How Scot’s blog brought English council to its knees

A SCOT is being hailed as a symbol of democracy after his blog brought down a town council.

Niall Connolly was dubbed the “Lone Blogger” after his criticisms led to a mass resignation by councillors in Somerton, Somerset. His blog,  Muck and Brass, accused the council of secrecy and a lack of consultation. The politicians have claimed the blog was vindictive.

But Niall has become something of a hero to communities fighting for a voice. The 58-year-old said: “What has astounded me is the level of support I have received from all over Britain and all over the world. What I have found is that the story resonates with so many people who want to share Somerton’s success in their own towns. There is clearly dissatisfaction with our elected representatives.”

He now plans to write a “toolkit for change”, which will be an A to Z for people wishing to follow his example. Somerton is still without an operational town council after 12 councillors quit. A new election is planned for December. Niall, a photographer from Edinburgh, started the blog soon after moving to Somerton in 2006. He felt the council had stopped locals contributing to major projects, such as a new community hall.

He said: “They made statements that shook me to the core. The community was told it couldn’t take part in fundraising. Everything was being controlled by the council. I  thought what was happening was entirely undemocratic. It was a complete denial of the community’s part in the project.”

Niall believes his Scottish roots had a big influence on his actions.

“I associate the revolutionary spirit with Scotland,” he said. “It is genetic.

“You can’t bury it and I think it is something that drives you forward.”

Niall started going to council meetings and researching local planning and projects. “If I thought there was something wrong, I would draw the local community’s attention to it,” he said. “It seeped through to the public consciousness slowly but effectively. “I started to lampoon the town council as a way of poking them with a stick and that certainly started to get through.” The “lampooning” was abusive, according to local politicians, who say they had been dubbed Nazis.

Two older ladies were referred to as “the ugly sisters”. But Niall said: “I don’t agree that it was abusive. It highlighted a deep vein of discontent in the community with the town council. The community realised it was being treated with utter contempt and decided that it just wasn’t right.” Matters reached boiling point when 120 locals turned up to a public meeting to protest against a recycling centre being moved.Then they went on to that night’s council meeting.

The public galleries were packed with 160 locals, compared with the usual dozen or so. Niall said: “They started to shout the odds and the council was forced on to the back foot, for the first time in a long time. “There was a lot of robust questioning from the public.” But Niall kept a low profile at the meeting. He said: “I felt this was the community talking and they had to find their voice.” Half an hour into the meeting, one councillor, Tony Canvin, said he was resigning and, according to Niall, there was loud applause.

He then handed in his resignation. One after another, the remaining councillors pulled out their resignation speeches, blaming the “Lone Blogger” for forcing them out. Niall said: “They had never been questioned and they didn’t like it. So they decided to take their toys and play elsewhere.” Niall claims he has suffered racist abuse, a car has been torched outside his house and one of his windows has been smashed. But he said the vast majority of the responses to his blog have been positive.

He believes that blogging is an effective tool to empower the little man and the reaction in Somerton reflects a general dissatisfaction with Britain’s political system as a whole.

Niall, who has won a Blogger of the Year title, said: “I wasn’t saying what many local people weren’t already saying. I think I was just the guy, if the truth be told, who had the courage to put it out there and go public. I think I have made a contribution. I never wanted to bring down this council. The best I could hope for was to push it slightly.”

Niall has no intention of running for office himself, saying that he only wanted to shake the community from apathy and give power back to the people.

“This is the time for the community to take matters into their hands. It is about the community being set free. Bit by bit, you really can change the world.”

Local crime mapping

We want to know what you think of the new crime map that been launched. Do you agree with these folks?

It crashed within a few hours of launch because the site was so busy…this must mean this is what the public want right? or are you just curious? how often would you visit the map? I typed in my post code and my friends and there was ‘no data available for this area’…

Police at Tesco copshops

“Tesco is to open its doors to the police so they can mingle with shoppers and boost community relations. Officers will wander the aisles, talking to customers who can alert them to problems they may have. They will also set up in the supermarket’s cafés, with shoppers invited to have “a coffee with a copper” for advice.

Tesco bosses also hope the police presence will deter shoplifters. The supermarket giant’s security director Alan Brown – a former Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner – said: “Tesco is at the heart of the community so it makes sense for us to work with the police. Local businesses joining forces with the police is a great way of building safer local communities and builds on our commitment to customers and neighbourhoods.”

Tesco is this week asking all its stores to get involved with their local force. It says special constables who lose their jobs will be first in the queue if they have any vacancies for managers, team leaders or customer assistants.

Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson said today: “We greatly value the help that Tesco can provide in supporting our Safer Neighbourhood Teams.”

Morning all: two community police officers mingle with shoppers at the Tesco store at Rainham. The supermarket giant will open its doors to police to boost community relations

What do the public think?

“Check out your local bobby ..”?
No, check out your local plastic bobby. The two pictured for this article have no more powers than the little old lady in the background.Labour’s coppers on the cheap.
Frank, Home Counties, England.

Do they seriously have nothing better to do?
Bob, Cheam

Building community relations is key in the prevention and apprehension of ‘bank robbers, violent criminals, rapists and muggers’ as people developing increasing trust to inform and report.
although this idea comes across as twee, think back to before tesco, people would talk to the local police officer as they did their shopping, maybe this is just moving with the times??
Bethan, london, uk

I wonder how many bank robbers, violent criminals, rapists and muggers the police will apprehend in Tescos?
Upon seeing the police in Tescos I am positive that many peeps will give the rip-off stores a wide berth.
Reuben Camara, Morecambe Compound, EUSSR

What do YOU think?

Not in My Neighbourhood Week

MyPolice love Not in My Neighbourhood Week, a national scheme which encourages people to learn more about work being done to tackle crime, will run from November 2 to 6 and is an opportunity for police and partner agencies to showcase the work they do to make communities safer and improve their quality of life.

Throughout the week officers and partner agencies across Avon and Somerset will run operations to action specific neighbourhood issues and encourage communities to engage with the police and play their part in tackling crime.

A range of initiatives will happen over the course of the week such as operations to tackle anti social behaviour, dangerous driving, drugs to more light-hearted events such as crime reduction bingo for elderly residents.

Chief Constable Colin Port, said:

“Not in My Neighbourhood Week is a great opportunity to proactively work with people to find out what their main concerns are and show the general public that we are tackling the priorities they have identified. Anti social behaviour and crime has such a big impact on the quality of life of local residents and this is a week to showcase the ongoing work we do in partnership with local agencies to tackle these problems.”

People tell the truth

The National Young Volunteer Service, have created Voicebox to curate the views of young people, to visualize these view points and set them free.

“We want to make sure the government have an accurate picture of what young people are really like.We are asking people to tell us what they care about, so we can take these messages and put them in the Houses of Parliament in October 2009. These messages are being written out, word by word, stroke by stroke by The Voicebot, an industrial writing robot arm which is connected to the internet. Visit www.vinspired.com/voicebox to have your turn.”

Follow them on twitter.

This week we will be posting up the viewpoints that #mypolice share. Absolutely brilliant initiative.

MyPolice meet Dr. Susan Batchelor

Last week MyPolice had coffee with Dr. Susan Batchelor, we met her at ‘Research Methods: Crime and Justice’ at Dynamic Earth earlier this month where she spoke about young women and violence.

We spoke about the ethical issues regarding MyPolice. For example, if someone tells us someone is hurting them or they intend to hurt someone else we are obliged to pass this information on.

“If it’s part of the polices’ job description be assured they will do it.”

We discussed what site guidelines for under 18’s might look like and the main things visitors will want to know when they visit the site:

• who is funding this?
• what will happen to the info I submit?

Susan shared some of her recent research with us surrounding social networking sites. She is working closely  with drug addicts who use Bebo as their main route for social support. She is introducing us to SACRO as we realise that offenders are victims too. She also opened our eyes to the role witnesses play and their emotional and physical journeys through the criminal justice system.

Thank you Susan!

MyPolice goes to Coventry

This week is crammed with exciting people and places. We are traveling to Coventry to present at NPIA’s Policing 2.0 Conference.

“The NPIA Citizen Focus and Neighbourhood Policing Programme is organising the first national conference for the police service in England and Wales looking at the impact of social media.

‘Policing 2.0 – the Citizen and Social Media’ will include presentations from forces who have been early adopters in using social media and speakers from outside the world of policing who will discuss the wider impact.

The emergence of cheap and accessible information technology and the increasing importance of the Citizen Focus approach means that police forces are beginning to use social media sites such as facebook and twitter as part of their communications and engagement strategies. At the same time citizens are looking to social media as a platform to comment on, or engage with policing.”

Really looking forward to sharing our latest video at this event:

more about “MyPolice on Vimeo“, posted with vodpod

We will also be going to The Festival of Interdependence. Please say hello if you are there. Planning to spend time with MyPolice mentors Cassie Robinson and Kate Andrews, and meeting up with the team Future Gov.

And of course… Service Design Drinks.

Mypolice goes to Edinburgh

We presented at This Happend 3 on Monday night.

It was great fun ! Lots of interesting friendly people and not a night of egos. The speakers were encouraged to lift the hood of our projects and unpack problems we have faced, sharing how things work and how they are made. Celebrating failures and successes!

Peter Pratt talked about Walking through time : a web application that uses technology to take us back in time. Their project is a chance for you to literally get ‘into’ a map.  Historic maps are hidden away in classrooms and libraries – this project is all about access. It has huge potential and I believe it could be a massive hit with architecture student!!

Michael Salmond took a double decker bus ride to a whole new level, exploring the juxtaposition of ideas of colonialism and cultural diversity. Interesting use of film and documentation!

Paul Rogers and Euan Winton explored the usage of Social Technology Systems (STS) such as YouTube, Second Life, Wikipedia, Facebook, and Flickr during the design process of a number of creative practitioners. I must admit this talk left us a little perplexed as Paul and Euan don’t have their own blogs or twitter accounts. They used a constructed toolkit of design methods and engagement tools on designers – who are used to this way of working. So it was difficult for us to understand why this had been done, especially without any mention of twitter and blogging which are appearing to become staples of networking and documenting in designer’s online lives.  This talk was timely for us as we recently launched Studio Unbound at Glasgow School of Art last week… more on this coming soon…

Anab Jain shared The Power of 8 a brilliant project that we have been following since it’s launch. We love it!!

Brillint to meet Andy Hyde, Ian Sharman, Scott Tweeddale, Thomas Welsh, Hazel and Erin…

This happened

Tonight, we are presenting mypolice at This Happened… Sarah and I are hoping to meet new people and share our work and ideas. Fingers crossed we will get to put some faces to some tweeters too!

This is the first official MyPolice presentation since Social Innovation Camp. We will talk for ten minutes about the service and the story behind it. As Sarah says:

“I think it’s very important to share your process with people as you work on projects, it’s never easy and other people can learn alot from how you got from nothing to finished product.  You can also learn alot yourself, and importantly, gain feedback from people if you’re opening up your process as you go.  There are always peaks and troughs, and mypolice has certainly had both with more to come I’m sure.”

If you are there, be sure to say hello! :) If not you can follow the goings on at the @mypolice twitter account.

 

Mypolice goes to the Scottish Police College

Last night the mypolice team attended The Third Annual Lecture by Lawrence Sherman on Evidence-Based Policing: What We Know and How We Know it, at The Scottish Police College, Tulliallan.

The PowerPoint presentation is on their website, together with a recording of the talk.  These can be accessed from: http://www.sipr.ac.uk/events/Annual_Lecture_2009.php

Here are our notes from the session:

But what does all this the have in common with tennis? When a trainer sees his student hit a ball he sees how she hits it and where it lands. In the police – after the ball hits – the lights go out? They never see where it lands or how it gets there? Does and can MyPolice turn the lights on?