Yesterday Angela Singhate and Emma Sweeney, (chair and vice chair of the Campaign for a Queen’s Park Community Council), were received by Minister of State at the Cabinet Office, the Rt Hon Oliver Letwin. Letwin is one of the Prime Minister’s most senior policy advisors, and is particularly keen to make it easier for local people to set up Community Councils (also known as Neighbourhood or Parish Councils) where local people want them.

Queen’s Park residents have been campaigning for more than one year for the establishment of a Community Council which, if successful, will become the first in London. Letwin was clear that he wants to learn from Queen’s Park so that more neighbourhoods can follow our lead.

A decision on the Queen’s Park application is currently lodged with Westminster Council, who this week announced they would delay the decision which had been expected later this month. The delay, till June 27th, is due to a change in strategy by Westminster Council, who having completed one consultation are now embarking on a second.

Government accepts that the current process is unduly complicated, and is launching a three-month consultation in late May inviting suggestions on how the process could be made easier. The Queen’s Park Campaigners offered to lend their support to this process by offering up their experience once Westminster have given their verdict.

Despite an unfriendly welcome by the security personel in the Cabinet Office on Whitehall, the visit was relaxed and the Minister was charming and interested in all that the Queen’s Parkers had to say! A well turned out aide to the Minister described how the building is linked to Number 10 through a not-very-secret-passage, and made a valiant attempt to laugh at a corny joke about the corridors of power. He politely declined to comment on whether working in the Cabinet Office was anything like the 2005 TV series, In the Thick of It; the Queen’s Park Campaigners, meanwhile, who find themselves spearheading the government’s policy on decentralisation, sure feel like they are in the thick of it.

David Cameron has voiced his intention to make it easier to set up Community Councils and bring residents together at a neighbourhood level to have a greater say on how local services are designed, prioritised and delivered. Queen’s Park welcomes this move and is proud to be at the forefront of the shift towards greater local control and democracy. Residents are poised to find out if Queen’s Park will become the first parish council in the Capital and has also been picked as a pilot by the Department of Communities to Local Government to put residents in the driving seat in shaping how services are designed and delivered.

Telegraph 28th March 2012

Queen’s Park Community Council bid gets backing from Japan

Published in West End Extra: 23 March 2012

Left to right: Angela Singhate, Chair of the Campaign,
Akiko Takeoka, Associate Professor University Sapporo,
Emma Sweeney, Vice Chair of the Campaign

CAMPAIGNERS in north Westminster who want devolved powers from City Hall have received warm messages of support from as far afield as Japan.

The Campaign for a Queen’s Park Community Council want Westminster Council to agree to the establishment of a new form of local government in the area.

They say they have been flooded with enquiries from town planners, citizens’ groups and experts in urban regeneration wanting to know how their group has managed to press its case so effectively.

In recent weeks the campaign has received a delegation of senior Dutch policymakers and captains of industry led by Amsterdam’s deputy mayor.

They have also been approached by the University of Sapporo in Japan.

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