So a thought on #CrossingGate for council officers. Unless you have a budget and authority to progress a resident request, refer the public to councillors. They are elected to make decisions on budgets and priorities. When I took over in my LA role I inherited The List. This was

literally lever arch files full of requests for changes to the highway. The List was to shut people up. Most of it was never going to be taken forward. I binned it and my approach was to refer residents to ward councillors, unless already on a programme. I would inevitably get

the request from the ward councillor who had to ask it to be taken forward to an advisory committee which was cross party. The committee made and owned the decisions on what was taken forward. Without a budget or authority to do stuff (other than very minor things) the political

leadership had to take responsibility. The List approach didn't expose the political side to the reality of the volume of requests and it allowed councillors to blame officers for inaction. By owning priorities, councillors were involved in the process and they had to consider

priorities, with professional advice. I'd have preferred stronger leadership, but they agree the systems, policies and approaches, so they had to own it.

It also made it harder for administration councillors to jump the queue, or if they did (through executive functions) they were grilled by the opposition rather than officers copping it. A bit long-winded, but it's always worth campaigners finding out how decisions are made

because there will be pressure points which can be used to lobby for change.