22/02/2023
Our Kingston is a newspaper dedicated to covering the biggest stories in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. Our slice of London enjoys tremendous diversity, beautiful neighbourhoods, and a vibrant community, but these amenities must constantly be safeguarded. Without strong civic institutions to foster public discourse about the most pressing issues facing our community, everything that makes this place our home will erode.
Yet, our institutions have drifted from that most fundamental purpose. That is why Our Kingston was started. At this publication, the focus will always remain stoking the conversations we must have in order to both preserve what is great about Kingston and allow it to grow into its full potential. In our view, this is more than a project. It is a necessity.
The “Our” in Our Kingston is also, in our view, a necessity. In a world in which life is becoming ever more fragmented, in which we are bombarded by products that force our attention inwards–onto the “I”s, the “me”s and the “my”s–a healthy dose of collective identity is in order. This place cannot be mine if it is not also yours and theirs. Ultimately, we are all contributors to this enormous home-building project.
Our Kingston's mission is to make a positive contribution to that project. That is why we are committed to three core values:
Community & Culture: we are committed to preserving and expanding our collective pride in the Borough. We want to showcase community-building opportunities to help us get off our sofas, off our phones, and into the world. There is so much to see and do here, and we want to enable and encourage everyone to take part.
Civic Engagement: we are committed to boosting civic engagement by highlighting stories of vital importance to the public interest. Democracy is about much more than voting. We want to promote all of the other avenues through which anyone can participate in decision-making regarding the future of Kingston. The future is shaped by those who show up, so let’s get more people in the rooms where it happens.
Accountability & Fairness: we are committed to shining a light on the practices of local government and local institutions. Sadly, the instruments of oversight in Kingston have lost their focus. We seek to fill the gap that others have left in recent years by holding power to account. At the same time, we are not here to engage in demogogic rhetoric, partisan manoeuvring, or polemic for polemic’s sake. The principle of fairness undergirds all of our reporting, and we will hold ourselves to account as well. We hope you do the same.
