Andrew Brown / Website (1.7.07 13:15) Andrew, these seem sensible changes, but how's it going to be paid for?

Jock / Website (1.7.07 14:13) Area forums once a year! I would have thought the next step would be to make those more frequent. Accepting that your wards are probably significantly larger than the average two tier district ward such as in Oxford, area committees made up of several wards here do quite well. They meet every month (sometimes twice if there's a lot of planning applications to do). It seems to me that it might make it harder to justify significant devolution of any budgetary or executive powers if you've only got three councillors sitting in a committee for a single ward.

Andrew Milton (1.7.07 14:32) Andrew According to the paper which went to Full Council: "The costs of implementing ward assemblies are estimated as follows: STAFFING 1XPO7 Ward Assemblies and Localities Manager £55,000 1XPO5 Neighbourhood Development Manager £50,000 6XPO2 Ward Co-ordinators £240,000 1X PO1 Support Officer £37,000 OTHER Locality Fund £180,000 Support costs (including those for meetings and web development) £50,000 Development programme £20,000 IT hardware, phones and related costs £8,000 TOTAL £640,000 These costs can be met within the budget that has been set aside by the Mayor for Neighbourhoods and Localities within Community Services Directorate." That's what the paper said. Of course, if there are a lot more meetings, the burden would be meet by councillors and members of the local community. That cost would of course be zero, and the time available would be infinite. Jock There are plusses and minuses to this decision, and the point you make is a fair one. But there was general unhappiness across the political parties at the way in which the Area Fora had been working, and a view that they were too large and unwieldy. The assumption seems to be that smaller bodies meeting more frequently would be more effective. It would of course be best if Lewisham were more like Oxford in oh so many ways.

Max / Website (1.7.07 14:44) Is there a plan for retaining the power to place items on the Mayor's agenda? If there are more frequent meetings proposals could be better worked out.

Jock / Website (1.7.07 14:51) Indeed - our wards are only c 4,000 electors, so our largest area committee of six wards, which as far as I can see often fills the usual local meeting places like school assembly halls is probably more like two of your wards! Ah well. Maybe if you want more devolution you'll have to reparish the borough!

Andrew Milton (2.7.07 05:28) Max The paper says " Only one referral may be made by any ward assembly to the Mayor and Cabinet in any twelve month period, unless the Mayor agrees to the contrary."

Andrew Milton (2.7.07 05:55) Jock The population of the ward which I represent, Lewisham Central, was about 13,000 according to the 2001 census. So your assumptions on ward sizes seem broadly right.

Lone Ranger (2.7.07 23:42) Re putting items on the Mayor's agenda was there a restriction on the number before? Will the ward assemblies be decision makers or merely a talking shop? The reason I ask is under the parish council suggestion it mentioned budgets and taxes, but for assembles budgets may come at a later stage.

Andrew Milton (8.7.07 13:29) Lone Ranger Sorry not have responded sooner. There wasn't a restriction on the number of items which could be referred to the Mayor by Area Fora but in practice it was restricted by (1) the fact that that they met but once a year and (2) ignorance, until Max enlightened us. There were reservations among some councillors about this restriction on Ward Assemblies, but on balance I think it seems reasonable , given that there will be 18 ward assemblies. It's perhaps putting it crudely, but essentially the Ward Assemblies are essentially 'talking shops' at present. But then, that's how you gt the "parler" in "Parliament" when it first started up. We can either wait until more powers are granted. Or we can take them. As Thomas Jefferson wrote: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Perhaps I'd better stop before I get into further trouble from The Head of Law.

Andrew Milton (8.7.07 13:31) Hmm ... perhaps that first para could have been better drafted. Clearly, I ain't no Thomas Jefferson.

Lone Ranger (9.7.07 10:03) Thanks for the reply. Re the pilot schemes announced by Hazel Blears, her department seemed unware of Lewisham's £180,000 locality fund, which I compared to the pilot scheme of £44,000 for Lewisham.

Lone Ranger (9.7.07 23:51) According to the News Shopper the scheme Hazel Blears announced will take place in Evelyn and Bellingham wards. http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/lewgreennews/display.var.1529527.0.vote_for_projects_which_need_cash.php

Andrew Milton (10.7.07 07:23) So it's a sort of loyalty card for Labour voters?

Lone Ranger (10.7.07 08:41) Ah, I see what you mean. The following is written in cynical jest..... Well it was claimed last year only Labour councillors working with a Labour Mayor and a Labour government could work together....and now, only Labour voters?

Andrew Milton (11.7.07 11:43) To be fair, I'd better redress the balance with clarication which the Chief Executive of the Council has written: "The pilot participatory budgeting schemes identified in Hazel Blear’s speech are existing, not new, pilots. The ten are all locally driven initiatives and not part of a national pilot programme, but as indicated in the speech are being carried out with CLG’s “encouragement”. Lewisham’s participatory budgeting scheme is lead by Lewisham Community Network (LCN), who have been developing the pilot since the beginning of this year. The pilot is running in Evelyn and Bellingham wards with £45,000 drawn primarily from Neighbourhood Renewal Funding. The scheme allows local residents and community groups to put in applications to fund small projects from £50 to £2,000, with an event in September for people to discuss and vote for their favourite ideas. The scheme was referred to during the Mayor’s Commission discussions, but it is an LCN initiative. LCN are working with local communities and third sector groups to take this forward. If the pilot is successful it could be considered as an approach that could be applied in other areas, potentially using the ward assembly model." I hope that's clear.

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