Our First Open Meeting

On Wednesday 27th May we held our first open meeting in the community hall. It was well attended and we are grateful to everyone who turned out on such a humid mid-week evening. It was a pleasure to meet so many of our neighbours and to discover how united we are in our concerns and in our determination to fight for our homes.

We had some useful discussions and exchange of ideas about next steps and many residents stepped up to volunteer for an active role in our campaign. One thing that became clear is that we are not alone in facing this threat to our homes and our community. Similar perils are being faced by neighbourhoods like ours all over the borough and more widely across London. We would like to hear from others who, like us, are fighting for survival: please spread the word!

One thing that we are committed to is that this struggle will draw us even closer as a community and that we will be as inclusive as possible of everyone who lives here. We know that there are some residents who don't find it easy to get out to meetings and may worry about opening their doors to strangers. We hope their neighbours will talk to them and let us know how they would like to be involved. Similarly, we would be grateful for assistance in communicating with our neighbours who do not speak English as their first language. If you would be willing to act as an interpreter or translator please get in touch.

An idea we will be taking forward is to use this opportunity to tell our Queen Caroline Estate stories, past and present. If you would be happy to be interviewed by us and tell your story of your life here, to be published on this blog, we'd be delighted to hear from you. Likewise if you have photos of the estate or local area that we can copy do get in touch. The photograph above is of Hammersmith Bridge at sunset, taken from the edge of our estate in January 2009.

We also intend to make sure we have some fun together along the way. What we are facing is difficult and distressing but if we support each other, work together but also play together we can do it. In the spirit of this our first meeting ended with a prize draw - congratulations to the three lucky winners!

We appreciate that our three local Councillors accepted our invitation and came along to our meeting to pledge their support: Lisa Nandy, Mike Cartwright and Stephen Cowan. At a time when politicians are at an all time low in public opinion and all too easily dismissed as 'all the same' it was refreshing to see some tangible evidence that perhaps they are not. In response to questions the councillors (currently in opposition) gave assurances that should the Council return to Labour control our homes will be safe.