For the past few years there has been a quarterly meeting called ‘The Ward Coordination meeting’ where Council officers, ward Councillors, residents’ representatives and other Levenshulme organisations such as the Traders’ Association have come together to discuss matters of common concern.
These meetings have been the only regular opportunity for the LCA to put Levenshulme residents’ point of view before relevant Council officers.
At the end of the most recent meeting in June, the Councillors announced that future meetings would be ‘closed’ – meaning that it would just be officers and Councillors. Residents and all other organisations will now be excluded.
This announcement came out of the blue – there was no prior consultation and no sensible explanation as to why they have made this decision! It was just a very autocratic “We’ve decided. That’s it!”
Given that none of our current Councillors actually live in Levenshulme, the LCA is most concerned that residents have lost a very valuable voice and that there is no satisfactory alternative being proposed.
As an alternative, Councillors say they will be organising forums twice a year at which residents will be able to raise issues concerning Levenshulme which they will then take to the Ward Coordination meetings.
We’d very much like to hear what people living in Levenshulme think of this development.
Peter Naughton
LCA Chair
Im really unhappy about this decision. Apart from anything we the people of Levenshulme have not been consulted. This cannot be right!
Levenshulme councillors have today released a statement on the changes to Ward Coordination meetings. It is available on the Levenshulme Labour Party Facebook page.