KEF - https://e-voice.org.uk/kef/ - and the roles of its members/chair/coordinator have evolved over the years, and KEF has been relatively inactive since 2019, but some things remain constant: KEF’s remits to advise and influence Kingston Council and its stakeholders, which entails working with whatever party is in power, and to promote local environmental sustainability. Our most recent ToRs reflect current activities and practice: see https://e-voice.org.uk/kef/about/view/KEF_ToR,_Feb_2019.doc and https://e-voice.org.uk/kef/about/view/KEF_ToR,_revised,_Sept_2018.doc. Since we ceased meeting IRL, we have not had a chair (a role which used to revolve between member-grops) and the last chair downsized the role to that of coordinator.
Currently the coordinator and a couple of other KEF members are participating in the Council’s Covid Recovery Communities Task Force and its subgroups on Volunteering (and its subgroup on green funding collaborations) and Mental Health and Wellbeing, and sharing info from these to KEF members and beyond via Kingston Environment News. The coordinator maintains the website and Facebook group, tries to maintain an accurate local green contacts list, and in summer 2021 hosted or co-hosted a couple of small virtual public events on cross-cutting green issues: K-PACE, reviving Kingston’s GreenZone and a discussion on creating green hubs and/or a climate emergency centre in Kingston.
Past activities have included:
- KEF working groups on specific issues e g air pollution, which led to a spot at the Kingston Council’s 2019 Citizens’ Assembly on air pollution
- regular internal meetings
- attending Kingston’s Strategic Partnership meetings
- sharing info, news, opportunities, chairing and note-taking at IRL meetings...
- encouraging responses to relevant Council consultations and responding as KEF when a consensus could be established.
For the future: the role of coordinator requiress a broad view of local environmental issues and an apolitical one. A member-group coordinating KEF with energy, commitment and motivation could shape tboth KEF and the role of a co-ordinator/chair differently and do more e g, reviving our participation in Kingston Strategic Partnership, meeting with the Leader of the Council and the lead Councillor(s) and renewing our role as "critical friend" to the Council on environmental issues, hosting more and bigger public events, networking more actively, taking al lead on some local environmental initiatives and events...
If your local green group would like to take on the role of coordinator please contact Marilyn, who would like to step down by the end of 2021.