Redlands Liberal Democrats

Electoral Commission uses Facebook to get students to register to vote

In Redlands ward we take the business of electoral registration very seriously. There was postal vote fraud in Redlands in 2005 and with a high turnover of voters in our ward it is important that no-one loses their vote. I blogged in March about our annual campaign to get students to register to vote and suggested that councils need to continue to work to find new ways to get everyone who can vote to register. I was delighted therefore to read that the Electoral Commission is using Facebook to remind students and young people to vote. From The Independent:

"From tomorrow, every Facebook user who logs on to his or her homepage will be asked if they are on the electoral roll. If they are not, they will be redirected to a registration page.The initiative has been prompted by research suggesting that 56 per cent of 18 to 24 year olds – many of whom are students – will not be able to vote next month. However, a very high proportion of the same age group uses Facebook regularly: as many as nine in ten students stay in touch with friends through social networking sites".

 

Redlands has one of the largest student populations in the whole of Reading so I really hope this initiative sways a few more students to register.RBC's own voter registration effort has improved markedly since we lobbied the Council for more effective voter registration back in 2006. We are facing two really important sets of elections on May 6 in Reading - for the local council and to elect the next MP for our area. Higher education funding and youth unemployment are just two issues that students are raising with me on the doorstep. I hope as many students as possible register to vote and turn out to vote on May 6 to ensure their voices are heard at all levels of government in Reading. Well done to the Electoral Commission for moving with the times. It's not just students who use Facebook. I chat to constituents of all ages online and pick up plenty of casework issues via Facebook and other social media networks like Twitter. The Commission and other public bodies must explore all these avenues if they are going to increase participation of younger people in particular in public life.

Daisy talks to TweetyHall

Here in Redlands we work hard to keep in touch with our constituents, residents and supporters all year round. In recent years we have been using Facebook, Twitter and blogs to supplement our traditional output of Focus leaflets and streetletters to campaign on a range of local issues.

I've been shortlisted for two awards for my use of social media over the past year. On the back of this I was interviewed by the people behind TweetyHall, a website which connects tweeting councillors with the public last week. Check out the video here

LGIU Online C'llr of the Year award

I've just heard that I've been shortlisted for the LGIU/CCLA 'Online C'll'r of the Year' as part of the C'llr 2010 achivements awards.

Thank you to everyone who nominated me - I'm mega chuffed. I am the only female councillor to be shortlisted in what looks to be a very high-powered list!

The award details is as follows:

"Social networking and online capacities for engagement are fast becoming a popular means for councillors to engage with communities, such as through the use of mechanisms like twitter, facebook, email and blogging. This councillor will have embraced new technologies and used them positively to communicate with communities"

I'm sure this will wind up all the sceptics out there who dismiss Twitter, Facebook and blogging as pointless. The feedback I get is absolutely the opposite.

As anyone who has been following me on Twitter knows, during times like the exceptionally bad weather we've been having here in Reading of late it's important that public bodies and local representatives ensure that they get key messages out to residents.

These tools also encourage councillors to listen more to residents, which I think can only be a good thing.

I have picked up lots of issues via Twitter including the infamous daytime Christmas lights in Reading.

Facebook is also a great way to campaign and engage people about local issues - something I did to highlight tagging and graffiti problems we faced around Reading last year.

I also encouraged people to upload photos of graffiti in their area to Flickr to get the Council to act.

Lately I've been getting more into making YouTube videos such as our "True Grit" video about snow.

I am due to be meeting Chief Executive of Reading Borough Council, Michael Coughlin soon to discuss how the Council can better use social media to engage more effectively with residents.

I'm delighted to see that Reading Buses is now on Twitter, after being successfully persuaded to by my colleague Cllr Warren Swaine.

The winner of the awards will be announced on Febuary at the C'llr 10 conference at easily the best stadium the UK has to offer:

The Emirates!!!

Are you being served?

As a councillor I get complaints most days about council services in Reading, I'm sorry to say.

This is not to say all Council services are poor - some are, some aren't.

But if people have a gripe about an RBC service I am usually one of the first people who gets to hear about it. This has occured in part because I am someone who has earned a reputation for getting things done.

Kirsten gets a lot of communication from residents with planning queries and Glenn is getting a strong reputation as something of a guru when it comes to advice on parking and environmental matters.

I think we are very lucky in Redlands to have a highly-engaged electorate and we enjoy the dialogue we have with residents.

We use this feedback to help build up a picture about what issues with Council services need tackling and to challenge officers to improve performance in all areas.

It has become a cliche that people now expect councils to do more...for less.

But, as our Chief Executive observed recently - now there is less money around the Treasury expects councils to "do less with less" in future.

I have taken an active interest in improving customer service at the Council since I was elected in 2006.

My colleague Cllr Glenn Goodall and I visited RBC's call centre earlier this year and we were very impressed by what we saw. The staff were highly professional and efficient.

It quickly became clear that improvements that need to be made need to take place in the 'back office'.

This evening at CCEA Scrutiny Panel we received an update report on the Council's Customer Focus work programme. This might be standard in the private sector but it's all quite new to some councils I think.

The Customer Access Strategy - last updated in 2004 is due for a refresh and there are also plans afoot to develop a customer engagement stratey to meet the Council's new statutory duty to inform, involve and consult local people (which came into force last year).

This new responsibility is long overdue and I think it's taking RBC some time to adjust to being more open and transparent about how decisions are taken and to introduce more ways of involving and engaging the public about things that affect them.

I would like to see the Council using social media to engage residents as I think it could increase community engagement and save council tax payers money.

I use these tools widely both in the ward and in scrutiny reviews.

And there is no doubt the more actively you engage people on issues, the better response you get from people.

I'm not sure what is holding the Counclil back from embracing Web 2.0. There are some anxieties about data protection, fraud etc but I think these have been overstated by officers. Many councils like Islington have been using these tools for ages to build a better relationship with their residents.

I was pleased to see an acknowledgement in the officers' report this evening that culture change was needed within the Council to deliver a real turnaround in customer service or 'the customer experience' as it is called using the new jargon.

The Council's Chief Executive, Michael Coughlin has been instrumental in driving this agenda and is trying to instill a 'one Council' approach into staff: something the Lib Dems fully support.

He has invited me to a meeting to discuss using social media and I am hoping we will make progress soon.

As part of this drive we would like to see the Council improve it's website so that information is easier to find and problems are easier for residents to report quickly and efficiently.

Whilst performance at the Council's call centre continues to imprvove one of the other issues we have is the speed at which issues reported via the web are fixed by the Council.

Too often residents get a holding email and then have to wait several weeks for a meaningful response.  

People often contact us after giving up on the Council: they are usually fed up with reporting issues more than once, different officers and departments passing the buck, or failing to take responsibility for sorting problems out from start to finish.

So It's good to see the Council is now being assessed on it's ability to reduce the amount of 'avoidable contact' .

We also welcome the fact that RBC will be piloting the 'Tell Us Once' initiative - a government programme which aims to make it possible for local people to report a major life change - like bereavement - to local authorities once rather than several times which can be stressful for people and costly for councils.

This programme was piloted very successfully in Lib Dem-controlled Southwark Council.

Finally, I got agreement at the CCEA Scrutiny Panel meeting to set up a 'Task and Finish' Group of councillors (drawn from CCEA Scrutiny Panel) help oversee the development of customer services in Reading.
So keep your complaints and comments about Council services coming in: I'm determined that after years of Labour rule, the voices of local residents will be heard by the Council - and responded to - much more in future.

Lib Dem Voice Blog of the Year Awards 2009

I found out earlier today that I have been nominated for the 'Best use of blogging/social networking/e-campaigning by a Liberal Democrat' award in the national Lib Dem Voice Blog of the Year Awards 2009.

This came as a complete surprise to me.

I have been nominated for my innovative use of Facebook and Twitter as part of our local Lib Dem campaign for better standards in the private rented housing sector in Reading which was also featured in The Times earlier this year.

Facebook was the obvious medium for me to use for this campaign (given that many people living in private rented housing tend to be young and in the case of Reading, attending University).

For this reason it was important we engaged with this particular audience in it's natural home - social networking sites - rather than via traditional media.

I took the initiative inviting residents to have their say via Facebook- much to the chagrin of Council officers(and some other councillors).

Coincidentally, I attended a conference today held by Local Government Chronicle on using social networking to improve government communications - or on a more basic level, how to improve relationships between governments and the governed.

I would like to see Reading Borough Council embrace the opportunities these tools provide rather than shying away from them. We need to move away in local government from one way communication whereby the Council talks at residents and residents often fail to be heard.

It was really exciting to hear at the Conference today what places like Barnet Council are doing now with Facebook, Twitter and Flickr to local people much more actively involved as citizens rather than simply 'consumers' of council services.

In Islington, Council officers are using Facebook to tap into communities of residents with particular interests like recycling.

In these councils feedback is welcomed - encouraged even, and is used to help improve services and neighbourhoods.

I think for some councils, councillors and council officers, there is a fear about ceding too much power to people and a fear of loss of control.

I personally think that would be a positive thing and might encourage greater participation in the democratic process.

This has to be the way forward.

If you are interested in finding out more about this area visit FutureGov and DavePress which are useful reference points for this stuff I learned today.

Anyway, I am delighted to have been nominated for this award - and am surprised to find myself alongside some very experienced campaigners including two MPs!

I have a lot of respect for the Panel who are judging this award and it includes one of the people who inspired me above all others to get involved in campaigning and blogging: Lynne Featherstone MP.

The results will be announced at Lib Dem Party Conference on Sunday...

Follow me

My Lib Dem colleagues in Redlands and I work hard to communicate with those we are elected to serve (the people of Redlands - all 6,000+ of them!) and we do this in a variety of traditional and non-traditional ways including using blogs, press articles, street-letters, telephone, email, Facebook and more recently Twitter.

We also do plenty of what you might call 'traditional campaigning' in an effort to find out local views towards different issues notably holding ward surgeries, conducting residents' surveys, putting out regular 'Focus' leaflets, collecting petition signatures and knocking on doors.

We are always exploring ways we can get our message across more effectively and also, ways to get direct feedback from residents both in the ward and in the wider Reading area, on a wide range of local issues.

This helps us to keep in touch all year round with the issues that matter to local people and it helps us to prioritise our campaigning locally.

I hope what we do is effective: we certainly get a lot of feedback, and as I've said before I am certain that we have one of the most engaged electorates in Reading judging by the amount of emails, calls and casework we receive. 

Whatever method we use to get feedback we work hard to keep on top of this communication - making us one of the busiest councillor teams in Reading.

I used Facebook recently in our highly-successful campaign to get the Labour-run Council to tackle issues in the private rented sector. This was a great way to get students involved and to get their views.

We also used Facebook and Flickr to build support for our local campaign for action on graffiti taggers, and to voice local anger at the University's closure of the School of Health and Social Care.

I'm hopeful that having seen how successful social networking sites can be we can encourage the Council to use them more widely when seeking to consult local people on issues that affect them.

As far as I'm aware I was the first councillor in Reading to seek views in this way in relation to a scrutiny review. I was contacted by a journalist from The Times on the back of my initative and the result was this article which appeared today.

I hope that Council officers and councillors in Reading and other areas will be encouraged to try this approach out for themselves.

As I said in the article, online campaigns are a cheap and a effective way of reaching people, particularly young people (but not exclusively) who may not attend council meetings etc.

The recently-launched campaign to Reopen the Jolly Anglers pub is another good example of local activism on the web - allowing local people to have their say on issues of concern and campaign for action.

Obviously setting up Facebook groups etc is not in itself enough for a campaign to be successful, but used appropriately it can be a great way to get people involved who may not have campaigned on issues before or to get feedback.

Keep in touch: follow me on Twitter for more updates!