Forum Topic

Online engagement sessions - is it true?

Is it true that the online engagement sessions or completing the Streetspace feedback consultations are all fully booked and no more voices from we residents can be heard?   Did anyone really believe Hounslow Council were ever serious about consulting with us?

Jennifer Selig ● 2128d21 Comments

I'm not sure what you mean by 'online engagement sessions'. If you mean the opportunity to give feedback why not google something like 'Hounslow Council Streetspace feedback' - a page comes up which gives a close date of 31 January.

Anne England ● 2128d

P.S. First you ask a question to which you don't know the answer (presumably) and then ask whether or not anybody really believed that Hounslow were serious about consulting 'with us'. If you don't know the answer to the first bit, then why set about having a dig?

Anne England ● 2128d

The online consultation for South Chiswick on 11th January is now fully booked. It is a Zoom session and there is a limit to how many people can take part. It was advertised weeks ago and I booked immediately. Perhaps those who could not get a place should either use the online feedback or find someone who is booked in to give their opinions too.

Susan Jennifer Thackray ● 2127d

So have they spent the extra £480, and now have up to 1,000 attending? Or are they on the SMB model with 300?https://zoom.us/pricing

Russell Pearson ● 2127d

It does seem slightly odd that it got booked up so quickly - before most people even heard it was happening. According to Cllr Lambert's weekly update on BrentfordTW8.com only a handful of people logged into the one for that area. Even allowing for the fact that there are fewer controversial projects there that does seem inconsistent.

Paul Corcoran ● 2127d

They have MS Teams too. “Number of people in a meeting (can chat and call in) 350”Would be useful to know how many are attending.

Russell Pearson ● 2127d

This is what they have said "I understand the Chiswick South event has reached its maximum allowance – the limit for interactive Teams sessions is 100 attendees which is set by Microsoft not the Council. As noted in the press release additional sessions will be arranged providing there is demand, as a result an additional session is currently being arranged for Chiswick South which will be publicised once sorted."I note that at the CAF there were real IT problems with the few that they had - with freezing and people not connecting. I have seen on the net that people have reported that anything over 150 and everything crashes. I assume that there are other factors including bandwidth maybe? Also maybe they haven't got the right license for the addin for extra people to be able to call in? I don't know. But if people subscribe to Hounslow Matters online, they will get advance notice of when the next meeting is happening

Iris Hill ● 2127d

They can't even get that right either, know one or two of my neighbours who have not received their copy of Hounslow Matters - also of course, some chuck it in the recycling bin as it is a "me, me, haven't I done well, propogander rag!".  In my case I do flip through to check for info. I may need like recycling dates etc.

Jennifer Selig ● 2127d

350 for an interactive Teams meeting. Should be no performance issues - trying to work out how they messed up the last ones. Maybe their own network connection is too poor. But even so, it’s cloud based. Any event, MS could have identified and sorted it out, if they’d asked.

Russell Pearson ● 2127d

Our Council ASK???  They've never done such a thing - they always know best!

Jennifer Selig ● 2127d

Russell - that is something out of my expertise! I think their network probably has issues given the amount of times you see Councillors reporting problems with communication via the Council iPads, but the problems at that meeting could also be to do with Councillors' own connections. At one point, John Todd had to get the IT team to sort things out as there was vision but no sound. I suspect that LBH were caught out by the amount of people that wanted to come to this particular meeting - I don't think they have time to read this forum or Nextdoor. Also reading Councillor Lambert's blog, there seems to have been little interest in the Brentford consolation, and they might have thought the Chiswick one would be similar.

Iris Hill ● 2127d

Russell:  You obviously know quite a bit about IT however if you were to take a look at something like planning committee meetings all over the country or just the MPs asking question in the HoC online you would find people struggling with the IT all over the country.  It seems that it is something that no sooner have you put it in then it is out of date.  It is time that Govts took some action against the monopolising companies who make such a fortune from this make-use for 5min-trash systems and made sure that they make their products more updatable, adaptable and consumer and planet friendly.  Lots of people must have homes where they still have to climb a hill or go down the bottom of the garden to get good reception/an internet signal.It is even less accessible when the youngsters who have a better grasp of the technology and of the problems are isolating elsewhere.

Philippa Bond ● 2127d

Would have to be multiple poor connections and unlike Skype, Teams’ voice codec doesn’t drop to the lowest on the call. Sounds like they haven’t got Microsoft 366 set up property yet. There’s call quality data they could easily check, If they have em set up.

Russell Pearson ● 2127d

Could be. ?outsourced IT support on a pay per use basis?

Iris Hill ● 2127d

I know a bit about collaboration software like Teams - the govt are mostly using Zoom for their Boriscam meetings. They have a Teams project, but making slow progress it seems. All cloud based so it should just work without any issues for doing basic stuff like a webinar.

Russell Pearson ● 2127d

Sounds like the need a 365 architect to come in and look at what they have set up but it’s basically that anyway - pay per license with MS support. 3rd party audio visual ,companies only tend to be brought in if a large public event or a town hall meeting. Guess this is a town hall meeting of sorts!

Russell Pearson ● 2127d

Well the fact remains that the residents of Chiswick cannot make their voices heard!

Jennifer Selig ● 2127d

I suspect the limit on numbers is tactical rather than technical. If the max is 100 the Council can alert sympathetic voices early to ensure that enough sign up to ensure that the line of questioning isn't overwhelmingly hostile. If the number was above that those in favour of the schemes would represent such a small proportion of the participants that it would be impossible to sustain the argument there was local support.

Francis Rowe ● 2125d

Council elections?

Stewart Jones ● 2125d

I posted on Brentford TV about it and to cut a long story short, Cllr Dunne has promised some extra sessions for Chiswick.

Russell Pearson ● 2125d

Iris, the Brentford session was poorly attended because very few road changes have been made in Brentford: on the other hand Chiswick's roads have been decimated and have been subject to many petitions, campaigns and ignored 'consultations'. The few places afforded to Chiswick residents is an affront. Let's see if Cclr Dunne is true to her word and more sessions are put on or those already set up are expanded. But what Chswick residents must also be aware of is the next 'consultation' which closes on 31st Jan where people actually can ask for reversal. Whether they act on residents wishes is one matter, and whether they restrict responses to residents is another. If it's yet another 'fix' I can only imagine what might happen.https://haveyoursay.hounslow.gov.uk/traffic-and-transport/streetspace-feedback/

Mandy Waters ● 2124d