Letter to Cllr Athwal Leader of Redbridge Council asking for Labour support for 6.2.2018 meeting

Cllr Jas Athwal

Leader of Redbridge Council

Dear Jas

It was great that at cabinet earlier this week you gave a conditional acceptance to speaking at the meeting on 6^th February 2018. It is completely understandable that you want to know more about the meeting before committing to speak. So I thought it might be helpful to give you an outline of what I expect to say at he meeting:

“The men and women who campaigned for the vote a hundred years ago lived in a far poorer world than today. There was no NHS in 1918 and it's creation is arguably a consequence of universal suffrage. Information technology has a role in extending and strengthening local democracy regarding public services such as health, education and policing.

A key reason that the plan to close King George A&E have been put on hold is not just that we can see with our own eyes our busy both King George and Queens are, but also the use of information technology allows us to know far more about what is going on in our hospitals than ever before.

Campaigners used the statistics that information technology makes possible on A&E waiting times at both hospitals to argue it would be madness to close King George A&E in 2019 and eventually the argument was won. Similarly, key monthly benchmarking of other public services has to be part of how we improve our local public services.

To an example, NELFT, the local NHS trust for mental health, produces a lot of stats, just as other public services do, but there is no equivalent monthly gold standards like A&E and cancer waiting times for campaigners and the public to get worked up about it.

I have discussed the idea of some key monthly statistics for mental health with Cllr Santos at a recent public meeting and he appeared supportive of the idea. Keeping track of Redbridge mental health waiting times, suicides, attempted suicides and cases of self harm come to mind. This combined with the relevant Councillor with a responsibility for mental health scrutiny producing a report each month at cabinet and taking public questions seems a way of using IT to improve accountability and transparency of a public service. The cabinet could be live streamed to allow those interested from the public to comment in real time using social media.

This is one means of how we could improve our democratic machinery to deliver better public services, surely something those who fought for the vote a hundred years ago would want us to discuss.

Perhaps we could have suggestions from the floor at the end of the meeting about how we could improve our democracy.” ENDs

The thing is, if you or other leaders don't like what I have to say or don't want me on the platform, that is fine. The main thing is that the main parties come together with the public on the centenary to honour those who fought for the right to vote. My hope is that you will share the platform with me and others, but I will still work on publicising the meeting whoever the main parties decide should be on the platform and whatever the agenda for the meeting you decide.

So I really hope we can agree an agenda that will be acceptable to you. You will remember we had a  save King George A&E meeting in October. Not all the main parties attended and as a consequence the Recorder did not chair and faith groups stayed away. The meeting was still worth having, but is was just not as good as it could have been. Similarly the meeting on 6.2.18 will go ahead, but it will not be as good as it could be unless all the main parties are there.

So I very much hope that you or one of your representatives will attend the planning meeting tomorrow at midday at Redbridge Town Hall to help make the 6.2.18 meeting a success.

Regards

Andy