Community Councils - why so angry? (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

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Community Councils - why so angry?

1:10pm Friday 4th July 2008

By Claire Hack »

It's that time of the week again. It's Wednesday afternoon. The paper is ready to go out on Thursday morning, everything's been topped and tailed and stories for next week haven't quite started to come together yet. It's a strange twilight time when the office goes quiet and people start drifting off towards home. There's a lull in the usual banter and those of us left resort to talking about supermarkets. It's blogging time.

This week I have mostly been writing up stories from a recent community council meeting. I've noticed, having been to two of them now, that they seem to incite anger on everything that's discussed. If it's not parking fees, then it's street cleaning and if it's not street cleaning, it's something else and everyone is very angry about all of it. There just seems to be something about these meetings that makes people incredibly irate. About parking...

I did discover, however, that I'm famous. Granted, it's only a very qualified sort of fame but it's fame nonetheless. One of the councillors at this week's meeting recognised me from the photo I use for this blog - which means that people outside this office are actually reading it. It also means that I am on the way to officially establishing my little corner of the blogosphere - whether that's because I'm producing something vaguely readable or because it's just hilariously bad remains to be seen, but I takes what I can gets.

And no, sadly, I did not make up the word "blogosphere".

I have also, as one of my colleagues put it, been "up to my neck" in stories about next week's Leytonstone Festival. It looks to be a varied programme of events to say the least and well worth a look, in my humble opinion - although I have written no fewer than four stories about it, so maybe I'm biased. There's an appearance from Four Poofs and a Piano scheduled for July 11 and an evening dedicated to avant garde composer Cornelius Cardew on July 7 and everything in between, more or less, so there should be something for everyone anyway.

Also, for your musical edification, dear readers, the song going through my head this week is Alpha Rats Nest by the Mountain Goats. You've just got to love a band that comes up with the line, "If I see sunlight hit you, I am sure that we'll both decompose".

Comments(5)

Kevin Wyatt-Lown, Chair, North Chingford Community Council says...
4:06am Mon 7 Jul 08

What a strangely naïve title for a piece: Community Councils Why So Angry?. Having been sent on two assignments so far to cover these events, I assume youve done your research on CCs, as any good journalist would. If so, you will realise the four meetings a year are the only occasions at which the rate paying residents have a voice and an opportunity to feed back, collectively, their views on the quality of service they are receiving. There are, in fact, sometimes occasions when praise for a job well done is shared at these events and, if you listen to the responses and outcomes from previous issues raised you should usually hear they have been successfully resolved. Meanwhile, the fact that these peoples forums provide a platform for concerns and complaint is, surely, a reflection of the perceptions of those who pay for them of the services they are receiving. As rate payers they happen to be customers of the Council and, as such, have a right to expect a service level commensurate with cost.

Thank goodness they care enough to come to the meetings and voice their views and long may they do so.

Incidentally, if one of the councillors from this weeks meetings who recognised you was a reference to me, your research is wrong. Im not a Councellor, I represent no political party and Im voted for by the residents to act on a voluntary basis.

I wish you every success with your role at The Guardian and Im sure we all welcome a new perspective on our local stories from a fresh mind. All I hope for is that you retain your objectivity and give us the confidence to know we are reading the facts.

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Walthamster says...
8:47pm Wed 9 Jul 08

Claire, does it really surprise you that people get angry at community council meetings? Waltham Forest councillors ignore the views of local people, fail to respond to requests or queries and vote themselves huge pay rises while cutting popular facilities.

They receive money from central government and somehow it disappears without anyone seeing the benefit. They pour millions of pounds into wild schemes that don't materialise. They break the council's own rules to shower money on contracts that don't deliver the goods. Your own newspaper reveals a string of scandals and abuses.

Are you really surprised that people get angry?

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Washington Irving says...
10:45pm Wed 9 Jul 08

I think the deal is that when they call themselves 'poofs' they know they're not doing it out of hatred or ignorance. It's about the tone and intention. For instance, if I was to say "Just because you have the name 'Small' doesn't mean you HAVE to be so small-minded.", you might think I was being snarky. But I mean it in a genuinely informative manner, since you have probably never noticed that your surname is a commonly used adjective! As a similar point of information, 'naivity' is a commonly used adjective to describe self-confessed 'newbies'. Ah, the beauties of language..

Speaking of being snarky, I've often noticed that getting angry and shouting about things is the best way to get your own way at meetings.

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John Sutton says...
12:21pm Fri 11 Jul 08

I think some readers are missing the point of Claire's blog here.
As a fellow journo, I regularly attend meetings such as the one she describes, and see people get into various states of fury over everything from bin collections to For Sale signs in gardens.
These are frustrating problems, but when people shout and make a fuss, they often end up looking not like a passionate local campaigner but a blithering village idiot. And it is these same people who ring the paper the next day and complain that their comments were "taken out of context".

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Technomist says...
11:14pm Mon 14 Jul 08

John Sutton wrote:
I think some readers are missing the point of Claire's blog here.
As a fellow journo, I regularly attend meetings such as the one she describes, and see people get into various states of fury over everything from bin collections to For Sale signs in gardens.
These are frustrating problems, but when people shout and make a fuss, they often end up looking not like a passionate local campaigner but a blithering village idiot. And it is these same people who ring the paper the next day and complain that their comments were "taken out of context".

Maybe Claire has missed the story she ought to be writing? She could be reporting on a period of historic transition between one regime, which is collapsing in slow motion, and whatever is about to come next. Yes, people are angry, and as far as I can tell they don't seem to care about being seen as such any more. It could turn out they are wrong, but from the people I speak to seems hardly anyone expects to be dealing with the current people in power in two years time. The Loakes administration is starting to look like a lame duck and the Labour party as a historical relic. The anger may be impatience more than frustration.