can discuss the e-democratic rights we actually want as opposed to the complicated morass of restrictions that even lawyers have great difficulty understanding these days, let alone the people.

Submitting a proposed written constitution to forensic public discussion would show that Straw and Brown actually care about finding real solutions to real problems of government.

Let’s get tough on the causes of bad government and start by genuinely talking to the people.

What do you think?

Rob

Independent Councillors win Local Government control in West Somerset UK Local Government elections

2007-05-04T07:51:00.000-07:00

The community of West Somerset, UK has propelled 16 new Independent Councillors into power, overthrowing a longstanding Tory majority.

It is now vital that they continue to make full use of the energy and e-democratic collective intelligence of the West Somerset community to overcome the policy challenges that have bedevilled West Somerset and Exmoor for too long.

more

Tough on taxation and tough on the causes of taxation

2007-05-01T01:59:00.000-07:00

If ordinary people were to have more of a say in their government, I wonder what they would say about taxation?

Possibly, the Tax Monster and it's closely associated Spending Monster would receive a very short shrift.

Certainly, there are enormous human and financial costs in the collection of taxes and administration of taxes and few must doubt the wisdom of how the vast sums are spent.

Financial costs are not only limited to burgeoning Governmental Departments but also include the time spent by individuals coping with the tax system, accountants who navigate the legal complexities and the politicians that revise and promulgate them.

The human cost must also be included to take into account the unpleasantness and fear engendered in individuals due to the draconian nature of tax systems. The Tax Man can easily make the ordinary person's life hell.

The obvious solution to all this, of course, is to identify alternative ways of achieving the benefits currently provided by Governmental expenditure so there would be less need to collect taxes and administer spending.

It's a similar argument to the problem of crime where reducing causes such as drug addiction are probably the only realistic way to reduce recidivism in many cases.

It's easy to forget that taxes are only a means to an end. Achieving these ends by other means could enable the emasculation of the Tax and Spending Monsters at a stroke and save a whole lot of unpleasant aggro.

Doubtless this is a Holy Grail solution that must have been pondered by many a think tank or policy advisor. If the answer was easy, it would probably already have been identified.

Perhaps this thorny issue is a prime candidate for the collective intelligence that can be brought to bear by the use of e-democracy.

Involving people in their own government may yet provide solutions to these great problems of State and, ultimately, make the politician's and all our lives much easier.

Instead of debating e-democracy, we should get on and use it and start reaping the practical benefits.

What do you think?

Rob

Kingston upon Thames proves e-petitions and e-democracy work

2007-04-26T07:26:00.000-07:00

In my article about getting replies from Local Government Councillors, I referred to my number Downing Street petition which asks that paid Local Government Councillors should be required to answer reasonable policy debate communications.

Much as I feel strongly about this issue, the liberal in me has sometimes wondered if I was asking for the moon.

It was with great pleasure, therefore, that I saw the excellent local e-petitions work being done by The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames

Furthermore, my difficulties in getting a reply from Councils and Councillors is also not unique which is comforting.

However, I have to confess I'm beginning to wonder if many people are bothered about the issue as the Downing Street petition is not getting the huge support I'd hoped for.

Another leading Local Authority is Sunderland's 'Blueprint for the Future' which has won Digital Challenge, a national competition to find new ways of tackling social exclusion.

Perhaps e-democracy and local inclusion will arrive eventually.

Perhaps more people will make the effort to sign my e-petition.

Bye for now

Rob

The New Local Government Network will discuss Building a new contract between citizen and state? But will citizens be allowed into the debate?

2007-04-26T01:02:00.000-07:00

In my Google alerts today, I received exciting details about The New Local Government Network think tank who are running an NLGN lecture at the end of May 2007.

The subject of the NLGN lecture is

'After Devolution: Building a new contract between citizen and state
Keynote Speaker: Rt Hon Hazel Blears MP (6:00 pm)'

Exciting stuff, I thought, I want to get involved. It's my chance to help frame the future of local democracy and e-democracy!

Looking further, I see that

'Places at the event are free [but] operated on a first come first serve basis.'

That's great! All are welcome, providing I get in quickly. It looks truly democratic.

However, sadly I won't be going because the event appears to be taking place in London which is a long way away from rural Somerset, UK. No doubt Rt Hon Hazel Blears MP and many others who attend on behalf the great and good will have their expenses paid. Not me. I'm just a poor member of the public.

However, not to be deterred and still wanting to get involved, I looked around on the NLGN web site for a place to comment and participate. Unfortunately, apart from contact email addresses, there appeared nowhere for me to comment on policy or anything else.

On their web site they say about the NLGN Policy and research Unit

One purpose of our research is to discover and disseminate best practises across the range of challenges faced by local public services and their political leaders. NLGN research team apply this practical knowledge to develop solutions to the key public policy challenges of today and tomorrow.

Surely 'best practise' in the Internet age must involve some form of interface with the concerned public? Yet there appears to be none.

Looking further into the site, I came across information about previous research completed by the NLGN. Yippee, I thought, now I can find out all the great stuff they have discovered from their research. Whoops no, apart from a few articles, I've got to buy books. Another dead end for me, as I have no budget for book buying. If I want to know something these days, I look for it on the Internet. Most things are there, if you look hard enough.

According to the 'About NLGN' section of the web site

NLGN’s work has been recognised by the Prime Minister:

“Modernising local government is vital to the future of our communities. NLGN contributes innovative and thought-provoking ideas to the debate on how we achieve that.” Rt. Hon. Tony Blair MP

So why, I thought, aren't the NLGN using a Wiki or a Corporate Blog? These tools are becoming essential to a growing number of corporate organisations internationally.

A very nice description of corporate blogs and how they can help thinking and decision taking can be found at wikipedia.org

Whether tapping into the collective intelligence of the public will produce better results than the traditional cloistered and conference approach has yet to be proved.

However, for an 'innovative' and 'thought-provoking' corporation, I would have thought a blog or wiki would be a small step to genuinely opening up the issues to public debate.

If 'Building a new contract between citizen and state' is genuinely important to Rt Hon Hazel Blears MP and the NLGN, shouldn't the citizens get a chance to talk about the contract before they sign it?

Bye for now

Rob

E-petitions could undermine democracy, MPs warned

2007-04-18T09:29:00.000-07:00

It's worrying that some people, including MPs, seem to be quickly moving to positions of pro e-petitions or anti e-petitions before anybody really understands what exactly is being discussed.

It would be even more worrying if e-petitions were equated to e-democracy when the reality is probably that e-petitions are merely a tool or sub system to quantify the extent of a particular view within an overall e-democratic system.

At the moment we are, sort of, at the feasability stage. We know that the Internet offers enormous possibilities to enable much more public participation which could lead to better policy decisions.

We also know, because certain e-petitions have already proved popular, that the public are interested in policy discussion and this is a valuable step forward.

We know too that some people enjoy being silly and subverting systems and that any e-democratic system must include effective moderation sub systems.

But perhaps now we need to start defining exactly what we want the system to do so the system we create is robust and achieves all it's objectives.

For example, what are the fundamental democratic principles we are trying to service with the e-democracy system?

Here we have an opportunity because e-democracy is about discussion so why not use e-democracy to discuss the fundamental principles?

Why not have a Downing Street e-democracy Magna Carta Wiki to discuss first principles?

Could the first principle to discuss be something like:

'Every citizen has the right to contribute constructively to policy decisions about how the society in which they live is organised.'

To me, this principle seems obvious. To the MP that suggested Hitler would have loved e-petitions, it could be heresy. It would be nice if he would explain 'in this place' whether he would support this fundamental Magna Carta e-democracy principle and, if not, why not.

It would also be nice if the mandarins in the Civil Service would step in and tidy up the drafting of the principle. Perhaps, using their specialist expertise, they could suggest principles arising out of this principle and so on.

Then, I'm sure lawyers, philosophers, engineers and many others might also have something to add from their own points of view and specialisms.

No doubt, as the argument structures got more complicated, the computer experts would probably also start coming up with iterative computing solutions to keep the system going and growing efficiently. Indeed, they would probably need their own sub forum to discuss these specialist issues.

In conclusion, if we focus on defining the fundamental principles of e-democracy and ensure all can be included in the debate, I believe the necessary supporting systems will follow naturally.

I can't wait to see it all happening and get involved in the debate.

Rob

E-democracy, e-Government and ee by gum!

2007-04-14T07:09:00.000-07:00

Whilst looking around the Internet on the subject of 'involving people in Government', I've discovered some wonderful resources which I will document here, as I work my way through them.

Today I joined the UK and Ireland E-Democracy Exchange.

In my first post in this group, I mentioned my Downing Street petition requiring local elected representatives to reply to reasonable policy discussion from constituents.

In my first post to the UK and Ireland E-Democracy Exchange, I documented the reasoning behind my petition to the Prime Minister which was as follows:

How wonderful it is to read your posts about e-democracy! As a newcomer here, I feel, after many years, I've just 'come in from the cold'.

So much wisdom has already been spoken above that I hardly dare to add my half pence. However:

On the one hand, there are so many opportunities, ideas and expertise amongst the general public which could be harnessed to make our communities better places to live in.

On the other hand, we have Governmental administrative bureacracies probably well motivated but which suffer from all the usual bureacratic inertia problems, many of which are already well documented here.

So individual efforts fail because they don't have the resources and funding and, often, aren't supported by the bureacracies holding power.

Governmental bureacracies fail, despite having enormous sums of money to spend, because the projects they understand are often bricks and morter projects not the badly needed 'soft' community based projects that will actually work. (For example building a new drug rehab unit is more attractive than funding salaries of home based rehab professionals.) They often also don't have the support of the local communities who readily see the solution as not working.

The official UK Governmental consultation system is a joke. It's a one way street and allows no debate enabling both sides to learn, re-evaluate and further comment. There are no audit trails allowing the public to prove forensically that suggestions have been taken seriously or discounted with reason.

The cost of failure to all of us is huge. Criminal recidivism remains high and local communities in desperate need of regeneration get new Council offices costing millions.

The problem is systemic. The system just doesn't work as well as it needs to.

The solution is obvious and lies with the "neighbourhood forums" described by Steven Clift above.

But how do we make it all happen when official "neighbourhood forums" may be regarded by Governmental bureacracies as perhaps tantamount to a turkey voting for Christmas?

Perhaps the answer lies in creating a single, very powerful, lever that will incentivise those in power to bring the system in.

Much as I hate yet more laws, the lever may be a simple, new but very powerful law.

The law would:

'require paid elected Local Government representatives to reply and debate constituents policy proposals'.

This law wouldn't need to require public official forums to be set up but locally elected representatives would quickly find it was the most efficient way to deal with the policy issues raised, ie. where matters have been raised before and all arguments already tested.

Parliament understands about setting up new laws. They think it's a really good thing so they would go for it.

Government Departments would see it as being a problem for the local politicians so would not hinder it.

The public would support the law because they would see themselves as getting better customer service.

MPs would not mind voting for it because they would (initially) be excluded.

The new law is even founded in common sense. My ol' pappy always told me it was rude not to reply to a question. Yet, throughout the UK, many Local Government Councillors are steadfastly refusing to reply to communications from their constituents on policy issues. ( I speak from bitter personal local experience and I can't believe my Local District Councillors are the only one's in the country behaving in this way).

So, full of enthusiasm, I have set up a petition on the 10 Downing Street site to try to get the ball rolling.

If you would like to sign this petition, simply google 'Downing Street petition councillors' or follow the link through my profile blog.

Thanks for reading this (rather long) post from a new comer. I await your comments with trepidation.

More soon

Bye for now

Rob

P.S. They were kind to me. Read their comments on the subject of e-democracy
.

Local Authority Councillors must reply to Constituents Communications by Law in 10 Downing Street petition

2007-04-13T06:44:00.000-07:00

Completely fed up with Local Government Councillors who consistently do not reply to my communications, in desperation, I have set up a petition on the 10 Downing Street site to try to get something done about this ridiculous state of affairs.

Please support the petition and help make elected representatives more accountable to reasonable debate.

The petition I submitted requests the Prime Minister to:

Require elected paid Local Government Councillors to reply to reasonable communications from constituents

The supporting narrative is as follows:

Elected local Councillors frequently do not reply to reasonable communications from their constituents regarding questions of Local Government policy.

A system of Official Public Local Government Forums must be set up to enable Local Authority constituents to publicly question Local Government Councillor’s about their policies and in which the Councillors will be legally required to make a written and reasoned reply.

A parallel system of email addresses must be set up for communications of a private nature to which there will also be a legal requirement for the Local Government Councillors to reply.

By opening questions of Local Government policy to forensic local public discussion, the quality of decisions made by Local Government Councillors on behalf of their constituents will be improved.

The individual quality of Local Government Councillors will be better audited by constituents enabling better voting decisions to be made during Local Elections.

Anger and frustration constituents feel when they spend time researching issues and composing carefully written communications to which they do not receive any reply will be eliminated.

It’s not just me that’s fed up with the ruling Tories in my Local Government Authority. Recently, the Chairman of the local Chamber of Commerce complained in a letter to the local newspaper that he hadn’t received replies to round robin policy questions he’d put to ruling party Conservative Councillors.

The exception he said was one Councillor who wrote to say that they weren’t allowed to reply to his question because they were on a committee that made it against the rules for them to reply to his questions.

Please sign this petition. It is the single best way to make paid Local Government Councillors throughout the UK to be accountable for the policies they support.

Bye for now

Rob

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2007-04-01T10:50:00.000-07:00

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