Opinion: Does Effingham Residents’ Association Want to Know Residents’ Views? Or Not?

Published on: 9 Dec, 2020
Updated on: 11 Dec, 2020

By Chris Dick

A local residents’ association has taken unusual action when faced by adverse reader comments on its website.

The volunteer trustees who manage Effingham’s King George V hall and playing fields closed the main car park off Browns Lane, because of the risk of illegal incursions.

How new security measures are expected to look when work is complete

At busy times, this has resulted in cars being parked the length of Browns Lane and in nearby streets. The volunteer trustees have acknowledged the closure has caused inconvenience to residents.

Those most affected live in Barnes Wallis Close, off Browns Lane, a small estate run by Mount Green Housing Association.

Residents driving from this estate into Browns Lane face risks and delays. The parked cars cause blind spots, and narrow the lane to single-track. On several occasions, police have had to try to resolve these difficulties. New security measures are expected in mid-December.

Now Effingham Residents Association, faced by continuing adverse comments on its website, just wipe them out after a couple of days but leave any positive comments.

The deleted comment.

On November 30, an adverse comment was posted after an article about the new security arrangements: That vanished two days later.

Website moderators are expected to set standards of decency and legality. But for a residents’ association to censor critical comments from its residents sends an ominous message, shutting off views of residents an anonymous someone or some anonymous group does not like.

Does the association wish to know the views of the residents it purports to represent, or not?

The association is expected to support the trustees over this difficult period. Indeed, the trustee chairman is on the residents’ association committee.

But to maintain any sort of credibility, a residents’ association must offer differing points of view. To allow one socioeconomic group to dominate another is unhealthy.

A residents’ association that purveys the views of only one group and excludes others cannot be regarded as an association, but just a misnamed middle-class interest group.

Effingham Residents Association needs to decide what they represent and who they serve.

The association editor was invited to comment on whether the removal of adverse comments was a committee decision. No reply had been received at the time of posting this article.

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