Manifesto from the ICG |
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"A new approach to engagement and participation"
"THE ICG is unique amongst participants in this election in wanting to redefine the whole relationship between the Council and the community. In our worldview the governed become the governors. Community councillors will serve the community at the Council, not the Council in the community. Politicians are elected to serve their party. For us, the community is our party. This core principle dictates that we should take a community-led approach to all issues facing our residents. We propose a radical revision of the Local Plan, which threatens to turn Brentford in particular into a high-rise hell. Even Labour councillors admit the Plan isn’t fit for purpose – and they should know, they wrote it! The ICG supports the Community Vision for the regeneration of Brentford High Street. The new proposals by Ballymore pay scant regard to the aspirations of residents and traders, and the politicians fail to appreciate the need for local opinion to play a driving role. We would do whatever possible to bring the Brentford Festival, driven out by bureaucracy and the essentially anti-community attitude of the present administration, back into the borough. We deplore the support of both major parties for the expansion of Mogden which led inevitably to more odour and intend to use our unique relationship with the Mogden Residents’ Action Group to lobby for a second legal action by residents against Thames Water. Having supportive councillors would be a massive asset. Protection of our green open spaces from development is essential, and where new building does happen we want to see improvements to infrastructure keeping pace. We’re concerned that the gimmickry of miniscule Council Tax cuts and the race to the bottom being engaged in by both major parties shouldn’t result in cuts to essential services for the vulnerable, and we will protect our libraries, public halls and community centres from the threat of closure which already hangs over them. Whilst sympathising with anybody who is made redundant we condemn the use of taxpayers’ money for enhanced redundancy schemes, money which could be directed into core services. The ICG believes that CPZs should only be installed where local support can clearly be demonstrated, and then on a street-by-street basis. We would introduce a “roamer” scheme in which spare capacity created by CPZs could be used strictly by locals to encourage them to use public transport for the longest part of their journeys to work". May 13, 2014 |