Today I’m launching Sutton Chat, a new discussion forum for the borough. If you’re local, I hope you’ll take a look and join in. Don’t be put off by the silence — we’ve only just started.

It’s good to see that the amount of online discussion in the borough is increasing in quantity and to a degree, in quality. Several local bloggers have built up a good readership, produced great material and have hosted some worthwhile discussions. Bloggers: I’m right behind you. May you go from strength to strength.

What’s missing is a good neutral forum where anyone can raise a topic for discussion. Running a blog takes a fair bit of commitment. Sutton Chat aims to fill a gap and encourage more people to get involved with local issues online and hopefully in real life, too.

While Sutton Chat is politically and commercially independent, it’s designed intentionally to reflect my own ideas of how a site like this should work. Members must register using their real names. My aim here is to encourage people to be accountable for what they say and to enable people that know each other in real life to recognise each other and carry those relationships forward on the forums.

As an advocate of simple design, I’ve done my utmost to ensure that the site is clear and straightforward to use. Most of the usual cruft found on online forums like signatures, post counts and smileys is absent. The idea is to allow members to concentrate on pure discussion, making it both easier to read and to write.

Forums don’t run themselves. If you’re keen to debate the hot local issues and get to know more people in the area I hope to see you online soon at Sutton Chat.