We, Apr 18, 2007Constitutional Petition rolls on
You can now sign online the petition in defence of the Constitutional right of the Area Forums to place items on the Mayor and Cabinet Agenda.
This petition was initially designed to run for a few days only, we have now come to realise that beyond this specific denial of constitutional rights that Lewisham Council is bringing forward in these days there is a much bigger picture and this realisation gives us a clear duty.
This petition will stay open for a few weeks to allow us a platform to inform and empower the people of Lewisham.
What has always been a prerogative of a very small group of people, that of producing all proposals on everything that the Council does, is in fact available to everyone and has been so for quite a while, only that we were not told.
Each resident of this Borough can write items of the Mayor and Cabinet Agenda. Provided that we convince our neighbours at the Area Forum that what we say makes sense these proposals will find their way on the Mayor's table and he'll have to decide on them. That's the law.
Sign this petition! Tell them that you now know what they didn't tell you.
You can also download a petition sheet to print and collect signatures of friends, family, collegues... If you do so then please contact us to arrange a delivery of the signatures.
...read more...Lewisham Council lied to all of us for years
For years Lewisham Council has carried out a systematic campaign of misinformation resulting in the complete denial of the Constitutional power given to each Area Forum of placing items on the Mayor and Cabinet Agenda. Evidence of this is provided by Lewisham Council's website . The page about Area Forums tells us that:
"The forums are not decision-making bodies, but are a way to ensure that the Council and other local service providers can talk and listen to the views of local people."
This is not true! Our Constitution gives the Area Forum one power that is similar to that of the Council but we have always been told the opposite. We have been dis-empowered by misinformation.
Our Constitution gives us the power to place items under the Mayor's nose for him to approve and if he doesn't want to do so he has to write down in detail why he doesn't want to and this at times can be a tricky thing to do, at least without building an inverted pyramid of piffle, and to do that in writing can be dangerous.
Could this be the reason why the Council is not allowing the item approved by the Area Forum for Lewisham Central, Lee Green and Blackheath on 20th March 2007 to be written down on tonight's Mayor and Cabinet Agenda and has replaced it with an oral update from the Head of Law?
Here's from the Constitution of the London Borough of Lewisham (page 120):
"Who can put items on the agenda for a meeting of the Executive"
(a) The Mayor
(b) Any member of the Executive
.
.
.
(f) Area forums
Now this power has been used and an item has been placed on the Mayor's Agenda. Only that now that the Agenda has been published the item is just not there. Somebody took it away.
This is unacceptable and tonight we'll be there at the Mayor and Cabinet meeting, to hear what the Mayor will hear from his solicitor. Possibly something that will please him and buy him some time. We'll take note and fight on.
...read more...