WALTHAMSTOW: Meeting descends into farce (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

WALTHAMSTOW: Meeting descends into farce

11:09am Tuesday 7th October 2008

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A PIONEERING political process descended into farce as a community council tried to allocate £45,000 of public money.

Walthamstow West was the first of the community councils to have the increased fund to spend on community projects.

But nobody at the packed meeting at Walthamstow Academy, Billet Road, Walthamstow, last night (Monday) quite understood the process, including it seemed community chairman Philip Herlihy and council chairman Cllr Patrick Smith.

The new process does not allow organisations bidding for the money to give a short presentation and Mr Herlihy forgot to leave time for discussion, leading to complaints.

He apologised and admitted he was an unpaid amateur "doing it on the fly”.

But bellicose residents demanded to be heard.

Caroline Molloy, of the St James Street Library Campaign, wanted to know why a bid to spend the money on a feasibility study for a community centre in the Coppermill Lane area had disappeared, saying it had been "deliberately blocked by councillors" and had "morphed" into a request for a new Scout hut.

The cabinet voted last week that there was no available money for such a study.

She added: "Councillors had already decided that they would not be offering residents the chance to save the library as a library or community centre, before the cabinet had taken a vote on the building's future."

The argument led to a huge delay.

Then, once it was clear the meeting had vastly overrun Mr Herlihy asked people if they wanted to continue with planned events while the councillors discussed the choices elsewhere or listen to what they had to say.

Residents voted for the latter, but the councillors were not miked up and refused to pass a hand mike between them, saying it would take too long.

An announcement was made at the same time, making listening-in impossible.

Residents were incensed, some walked out and others rose to their feet to protest, shouting over both speakers.

Peter Spiro, of Somers Road, Walthamstow, called for a vote of no confidence, saying: "This is a farce, a complete farce."

The council's cabinet member for the environment, Cllr Bob Belam, was equally frustrated.

"If you shut up for a moment you may be able to hear what we're saying," he said.

The ward councillors agreed spending on a series of projects, including the Scout hut, a mobile play therapy bus for children, youth projects, a photography project, Shopmobility projects, and a trial to pay people for taking pictures of fly tipping and graffiti.

Despite 17 votes for the feasibility study, no money was allocated to it.

High Street ward councillor James O'Rourke pointed out that it was against council procedure.

He said: "We don't want to set a precedent on spending £10,000 on a feasibility study for something that may not happen," he said.

Community chair Phillip Herlihy provided a frank assessment of what went wrong at the meeting.

He said: "That night, the turnout was significantly larger than expected, and the queue to get in meant we felt obliged to delay the start.

"Larger meetings move more slowly, and I became so concerned about the timings that I prevailed upon Patrick (against his better judgement) to let me make ad-hoc changes to the process.

"And that’s where what should have been a choreographed ballet became the proverbial hockey match.

"O yes, I wince as I recall the stumbles, as an overheated Community Chair tried to reinvent that carefully worked-out plan on the fly.

"What made it worse is that the councillors (particularly Patrick) did manage to retain both their composure and dignity, throwing my own fumbles into even sharper relief. The rest is history.

"So, am I now mortified? Not at all, actually – I went home as cheerful as anyone there.

"For anyone who does care about our area, this was truly an exciting meeting.

"The buzz in the air as people debated and voted was simply electric.

"True, I “lost” the NewsRound and the (cherished) Community Forum, but in the end the councillors did make, and account for, qualified spending decisions in a calm and dignified way.

"From my own standpoint, it seems to me that if you’re not prepared to countenance clangers you’re not prepared to risk anything new, and our track record of experiment and innovation at WWCC is something we can be proud of.

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