Today, I attended the latest meeting of the Hertfordshire LSP Community Cohesion Strategy Group. I think we are laying some useful foundations that, over time, will produce some good outcomes. But I am uneasy about the lack of community involvement and consultation. I try to be positive but sometimes I fear we are perilously close to simply ticking boxes.
After the meeting I had discussions about a Hertfordshire bid to CEHR’s latest funding round with Andrew Burt (of HCC), the ever-positive Michal Siewniak (MENTER’s strategic development worker for Hertfordshire), and Christine Novelli of the Welwyn Hatfield Inter Faith Forum. Despite the County’s under-development on equalities, it seems that no bid is currently going in from Hertfordshire. I agreed to co-ordinate a bid from Watford CVS to try and get a development worker to focus on capacity building among BME and faith communities.
Later, I met with Matt Adcock, the new Communications Manager at the PCT. Conscious that I need to “clear the decks” to prepare a bid to the CEHR, I worked late again to prepare and circulate a copy of our regular newsletter.
With all the recent coverage of corrupt snouts-in-troughery at Westminster, it is easy to dismiss all politics and politicians. But I still like to think the best of (most) people and certainly at local level there are many honest politicians devoted to public service. So this evening I carried out my civic duty and voted in local and EU elections.
