Merton needs Councillors who will listen and be honest and transparent about the choices to be made
WHAT WE'VE DONE
Worked with the Council and achieved a significant number of improvements over the last 4 years - both big and small, as evidenced in this manifesto.
Promoted the growing use of public questions in Council meetings - an innovation we persuaded the administration to adopt in the previous Council term.
Pushed for a review of the Community Forums to examine how they can be made more relevant.
Persuaded Council to live-stream, and archive, all public meetings on YouTube.
Unsuccessfully tried to stop Labour and the Conservatives changing the Council's constitution so they could block the Lib Dems from chairing scrutiny meetings!
WHAT WE'LL DO
In Merton all major decisions made by the cabinet of lead councillors are scrutinised by a number of committees - the Lib Dems will stop the current practice whereby the governing party pick the Chairs of those committees.
The Lib Dems will introduce reforms to allow residents' Community forums to operate more like peoples’ assemblies, directly contributing to local democracy.
We’ll use consultation exercises to engage, educate and inform - winning hearts & minds before instituting changes such as Schools Streets and other traffic & parking measures.
We’ll review the workings of the Council cabinet system & consult on returning to a committee structure.
We pledge to take bold decisions, admit where we get it wrong and learn from our mistakes.