Lewisham Council is planning to stop supporting the local assemblies in the borough, as an economy measure. The staff who have helped run them are facing redundancy.
The assemblies were introduced in 2007 for people to voice their concerns and to help identify solutions. There was one for every ward, including Lee Green.
Local assemblies are community-based open forums aiming to actively involve, consult, empower and learn from residents and those working and studying in Lewisham Council’s local wards.
They’re your chance to:
- find out what is happening in your ward
- discuss and share what matters to you
- work with your councillors and others to identify solutions and shape the future of your neighbourhood
Initially, Lewisham provided £25,000 a year to each assembly. It also funded a secretariat who helped organise and promote the assembly meetings and provided other support. The cash has already been withdrawn and now the Council wants to cut the administrative support as well.
A recent report of a “Safer Stronger Communities Select Committee” meeting said the 2019 Democracy Review “had found Assemblies to be unrepresentative: they engaged already democratically engaged residents and did not attract seldom-heard communities.”
A subsequent meeting set out in more detail the implications of the cutback, which would save £203,000 a year – although the redundancy costs would reduce that figure in the first year.
The most recent meeting of the Lee Green assembly, when a representative from Galliard provided an update on the Leegate development was attended by 43 people.
If the cuts go ahead, local people will be free to keep the assemblies going but without Council support.
Jim Mallory, Chair of the Lee Green Consortium, said “I am sure none of us is in any doubt that the Council faces tough decisions, many of which will still have to be taken despite a new Government. However, my concern is that there doesn’t seem to have been any consultation about a proposal that is in essence at the core of the Council’s commitment to consultation.
“As Assemblies were intended to help overcome the democratic deficit, their loss would be regrettable, no matter what any understandable shortcomings they might have.