Mike Ford: If you don't join, you don't have a right to a say
By Bedminster People | Wednesday, February 24, 2010, 07:00
L AST week, I touched upon the existence and usage of the 'community partnership' we have in Bedminster.
The almost entirely negative feedback I received because of only focusing on something local to me led me to wonder how many people actually know that these partnerships actually exist.
How many of the busybodies, moaners and Nimbys in Bristol knew that there are 14 of these community (or neighbourhood) partnerships that serve nearly every area of the city?
There are a lot of people ready to complain when something they vaguely dislike happens – but how many people are actually willing to get involved and make their voices heard in a positive way? I expect that knowing these partnerships exist, are successful and have a £10,000 pot of cash to play with will not be met with enthusiasm, but will strike fear into some of these weekend protesters' hearts, as they no longer can just snipe and whine from afar ; they have no excuses now to not get properly involved.
All of the people who do nothing but moan about change in Bristol should be looking at the Bedminster partnership and seeing how easy it is to work with councillors and raise concerns (not moans) about your area. The fact that the GBCP is so active is a credit to Bedminster, and reflects well on the people who live there. It is with this that I would like to apologise to the members of the GBCP. All this time I was being critical of them and their goals, because I felt that they weren't acting on behalf of the entire community in Bedminster, Ashton and Southville. I realise now that I was wrong.
By only allowing people with the same views as themselves to join the GBCP and their campaign groups, they didn't have anyone opposing their ideas, leaving them to think that they represented the views of everyone in the area. I mistakenly put this down to them being selfish people who couldn't handle getting their own way, but it seems all along they were tirelessly fighting for what they genuinely believed was a good cause.
This may seem extremely cynical of me, but when my views are not appearing on the GBCP website you have to wonder how good this actually is for the community. They don't want to let people like me in because they (incorrectly) feel I would be a negative influence in the group. If that's the case, and I am such an idiot what do they have to worry about? People will see that I'm an idiot and ignore me. Unless some people actually agree with me.
These community partnerships are fantastic – in theory. I firmly believe in saying "if you don't join, you don't have a right to a say" – but it's difficult when you are excluded.
Comments
Having been and had a good look at the GBCP forums I have to say that from first impressions it seems less of a forum for the citizens of Bedminster to air their concerns and more of a forum for attempted political point scoring. Furthermore a few people seem to have forgotten the 'rule' on the charter that includes the line 'Respect among citizens with differing views is our cornerstone.'
For the average person in the street this who probably does not have any experience of this kind of 'discussion' it is likely to automatically put them off contributing and reinforces the feeling of an exclusive club. Nor is it helped by the apparent censoring of comments that offer a differing opinion.
Democracy=fair and open where all opinions are considered and respected.
By Kaptain_Von at 11:48 on 24/02/10
ReportTotally agree. I went to their meeting and it was a very snobby atmosphere.
I am going to be trying hard to change that and get involved, and get more people involved. The trouble is, the GBCP don't want the power of their elite club watered down.
I'll keep on at them until we get what we want as an area, which is a fair, mixed group who want the best for everyone.
By Mike_Ford at 10:57 on 24/02/10
ReportI don't know about weekend protesters but many people won't want to take part if a partnership is run like some exclusive members club.
It will be interesting to see if it works better for the wider community in some partnerships than others. My bet is that it will.
I reckon that your average person won't be in a rush to join GBCP. I read that message board and some of the things said on there were quite shocking when you think about it. They don't seem to be coming at it from an inclusive viewpoint.
And they certainly don't seem to want 'your sort' involved!!
By Mrs_W2009 at 10:32 on 24/02/10
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