Dear Messenger,
United we should stand for divided we have fallen.
I’m writing in response to the letter about New Deal and Burngreave Community Action Trust (BCAT). The sad truth is that when New Deal was being established, with community participation and consultation, all that we said did not have any real weight when it came to the crunch. Burngreave Community Action Forum (BCAF) wanted, with community support, to have a majority say in what happened with this alleged ‘community fund’ of New Deal money. We were told that we would only have seven of the fifteen votes thus ensuring that New Deal would be able to claim democracy but know it would always be able to put its agenda and plans into practice whatever the democratically elected representatives thought.
Pretending that there is democracy when patently there is no real power in the community hands at all, was I think a deliberate deceit. Even though BCAF/BCAT may be viewed as undemocratic this organisation listens and fights to represent TRUE community against this UNDEMOCRATIC central government ‘quango’.
New Deal believes in Communities (plural) and defined by ethnic and other dubious definitions, it divides us. Whereas BCAF/BCAT defines community (singular) as geographical and therefore totally inclusive and is unifying.
Name and address supplied