How Southfield Councillors are Engaging with Residents During Covid-19

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Andrew Steed on the maintenance of democratic services

A socially distanced advice surgery at St Alban's Church on Acton Green

When the enormity of the Covid-19 crisis became apparent, local government had to address the many major repercussions of how it would continue to function. One of the issues to be resolved for local government (and indeed Westminster) was to ensure that democratic services were maintained.

For most of the employees of Ealing Council this meant working from home. For Councillors who often need to link in with Council staff, the transition was reasonably seamless.

When the options were discussed for the continuation of meetings, however I became somewhat apprehensive, for it is fair to say that I am not the most IT proficient of individuals: I struggle but I get by.

Talk of virtual meetings and Zoom conferences filled me with dread. Fortunately, I have had support from IT staff, and my more IT savvy colleagues. We have reached out and made ourselves available.

At the local ward level, my two Liberal Democrat colleagues, councillors Gary Busuttil and Gary Malcolm, and I have organised two virtual Southfield Ward Forums on Zoom, where we have been able to update residents with Council developments. In addition, we dealt with questions covering planning issues, our parks and transport concerns. Other wards have so far not bit the bullet which is a shame as Liberal Democrats value engaging with residents so we can solve more problems.

Last weekend we held our first advice session (surgery) at St Albans Church on Acton Green - the first since March. We arranged the chairs for two councillors and residents who might attend to be spaced apart, so we were safe whilst able to hear residents’ issues or questions.

I have also held virtual meetings with local residents about a particularly contentious planning application, and then attended my first Microsoft Teams meeting when the Planning Committee met on 20 May.

The first Full Council meeting of all 69 councillors since February took place on 9 June. The fortnightly briefings organised for all councillors have been well disciplined and informative.

Most of these meetings have gone well, better than I hoped. It is good that we are resuming normal service. The bigger the gathering of individuals, the more difficult and there is a danger that the agendas can be too long: the planning committee went on for four hours and it still felt rushed. Liberal Democrats have reached out and made us available to residents when other Councillors appear to be less willing to get involved with new technologies.

Local government continues and has maintained by far the majority of services, despite some being available only over the phone or online. Some of us have even learnt some new skills.

 

June 13, 2020