Your say on your local area

I have recently started to get involved in community matters and what I found is as follows:

The times of meetings usually fall into the working day

Evening Committee meetings can run for 3 hours. What do you do if you have kids

When the community do have a say it is not listened to and their concerns are not addressed e.g the Biscuit Factory project (Grosvenor Estates) in Bermondsey was rejected by Southwark Council for not having the required amount of affordable housing and this very Mayor overturned that decision. He also overturned another one on our street for yet again more luxury apartment despite community rejection of the project for the above reason

I want to have an influence on decisions that affect my local area. I also want the outcome of surveys to reflect the opinions of the local population.  I do not agree, for example, that cyclists who live hundred of miles away should be able to influence the decision to implement a cycle lane scheme that passes through Chiswick, as was the case.  So I want locals to have more of a say and I am willing to participate accordingly. For me, the best way to express my views is online.

Yes, i do take part in decision making in my local area.  I am the unpaid Secretary of a Service Users' Group for users of Adult Social Care services.  I am a member of the Steering Group of an organisation which represents Patients of the NHS.  I am a member of a Neighbourhood Watch and a member of a local Residents' Association.  I take part in online surveys about Town Planning Applications.  I am a member of an Access Group which is campaigning for a Lift for people with disabilities to be installed in a local underground station.  I send emails to the local Councillors for the Ward in which I live.  If I were still in paid employment I would not have time to be so active, but as I retired from paid employment six years ago I have gradually found more and more ways of taking part in decision making in my local area.

The retailers in my local high street (Caledonian Road, N1) are struggling, mainly because the business rates are too high, consequently many new shops don't last more than a few months which results in empty properties and low footfall.  To make it worse, the banding of the business rates in this street, which is in quite a poor area, are classed the same as those in Upper Street Islington which is full of up market expensive shops which can afford to pay high rates.  The banding absolutely needs to be re-assessed for poorer areas.

Wallington (Manor Road, Stafford Road) seems to be progressing.

Our high street is full of fast food / takeaways and charity shops and a few empty ones - parking is awful with regular cars parking on zig zags near crossing and double parking and then we have the troublesome mopeds  delivering the takeaways they think they have the right to park where they want taking up a parking space without paying or they are parking right up next  to a legally parked car blocking it from moving or they are pulling up on the pavement and parking. Also McDonalds now has to have a security guard because of the rude youths they hang around there in gangs. Not a nice place to go on your own any more. 

Barbers, hairdressers, cafes (all offering similar fare), estate agents, betting shops! These trades make up the majority of the high street near me and our’s is quite varied. I think business rates should be reduced for more interesting high street start ups. 

I work on a market stall just off my high street, every person that I chat to on the stall say there are too many coffee shops, to the extent of one being next to another and Barbers shops again one small shop in between two Barbers... absolutely ridiculous for a small high street like Orpington in the London Borough of Bromley.  it is a worry to me as a small business owner and other residents like myself, as I live here too, just how downhill the high street has become. 

I have lived in various parts of London. Born in a now demolished hospital just off Oxford Street. Lived in West Hampstead, Wood Green, Stoke Newington, Camden Town and now just South of the River in Battersea. I rarely venture South and spend much of my time north of the River Thames. I am not solely concerned with my current local area, Battersea. It has gone upmarket in recent years due to its proximity to the River and luxury apartments on the banks. Also two local council estates near mine, which were quite notorious, are being demolished and rebuilt. What annoys me is so many people do not seem to identify as Londoners. We now have local shopping centers in the London boroughs described as 'town centers'. No! They are suburban shopping centers of the metropolis, they are NOT separate towns. Then we have people living in West and Northwest London who insist they are in the long defunct county of Middlesex. Also those in outer London boroughs insisting they live in Hertfordshire, Essex, Kent or Surrey, when these London boroughs have not been in these counties for decades. They are all living in London suburbs. The Post Office is largely to blame for not allocating London postal districts to the whole of Greater London when the GLC was created. Londoners should be proud of our city, not trying to pretend they live in small towns or in the Home Counties outside London.

Wandsworth - my local council, has single handedly ruined our 'high streets'. They put prices up for pitches and stalls until there's little or no profit unless you treble the prices and use words like 'artisan' or similar. The shops are becoming a mix of estate/rental agencies, coffee houses and charity shops .. any shopping centre under cover - a 'mall' - is a clone zone of most others through the country. Same shops except the 'Westfield' type mall where ordinary working class folk can't afford to shop. 

I try to have my say on local issues but the council will not listen. 

On local planning policy I gave my feedback on the local plan. All suggestions dismissed. They don't want to hear it or change.

On a local development I voiced my concerns. All rejected. They don't care about residents or the environment, only building targets and money.

On local CPZ "consultation" the community rejected the proposal 61% against. The council manipulated the figures and imposed the scheme on a subset of streets. They are now reconsulting on the remaining area to get their way. In essence they are gaming the consultation process to force a CPZ on an area where 61% have rejected it.

Overall the council is well known within the community for reconsulting until it gets its way.

So no, I do not believe we have any real say on local issues.

I’m so disappointed that people with a spare room are not willing to rent it out (albeit at below market value - and why not?) to a refugee. I think people have forgotten what a refugee really is. The Second World War seemingly means nothing unless it’s a movie. How short people’s memories are. It could be us or your children tomorrow. Have some compassion and welcome them. 

More desperately needs to be done to engage the local council of highly-polluted Tower Hamlets in popular initiatives - a deeper rethink of the Liveable Streets project which I attended needs to include serious committment to plant trees and quicker growing planters with acid-absorbing 'bioswale' grasses  - for example along busy Valence road where children on the way to school are exposed to toxic car fumes,  and along dirty Whitechapel road.

There is a also groundswell of public interest in the Great Eastern Park Route project to develop from Bishopsgate along a NY Highline-style forested walk over disused railtracks and across Weavers Fields all the way east and south to Island Gardens.  It would be a big step to improve the health and wellbeing of local residents.  Why does the Tower Hamlets Mayor not  show any interest in any consultation with a group of keen and informed local residents and expert architects working on this? 

Recent iniatives in other neighbouring boroughs put Tower Hamlets to shame once again.

Brent Parks Forum: 

More training for new Councillors (unbiased)  to enable them to function better.  Our Council has some training.  More required for Councils in general, standardised and effective. 

Online is very useful, we cannot get to all the meetings with limited timeframes. 

Key meetings useful. 

Agreed with comment below re:  Local shops.  

More knowledgeable Green Infrastrcuture and campaign groups most experienced and qaulified reps to be placed on the London Assembley as soon as possible.   Friends of the Earth,  Clean Air Reps;  London CPRE;  London National Park City; LPGT.   

It is difficult to attend meetings. Online polls would be useful

I am involved with a community garden only. 

I feel the local shops in hornsey and Holloway are insufficient .

There is need to incentives to attract retailers and lower rates to make it more affordable to small businesses. 

I live in the City of London and experience tells me we have limited influence on decision making. We have lots of consultation but generally find the big stuff goes their way plus we have a medieval system of local government that has arcane rules preventing elected councillors from representing us If they actually live here! 

There are too many cars and too much pollution in the high street. Sometimes, people who drive to the local shops, park in a way that obstructs the road. More needs to be done to discourage people owning a car and even more driving it on short journeys in London. I have lived in London for 12 years without a car, travelling by bike, tube and bus exclusively, with a child. No excuses for driving!

The current LiveableStreets schemes in Tower Hamlets are unworkable.  They are affecting local small businesses, shops and residents, especially the elderly & disabled.  The schemes completely disregard the Equality Act 2010 by increasing journey times, costs and accessibility to those it protects. While residents understand the need to cut thro traffic there are better ways to do it.  For example: ANPR cameras instead of barriers that prevent access to those living in the area and emergency & essential vehicles. The chaos similar schemes have caused in neighbouring boroughs shows these schemes need a re-think before communities are decimated. 

ANPR cameras in our neighbourhood will immediately cut the ‘rat-runs’, ‘school-runs’ ‘drug runs’ and all unregistered vehicles in our area every day & all-night. They will keep things moving on Columbia Road Flower Market on Sunday and maintain convenient access for all residents and the vehicles used by the various institutions in the area such as the Sundial Centre bus, Dial-a-Bus, the School bus and taxis that ferry the disabled around in their wheelchairs, whilst cuttings emissions outside the schools & homes within the scheme. 

The current scheme makes all residents take unnecessary 3 mile detours to get from one side of our area to the other which will add more emissions to the existing traffic on surrounding main roads, creating even more harm than good to those who live and work along those roads and the school children waiting at stops for their bus home in rush hour. Clogging up main roads with more stationary traffic, engines running, isn't a healthy option.This alternative idea has been presented to Tower Hamlets Council, but residents, businesses, market stall holders and the elderly & disabled have been ignored. Someone needs to look at this!