IWCA councillor barred from surgery
IWCA councillor Stuart Craft was forced to hold his surgery in the open air after being barred from the Kingfisher Green office of the Leys Residents Association Committee at short notice.
The IWCA set up stall in front of the office in protest at the ban. Fortunately the fine weather meant that residents weren’t deterred from speaking to their councillor.
According to a letter sent to Stuart during the week before the surgery was due to take place, the Residents Association Committee decided at a meeting held two weeks prior to this not to allow the use of the room for what they termed ‘political purposes’. In fact the provision of surgeries is an official duty of councillors and the hire of the room is funded by Oxford City Council.
According to the Committee, the Leys Residents Association is ‘a non-political organisation aiming to meet the needs of all residents of Greater Leys.’
What this means in practice is that they would rather see the room lie empty and unused than allow an IWCA councillor to use this community resource to provide advice and assistance to residents.
Even the Kingfisher Green tenants’ coffee mornings which used to take place in the building have been stopped by the Residents Association Committee. These have been scheduled to start up again since the IWCA protest.
Whether the ban on council surgeries has anything to do with the fact that the Leys Residents Association is funded by the housing associations and includes at least one prominent New Labour member on its committee is open to speculation.
The IWCA would like to see the Kingfisher Green office, as one of the few public buildings on Greater Leys, used more widely for community activities and services. The use of the building for councillor surgeries by both the Labour Party and the IWCA would also give residents on that part of the estate better access to their elected representatives.
Leys Independent, Issue 14, July 2002
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