A forum for democracy?

Published: 18 February 2010

• I ATTENDED an area forum meeting for the Kentish Town ward in which there was £10,000 up for grabs. 

There was a suggestion of spending some of the money on planters which doubled up as cycle lock racks. I asked Liberal Democrat councillor Nick Russell, who chaired the meeting, whether residents who would be directly affected by this were going to be formally consulted. His answer was “this is the consultation”. 

My concern is how can half a dozen Kentish Town residents, who would most probably not have to look at the racks day-in-day out, make such decisions representing all residents in Kentish Town? 

I wouldn’t mind if they were democratically accountable to residents in Kentish Town, so who gave them this mandate?

Kentish Town had a democratically accountable neighbourhood partnership, a hub for local community organisations. One of its achievements was the community centre in Busby Place. 

We had clear aims, objectives and aspirations achieved through blood sweat and tears, and plenty of taxpayers’ cash. But the LibDem/Tory run council decided to scrap neighbourhood partnerships through starvation. They replaced 30-strong community-led representatives with area forums in which half a dozen people decide how to spend £10,000, that’s a total budget of £200,000 borough-wide, promoting area forums in which the chair makes decisions if the half dozen individuals are too perplexed to speak. Liberal Democrat- style community empowerment!
MERIC APAK
Kentish Town Labour Candidate Council Elections