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p7
It's very easy to hate the London Borough of Hackney in Stokie. Only a few
weeks ago, the literary magazine The Idler put the Borough up there with the 'rubbish' of
London; in the recent Council elections, an anonymous individual (or indeed, for all I
know, a group of individuals) spent a large amount of their time flyposting Stoke
Newington making quite libellous allegations about parking permits. The advantage of
anonymous fly posting, of course, is that you can't be challenged on your views. Knocking
on people's doors at the same time, you could regularly expect someone to start shouting.
So why is it that Stoke Newington political culture contains such cynicism and anger? We
have a genuinely multi-cultural community that is recognised as one of the most vibrant in
London. We have an expanding economy and more local jobs. For all the hype about house
prices, between 40 and 50% of the households are fixed at an affordable social rent.
Despite being poor - all of Stoke Newington is in the top 10% most deprived wards in
Britain - there is a sense of industry ind commitment walking down Church Street that is
different to nearly anywhere else I know of.
Of course, the easy answer to this is to blame the Councillors. But we, your Councillors,
are only representatives drawn from your number. We all live in your Borough, we use the
same local services. We have all made an oath, upon accepting office, that we will act to
the best of our judgement and ability. Nearly all of us hold surgeries, once per week per
ward, which are woefully under-attended.
I don't think the answer is to blame the political parties either. We need strong parties
that can articulate their vision for our Borough and provide leadership. Most of Hackney's
problems in the 1990s stemmed from the fact that people jumped from party to party
according to whoever they thought could best give them power. The result was chaos,
financial mismanagement and a complete lack of political leadership. This is the risk of
the sweet promises from 'independents'.
Instead, I believe we have lost a sense of civic pride in our community that should sit
along side everything else. The way local government is portrayed is, to be honest, quite
dull. Yet speak to someone who has just got their housing benefit back, or their street
light fixed, or their school through an OFSTED inspection, or their home renovated, and it
is clear that the Council makes a real impact on our lives.
There are things that can be done to help this state of affairs. The Council is consulting
more and more about all its key strategies and plans, and information is now available for
discussion much earlier in advance of decisions. Even if Hackney Today sometimes reads
like Pravda, it does reflect what is currently being decided by your Borough. The Council
is relaunching 'Neighbourhood' committees as community forums that can provide comment and
scrutiny for all local public services (and not necessarily just those provided by the
Council). We need to agree how Stoke Newington will balance, for example, jobs, shops,
traffic and homes in the future. The boundaries of these forums are currently being
consulted on. Key services like Education and Housing are being restructured to give the
users (whether school governors, parents or tenants) more of a say. And at least one of
Hackney's mayoral candidates, Jules Pipe, has pledged to bring the Council itself back to
Stoke Newington Town Hall.
I am sure that many of you reading this will disagree with some of what I have written
here. What I would urge you to do is to join in this debate about the quality of our local
services, but not with cynicism or anger. Rather I would ask that all of us work together
to restore some civic pride in Stoke Newington, to engage the best of all our hearts and
minds. The Council is listening, and it needs people who still have some belief in what it
can do.
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