UPDATE 10/03/2008 Lewisham's Press Release
is now available «here»
First an apology. I had been under the impression which
I had reported here that the Sydenham Regeneration Meetings had morphed into
the new Sydenham Assembly. Regeneration Meetings may be dead but the Assembly
is something very different.
Let Councillor Chris Best introduce the concept in this
YouTube video ...
So how did this make out in practice?
This was the first Assembly anywhere in Lewisham. It is
a mark that the Council decided to start in Sydenham based on our strong
established record of community involvement.
Lewisham can certainly count the attendance as a
success. Around 200 people queued up to get into the Narborhood Centre, sign in
and collect their Danish pastries and coffee. Paul Jackson (Assembly
Programme Manager) explained to me that besides leafletting they had an
active policy of persuading key community members to bring their own
group.
Councillor Marion Nesbit, Town Centre
Manager Julie Sutch & 200 other crowd in ...
Which of course means we now need a bigger hall in
Sydenham! Cramming everbody in did delay the start. Chris Best introduced Paul
Jackson and Sam Dias (Sydenham Assembly Coordinator). They then handed
over to Leslie Silverlock to professionally manage the workshop
session.
Those that could find seats were in groups of four to
twelve around each table. We were presented with three sets of
questions:
What do you find good and bad about living in
Sydenham?
How can we make things better?
Who can make things happen?
The main issues that came out of this were:
Traffic/Congestion
Rubbish/Fly Tipping
Better mix of shops
Anti-social behaviour of the young/lack of youth
activities
All of this was dumped onto the paper cloths on the
tables to be taken away, transcribed and digested by Lewisham's Assembly
team.
What next?
Chris Best appealed for volunteers for an Assembly
Co-ordination Committee. The ten places were rapidly filled by self-nominees.
There was some discussion on the remit, powers and time requirements. There was
also discussion on whether the committee might be dominated by existing chairs
of interest groups or by people with a personal rather than mainstream
agenda.
The answers to those questions remained obscure (to me)
at the end of the meeting. I suspect there may be some post hoc refining. We
shall find out at the next Assembly in June.
Councillors Marion Nesbit (again) and
Chris Best pleased with the turnout
Was it a Success?
On community involvement then an emphatic YES. 200
people instead of 40/50 at the old Regeneration meetings.
On empowering the community and creating change?
Too early to say. We were at the first of the first.
There is a lot of learning to be done on all sides. However, I thought I would
add my own personal observations with those of a few people I spoke to after
the event.
The previous Regeneration Meeting format was clearly
constructed into:
Informing the community (report backs, guest speakers,
reports for Police, TCM etc)
Questioning, Consultation & Discussion
Councillors & Council Officers being
actioned
The end result was a resonably clear view of what
progress had (or had not) been made with our concerns from the previous
meeting. The reasons why (budget/law/TfL/...) things had not gone to plan. In
return the Councillors and officers got a feel for what was forgiveable and
what was not. It was an opportunity for individuals to feed in new ideas and
issues which could be instantly tested, accepted or rejected by those
present.
Whereas the Assembly gave no opportunity for the
dissemination on information on anything. It asked what were our concerns. None
were new and maybe the majority of participants were unaware of work
underway/planned/rejected which may have informed their responses.
The table cloth report back is to go to officers. I
wonder if it will be clearer or more representative than the views of our
elected Councillors who are supposed to distill and satisfy the needs of their
electorate. There is confusion about their role with a directly elected Mayor.
Does this not make it more confused?
Who do we to hold to account? Is it not the Councillors
who take the responsibility of getting things done for Sydenham and have to
stand up for the performance of the Council?
In three months time our problems will not have changed
much. We now have 200 people with expectations that they are going to be a
direct part of the stewardship of Lewisham council in Sydenham. Will their
expectations be met benefitting both themselves and Sydenham? Or will they
become disenchanted as the complexities of getting things done become apparent?
And what of the Co-ordination Committee? Is it right that this self-elected
group have jurisdiction in place of our elected representatives?
...
Just my first thoughts. Worries I hope will dissappear.
If you wish to contest, add or correct anything here please post your views in
the Sydenham Town Forum
«here»
