NP14 Inaction

For Mr Grouchy, the last couple of months have not been good. Every day he wakes anticipating the enlightenment promised by his local councillors. Every night he goes to bed disappointed.

It started when Mr Grouchy used the 'public forum' in that cradle of local democracy, the Neighbourhood Partnership, to raise matters that had been ruled off the formal agenda. The chair, local Tory councillor Jay Jethwa, had dismissed it, overriding protests from others present, to ban all discussion. 

Since then, it's been removed from official view; even the title “Something Rotten in the State of NP14” has been minuted as “Hengrove and Stockwood N P”. But there was a silver lining..... a written response was promised. Mr Grouchy's been waiting for that for nine weeks now.

An email reminder to the four councillors got no response. A direct request to Jay's fellow ward councillor, David Morris brought only the grudging assurance... 'you'll get an answer'. And at the Ward Forum, it was the same... Cllr. Jethwa conceded that she's still drafting a response, but couldn't say when it might be delivered. As a Christmas present? A new year's gift?   Sorry, don't know...... Switching into jobsworth mode, she reminded Mr Grouchy that there's no deadline for a response.

So even now, no-one's so much as acknowledged that the 'Partners' in this Partnership have any right to put items on the NP14 agenda, as other NPs do. No-one's even conceded that it would be common courtesy if councillors offered an explanation when they override the majority view and the decision making guidelines. Instead, the criticisms from Mr Grouchy and friends are dismissed as being negative, disruptive, or even bullying.

Mr Grouchy has a sneaking suspicion that the Hengrove and Stockwood councillors see the Neighbourhood Partnership as an irrelevant irritant – and why should they want to make it any more irritating by allowing the partner/residents to play a real part?

Is it time for Grouchy and co. join the many residents who've already given up on NP14 ? 

Maybe....  it would take a superhero to restore democracy to Hengrove and Stockwood.

Met de Stroom Mee reaches the Council Chamber

Just published - the Greens' first 'golden motion' on the council order paper, i.e. the one that's sure to get debated.   It brings together the linked issues of fuel poverty, renewable energy, climate change and peak oil in one neat package in which Bristol could take a real lead.

Here's what the council is being asked to agree at next weeks meeting (Tues 17th, 2pm):

COUNCILLOR T GREEN TO MOVE:

Background

The costs of energy are rising steadily, leading to widespread fuel poverty in the UK and at the same time we are facing serious climate change caused by our profligate use of fossil fuels.

For many ‘shopping around’ for the best energy tariffs is confusing and time-consuming and it is often those working the longest hours or earning the least who are unable to take advantage of cheaper rates. This motion aims to address this issue of energy injustice. We also aim to stimulate the UK renewables market and make us a world leader in providing our citizens with affordable clean energy.

For the purpose of this motion we define clean energy as energy derived only from renewable resources i.e. excluding all fossil fuels and nuclear processes.

We propose that BCC leads the way to co-ordinate a national ‘energy bulk-purchase’ scheme of clean energy on behalf of UK residents based on an existing Dutch scheme ‘Met de Stroom Mee’. We had hoped to implement this solely for Bristol but cheaper tariffs have to be available nationwide by law.

A network of councils would be able to negotiate cheaper costs through bulk purchase both for their own needs and those of citizens. The scheme should also include incentives to reduce consumption.

This scheme will require investment to set up, but it is intended that this will be shared across authorities and it is likely that savings from the scheme will make it self supporting in the future.

Action

This council requests the Sustainable City team (a team within Bristol City Council) prepare a report to consider the above and to consider how to:

· Initiate and form a national network of authorities able to negotiate together a good rate of clean energy purchase

· Implement a scheme with this network to allow all UK citizens to buy cheap clean energy (where clean energy is defined as energy derived from non-fossil fuel and non-nuclear sources)

Council regards this a matter of urgency and requests this report if at all possible, be presented to the June Cabinet meeting and that the report specifically considers the possibility of implementing the scheme by December 2012.

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There's a pdf. summary here of Met de Stroom Mee, prepared by the New Local Government Network, a think tank supported by a number of corporations and local authorities (not including Bristol)

So it's back to the Allotment (while they still exist..)

Clearly, yesterday's vote shows that the 'sleepy backwater' that is Stockwood is not yet ready for a Green councillor!

Congratulations to Jay Jethwa - and especial thanks for her generosity on polling day, giving a lift home from the polling station to a disabled green voter (it was that or a ride on my crossbar....)

Congratulations to Yvonne Clapp, too, who attracted far more Labour votes than might have been expected for a newcomer from outside the ward.

No congratulations to the Lib Dem candidate, Michael Goulden, whose election publications on paper and online showed the very worst of his party's electoral strategies, the sort of thing that is so negative, dishonest, and potentially libellous that it makes cross-party co-operation impossible.

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Much better news on the wider Bristol front - most of all Gus Hoyt's landslide victory in Ashley, bringing the Greens their second city council seat, and, with it, the status of a 'party group' on the council.

The balance of the council is once again of 'no overall control', with the 70 seats being split 33 LibDem, 21 Labour, 14 Tory and 2 Green.

It raises many intriguing prospects - most of all about how Labour, Conservatives and Greens can combine to fulfill their joint campaign promises to cancel the centrally enforced open space sales, so that Neighbourhood Partnerships can decide.