Neighbourhood Working

You may have seen occasional references to Neighbourhood Working and wondered what it is, and how it works. So I thought I would write a short post for anyone wanting to promote community projects out there.

It started under the last Labour Administration when it was called "Ward Working" and each of the participating wards was given a budget of £30,000. Although people always focus on the money, the philosophy behind it is that the Council should be more responsive to the public. The money is just there because without some sort of budget, you often can't do anything.

However, where the Council is (or should be) doing something, Neighbourhood Working is designed to identify failures in provision and alert whichever agencies are supposed to provide them.

The NW budget itself can then be used for add ons or to top up other schemes. Where it is used is decided by the three councillors in each ward. So far, the Kensal Green NW scheme has supported a new alleygate at a notorious flytipping site on Park Parade, several Neighbourhood Watch schemes (including Odessa-Palermo Road and the Junction Association on Tubbs Road), a Homework Club, improvements in the Hazel Road area, a production by the Harlesden Youth Theatre by local teenagers, and two advice days by Brent Private Tenants Rights Group.

So why is it still not called Ward Working? That's down to the Liberal Democrats. Paul Lorber, who remains the Leader of the Liberal Democrats in Brent despite his strange behaviour, hated Ward Working when it was introduced by Labour. I don't really know why. Anyway in opposition he said "Scaling down ward working is not enough; it must be scrapped." As with most of his other election pledges, he broke this promise after getting into office.

There followed a long period of wrangling. This was partly because, the Liberal Democrats (who I expect didn't think they would win enough seats to take office) just didn't know what to do or how the Council worked. Their Lead Member in this area wanted Ward Working to be like the Islington Neighbourhood Councils, hence the name change to Neighbourhood Working. In Islington a budget is given to a local committee of councillors in that area (imagine Harlesden, Kensal Green and Stonebridge) and they all vote on it in front rather bored members of the public. That idea got dropped after several people went to see how it worked in practice.

I suppose the drop in the Budget (We now have only £20,000 per year, whereas the Labour scheme had £30,000) came about because Paul Lorber still can't really bring himself to support the idea whole-heartedly even though he can't block it entirely.