The new website is here;
http://www.cambridge.gov.uk/northareacommittee
If you have any comments on this you can contact any one of your local Councillors and we'll make sure you comments are passed on.
Saturday 9 April 2011
North Area Committee - New Website
The new website is here;
http://www.cambridge.gov.uk/northareacommittee
If you have any comments on this you can contact any one of your local Councillors and we'll make sure you comments are passed on.
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3 comments:
The new website doesn't appear to me to be a significant improvement, or even change, on what was available before.
It is not interactive; it is not possible to comment on or discuss online items which are before the committee.
All the new bits are just links to pages and documents which were already available on the council's website. (In the case of the census information information available from other government websites). It is of course great that they're now all in one place and available via the committee's home page, but I'd view this as just fixing a bug, correcting omissions, not a substantial new feature worth writing about.
The link "Find out what the committee is currently dealing with and follow the progress of your action" sounded promising, but it just links to the meeting papers (with no warning it's a PDF download link). It hasn't pulled the key bits out and summarised them. I'd have to look through many past editions of the meeting papers to compile the meeting's current action list. Even if I did that I don't think I'd be able to find out details of progress of all the matters I'm interested in - eg. when was the last time Cllr Levy updated the committee on the new planters on Stretten Avenue / Akeman Street for example; no updates have been given at meetings this year, yet the work has been started in recent weeks.
The policing link doesn't take me somewhere where I can find out the current police priorities; which the committee set in January. To find the current priorities one has to dig into the minutes of the January meeting. I'd put those priorities on the meeting's home page. They're:
* Continuation of work to reduce the impact of school run traffic related issues at the Shirley School.
* Continuation of work to tackle issues related to sex worker activity in the Histon Road area.
* (New priority) Work to tackle issues related to anti-social behaviour connected to hostel in Victoria Road.
I'd also predominately note that the police are refusing to do any more than issue words of advice in relation to those committing offences near Shirley School, on the grounds they fear policing that area, as they would others, may damage "community relations" with travellers. I think that not policing everyone equally has greater potential to upset people and create resentment and ill-feeling.
Crucially the new website doesn't clearly link to, or summarise, how people can participate in the area committee meeting. The information currently available on the council's website states: "You can just turn up and have your say during the open forum session of an area committee meeting"; however at the March meeting no questions from the floor were taken (and only one pre-submitted question was addressed).
I've written an article following the March North Area Committee:
http://www.rtaylor.co.uk/north-area-committee-march-2011.html
I have also made suggestions for improving area committees on a regular basis since I first became aware of them a couple of years ago. I've included my latest suggestions in my response to the council's current consultation on consultation and community engagement:
http://www.rtaylor.co.uk/cambridge-city-council-consultation-consultation.html
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Richard Taylor
Cambridge
http://www.rtaylor.co.uk
Largely I agree - a new brochure site is not going to help engage with the community.
Both the City and Council Councils need to do a lot more work in this area.
Cllr Pellew has written to me by email to say:
"what *one* improvement would you like to see made first and I'll see if I can make it happen?"
I've responded:
My top idea would be:
Publicising the police priorities ASAP after they are set (ie. a decision notice); along with quotes from councillors explaining why they voted for (or against) the priorities set. Ideally allowing public comment on the decision online too.
There would be a need to explain what setting a police priority means, and what the real effect on residents is expected to be. What councillors are expecting of the police should be noted, as ought the date on which councillors will be holding the police to account for their performance in relation to the priority and inviting people go come along and have their say on the police performance, and suggesting new priorities too.
This could fit on the new North Area Committee page, or it could be a new type of city council news release linked from the committee page. I'd like to see the city council news releases focus more on the democratic decisions that are made.
A committee page could link to news releases which relate to that committee; this is just one example of the kind of news release which could be made following decisions made at area committees.
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Richard Taylor
Cambridge
http://www.rtaylor.co.uk
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