What is it with London’s public services and their failure to proactively publicise meetings?
Earlier this week I showed how our friends at Transport for London make very little effort to ensure Londoners are aware of its board meetings and when they’re taking place.
Despite having almost 150,000 interested Twitter followers, not a single Tweet has been sent over the past 12 months promoting the meetings. Instead TfL relies on an almost-hidden corner of its website and notices in 2 of its offices.
But shockingly they’re actually not the worst culprit – the London Ambulance Service’s board claims to do even less than TfL.
In response to an FOI request asking how much is spent asking how much promoting its board meetings, LAS says:
“No costs were incurred in publicising the last 12 LAS Board meetings as they were advertised on the LAS website.”
Like TfL they don’t seem to trouble their 25,100 Twitter followers with details of when they can come and see decisions about a vital service being taken – there’s not a single Tweet promoting the September or July meetings.
Unlike TfL, the Ambulance service does at least record how many members of the public manage to find out about and attend its board meetings:
29th January 2013: 5
26th March 2013: 4
4th June 2013: 4
25th June 2013: 2
23rd July 2013: 3
24th September 2013: 1
That’s out of a city of 8.3m.
Those figures make the LFEPA consultation meetings look like sell-out events.
The next meeting of the Ambulance Service board takes place Tuesday 26th November. If you’d like to go along the details will appear here nearer the time.
Update: The LAS has been in touch to say: “We do include details on our website but will review and tweet in future.”
Which is a bit of a win for everyone. Well done them.
