Community Power Podcast 2 Episode 7: Resident-led leadership in Kent

Episode 7: Resident-led leadership in Kent

Chris Allen

Hello and welcome to this week’s Community Power Podcast, a series brought to you in partnership with Local Trust. My name’s Chris Allen, and in this series, we’re showcasing some incredible projects, focusing in particular on what happens when you give local people the resources, the power and the assets to make a difference to their neighbourhoods. With me is series producer Beth Lazenby. Who are we going to be hearing from this week Beth? 

Beth Lazenby

So this week we’re going to be chatting to Peter Scollard, who used to be part of the partnership at Northfleet Big Local and then went on to become a local councillor and is now mayor. 

Chris Allen

Indeed. He is indeed. So we also call him His Worshipful or something along those lines. Anyway. First of all, I asked Peter how he got involved with Big Local in the first place. 

Peter

I used to work away all week long. Then I had a baby girl, and I did start looking after me daughter. And it was the first time I walked around in the area. Because obviously when I finished work, at the weekend, we’d go off to the beach or something nice like that. When my daughter was born, my partner, my wife at the time, had the car, and I started going to mother and toddler groups and stuff like that. And started to notice where I lived an awful lot more so it was a very rundown area. An awful lot of graffiti, fly tipping, anti social behaviour, dog fowl everywhere, weeds everywhere. You had quite a few industries that sort of cement works, paper mills and stuff like that. And it’s just a general, really rundown area, actually unloved. 

Chris Allen

We should be saying thank you to your daughter for giving you this real awareness into what the community was like you know. 

Peter

Bless her, yeah. She’s, she’s, uh, 14 and a half now, going on 40, yeah. 

Chris Allen

And so you picked up some of the challenges, obviously, in the area, in the area there, and some that perhaps were a bit out of reach. You know, some of those that the local community couldn’t do anything about. But there were some things that they obviously could do. And that’s where you wanted to focus. 

Peter

We got we got a few estates. We got the Seven Avenues where I lived at the time. We got the Wallace Park estate. We got the Carlitman estate. But they used to stay in their own kind of gangs, and if people moved in from different areas, it’s very intimidating. Also, in the same way you was a foreign person that moved into the area, it was very intimidating. So I always call myself quite lucky when I moved into the house. I was originally from Essex. When I moved into the area, we got loads of abuse at the door and stuff like that. And we got we had three cars stolen. The reason I’m saying I’m lucky is because they stole my car, took it to the top of the road and burnt it out. And the reason I’m unlucky is because we had an Indian family that moved to the opposite side of the road to me. They stole their car and burnt it on their drive, put through all the windows and doors and stuff like that. So it was very much, you know, anti sociable, you know, no go areas. 

Chris Allen

Incredibly intimidating, though, for everyone who’s there, and very territorial. When you were confronted with this, what did you do? 

Peter

What I actually done is, I wanted to improve my area. So I found out about a meeting through a resident that was happening down the road in the local church. I expected it to be local council, councillors and stuff like that, but I saw all these people going. And I went literally down there to voice my opinions about my community, the unloved area, and the fact that people sort of like run it like the Wild West kind of thing. When I got there, I did voice me opinions. I shouted an awful lot and saying, ​“We’re in an area. What you doing for us?” And then later, ​“well, actually, Big Local, the reason we’re here”. And then they explained about Big Local and stuff like that. 

Through that, I set up a Residents’ Association. We did a couple of street parties where I tried to get the residents engaged with each other. So we did a Big Lunch Extra, and we did a royal wedding. And what I did is actually went round all the doors knocking on people. So this street we live in at the moment, it’s very, sort of like family orientated. They’re not very welcome to people from the outside community. I want to try and sort out, set up a party. It’s going to cost nobody, absolutely nothing. I’m getting funding from various groups and organisations, and if you can do a local dish from where you’re from, put a table outside. I’ll dress up all the streets. I’ll bring down a bouncy castle. I bring down clans. I’ll get all sumo suits. I’ll have a hog roast going. We’ll have a DJ. You know, just to meet your neighbours. And then from there, I was pretty much part of the Big Local and then got involved in various projects, which then led to other parts of the community within the Big Local area. 

Chris Allen

Given what you were saying earlier about the nature of the community, not welcoming, obviously the racism that was there as well. And even though, you know, you got one set of treatment as somebody coming in, and those from an ethnic minority background got another set of treatments, you must have been very proud of getting people together, because the context in which you were doing it was incredibly intimidating. 

Peter

So I’ve always been a little bit cheeky. And forward is the best way to put it. And so, no, it’s just using me cheek and charm, or whatever you want to call it, to sort of like do things and voice my opinion, I think. Probably not in the best ways always, but it always kind of helps. Yeah. 

Chris Allen

And obviously, a Big Local partnership is a group of residents that tries to, you know, works in their own neighbourhood, in their own areas. When did you make the decision that you wanted to go towards a different kind of model and, you know, represent the area as a local councillor. 

Peter

We set up loads of different groups on the Big Local subgroups and stuff like that. So I took on the young people subgroup, and I took on talking to the council about getting this community building up and running again. I got funding through Big local and through the council to get things like a pool table, projector screens, popcorn machines, music equipment. and we set up various clubs there that wasn’t just running for the Wallace Park children, but it was children within the whole community to bring them together. So that kind of happened. And then I set up something called Noble — which is a community interest company I still do, called Nobles Gardens — that tackled addressing the area, you know, make it more tidier, and stuff like that. 

And through all these roles of doing in a community, I was pretty much head hunted by the local council at the time. So all these things I’d always done as through Big Local, working with the council, or, you know, hearing about their funds, through people at the Big Local. They tap in, you know. They’d come to these meetings. You find out about this, and then it was then a case of a, ​“well, you’re doing all of this. You’re always coming to us. Why wouldn’t you like to be a councillor?” As you can tell, I talk like a lad from the market, I’m not into politics. He said, ​“I’m actually running for MP, so I’m going to stand down, and I think you’ll be a fantastic candidate for standing in this area”. He says, ​“you know the people you are a person of the people. You you support various people when you come to your issues, and I think it’d be good way for you to sort of like cut out the middle man, being us councillors and going directly to deal with these projects.” And for the first couple of years as a councillor is quite intimidating, because obviously well educated people doing this kind of job and saying the right words and stuff like that. 

Chris Allen

So did you feel you needed to learn a new language, then a new way of operating completely just wasn’t, didn’t fit your background at all? 

Peter

Things like acronyms, you know. They’ll give you a breakdown in the words. And I’m thinking, don’t want to stick my hand up and sound stupid but I don’t know what they’re on about. 

Chris Allen

Yeah, it’s difficult. 

Peter

Kind of felt intimidated. And other things I actually had as well before. I’ve never worked writing and stuff like that, or reading emails. And so it turned out, went to the doctors, and I had quite severe dyslexia, which I was struggling reading the emails and stuff like and writing email. So when I send an email, there’d be no full stops. Words will be I’ll be reading, saying the conversation in the air, writing it down, and after sentence will be kind of missing, or words back to front. And so I stopped kind of doing that. And you’re not meant to as a councillor. You have to do it all in emails. So I just started going to the officers and talking to the officers directly walking into the council, and it did change. I mean, I made fantastic relationships with the officers. Instead of doing emails backwards and forwards as well for stuff to happen, I think it’s nice if you can talk to a person, because you talk more in depth. 

Chris Allen

Yeah, and much more personal. And hopefully you perhaps raise some awareness with the council around somebody who has got dyslexia, because, you know, dyslexia shouldn’t be a barrier to the kind of service you’re offering for anybody, really. So systems should, should support you and the approach that you’re taking anyway. 

Peter

Well, now I’m actually the mayor, so. I’ve been councillor for eight years, and I think I’ve got bamboozled into that one as well, but I’m absolutely loving it, actually, yeah. 

Chris Allen

So you go around lots of different events, meeting lots of people at the moment. I must admit, I’ve known a few mayors and those who’ve got that kind of outgoing personality that you’ve got there, I’m sure fit in very well indeed. 

Peter

At the moment, I get told off because I have a chauffeur, and they’ll turn around saying, normally, when the mayors go in, they introduce themselves to the people when I was in events, and then they’re in and out. And we can be there. A fun example, went to an event on from seven o’clock to eight o’clock first Christmas fair, and we left at 10 o’clock because I thought it would be nice to talk to everybody that come along and, you know, find out what’s going on and stuff like that. 

Chris Allen

I’m sure it means a lot to people. 

Peter

I think it really does, actually. I mean, it makes it more personable. And I think that’s something that we kind of learned through working with Big Local. 

Chris Allen

During your life, obviously you talked about when you were at school, and dyslexia is obviously a problem right through your life, and limited the way you were able to learn. Do you think actually, you’ve grown up being a cheeky, chappy because of, perhaps, that disability of dyslexia. And that’s always that’s now made you much more personable to people, more approachable, and that’s the way you get things done. It’s by talking. 

Peter

Yeah, absolutely, definitely. I mean, as all my life. I mean, my role has always been like I was as a kid. I started a market at the age of nine, my grandfather had for fruit and vegetables. Although I am a politician, I don’t think local councillors should be politicians. I think you’re there for everybody. 

Chris Allen

You know, my experiences of working, having the privilege of working with local councillors right around in different contexts over many, many years, is actually a good local councillor is a good local councillor irrespective of the party, and it’s because you get to look into local issues. 

Peter

Exactly. I mean, there is a great deal of councillors that will come and talk to me, and as I said, I talk to them because they are passionate about their communities and their areas. And there are some councillors that I feel just do it, just for the job title. 

Chris Allen

And are you still working with the Big Local partnership as well? 

Peter

Yes, so a service that I set up, which, again, was through help with rural Kent and Big Local. I set up a company called Nobles Gardens, which is based at the hill in Northfleet, right next to where our Big Local is. So prior to lockdown, we was doing things like community events. Once a month we’d open up our community gardens and with a barbecue. We do signpost and we had Big Local in there, whatever, CAB in there. We have EDC in there. We have quit smoking. You know, anybody, or local councils. Anybody, we could get into work. There’s still a problem. People can’t afford things. We have a problem with single family still. We still have low unemployment in the area. But I think with Big Local and through the initiatives we’ve done, we’ve brought the community closer together. So again, people now talk to each other. They now know what’s going on within the community, then there’s support within the community, which is why we still work with Big Local in the garden, you know, laying on various events and stuff like that. 

Chris Allen

That sounds really good. So someone’s listening to this and they’re thinking, Oh, I’m wondering whether they’re going to be a local council. Or would you say, Yeah, go for it. Or no, don’t touch it with a barge pole? 

Peter

No. If you’re passionate about your area, and you are passionate about it and you think you can, sort of like you’re not getting far enough at the moment, start talking to your local councillors You know, see what you can do and be a voice in your community. As somebody said, in our community, we got an awful lot happening. If you’re there and you’re a voice, then you you can sort of talk about these things. You should be saying, well, I’ve spoken to people, and this is the views on this bit, and this is the views on that bit. And if people you know can work like that, then 100% yes, definitely run as a councillor, because you can get the things done and the voices out there of your local people. 

Chris Allen

So Peter, look into the future, Big Local’s getting near to the end of the programme. Now, how do you see it all moving forward? What do you think will be left? How do you see your role being in the future? 

Peter

With Big Local I think we’ve put in places where we’ve educated people how to learn to write grants, write funds. You know, they’ve set up buildings where they’re sustainable. And that’s what you’ve always look at as well. You know, it’s alright having this money in the first place, but how do you go forward when, when the money runs out, it’s always got to be sustainable. It’s always, it’s nice to come in and say, we’re going to do this, and we’re going to do that, and then when people go, what are we going to do? I think there is groups. I think there’s organisations. I think there’s funds and grants out there that do keep these things sustainable. And I think it is about local residents being involved with the Big Local. Being involved, you know, in a positive way, you know, where they’ll certainly say, ​“Well, I can do this, because we’ve done this through Big Local.” Things have come into Big Local that haven’t cost Big Local nothing. These things can still continue happening for well being. You know, we can still signpost for your food banks or your energy crisis, or you quit smoking or what’s happening in your community. And you know, we can do events where we can raise funds to continue to build a pot up. 

Chris Allen

And it sounds from where you started describing the area too, the problems that were there and the very divisive community that you had. It’s by bringing the community together over the period of Big Local that enables you now to solve some of these problems, because you are working together as a community? 

Peter

Now, as a community, we are united. Before we were segmented. This pocket here, this pocket here, this pocket is not going to that pocket. Now we’re united. You know, we all live in Northfleet. We all want it to be a beautiful place. And you know, things for our children. 

Chris Allen

Peter, you sound like, well, you’ve always described yourself as a reluctant politician, but it sounds what you’re doing is very powerful and positive as well. So thank you. 

Peter

You’re more than welcome, sir. 

Chris Allen

That was self-named cheeky chappy Peter Scollard, also local councillor, and also currently the mayor. Your thoughts on Peter’s journey there Beth? 

Beth Lazenby

Yeah, I really liked what he said about taking what he’d learned from being part of the partnership and really taking the time to listen to people. And he’s brought that into his work now as a local councillor, which I think was really great. And also, I think it really struck me what he said about the way that he communicates as being quite different to other people that he works with, and how he’s sort of trying to change the culture from the inside. So yeah, I thought it was a really interesting journey to listen to. 

Chris Allen

And he didn’t, he wasn’t put off, despite the fact he thought, he says, I’m not a political person, he actually thought, well, it’s not just about politics, it’s about the people, and it’s the people in his neighbourhood. 

Beth Lazenby

No, exactly. And I think it will hopefully make it seem like a much more accessible path for other people who are interested in doing the same thing too. 

Chris Allen

Indeed. So if people want to know more, where can they go? 

Beth Lazenby

As always, you’ll find all you need to know about Northfleet Big Local and everything else about Peter in the show notes. 

Chris Allen

And I believe next week we’re having a week off? 

Beth Lazenby

Yes, Christmas break. 

Chris Allen

Indeed. Thanks, Beth, and we’d both like to wish you very much a joyous Christmas and a very peaceful New Year. And we look forward to when you join us next time on the community power podcast, brought to you by Local Trust, discovering what happens when you give local people the money, the power and the assets to make a difference to their neighbourhoods.