Quote:
Originally Posted by Neil
Its not always easy finding people who want to be involved, its even harder finding people who actually want to do anything about the problems they see and raise.
Lots of people like to talk the talk but not get dirty hands, we are fast becoming, if we are not already there, a nation of people who expect everything to be done for us by the council and then moan when the council want money of them.
Often the council help to set up these groups but they struggle to give them the support they need to get started and to write funding bids, create drawings and costings etc.
The Big Society where the people will do everything and we don't need council officers is not possible in my opinion. The officers are the experts in their field and the two working together to a common goal is the way forward in my opinion.
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Agreed. You do need a hard core of people, who are literally going to get their hands dirty, and attend umpteen meetings, as well as those who just support the concept of a Friends group in principle.
It's true about Brighton. You have to wait for someone to die to have a chance of getting on the committee of the Friends, and in the leafier parts of London, at the Friends of parks and commons groups, you do see a high percentage of middle class people, loathed though I am to use that label, who are the backbones of these groups.
However, I've seen similar groups doing amazing work in some of the more deprived areas of Glasgow, and they were being run fantastically, by people who'd be mortally offended to be described as middle class because they were running successful community groups.
It is just a matter of finding the right people.
Perhaps the councillors who have parks in their wards, without Friends groups, should be looking for those people right now, in order to rectify this anomaly.
Can't you and Gayle have some babies, and send 'em off to other Hyndburn parks?
I of course mean via a test tube, rather than a more enjoyable way.
