Apparently they didn't use any volunteers in the last Olympics. I learnt this from a Chinese student as we were queueing up to go into Wembley Arena for our Orientation session last weekend. She told me that although her home was in Beijing she had to wait for the London Games to get a chance to be part of it.

That's the phrase - be part of it. We heard it over and over again. From Jonathan Edwards, from the ubiquitous Eddie Izzard, from Seb Coe. And I must say they have done an excellent job in motivating people to sign up.

In fact, in 2010 over 240,000 applied to be volunteers - or Games Makers, as they insist on calling us - at the Olympics or Paralympics. Of those 80,000 were shortlisted and 70,000 offered roles, with others being kept in reserve.

There are dozens of different roles - from driving VIPs, looking after athletes in the village, writing press releases, accreditating journalists, catering, venue management as well as supporting each one of the sports.

I've looked back at my application form and have been trying to see what criteria they used to shortlist me.  I offered no sports skills, no first aid skills and only basic language skills. I had to fill in my experience in three skills area, but only allowed 80 characters (yes, characters) for each. That clearly favoured the tweeters. 

I was hoping to work in Government Relations, or alternatively Website and New Media, but got shortlisted for my third choice, Events. I can only assume that the number of hours of volunteering that I already do was the clincher.

The organisation of applicants has been excellent - we are regularly updated by email and have a dedicated website which answers all the questions we could possibly ask.

So last August found me with another 20 or so applicants at the Excel centre where we were welcomed in person and given some insight into the processes. A short film (Eddie Izzard again) exhorted us to sell ourselves to the interviewer, but the interview that followed was rather disappointing. The young man (who was also a volunteer) said he hadn't read my application form and seemed intent on getting exactly the answers he wanted, discounting anything peripheral. 

Further disappointment followed. Eddie Izzard had also promised chocolate from Cadbury's, the 'Official Snack Provider', but there was none left.

So I was somewhat surprised to get an email on the very first day that offers were made, offering me a role as an Events Team Leader in the Paralympics based at the Excel Centre, which I accepted straightaway.

Which brings me to last weekend, when I turned up with 10,000 others for my first training session. All volunteers had to attend one of these. During the afternoon some imaginative presentation techniques were used to introduce us to many people working in the organisation, to athletes and to other volunteers. And to the uniform - hmmm...more of that later.

Cadbury's provided entertainment but we still didn't get the promised chocolate. 

The next three training sessions will be specific to roles and venues - more about them later.

You will have gathered that I am not indulging in the prevalent cynicism about the Games. I have always enjoyed watching them in the past, and have managed to buy some tickets for athletics and handball (eh?). I intend to watch the three cycling races as they go through Kingston, and to cheer the Olympic flame as it sets off from the Hook Centre on 24th July. And next week I'm off to watch a trial event in the Velodrome - I can't wait to see the Olympic Park for the first time. London has done a terrific job; the buildings are actually finished (remember Beijing, or Athens for that matter?).

So, yes, I'm unashamedly enthusiatic about the Games.

Lib Dems have been campaigning for years for improvements to the crossings and lights at the corner of the Hook Centre. It has been a huge struggle because the Hook Road is managed by Transport for London, not by Kingston Council, so the local councillors have no direct influence. And it has not been helped by the complete lack of action by the person who represents us on the London Assembly.

To start with the problem - well, two problems, actually.

When the traffic lights were installed at the junction of Elm Road with Hook Road, they did not include pedestrian lights, which means that at no time is there a pause to allow pedestrians to cross Elm Road. Now this is on a busy walking route between the shops on the one side, and the Hook Centre and St Paul's school on the other.

The route across Elm Road was made even more dangerous in a way that is not really obvious until you try to cross it. There are dropped kerbs and a central refuge which indicate where you should cross, but if you stand waiting you cannot see any of the actual traffic lights in any direction. So you do not know what colour they are. You simply have to look at the traffic and try to guess what is about to move next.

When I was a councillor I brought this up regularly with Kingston's traffic engineers, and they did their best to persuade TfL to look at it, but it was always dismissed as a minor problem. And why was it considered a minor problem? Well, because no-one had been killed or seriously injured there.

I'm afraid it took a fatality to get them to listen to our concerns.

But I now need to explain the second problem. The Hook Road is, of course, much busier than Elm Road. The traffic lights in Hook Road at the Hook Road/Elm Road junction were designed to make it safe for vehicles turning in or out of Elm Road. The main pedestrian crossing across Hook Road is just 50 yards away so I do understand why they did not install another pedestrian crossing across Hook Road at this point.

But for years people have taking the risk and crossing the Hook Road between the Hook Centre and the Lucky Rover. I have seen elderly folk walking very slowly across after the lights have changed and two lanes of traffic are ready to move. There have been accidents, but the worst one resulted in the death of Mike Cowley, a local man known to many of us.

That tragic accident happened four years ago. I was Chair of the Neighbourhood then so I made sure that TfL were contacted immediately. Eventually, we persuaded them to carry out a feasibility study of the junction, which they did. But nothing followed for ages.

Now at last, after persistent questioning from the councillors, TfL have promised that they will carry out the improvements. Proper pedestrian crossings will be installed across both Hook and Elm Roads.

But why has it taken so long? Haven't we got an elected member of the London Assembly who should be acting on our behalf?

Yes, we do, but you could be forgiven for not knowing who he is. His name is Tony Arbour and he has been the London Assembly member for SW London for 12 years. I have never seen him around here, except at election time. He never makes contact with the local councillors, who are the people who know what is going on.

You might think that representing a constituency that covers the boroughs of Kingston, Richmond and Hounslow would be a full-time job. But Tony Arbour is also a councillor in Richmond, where he is a Cabinet member. Indeed, for four of those 12 years he was Leader of the Council.

Now when I was a Cabinet member (known as an Executive member in Kingston) I reckoned it took around 50 hours a week to do the job properly. It's no wonder he doesn't have the time to work for the residents of Chessington and Hook.

Notes

London Assembly members are each paid £53,439.

In Richmond in 2010-11, the Leader of the Council received an allowance of £33,515. Cabinet members received £17,648.

Lib Dems don't do status - we don't use titles, just first names all round. Lib Dems don't do power either; to be precise we are embarrassed by it.

One hundred years of identifying ourselves as radical, anti-establishment, even quasi-anarchist, has meant that being thrust into Coalition Government has created all kinds of conflicts and tensions within the party. I'm not just talking about the sometimes fraught relationship between Conference reps, the Federal Policy Committee, and the parliamentary teams - complicated as that is - no, I'm referring to the internal struggle that all Lib Dems experience (or perhaps should experience) when faced with power.

Of course, the issues have been played out already over the last 30 years or so in town and county halls across the land. As Lib Dems have gained control of Councils we have had to face the challenges of using that power responsibly. It's uncomfortable, for a start. Many of us would prefer being in opposition, where we can tear into the administration without the need to actually put together a coherent policy programme.

But controlling Council groups have gradually learned to distinguish what is feasible from what is merely desirable or crowd-pleasing. They have achieved some real successes which have both improved the lives of residents and made the places where they live more liberal and more democratic.

However, they are not always good at communicating those successes to the population at large, nor even to their own members. Sometimes they are accused of spending far too much time in meetings when they should be knocking on doors and campaigning on the ground - and indeed that may well be true.

But the fact remains that councillors are elected to make life better for their electors, and this can often only be achieved, when in power, through lengthy negotiations in meetings. I think back to some of the campaigns that I was involved in when I was a councillor - for the Hook Centre, pedestrian crossings nearby (about to happen, at last!), a new bus for pupils attending Hinchley Wood, funding for the new Chessington Community College, childrens' centres at Castle Hill and Lovelace schools, the medical centre in Merritt Gardens - all of these were brought to fruition through many hours spent, by me and my colleagues, in committees and meetings with council officers.

And yet some party members might have thought that I had gone over to the dark side, by being drawn into the internal politics of the Guildhall and aligning myself with the establishment. I worked hard to avoid that, to always maintain an edginess, to remind myself that I represented the people to the Council, not the other way round.

Here is the dilemma for Liberal Democrats. We are conscious of the dangers of power, so we tend to talk down those who have it, rather than grasp the opportunities it brings. We do not wish to become part of the establishment, but we find that we have to work with and through large institutions in order to bring about change. We dislike conformity to the extent that it is written into our constitution, yet we have to work within the constraints of formal decision-making processes to achieve anything.

All this is a long preamble to a statement about Edward Davey and his new role. On the one hand I am ridiculously pleased for him. And I know him for a decent, stable person who will not let it go to his head.

On the other hand, can the rest of us understand and cope with proximity to real power?

An article by Mark Pack on Liberal Democrat Voice has sent me back to my blog again. Mark does an occasional series on local liberal heroes and yesterday he wrote a delightful piece about our own Roger Hayes.

If you don't know Roger then I should start by mentioning that he was the agent behind the Lib Dems recent victory in Surbiton Hill, our success in the local elections in 2010, and the re-election of Edward Davey to Parliament, and ... (the list could go back some way). He has also been Leader of Kingston Council, councillor and Parliamentary candidate.

Mark writes:

"Roger Hayes is an unusual sort of dedicated community campaigner in Liberal Democrat ranks. Whilst he is certainly devoted to the communities he has stood to represent, rather than spending long periods of time in just the one area he has been a councillor in four different wards, three in Kingston and one in the Isle of Wight. He has also, by his own choice, been an on and off councillor, with three separate stretches as a councillor, each time standing down of his own volition."

Read the rest of the article here.

Well deserved, Roger!

Kingston Liberal Democrats submitted an amendment (amendment 2) to a motion on Community Politics at Conference this week. The motion was put forward by our Party President, Tim Farron MP, and our amendment was passed unanimously.

This is my speech:

We proposed adding in a new point:

"Conference calls for ... The principle of subsidiarity to be adopted by elected representatives at all levels of government, ensuring that decision-making is devolved to the lowest feasible, democratically accountable level".

We then proposed a change to point 3 in the motion:

"Conference calls for ... Politicians at all levels of the party to ensure dialogue with the communities they serve through 'pavement politics' including: residents surveys, street surgeries, public meetings and effective use of social media."

so that it reads:

"Conference calls for ... Politicians at all levels of the party to listen and respond to the communities they serve by engaging with community groups and by seeking out those without advocates, and to ensure dialogue and personal contact through 'pavement politics' including: residents surveys, street surgeries, public meetings and effective use of social media."M/p>

I have just been listening to Ed Davey give a major platform speech in Birmingham.

He talked about three major new policies that he is implementing as Minister.

First, he made it clear that no more post offices would close. Labour actually closed more POs than Margaret Thatcher, which is shameful for a Labour Government which was supposed to stand up for the disadvantaged.

He then announced that he has plans to make post offices the 'front desk for Government, national and local". This is an excellent plan to breathe life back into Post Offices and once again give them a role at the core of our communities.

And Post Offices Ltd is to become a mutual - that is a company owned by its workers not by its shareholders.

Second, he went on to talk about his scheme to allow parents to divide up parental leave as they see fit. So maternity and paternity leave will be combined into one and the couple will be able to choose who takes what and when.

Finally he spoke about the appointment of a Supermarket Adjudicator, who will stand up for the rights of consumers and farmers againgst the often unfair and price-fixing practices of the big supermarkets.

A great speech, delivered with fervour and conviction.