Member

We were grappling with these problems. Our first engagement in trying to do something about it was with the Liberals—they were not Liberal Democrats then. Someone called Peter Hughes was the leader of the council at that point, who had created nine neighbourhoods. Peter was a very good guy. We spent time working together with his officers on how we might take control of the derelict park behind our church buildings and manage it. We spent six months putting that model together, and we were just about there when there was a local election. The Liberal Democrats lost the election and the Labour Party won the election. Because the neighbourhoods had been a Liberal idea, the Labour Party decided to remove that structure and create seven committees. This was our first experience of trying to get anything done, with all the churn, with the public sector and its processes and the state. No one is to blame.