Individual determination and the long standing dissatisfaction of the West Somerset Council electorate yesterday successfully combined to overcame the glossy leaflet campaign launched by the entrenched Conservative majority in the Local Council Elections of May 3rd 2007.
Those Independent Councillors who are now newly elected and who have, arguably, achieved a triumph of the individual against the organisation, may well feel justified in taking some time off from politics during this Bank Holiday weekend to enjoy some quiet satisfaction (and rest their sore feet).
Sadly though, the journey has only just begun and their election success is only a first step along a very rocky road to achieving genuine progress for West Somerset.
The next step is to exercise control over a West Somerset Council bureacracy that may well yet have it’s own agenda and be very prepared to promote it vigorously.
Indeed, the many intricacies of Local Government regulations could easily trip up any unwary newly elected and Independent Local Government Councillors and yet prevent them implementing the wishes of the electorate.
It is vital that the community values of open cooperation and political inclusion that have brought these private individuals into public office are now placed at the head of a new and publicly stated open Government agenda for West Somerset.
Time is short and the Tory Party machine and 13 elected Conservative Councillors wait in the wings ready to take advantage of any slip.
The community of West Somerset has propelled these 16 new Independent Councillors into power and it is now vital that they make full use of the e-democratic collective intelligence of the West Somerset community to overcome the policy challenges that have bedevilled West Somerset and Exmoor for too long.
I firmly believe that involving all the community in policy discussion using modern e-democracy systems is not an optional extra, but is a necessary pre-requisite to further success.
What do you think about e-Government?
Rob
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