Report
to the People
25th
November 2002
Community Spirit
People these days, we’re told, are only interested in themselves. There is no longer any community spirit. Civic pride and concern for others are quaint customs from an age of Pathe newsreels and National Service.
Try telling that to the 200 residents of Branchton who turned out at a public meeting last week to discuss a range of law and order issues. You couldn’t stop them talking about how they can work to maintain standards and crack down on anti-social behaviour.
And try telling it to the 50% of Council tenants who took part in the ballot on the future of housing in Inverclyde. Could anyone argue that they don’t want to play their part in shaping the future of the community about which they care passionately?
These are just two local examples which explode the myth that community activism is dead. When the issue is right – when it matters – people want get involved.
What can happen, however, is that people with first-hand experience of an issue, who are bursting with good ideas, can feel that they have no right to a say in the matter. This is not only unfair on them, it’s unfair on the rest of the community who are denied the chance to hear another point of view. As I’ve said time and again, the wider you consult on a decision, the better it tends to be.
To get involved in the future of your community, you don’t need to become one of the usual suspects, proposing the usual solutions through the usual channels. All you need is a genuine desire to improve the lot of your fellow citizens.
Look, for example, at what people like those I met in Branchton last week have achieved. For years, offences which can seriously damage your quality of life –covering closes in graffiti, using back greens as toilets and upending bins all over the street – were dismissed as "petty" crimes. But today, after the hard work of communities to show how turning a blind eye to this sort of conduct was dragging their areas down, it is seen for what it is – antisocial behaviour. Indeed, it was community power which encouraged the Police, Councils, Scottish Parliament and others to make tackling the issue a top priority.
Saying that we no longer care about our communities, that our involvement wouldn’t make any difference, is not only a myth but a self-fulfilling prophecy.
But I know that the people of Greenock and Inverclyde don’t believe it and I am happy to support them as they continue to prove the trendy sceptics wrong.
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