Engaging with the community

| 21 July, 2011

I was a little cynical going to the Shaftesbury Listening to You session last night. I may as well lay my cards on the table, I have never liked the meetings. Not because of any reluctance to be accountable or to discuss council issues, but because I do not think they are very good examples of engagement.

The large (or small, in this case) public meeting may have its place. It is probably the best way to handle a single issue with significant public interest and are useful when the flow of information is largely from the platform to the public. However, in my opinion it just doesn’t work for the sort of session Listening to You should be, a dialogue between council and residents, and an opportunity for people to raise specific issues.

I was pleased when we decided, quite early on, to suggest to the audience that we break up and ‘mingle’ rather than stick with the platform/audience set-up. It worked well and I managed to speak to plenty of people on a variety of issues: from housing to litter, from BAC to the Lavender Hill Festival. A couple of people even made suggestions on how the Listening to You sessions could be improved.

I think everyone, residents, councillors and officers left feeling positive about their interactions. And in the case of councillors and officers, with plenty of things to follow-up on.

But I can’t help reflecting that, with around 30 people attending, it represented 0.00% (rounded to 2 decimal places) of the ward population of 12,962 (the latest Office of National Statistics estimate)!

You could argue that it shows everyone is happy with the council, so felt no need to come along. Or that it was raining, which put people off. And there will be some truth in both. But I still can’t help feeling we are missing some tricks in the way we engage (or don’t engage) with residents and that leaves the council poorer: because if last night was a positive experience with around 0.0025% of the population, imagine what could come from 99.9975% of the population.

I also know I need to improve personally, someone last night commented on my absence from Streetlife, and while I’m on Twitter and have this blog the former is mainly personal and the latter isn’t what it once was.

What should I and the council do to better engage with residents? Or are you happy not talking to us?

Article

Reminder: Listening to You in Shaftesbury

James Cousins

| 20 July, 2011

A last-minute reminder that tonight is the Shaftesbury Listening to You session, so if you like sitting in school halls for public meeting type things you should get along to John Burn’s school for 7.30pm tonight. And you never know, we might try something other than a traditional public meeting format (fingers crossed).

You can get full details from the Listening to You leaflet.

Article

Listening to you

James Cousins

| 7 July, 2011

The Shaftesbury ward ‘listening to you’ meeting takes place in just under two weeks time on 20 July at 7.30pm in John Burns School.

It is a public meeting, so anyone can attend and raise any issues they wish. The meeting is attended by the three ward councillors, along with the council leader, leader of the opposition and senior council officers.

I’ll be honest, I’m not a fan of the format, mainly because I’m aware many people do not like speaking up in public meetings and they can sometimes be dominated by a vocal few. However, you can always feel free to raise something beforehand (you can get my details from my contact page) or we general linger after the meeting so people can talk to us individually.

The council has delivered a leaflet advertising the event to every household in the ward, but a soft copy is available for those of a more digital bent.