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I'm a councillor in the London Borough of Wandsworth; this blog mainly covers that, sometimes general politics and policy and occasionally anything else that takes my fancy.
Category Archives: partnership
The Big challenge – join in or miss out
The following is the text of an article I wrote for the Local Government Information Unit‘s C’llr magazine as part of their Big Society edition: The Big Society’s greatest strength is that no-one actually knows what it is, possibly not even the Prime Minister whose stroke of genius was to create a concept so vague,
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Environment, Culture and Community Safety OSC
Yet more democracy in action last night at the Environment, Culture and Community Safety OSC. I was there for the community safety and town centre parts of the meeting which come under my portfolio. In many ways it was a relatively straightforward meeting. There wasn’t anything particularly contentious on the agenda, although as the deficit
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Also posted in Community Safety, Politics, Wandsworth
Tagged CCTV, domestic violence, failure, Leverson Street, Neighbourhood Watch, OSC, police, policing, town centres, white paper
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A Philistine politician and the arts
I accidentally found myself at the opening night of Battersea Art Centre’s One-on-One Festival. The festival is clearly going to be a success, BAC was full to the extent that the staff and volunteers there were stretched and the festival programme looks fascinating, a series of performances for an audience of one, and while I
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Operation Liberal
I spent yesterday morning out with the police and trading standards as part of the national day of action for Operation Liberal. Operation Liberal is the national doorstep crime intelligence unit, targeting things like things like rogue traders and distraction burglars. Doorstep crime is a real problem, with many of the criminals sharing information and
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Also posted in Community Safety
Tagged con-men, police, rogue traders, trading standards
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Crime and unemployment
I spent a good chunk of yesterday at the National Worklessness Advisory Panel (which reminded that I’d not done the usual post about JSA figures in Wandsworth). While I’m not going to go into most of the discussions there were some interesting topics raised. One which started me thinking was a discussion about the unintended
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On sausages and local democracy
It has always puzzled me how local democracy, while incredibly important to everyone’s day-to-day lives barely impinges on people’s consciousness. I’ve never quite been sure whether that’s because we don’t do enough to publicise it (although politically and administratively I think we’re good at communications) or because people just don’t care. And I’m not sure
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Also posted in Wandsworth
Tagged engagement, Local Strategic Partnership, LSP, sausage, Sustainable Community Strategy
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Safer Citizens
I’m currently doing some work in a local authority elsewhere in the country, hopefully helping them improve their (already good) community safety function. Inevitably you draw comparisons with your own experiences and the quality of what you provide. Of course, it’s impossible to do, because each partnership has different needs and priorities – what might
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Also posted in Community Safety
Tagged equality, Fire Brigade, Junior Citizen, Leonard Cheshire, police, Safer Citizen
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Summer in the Square
Saturday saw the first ‘Summer in the Square’ event organised by the Friends of Battersea Square. I popped along with Jess and MiniMe and managed to stay the entire day, from the opening by Nigella Lawson to the end – I even managed to avoid participation in the mass events, especially the line dancing (which
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Tagged Battersea Square, event, street party, Summer
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