Wandsworth Conservatives

Do residents get value for money from their Councillors? Good question. Here’s my Council diary over the last month:

Wandsworth domestic violence charity meeting
Wandsworth Fostering Panel
Meeting with Director of Housing
Regeneration and Commmunity Safety Committee
Children and Young Person’s Committee
Environment and Leisure Committee Meeting
Southfields Triangle Residents meeting
Visit to Wandsworth Prison
Wandsworth Town Centre Partnership meeting
Opening of Tooting Hub Youth Club
Planning Committee meeting to speak on behalf of residents
Surgery at Putney Library
Meeting with Cabinet Member for Children’s Services
Canvassing residents on their concerns
Meeting with new Children’s Services Director
Council Standards Training
Campaigning at stations on Tube and SWT problems in Putney (x2)
Meeting with Southfield religious leaders
Delivering leaflets to residents (x2)
Councillors’ Training Day (more)

and coming up….

Safer Neighbourhoods meeting
Southfields Grid Residents’ meeting
School governors meeting
School finance committee
Wandsworth Pupil Referral Unit Board meeting
Meeting with the Audit Commission inspectors (x2)
Council meeting

Since becoming a Councillor last year I have visited 24 local youth services (eg Youth Offending Team, Adolescent Mental Health Service) and schools. Add to that: case work for residents - emails, letters and calls following up issues for residents, preparation time for meetings, and you get to 30 plus hours per week pretty quickly. Why do it? Well lots of reasons but here is one, an email from a resident I received today:

‘Lucy you have been a tower of support to us beyond the call of duty.’

How many day jobs give you that sort of job satisfaction?

The Triangle Residents Association in Southfields kicked off a few nights ago and had a great turn out from local residents who are interested in being involved.  We had local police at the meeting able to give an update on crime issues, local Southfields councillors Lucy Allan and Jenny Nickel were there and I was also able to give everyone an update as their MP.  It’s probably the nearest residents association to my own home, so a lot of the issues that came up – traffic and parking, tube services, pavements are ones that I’m very familiar with as a resident.  Most of all it was very good for us all to meet other local people who live just round the corner, and I’m sure that a lot of people who came will stay involved. 

Together with Cllr Jenny Nickels, I met with local religious leaders- we talked about issues of concern to residents and how we could work together to find solutions. Of note was the increasing concern about youth on youth crime, group offending, provision of sheltered accommodation for the elderly and the quality of education in Southfields schools.

This was an incredibly helpful exercise in understanding our community better and getting input from a different angle - which is vital if we are to make life better for local people - addressing the issues they care about most. The points raised are now being followed up with different community groups and council officers so we can work towards real improvements for residents in these areas.