Draft e-mail to send to council - invitation to comment
Dear Stephen,A number of us who are regulars on the Hammersmith community neighbournet website (http://www.hammersmithtoday.co.uk/default.asp?section=community&link=http://nnet-server.com/server/app/forum/default.asp?site=7) are concerned about the lack of activity on the Forum. On Friday at 14:36 one of our members checked and there were 178 people connected to the ChiswickW4 website (http://www.chiswickw4.com/default.asp?section=community&link=http://nnet-server.com/server/app/forum/default.asp?site=1; with only 7 connected to the Hammersmith site. It is unclear why so few people use it. The Chiswick forum is a model of excellence. In fact many of us from Hammersmith use the Chiswick forum. The police and councillors use the forum on a regular basis (Indeed, councillors Adrian Lee is a profilic contributor to the site – I have copied Councillor Lee in). A vibrant forum can offer a number of benefits to the community:• Provide an effective space for advise / recommendations on services such as tradesmen, etc.• Could be used as a sounding board for political representatives on new proposals• Provide information on the local area.• Could assist in crime prevention. Both victims of crime and the police use the Chiswick Forum.• Social networking – assists in getting people together for football, softball etc, social events etc. • Assist local historians. • Creates a sense of community• Help increase the stock of social capital in the area. (Robert Putnam the American Public Policy expert has said – ‘that social capital has plummeted, impoverishing our lives and communities’. Putnam drew on evidence including nearly 500,000 interviews in the US over the last quarter century to show that we sign fewer petitions, belong to fewer organizations that meet, know our neighbors less, meet with friends less frequently, and even socialize with our families less) I think there is a lot of merit in the council promoting the use of the Forum, perhaps through the Council’s newspaper or maybe there could be a hyperlink on the Borough site. Maybe councillors and police could also potentially use the forum. This would help generate more traffic and encourage people who are registered to use it more. Look forrward to hearing from you.Kind Regards
John Kennedy ● 7073d18 Comments