No-one in public life should ever feel too old to take on fresh ideas. I received this today and recommend the link to London readers especially, but others past the first flush of youth elsewhere in Britain might find it thought provoking too……..
My City Too Manifesto
London’s teenagers’ manifesto for better spaces in the Capital
View young Londoner’s manifesto for better places in the Capital at: http://www.mycitytoo.org.uk/manifesto.html
In light of the mayoral elections this Thursday, please take a minute to look at the recent My City Too Manifesto for better spaces and places in London.
Young people are our future. But without the chance to influence opinion, they are excluded from debates and decisions about the future of their city. They use the spaces of our city in different ways to adults.
The My City Too manifesto is drawn from a 2 year-long-campaign with the My City Too ambassadors from across London. They have debated and developed their ideas through surveys and polls, building exploration workshops, collaborations with architects and developers and have developed creative resources to express their ideas. More importantly, the campaign findings are intended to aid future development in ensuring that young people are part of the solution rather than being perceived as the problem.
The campaign analyses capital-wide problems and finds solutions that can be applied to London generally. It is about delivering solutions that can influence local, regional and national policy.
The campaign is led by Open House, the architecture education charity – renowned for its groundbreaking work in architecture education. This is the first campaign of its kind. Never before has a pan-London initiative been undertaken to explore what young people want from their built environment, what their ideas are for the future of their city and how they can inspire change.
This manifesto will be actively pursued to ensure that these ideas are embedded into London’s policy for the built environment.
Help us to give London’s young people a voice. Pledge your support for the manifesto by emailing: mycitytoo@openhouse.org.uk
Regards
Victoria Thornton
Founding Director, Open House
297 Euston Road
London NW1 3AQ
www.openhouse.org.uk
Remember this? From the large scale stock transfer attempt of 2004. The Labour, Lib Dem and Conservative leaders all of the same mind. And they were right too, but the ballot failed to support them.
Four years and about £20m of negative housing subsidy later, the Lib Dem administration is having to look again at the long term future of our Housing stock. Because about 30p in every pound our tenants pay in rent is creamed off to subsidize social housing elsewhere (another Gordon Brown classic stealth tax - hitting the poorest!) Kingston just can’t afford to keep its housing stock in decent repair.
I chaired the Housing Consultative Committee on Tuesday. Once again the same questions from residents about unrepaired gates and fences, windows and frames etc.
The administration has launched, in some haste, a questionnaire to test the water to see whether there might be support for some change in ownership and management. Sensible move - except they didn’t use the resident participation mechanisms open to them beforehand. This at a time when HCC has just spent umpteen hours over the last 10 months drawing up a new RP compact - with administration encouragement. Result - bad start for process and ‘mea culpa’ from Executive member with ‘absolution’ pronounced by Chair of HCC on condition of genuine contrition and a firm purpose of amendment. This was done more in hope than expectation but we must always hope!
Meanwhile the Government might get its sticky fingers out of our tenants’ pockets - and pigs might fly!
Posted by pauljohnston under
Elections,
Lib Dems,
London 1 Comment
Received a piece of Lib Dem ‘Literature’ through the door this morning. It’s really amazing in some ways that they are still rehearsing the worn-out formulas that were so novel (were they?) 30 years ago. You know “It’s a two horse race” with that little old graph showing the Lib Dems close to winning and Labour with no chance. In short, ‘don’t vote for us because we’re any good, but do it to get someone else out’. Tactical voting. Sheer negativity and cynicism. Livingstone is ’squandering and crony-ridden’ while Johnson is ‘a buffoon’. Negativism again. Paddick ‘has been a senior policeman for over 30 years……’ Most have risen very rapidly through the ranks. He certainly rose rapidly through the ranks of the Lib Dems, whom he joined all of 2 years ago! Everyone is a fool or a crook except the Lib Dems.
Some people, including (I reckon) some of their own members, have swallowed this stuff for over 20 years now. Let us hope that the polls are right and that the voters of London are about to tell them to grow up and get serious because the old, tired formulas just won’t wash any more.
Londoners have 48 hours of travel misery to look forward to next week with the news that yet another Tube strike will be staged in a row over staff transfers and pensions. According to RMT General Secretary Bob Crow, “The RMT executive was left with no choice but to set strike dates”, but this will be little comfort to Londoners, who last time had to endure fights on the street for a place on the bus home, and horrendously congested roads.
This will be the 17th strike in the 8 years Ken Livingstone has been Mayor of London, and Boris Johnson has decided it’s time something decisive was done about the situation.
Boris has a plan to deal once and for all with endless Tube strikes. If elected as London’s Mayor, he will negotiate a no-strike deal with the unions, in return for which he will ensure there is independent binding arbitration to guarantee a fair deal for Tube workers.
To download a special campaign leaflet that is being handed out at stations this afternoon on the Tube strike, please click here.
| Save weekly rubbish collections! |
| Your rubbish will only be collected once every fortnight. |
| More then 30 years ago the Conservatives introduced recycling in this borough with “bottle banks” at several different locations around the borough.
Kingston’s Conservatives encourage all residents to increase the amount of “waste” that is recycled. They oppose any reduction in the basic weekly service of rubbish collection.
We believe that the Liberal-Democrats’ scheme to cut the long established weekly rubbish collection tthat our residents have relied on for so long is totally wrong. Experince in other boroughs shows it is quite possible to retain the traditional weekly rubbish collection without adversely affecting the aim of increased recycling.
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Tony ARBOUR - For South West London
Boris Johnson has launched a detailed manifesto for Environmental policy for London. See the link on the ‘Back Boris’ page.
