Call To Action!
HorNets and probably many other estate residents have done a great job in making their MPs aware of the iniquity of the privately managed estates model. Success here means that the government are now looking at more adoption in the future. We want to avoid a two tier system and get established estates with public areas adopted as well. Now is the time to turn to our local elected representatives, to educate them and ask them to bring the issue to their full council. Below is a video which records the sort of thing you could ask your council to do and how one council is responding. It’s worth watching all the way through.
If we can get councils on board before the government consultation later in the year, then that would be great. This council intend to respond on behalf of their constituents and look at what they can do now to help which is limited, and what they could do in future if they had central government support. So when you talk to your councillors, don’t let them walk away saying there is nothing they can do.
Actions you can take include:
Find out your ward councillor(s) from the council web site and ask for a meeting. Some do regular surgeries, some don’t but face to face is the best way to communicate. If you have a RA ask for the councillor(s) to meet with you. Get other estates to work with you if you can. Before the meeting you could ask them to watch the video above and give them written material from here about the national picture.
Ask them to support you in presenting a petition calling for the council to bring the matter to their scrutiny committee with a view to bringing a motion to support adoption going forward and to do some work towards what they could do if government were to legislate for change. They could use this to respond to the government consultation.
Ask if you can speak at council meetings on the issues.
If you have a mayor then lobby them as well.
Try to get your council and your MP to work together on this one.
If you need information about, say the number of homes paying on privately managed estates, then you can use /https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/ to submit a Freedom of Information Request. If you do it this way then your question and the response are public and can inform others.
