Ealing Citizens Accountability Assembly Asks for Electoral Pledges
Local politicians urged to commit to social justice
Ealing's politicians hear what local people would like them to do
The biggest pre-local election assembly was held earlier this week as Ealing Citizens brought together 100 leaders from non-partisan alliance of 6 faith and education institutions.
They combined to present their key priorities and ask for electoral pledges from local politicians who were in attendance. Specific question were put to the local party leaders - Peter Mason (Labour Party), Gary Malcolm (Liberal Democrats), Gregory Stafford (Conservatives).
Areas in which they were demanding more action included the Living Wage, rogue landlords and Special Educational Needs provision.
Ealing Citizens is a ‘chapter’ of community organising charity Citizen’s UK, and its Ealing Citizens Accountability Assembly was held on Wednesday 27 April at 7-8.30pm at Christ the Saviour, New Broadway.
Ealing Citizens ran a 400-person listening campaign consisting of small group meetings and one on one conversations to identify key priorities from November 2021 to January 2022. Since then, these proposals have been refined through workshops with external experts to determine clear and achievable asks for the next Leader of the Council.
Members of the community voiced their concerns to would-be decision makers in order to improve the lives of ordinary people and their families across the borough. They are the students, vicars and community workers from the groups who form Ealing Citizens. Within these member organisations, there are over 5,000 local people.
Jackie Ashmenall, Co-chair of Citizens UK and local Ealing resident said, ‘We all have a role in changing the systems that cause inequality in our communities. Our Ealing Citizens Assembly can help us to build the people power we need to make a difference.’
The group show the key 'asks' for local political leaders
There was a call to make Ealing into a Living Wage place, double the number Living Wage accredited businesses in the borough and help to raise the average wages across the board.
Justin Dodd, vicar of St Barnabas Church asked for the creation of Special Educational Needs (SEN) Champions to support parents in navigating the SEN system.
He said, “Exhausted Special Educational Needs parents are drowning in red tape. We need someone on our side, helping us to find our way in a complex and overburdened system. SEN champions will do just that!”
It was also proposed that measures should be taken to improve renters’ knowledge of their rights by running workshops to hold their landlords accountable
Caetano Fernandes a cleaner at Heathrow Airport ffrom St Anselm’s Catholic Church in Southall, said, ‘Living on low pay, I have been suffering daily. I cannot feel secure, am very stressed and I cannot save even a few pounds. It’s very hard to know how much you need to get by each month as prices are creeping up and up. Next month my colleagues and I will start to receive the London Living Wage of £11.05 an hour. Now we will finally be able to get some of the things we need. It will make a huge difference to us. Our voice wasn’t listened to before - we were speaking but the message wasn’t getting out. But now we feel our voices are finally being heard. We want to make sure this suffering in our community stops by joining together to push for more Ealing employers to pay the real Living Wage.’
PJ Grayson from St Martin’s, West Acton, said, ‘If there are had been mental health champions when I was seeking help last year, it would have been a lot less anxiety-inducing and stressful time. This is why we want the council to create mental health champions and I want to train up as one so that others don’t have to go through what I did.’
Citizens UK organises communities to act together for power, social justice and the common good. The home of community organising in the UK, it has diverse civil society alliances in London, Milton Keynes, Nottingham, Birmingham, Wales, Leeds, Newcastle, Leeds, Preston, Peterborough and Manchester. It aims to develop the leadership capacity of our members to organise against social injustice affecting their communities, and are most well-known for the Living Wage Campaign, which it has been building since 2001, and has since put 2 billion pounds back into the pockets of working people.
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April 28, 2022
