Several times a year the 8000 or so residents in the Square Mile are invited to a Question Time with City Corporation councillors and officers. In the past these events have been rather traditional affairs, with a top table and formal proceedings. Venues have ranged from libraries and theatres to a session in the Old Bailey.
Yesterday the Corporation tried something different, with a Forum for group discussions in the Guildhall Old Library followed by festive drinks in the Art Gallery.
It was hosted by Jacqui Webster, lead councillor for resident engagement, who developed the format with officers. Here’s Jacqui introducing the event.
We were invited to join groups around different topic areas, including housing, community services, cleansing, noise, City gardens, planning and police. While acoustics weren’t great there were transcribers typing up our questions and answers.
We won’t get a video record of proceedings – which can be useful as I reported here – but on the other hand it was more conversational. We could also wander about, chat with Jacqui, other officers, and with staff on stalls explaining different City services.
I asked a couple of questions. One was about resident engagement in the Destination City programme, which isn’t turning out to be quite as engaging as we were promised at a Question Time last year. Residents didn’t figure at all in the latest update on the programme given to Culture, Heritage and Libraries committee this week. You can see a recording on YouTube here, with a challenge at the end from councillor Debbie Oliver, suggesting the lack of reference to residents was disrespectful. I’ll return to the issue in a later post.
I think there are potential benefits for residents in Destination City although it is mainly focused on attracting more visitors and inward investment. One obvious one is promised improvements to the public realm of streets and open spaces.
However, responsibility for developing proposals is split between the City Corporation and Business Improvement Districts, as evident in the latest strategy from the Culture Mile BID.
The strategy presents a vision for the future of the north west of the City, and just brief notes on various plans being developed by the Corporation. Couldn’t they be presented together?
After asking that question, I was assured that there is close collaboration between the BIDs, and the City’s environment department, and everything goes to Street and Walkways committee before being implemented.
The problem is that residents, workers and businesses do not have a coherent vision to which we can respond.
On reflection I think that the format for yesterday’s event worked well, as an experiment. There’s certainly nowhere better than the Guildhall Art Gallery for festive drinks.
However, as I mentioned earlier, it is useful to have a video recording of responses to questions. I wonder whether the transcriptions made at the event would be useful as a record.
I would also make a plea for more hosting when there is opportunity for networking. It would be easy for officers and councillors to chat to people who don’t appear to know anyone, and also to make some introductions.