Richmond Council to scrap 'outdated' area consultation meetings
12:37pm Wednesday 1st September 2010 in
Richmond Council’s executive is set to scrap “out of date” area consultation meetings (ACMs) in the wake of the launch of its new all-encompassing house-to-house survey.
On Monday, Richmond Council’s Conservative cabinet is set to approve the end of ACMs, first introduced in 1984, as it gives the go-ahead for a new All in One consultation, where every household will get to have its say on council priorities.
The executive will also scrap a £50,000 pilot to run ward committees - an initiative from the former Liberal Democrat administration to run new decision-making committees in three wards.
Councillor Pamela Fleming, cabinet member for community development, said: “When they were launched, area consultation meetings might have worked.
“Now they don’t fit with people’s lifestyles and are out of date.
“Genuinely listening to people is a priority for this administration but numbers at the area meetings have declined steeply to a point where we are simply not reaching enough people to be truly representative.
“The money they cost can be better spent on more effective ways of finding out what our residents want.
“In our All in One Survey we will be asking people how they would like to communicate and meet with us.
“In the same way, launching an expensive £50,000 pilot before we have found out how residents would like to talk to us could be a massive waste of money.”
In a report to cabinet, it was revealed 199 people turned up at the 13 ACMs held last autumn, an average of about 15 people per meeting.
Comments(12)
Phillip Taylor
says...
2:04pm Wed 1 Sep 10
.
Cllr Fleming has taken a brave step forward here and I hope we will have some proper consultation in the future rather than the ACM 'Liberal love-ins' of the past which got us nowhere.
Phillip Taylor
Phillip Taylor
says...
2:04pm Wed 1 Sep 10
.
Cllr Fleming has taken a brave step forward here and I hope we will have some proper consultation in the future rather than the ACM 'Liberal love-ins' of the past which got us nowhere.
Phillip Taylor
Phillip Taylor
says...
2:04pm Wed 1 Sep 10
.
Cllr Fleming has taken a brave step forward here and I hope we will have some proper consultation in the future rather than the ACM 'Liberal love-ins' of the past which got us nowhere.
Phillip Taylor
lucullus
says...
2:13pm Wed 1 Sep 10
But yes, good *brave* spending of badly needed cash there, indeed!
Phillip Taylor
says...
3:08pm Wed 1 Sep 10
.
We need a new type of consultation which has some meaning.
.
I do not understand what Lucullus means by trying 'a new method for running ward committees'. Surely the way forward is to film Council meetings in future and to have a comments site on the Richmond Council website for officials to reply!
.
We also need consultation on specific controversial issues rather than general chats which get nowhere.
.
Phillip Taylor
lucullus
says...
3:16pm Wed 1 Sep 10
My point stands though: why are we wasting £95,000 to ask the opinion of an electorate that has only just voted?
Surely the point of having councillors is that they represent their wards: councillors are meant to know what matters to their wards, and that can then be represented to the council itself.
Agreed, major issues should get deeper consultation, but neither the survey nor the old ACMs seem to provide this - perhaps we could have a local referendum on significant issues? God knows most of the borough probably has little interest in watching council proceedings on a regular basis!
Phillip Taylor
says...
4:04pm Wed 1 Sep 10
.
Yes, Councillors do represent their wards. But they also represent the borough and have an executive function to direct policy by the local authority so the role is not a singular one.
.
IN-DEPTH CONSULTATION
The purpose of an in-depth consultation is to find out more detailed opinions from the electorate since the May elections.
.
The May elections decided who the representative would be here and the general direction the Council would take in future. Those running the Council as elected members now need to find out a bit more detail hence the consultation. i do not think there is anything wrong with that approach!
.
LOCAL REFERENDUM
Our Tory MP, Zac Goldsmith, has suggested local referenda but he was discouraged by the previous Liberal administration who did not care for the idea.
.
Personally, I think it is a good idea to hold local referenda. It will involve participation but in a new way which caters for hectic life-styles and long working hours.
.
COUNCIL MEETINGS
I have no doubt at all that there will not be that many people who will want to watch Council meetings...but those who do should have the opportunity. My original suggestion was to film the more historic moments of the Council and I am sure that will be introduced eventually.
Phillip Taylor
lucullus
says...
9:07am Thu 2 Sep 10
So Zac is such a wet blanket that he just gives up on an idea after a little pooh-poohing? Really?
I agree, the occasional local referendum on a suitable, major issue might be a very good idea, and would be a good step to getting people more involved in their local area.
What would be better would be meaningful tax and spend powers for local authorities, but Labour didn't have the stomach for that and I doubt the new administration does, either.
And you still haven't answered my point: why are we spending £95k on a survey **which we know** is only likely to have a 5-10% response rate, and therefore has almost no chance of being more representative of people's wishes than the election result?
Twickenham Bob
says...
9:48am Thu 2 Sep 10
.
A 5% or 10 % response rate would be fantastic & give the council a really good data set to use. Mathematical modeling and statistics means you can draw accurate conclusions from a very very small sample - think of the polls before a general election where they sample 3,000 people out of the 60million who live in the UK.
.
Of course a lot depends on how the questions are framed but a good unbiased consultation will provide good results
lucullus
says...
9:54am Thu 2 Sep 10
When polling organisations sample 3,000 people, they don't write to everyone and then use the results they get back - they've gone through an extensive scientific exercise to choose those people. Comparing this to a posted survey to everyone is, frankly, crass in the extreme.
Phillip Taylor
says...
3:12pm Thu 2 Sep 10
.
The ACMs became a joke but as Twickenham Bob says, we do need a good unbiased consultation.
.
I am sure that is what we will get, and the result will be positive for the borough.
Phillip Taylor
More Where I Live stories
- Swift action keeps chiropractor in the clear
- Teddington Theatre Club welcomes home an old friend
- Valentine's wedding for sweet Richmond couple
- West End musicals come to Teddington tonight
- Builders in at long-derelict Twickenham site
- 7/7 survivor hopes for flower show success
- Pope will receive hand delivered copy of RTT
- BAFTA-lauded filmstar still sprightly at the age of 91
- Supergran to skydive for BHF
- Sheen Mount show sporting spirit
Most popular
Local Information
Enter your postcode, town or place name
lucullus says...
1:07pm Wed 1 Sep 10
The pilot looks cheaper than a £95,000 survey that the borough thinks will only get a 5-10% response rate anyway.
Is there, in fact, a reason why we need to ask every household what they want when they have, in theory, just told the council that by voting them in?