About Us
We've had a number of requests from residents and journalists about who we are, so we thought we'd create this page to tell you why the site exists and what we are all about.
We decided to set up Greenwich Watch about six weeks before the 2006 local elections. When we began the current Council term was winding down so we decided to take a simple approach. Get the site set up and prepared, then formally launch on Friday May 5th, the day after the local elections. We'd already arranged our access to the count for the election so we knew that our first official post would - we hoped - be a humourous review of the count for those that don't get to witness such strange and wonderful events.
Why did we feel we needed to run a blog dedicated to watching Greenwich Council? Well we're long standing residents of the borough and we felt that the Council had become somewhat autocratic, and it seemed to spend a lot of time spinning. We rarely saw the Council seriously held to account in the local press and we felt that we could have more impact on the web than in any other way.
We wanted to cut through the spin and provide a new (and occassionally more caustic) view of Greenwich Council. Our hope - with a bit of luck - is to at least keep them on their toes. Not only this we wanted to give the people of Greenwich a platform to make their views known that isn't affiliated to the Council and doesn't have to toe a party line.
This point is important. This is as much the people of Greenwich's site as it is ours. We allow people to publish their view through the Comments section, and, assuming it's not libelous or overtly abusive we will publish it. We are not afraid of debate and should people disagree with our commentary then we urge you to post a comment. We do ask that you avoid doing it with the "anonymous" option though. We'd rather you picked a silly name than post as anon. It makes it easier for other posters to respond to you directly if they disagree with your points.
Remember, this site is about the people of Greenwich making their point. If you have a story to tell then email us and we'll do the rest.
We decided to set up Greenwich Watch about six weeks before the 2006 local elections. When we began the current Council term was winding down so we decided to take a simple approach. Get the site set up and prepared, then formally launch on Friday May 5th, the day after the local elections. We'd already arranged our access to the count for the election so we knew that our first official post would - we hoped - be a humourous review of the count for those that don't get to witness such strange and wonderful events.
Why did we feel we needed to run a blog dedicated to watching Greenwich Council? Well we're long standing residents of the borough and we felt that the Council had become somewhat autocratic, and it seemed to spend a lot of time spinning. We rarely saw the Council seriously held to account in the local press and we felt that we could have more impact on the web than in any other way.
We wanted to cut through the spin and provide a new (and occassionally more caustic) view of Greenwich Council. Our hope - with a bit of luck - is to at least keep them on their toes. Not only this we wanted to give the people of Greenwich a platform to make their views known that isn't affiliated to the Council and doesn't have to toe a party line.
This point is important. This is as much the people of Greenwich's site as it is ours. We allow people to publish their view through the Comments section, and, assuming it's not libelous or overtly abusive we will publish it. We are not afraid of debate and should people disagree with our commentary then we urge you to post a comment. We do ask that you avoid doing it with the "anonymous" option though. We'd rather you picked a silly name than post as anon. It makes it easier for other posters to respond to you directly if they disagree with your points.
Remember, this site is about the people of Greenwich making their point. If you have a story to tell then email us and we'll do the rest.
posted by greenwich.watch at 8:55 pm
8 Comments:
You promised to tell us about you, but you haven't. There's always a suspicion that a site like this is just a cover for another political party. Why not give us some reassurance on that by telling us your names and any official connections you have with any political party?
David
David, you are absolutely right to say that there is always a suspicion. However, if you read the site thorough you wil see that we've reported on all the political parties and them all in contempt really.
The Labour Party has been ruling Greenwich for over 30 years now, they are complacently arrogant. The Tories are obssessed with Eltham at the expense of the rest of the Borough so they'll never win, and the Lib Dems are down to just two councillors who we enjoy calling the Dynamic Duo.
This site toes no party line whatsoever, and a quick browse of it will show you that (we apologise for not getting the tags working fully on all our stories). Crossrail is good example, the political parties, as far as we know, are officially in favour of the Woolwich station. We'e not because of the £1/4 billion shortfall that we, the people of Greenwich, are going to have pay if it goes ahead.
On the matter of our anonymity, we're afraid that it is as much for our protection as it is for the protection of our sources, and more importantly this site's ability to act without hinderance from the local Council.
The Council would love to shut us down. If we start publishing our names then we will find ourselves subject of displinary hearings, potentially being "managed out", facing spurious ASBOs, or whatever other pernicious methods can be thought of for honestly and openly scrutinising the Council.
You're not going to get our names. If this means you wish to ignore the site then so be it, that's your choice.
Any chance of RSS feeds? Much more convenient way of checking for updates. I discovered your site via "The Greenwich Phantom" by the way. Check out her blog at www.thegreenwichphantom.co.uk
We didn't even realise it was off. It's on now.
I personally appreciate what you're doing. I am acutely aware of the public money being used to attend to spin - I even heard recently about the new town hall (civic centre?) being sponsored by Tesco...what in creation is that all about? borough loyalty points..? Please post when you know...
Could there be a button on this website, which every time it was clicked, sent an email to greenwich council saying 'WANKERS'?
Failing that, just a simple text box where we could send them our comments?
Keep up the good work, someone needs to be on Greenwich Councils case!
What a wonderful Blog!
As a long time resident of the magnificent Borough I wish you every success in highlighting strange and irregular occurrences within the Socialist Republic of Greenwich.
We have something similar up in Merseyside where the Council were charged over £330 to put a new plug socket in a school. I have my concerns that it was one of the sparkies from The Director General or Earl of Chatham “doing a foreigner”..... or is that now a Politically Incorrect term?
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