Yeading Community Conference

I convened a community conference in Yeading today. In addition to the large number of residents associations and local community and environment groups that I work with or I have set up at the very local level, I have also been convening community conferences in each of the wards within my constituency. This is just another way of keeping in touch with local issues and bringing people together to tackle local problems and improve the quality of life in the area.

I write to or leaflet every house in the ward area and invite people along to an open meeting in which they can raise any isues they feel need addressing. In each ward now I bring the different local residents associations together and any individual volunteers into an Initiative Group. This also includes the local councillors, the local police team, schools, health bodies and religious organisatons. The Intiative Group meets ever couple of months and concentrates on an agenda of local improvements.

Today about 60 attended the meeting at Brookside School in Perth Avenue. This was pretty good for a cold, wet morning in November. A range of major issues was raised by local residents, mainly focussing on local environmental, parking and traffic problems. There were also some concerns about anti social behaviour and lack of facilites for young people. A number of very positive new comunity developments were reported including a funding bid for a “Home Zone” street safety programme, a potential new community facility at the school, a new all weather multi-sports area on Brookside fields and of course the excellent range of services at our local Yeading library.

Several local people volunteered for the Initiative Group and wanted to get involved in improving the area. Hayes FM, our local community radio station on 91.8 FM, recorded the conference and will broadcast it over the coming week. I interviewed Paul Harmsworth, one of our local Yeading councillors, who participated in the conference and who has been a driving force behind responding to residents concerns and promoting improvements within the ward.

submitted by John on 08 Nov 2008 at 17:15