The District Council scrapped areas committees in May, and has replaced them with “Community Forums”.
The first meeting of one of these is of the “East Community Forum” . It’s on next Tuesday October 18 at The Hawthorn Centre at Rochford Hospital from 7pm. It is intended for those living in the east of the District – Ashingdon, Barling, Canewdon, Foulness, Great Wakering, Hawkwell, Hockley, Paglesham, Rochford, Stambridge and Sutton.
The District Council website says that among the representatives that have confirmed they are attending on October 18 are senior figures from Essex Police, Essex County Council, Rochford District Council, the local Parish Councils, SEPT (South Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust) and South East Essex Primary Care Trust. There will be a West Community Forum on November 8th.
So what’s the difference between these forums and the old area committees? It’s not completely clear yet.
The old committees had their faults – one complaint was that if a member of the public asked a question , they frequently couldn’t get an answer on the night. So we’ll see if that improves….
The old West Area committee also upset a few people because , frankly the councillors who most wanted to engage with the public were either parish and town councillors, or the Lib Dem District Councillors. In the new forums, parish and ward councillors are likely to have fewer opportunities to ask and respond to questions .
My understanding is that elected repesentatives cannot ask questions at these meeetings as ‘ we have other avenues with which to do so’. Therefore, while this does mean I will have to take friends, relatives and neighbours along to ask any questions they would be genuine members of the public. Perhaps if we felt we received the information we wanted via emials etc we wouldnot have to attend meetings and ask face to face.