Here’ Dan Drillsma-Milgrom of the LGC on how Councillors should respond to the heavy snow that we’re seeing in the UK at the moment:
A snowflake earlier.
“For those who know to look for it, Camden has an easy to use section of its website that directs residents to the nearest sand grit bins and shows the gritting routes. It should be the job of local politicians to let residents know such services exist so they can help themselves and their neighbours. That may be via email or social media, but if it means knocking on doors or delivering informative leaflets then so be it.”
I’m not sure that he’s right to be upset that his local political parties leaflets have totally dried up because of the bad weather, but times like this show why it’s important that Councillors invest in building communications channels with local residents.
My kids’ school has done a great job building up such a network with the parents. There’s a school website, a PTA website, and – most importantly – a text-messaging system that they’ve used to deliver the good news that I have to spend at least the next two days at home looking after my kids. Tellingly, there is also a totally bloody-awful proprietary system with wretched usability called Fronter that the local authority seem to have imposed upon them.
This tells Councillors something: Set up your own communications networks – they’ll be much better than the clunky bossy rule-ridden ones that your Councils will saddle you with. Most of them are free, and most of them can be set up by anyone who has enough expertise to buy a book from Amazon.
Update: 14:58 – The distribution of grit has been taken out of the hands of local government.
A blog about representative democracy, social media and a conversational politics. How will peer-to-peer communications change local democracy? How is representation changing? 
The logic of having your own communications options also applies to MPs, especially if they doubt the official information coming out. A good example at the moment is the way Lynne Featherstone MP is gathering information via the online world in order to challenge Haringey Council’s version of what roads are getting gritted:
http://www.lynnefeatherstone.org/2010/01/has-haringey-gritted-your-road.htm
Yes – she did a very good job with flightpath information as well – can’t remember where I heard this parable – was it on your blog Mark? She actually didn’t think that aircraft noise *was* a problem but she got people to track it anyway and found out that it actually was!
*That’s* what the web can do well in politics – tell MPs things that they don’t know – especially the things that those who monopolise the info (civil servants, think tanks, pressure groups etc) don’t want them to know….
Strangely, I got this email yesterday from ‘Brighton Business’ – no idea where that came from or how I got on their list, never had anything like this before. It sounds like a pre-emptive response to criticism after the last snow. That said, it’s the sort of communication I’d like to have more of, it strikes a good tone I think:
–
Snow could fall in the city from this evening, with further showers until Friday and consequently the council gritters will be out treating all the main highways today and this evening.
Street cleaners are being diverted today to pre-grit pavements and gritting bins are being refilled for residents to use.
Council staff are paying particular attention to gritting pavements on hilltops, outside hospitals and shop fronts.
Four wheel drive vehicles will also be made available to ensure home care teams and Meals on Wheels are able to visit vulnerable people.
Full gritting routes across the city cover 156 miles, taking in every bus route in Brighton & Hove and there are 350 salt bins on pavements. In preparation, the council has around 400 tonnes of salt stored at Hollingdean depot. This would cope with almost three weeks of continuous heavy frosts. There is another 500 tonnes of salt on order.
In the event of snow and ice tomorrow the council is prepared to place piles of grit at strategic locations using street cleaning and gardening staff.
However, drivers and pedestrians should remain vigilant and take care during the cold snap as it is not possible to grit all 3,000 of the city’s roads. Even a high level of gritting service on roads and pavements that can be treated cannot guarantee they will always be completely clear of ice or snow.
This can be for various reasons, including the time it takes for salt to become effective; salt being washed away if rain turns to snow and water leaks on roads that turn to ice in below zero temperatures.
Drivers and pedestrians should be especially cautious when road frosts or freezing temperatures follow rain or snow.
FWIW, there’s absolutely no way that many informative leaflets about the grit bins are going to be delivered in my neck of the borough at the moment. I can barely get out of the door myself.
But it’s definitely true that all of us involved in local govt in some way should be collecting email addresses and other ways of contacting people in order to get news out quickly–I know where to look on my local schools website to find out if the school’s open, but it took a bit of searching, and if I found it hard work, what’s the average parent going to manage?
(I wasn’t sure this mornign if they’d manage to open–slightly annoying, as I’m due to start work there this week, but can’t if they’re not open…)
Definitely liking what Lynne’s doing, even if, on a purely personal note, it is a bit dull–has a road been gritted in Haringey? I care not. But it’s a good example of what a politician can do online.
The interesting thing about the airplane noise issue (to me at least!) was the way the internet can expose people to the views of others.
It’s a classic of the type of issue where some people think it’s a really big problem, but others don’t – and extrapolate from their own view to assuming that everyone else doesn’t (or is utterly stupid to disagree with them) – and therefore that anyone taking up the issue is also daft.
Seeing other people’s views expressed online can help build a little more respect for the idea that other, sane people do have different views from you.