Raising Awareness!

Awareness of what’s going on, and thanks to ‘Syston Town News’ who accompanied us along the Barkby Brook you’ll be able to read in this edition all about our ‘walk through’ with the Environment Agency (the cavalry) the council representatives, and the Syston Community Flood Group (the group has been in constant contact throughout the year with the EA, Leicestershire and Borough Councils and this will continue).
Until the 1/100 flood episode in January we never felt the need to spend evenings at council meetings, most definitely no desire to becoming a local councillor, leaving that to those who thought they’d be able to make a difference!  Happy to live quietly, raised a family, supported local events, shops, continuing with our voluntary work in the community with the elderly, vulnerable, sometimes isolated adults, preferring to believe that when the council tax bill lands on the mat each year (after gulping at this years percentage increase) that the expenditure is actually being used transparently and proactively for the good of Syston, and its attending these council meetings that has led to our eyes being opened, more residents really should go along for a listen, its an experience!
Reality check back to the present, we’ve currently got a Brook which has been so badly neglected by authorities for 20 years some residents we speak to want to weep, they remember how it used to be, clear of silt and vegetation, allowing water to pass through, time has stood still this year (sadly for some much longer) but nature hasn’t, it’s thriving with these sunny spells and showers, but the mess is being cleared by the Environment Agency soon, very soon.
Once the Brook is cleared and the watercourse is flowing how it should, we both hope we never feel the need to spend our evenings at any council meeting (local or otherwise) whether speaking on behalf of neighbours or just ourselves, (speaking on ‘behalf of others’ isn’t welcomed, well that’s how we feel), meetings where we felt unwelcome by the somewhat ‘unfriendly tone directed at us’ (that’s ‘our personal view, others air their personal views sometimes to, those that know, know’) we’ve learnt a lot this year, the madness of over zealous rules, regulations, and tick box ? exercises and surprisingly heard lots of nonsense to regarding *reed beds, *fire doors, *flood barriers (though a bit more thought has gone into the fire door/flood barriers scenario since) in a Brook full of mess, and a world of madness, these ridiculous things above * have made us, and others we’ve spoken to laugh out loud on more than one occasion, the laughter has been needed, our motivation continues. 
On a more personal note ‘advisory signage’ was erected by the Town Council along areas of the Brook and we have objected to three of those lines (=10 words), unnecessary, unwanted by those affected by flooding (the affected residents being the minority, not the majority of the towns residents), alas the Town Council over ruled our personal objection as it’s their ‘duty of care’ to make the majority of residents aware that:- “Flooding is possible, be prepared, sign up for flood alerts”
An example of ‘duty of care’ was used at the last Development meeting in reference to anyone parking a vehicle in the vicinity of the Brook, the council had a ‘duty of care to make motorists aware that the area they parked in might flood’, it seems the ‘health and wellbeing of the minority of residents who were actually affected in some way by flooding’ are way down the list of priorities! A simple ‘parking is at your own risk’ for motorists would do the job would it not?
So, those households in differing locations along the Brook who kindly wrote your name, signed, dated, gave your postcode and house number on our pre-printed letters asking for the advisory signage to be amended, it’s a NO from the Town Council, despite previously saying they would discuss the request if more than one household objected, it’s apparent that a decision had already been made even before the Council took their seats, WHY this time, because the two paragraphs of the letter were the same, our Town Council would NOT accept a request of amendments to signage (which would cost nothing to do) from 44 householders in flood affected areas
We don’t intend to let this one go, and it was suggested at the council meeting we might like to approach every other authority that had advisory signage around the town and ask them to amend those as well, really you say, yes really!
It would be nice to think that our Town Council after reading this article would reconsider and quietly reverse their decision, restoring a tiny bit of faith that they actually listen to their residents!
We just want to say, we’ve met some really nice people this year, whether it’s meeting up and working with the Syston Community Flood Group (systonfloodgroup@gmail.com) or by knocking on doors gathering support from residents over the signage, thank you for engaging with us and being kind.
Its going to take a long time to find and build a ‘community spirit’ after all this, but we hope with the ‘Syston Community Flood Group’ on board who have worked hard to raise awareness and get the message out there, that the health and well-being of the residents (ratepayers) of Syston, along with its local businesses who were affected, and its Brook front and centre has been raised enough, so that all the authorities are under no illusion that collectively and individually we all actually matter, and that our watercourse ‘must not be forgotten by those relevant councils’ after the Environment Agency clean up has been completed!!
M & K (Concerned Residents)