Portobelllo Community Council- Greatest Hits

[Porty]

[rmolehusband]

I was thinking about a tee-shirt to reflect our civic pride, anyone want one....

[Porty]

lol- i'll take two!!

[Pal of Porty]

Fantastic T shirt - you have a best seller on your hands there!

[Bob Jefferson]

I'm not entirely sure that we have a Community Council that can laugh at itself.

[Porty]

Well we will see.

I'm really enjoying going over the minutes there is a strong sense of decency and good intentions. It is staggering how long it takes to get things done. (except objecting). The baptist clock has been ongoing for about a decade abd so has the BL development site.

One has to keep in mind that they only get together about 25 hours a year and their time is given freely.

I don't know what research Robert would have done on the chimes but I have a picture of him standing on the high street, ears cocked. I don't know if he ever reported back, the minutes are not all there.

I'm currently reading the bit wher the "gang of four" tried to get POL (Talkporty's predecssor) cl;osed down. That wasn't so good.

[Bob Jefferson]

I remember the meeting we had. I still have the PowerPoint presentation.

[Bazza]

I've served on a couple of committees for other groups, and it's gotta be said, getting things done is difficult. There are always people who want to rant, to let off steam, or just have a natter. People often have very little idea how to manage a meeting, how to manage time, etc. So I'm not surprised if the PCC suffer from these kind of problems too.

Nice T-shirt by the way!

[Porty]

[Bob Jefferson]

Yes, let's not forget that there are a lot of good people in the Community Council who have very quietly and without fuss or recognition being doing some great work in Portobello for many years.

[Porty]

[Pal of Porty]

Is it not the Harry Lauder garden in the Town Hall?

[Bob Jefferson]

[Porty]

[Porty]

[Porty]

[Porty]

[Porty]

[seanie]

I think the origins of the arrangement may be lost in the mists of time. PAS were a Planning sub-committee of the PCC able to object on its behalf, but what the scope of their remit was I'm not sure. Presumably they still are since I don't recall any decision to change the situation. That being said I don't recall the last time they actually submitted a comment on the PCCs behalf so it may be a custom that's lapsed.

[Porty]

March of last year doesn't reallly qualify as "mists of time" -its about a dozen meetings ago and JS went out of his way to make the point, wonder who authorised the practice?

[seanie]

Look at the minutes from the meeting before and see if it's any clearer.

[Bob Jefferson]

[Bob Jefferson]

[Mark Cameron]

Do PAS have 250 members? Are they consulted on each application - if so then that's starting to feel like a wider section of the community is being consulted.

[Bob Jefferson]

I assume that means that 250 people have paid their annual subscription. I've attended a few PAS meetings in the past and there were generally around 6 to 8 people in attendance.

[seanie]

And those 6 to 8 are unlikely to be demographically representative.

There is a genuine difficulty here that the core statutory purpose of a Community Council is to relay the views of the community to relevant parties, principally the Council. All the guidance and codes are explicit; Community Councils need to reflect the views of the wider community and individual Community Councillors need to put their own opinions second to that. But actually determining the views of the wider community is genuinely difficult, especially for a group of volunteers who meet once a month for a couple of hours.

Faced with the practical difficulties, most Community Councils don't do much to seek the views of the wider community. Instead they hope that, as a group, they are reasonably representative of the community as a whole. That can work reasonably well if people are careful about controversial things or at least express themselves with some restraint and acknowledgement that they may not be representing that wider view. In the past our Community Council avoided votes and would only comment when there was a clear consensus. That approach meant that the community views may not have been represented, but at least there was no risk of misrepresentation.

But over the last couple of years that approach has changed and we comment on things when the consensus is far less clear or there is none. I'm not sure we've found the correct approach to that.

[Puerto bella]

The CC web site says you comment on Major planning applications - is that still the case or is it all?

[Porty]

Applications like single shop change of use or individual new build homes,like the ones in bellfield lane, do not constitute major applications so the answer must be NO.

I believe the section you quote from also says"we try to represent the majority view" which indicates the author has failed to properly interpret cc guidelines. have a read yourself and let us know what you think.

[seanie]

The PCC doesn't comment on all applications and the emphasis is supposed to be on larger applications, but there is an argument that minor applications can have a major cumulative effect.

[Mark Cameron]

[seanie]

Community Councils can also get a certain the reputation. The Council is only interested in the views they express to the extent they do actually represent the views of the community. If a Community Council is perceived to be pursuing its own agenda or not actually being representative, they're more likely to be ignored.

[Porty]

[Porty]

[Porty]

[Bob Jefferson]