THERE are many reasons why I helped to set up Ealing Independents as a grassroots group to explore the opportunity to have independents run Ealing Council.

Over the coming months, in my column on Ealing Nub News, I will share these reasons.

One of these reasons is to have councillors representing Ealing residents and businesses across Acton, Ealing, Greenford, Hanwell, Northolt, Perivale and Southall, that actually communicate with their wards and the constituents within it.

Over the last few years, I along with many others have seen how councillors across the three parties in Ealing - Labour, Conservative and Lib Dem fail to uphold their responsibility of communicating with those who try to engage with them.

Whether it's by email or even Twitter, there are far too many councillors at Ealing Council who are not pro-active and don't respond to their wards.

Too often, people have to resend emails as well as follow up tweets - this is not acceptable.

Councillors should be pro-active by acknowledging the correspondence and advising what actions they will be undertaking as a result of that.

Too often, councillors will use Twitter as a one-way channel to communicate - this is not how to treat residents and businesses in Ealing.

If someone asks a question, it should be answered.

Often when you challenge many councillors about what actions they have done with proof of it, they will play the traditional political game of just ignoring the question.

In an age of transparency and accountability, councillors need to deliver on that.

Otherwise residents and businesses will see exactly what their local councillors are - merely puppets for their national party leaders and who will put their national party interests first ahead of what they should be doing for their local residents and businesses.

These councillors are more concerned with keeping their party happy and in the process keeping their whip so they can continue their own political careers at the disadvantage of local people.

Councillors should be about caring, helping and supporting their wards, not to use their wards and the people who live in them for their own personal agenda or political careers.

As Ealing Independents, we will challenge those councillors who have taken liberties of their wards by ignoring them.

We will ensure that matters important to residents and businesses in Ealing are highlighted and raised to ensure those concerns are not ignored and left alone.

And we will engage by Twitter by ensuring residents and businesses have a voice that is listened to and not ignored which sadly has been happening for a very long time by many councillors across Ealing.

We look forward to hearing from you.

*This article is part of the weekly column provided to Nub News by the founder of the Ealing Independents, Leslie Bunder.

• The leaders of the three main Ealing parties have been offered the chance to do so as well, with some accepting while some yet haven't.