The Beaconsfield Society thinks that Beaconsfield could do with a Council run newsletter for residents - that informs, educates and includes. Here is why...
We all know finding out what is going on in any town is a challenge, even for these committed to tracking down information. One of the positives influences to come out of social media is that finding information has gotten a lot easier - as long as someone is posting, you stand a chance of finding out stuff. But as we are frequently reminded, many are either not on social media or not regular users - though this is changing rapidly.
However, here lies the first of the challenges of good communication in a town like Beaconsfield. This type of communication is often called 'pull communications' - i.e. you post it and pull people to find it. But the harder type of communications is 'push communications', i.e. those that get pushed out to readers or listeners. Think how differently we respond to texts or WhatsApp messages pinging when they come in instead of having to go in at regular intervals and find messages. And herein lies the challenge for getting people in town to be aware of issues.
Many Town Councils produce newsletter - to tell people of consultations, developments, or changes to local things and let residents know how the town is doing. We know that even though we in the Society run many communications channels, they often still miss certain members of our community. But if you are committed to doing a good job on communications, then push communications is the way forward. Newsletters are the way forward.
We have heard so many times from Council officers and Councillors, "Well, it's on the website! Why aren't people aware of it??". There seems to be an assumption that residents should be spending all day searching Council websites to find out what is happening! Well, here is some news - they don't and won't. Therefore the responsibility of being a good communicator rests with the communicator, not the those being communicated to. That rule is ignored at your peril. If you really want people to know, you tell them it's important, and you repeat it.
With all this in mind, many moons ago, The Beaconsfield Society made an open offer to assist the Town Council in improving its communications with the town's inhabitants. We knew how successful our newsletters where and we pointed out this would be at least a start to engaging better with the town.
This offer rolled off the back of an old project called 'Vision 4 Beaconsfield', which had identified poor communications as something the town residents had said they wanted to be improved as it would help them stay informed and up to date on town-wide issues, challenges and topics of concern - or even just stuff that was being worked on.
That offer was rejected, and so were three other offers over the following three years. Why? We were told that some Council members felt that they didn't need assistance, and others thought it might be some political ploy the nature of which they couldn't control. Whatever the reasoning, it never happened in any meaningful way.
The Society had the skills inhouse, the channels for getting the newsletter out and the willingness to help the Town Council produce one because we knew resources were stretched. The Town Council then began producing a newsletter - it only had two outings and then stopped. The last was in late 2019.
This has always struck us as strange that many Town Councils produce newsletters, and for three years, the Council website asked people to submit their emails address to be kept up to speed on town developments - we have no idea where all those email addresses went! Maybe someone has a spreadsheet somewhere. But to be frank, the town is actually informed more about local events activities and issues by civic groups more than our own Council. To our minds, this doesn't seem right and is poor leadership on communications.
You might think this is just our view, but even the Town Council agrees as their own strategic plan (2017-2021) outline as Fundamental Aim No.
2 the following :
"To actively work with the Beaconsfield community in the Town Council’s policymaking. Maintaining and enhancing two-way communication with local organisations, both official and voluntary and with the population as a whole. Aim to enlarge the profile of the Town Council through effective communications both via print and technology." Beaconsfield Town Council 2017
So we would suggest that far more effort is put into committing to fulfilling this fundamental aim of the Town Council. Everyone would benefit from an improved engagement from our Councillors to the residents of our lovely town. (This commitment will form part of the Beaconsfield Society pledge.)
