When Dave Briggs asks ‘how close is local?’ on the Local Democracy blog, he asks a very important question about democracy. If democracy is to be the rule of the the people, asking ‘how close is local?’ is asking the perennial question of democracy: which people? Knowing who is governed is as important as knowing that those people govern themselves.

Our democracy is stratified like a company organisational chart. A simplistic drawing would show Government at the top and parish councils at the bottom and a myriad of other organisations with decision-marking powers over any number of areas of our daily lives arranged on the intervening levels. An upper tier has a more inclusive scope than a lower tier and roles and responsibilities are appropriately distributed according to scale and competence.

Well, that’s the textbook anyway.

Dave’s post to LD highlights the problem with that model and the institutions and relations conditioned in practice. Locality is as fluid as other post-modern political problems such as community and identity. Localities dependency is perspective and there are many perspectives.

So how do we get away from institutions, or ’structures’ as Dave said, that are out of perspective with locality, community and identity? Well, as a good post-structuralist and radical democrat I’m not disappointed by exploring that dependency. A broad and rich body of research exists exploring precisely this area of political geography. Indeed, this theme was central to my papers in ‘Hacking the Networked Society’. ‘Who governs in a networked society’ explored precisely this growing disjuncture between institutions and governmental frameworks in our contemporary networked society.

Many boosters talk up the potential of new media in its self to engender new forms of political communications which will have meaning at any / all different tiers of locality. I’d say that is simply twittering round the edges, a confusion of quantitative changes, i.e. more engagement, and qualitative changes, i.e. new / different modes of engagement.

Dave’s general point about linkages still stands however. Stronger and meaningful relationships between ‘the people’ and ‘the people when they govern’ need to replace those tried and tired tiered relationships of our contemporary democratic settlement.

Local residents group North West Two are now using Fix My Street to file reports with Brent Council. I’ll be working with the other residents groups in my area to get links to FMS on all the community websites I can.

Fix My Street (FMS) is A LOT faster and easier than using the Brent Council reporting system. All I need to do to report via FMS is enter the street name, choose the right street and then write up the problem. It’s certainly easier than burrowing through Brent Councils website to find the right e-form to complete when all I want to do is report a broken paving slap or some dumped rubbish.

Using FMS is a great way of making public the problems that are reported to Brent Council.The openness of this tool could reduce the number of duplicate issues reported to the council. I wonder how long it’ll be before Brent adopt a similar method of receiving reports from residents.

News earlier this year was that the Heritage Lottery Fund announced stage 1 funding towards a grant of £1.2 million to help restore Dollis Hill House. This would have enabled Dollis Hill House Trust (DHHT) to work with Training For Life and Brent Council to annex a section of a public park for pseudo-social-enterprise, or, in the words of the DHH, to bring about the “commercial exploitation of the house’s prime and dramatic location, balanced with a positive vision of the house’s future as a cohesive focus for the growing and increasingly diverse population of the surrounding area.”

Last Thursday (6th Nov), TheWillesden Observer ran a cover story asking “Is this the end for Dollis Hill House?” after Boris Johnson decided not to give money pledged by Ken Livingstone.  Johnson is reported as saying that “…in these harsh economic times and with many so many other priorities chasing limited resources, the money would be more effectively spent on initiatives that improve the lives of Londoners.”

Click through to the Observer website for some pictures of the derelict and firedamaged building.

I’m currently wondering how much money Brent Council could save by pulling down the building. More reports on this when I get the information.

The NW2 residents association is alerting local residents to an application for a 24h license for the sale of alcohol by a new business opening on the broadway. The former New Heights Furniture Shop in Cricklewood Broadway has been taken over by a supermarket called Way–2–Save. They have a branch in Neasden which has very good range of food, fresh fruit and veg and a halal butchers which would add to the choices for supermarket shopping in the area in a positive way.

I’ve emailed an objection to Brent Council’s Health Safety & Licensing team as I agree with NW2 and other local residents that Cricklewood does not need more alcohol provision as it is already ‘well stocked’ by a vast array of bars and off licences.

Brent Council have responded promptly to my email:

Thank you for your representations about Mr XXXXXXXX XXXXX XXXXXXXX’s application for a premises licence. We have reviewed your representations and accept them as valid objections (under the Licensing Act 2003). We will now arrange a hearing to decide whether or not to grant the premises licence.

Keep an eye on the NW2 website for further updates.

The website of my neighbourhood’s residents association, North West Two, is now up and running. Do drop by and visit them at www.northwesttwo.co.uk

Take a moment to register and then you can post comments on the news and information posted to the site. There will also be two mailing lists for the community, one distributing information from the association and a second one of local freecycle, skill swap and other announcements.

www.northwesttwo.co.uk