Community How To

Most of the community groups I come across in my role as Chief Executive of Online Centres Foundation - the organisation behind the national network of 3,800 UK online centres - have a To Do list as long as their arms.  Many are pushed for time, and all are pushed for precious resources.  New technologies - and researching new ways to get things done - are not a priority.    

I want to see that changing.  Or at least moving up those To Do lists. 

It’s often the smallest of these groups who work with and through local councils to do the most amazing things for local people and communities. These are also the groups least likely to be using new technologies.  For some it’s not only an issue of resource, it’s an issue of skill and knowledge.  If you don’t know what’s out there, you can’t find it.  And if you don’t have the IT skills to use it anyway, what’s the point? 

The point is that digital technology can save community organisations time, hassle and even money.  There are many amazing digital tools out there which are FREE (or very low cost), and incredibly easy to use.  They’ve often been designed to help organisations do the things that are important to them - like event management, volunteer coordination, fundraising or profile raising.   

That’s why we’ve teamed up with Nominet Trust to create the Community How To service. 

It brings together top digital tools under one roof, alongside case study recommendations by the community groups already using them.  The idea is to help people working in communities find and use new tools.

If you think any of the groups or organisations you work with could be doing more with digital, let them know about Community How To - www.communityhow.com.  If they find a tool they think could help, but don’t think they have the digital skills to make it work, UK online centres are there to help people get to grips with the basics, and get the confidence to give IT a go. 

Take a look at the Community How To service at www.communityhowto.com, and find out more about UK online centres and OCF at www.ukonlinecentres.com, help@ukonlinecentres.com. 

We’d love to hear from you, and we’d love to help you help local community groups do more of what they do best.  

Guest blog from Helen Milner, UK Online Centres. 

A new role in community action

The Sustainable Communities Act has great potential for parish and town councils. The Act is a radical new “bottom-up” process that allows local people – for the first time in this country’s history – to drive central government action to help their local communities.

Up until now, parish and town councils have been excluded from this process. This was totally unacceptable. Parish and town councils should be at the forefront of driving government action to help communities. Well after successful campaigning by the National Association of Local Councils, County Associations, Local Works and local councils, this has all changed.

The campaign for the Sustainable Communities Act arose out of the very concerning problem of community decline, which can be seen in the national decline of everything from small shops and Post Offices to green spaces and recreational facilities. This decline has huge and worrying social, environmental and democratic implications. People see their community dying around them, feel powerless to do anything about it and so disengage from democracy and their community.

At the heart of the Sustainable Communities Act is this philosophy: citizens and communities are the experts on their problems and the solutions to them. They therefore should drive the help and actions government takes to reverse community decline. The Sustainable Communities Act sets up a ‘bottom up’ process that does just that.

Here’s how it works: the Act allows people – through their councils – to suggest ideas to government and government is obliged not only to respond, but to “reach agreement” with a totally independent panel on which of the ideas that come forward should be implemented. This is a radical idea – it is about turning government upside down and allowing local people to drive the agenda, reversing decades of “Whitehall knows best” dogma.

Since being passed in 2007, the Act has achieved some notable results. In Sheffield for example, the Act has been used to help save post offices from closure and to boost their revenues. The Act has also been used to encourage renewable energy and close a loophole that allowed gardens to be used for development.

Up until now though, parish and town councils have been excluded from the process,

Parish and town councils are the most local part of government and the body most closely connected to the community. Their connection with local people and their knowledge of the local area means you are ideally placed to make use of the Act. No one knows the local community like they do.

There will be issues in your local community that the Act could assist with. Perhaps you want to be able to promote renewable energy schemes in your area but lack the means or knowledge to do so. Or you want to help increase the amount of recycling in your area but there are rules and regulations that prevent you from doing so. Or perhaps you think government should do more to promote woodland and have ideas for how they could do so.

For more information on this please visit:www.nalc.gov.uk or http://www.barrierbusting.communities.gov.uk.

Connecting citizens by a game

Community PlanIt is a game about the issues that face local government, designed to get people (especially young people) more involved and understanding of what goes in to managing their communities.

Anyone who has sat through a community planning meeting knows--well, they’re not always exciting, and not always terribly involving. The traditional civic decision-making process can be a turn-off, even if you care deeply about the issues involved.

The goal of Community PlanIt--a game built around local issues that’s now been played in several cities--is to engage people more, challenge them for their thoughts, and bring new residents into the process.

It works like this: A group--say, a planning commission or small business--puts up a few hundred dollars for community investment. Players register on the Community PlanIt platform, and take part in three "missions." To win pledgeable "coins," they complete "challenges" within each mission. Then the projects with the most pledged coins get real cash to spend.

Although this was developed in the USA it does not mean it cannot be transferred to the UK and lessons learnt. And let us hope the game makers will be hitting our shores soon.

For further information:http://www.communityplanit.org/

Youth and participation

I do not want to get into the trials and tribulations about individual young people's social media accounts, as witnessed recently of the now former Kent Youth Crime Commissioner.

But the importance of involving our youth in decision making that effects their lives cannot be overstated.

NALC has done some work encouraging local (parish and town) councils to set up youth councils. More information: Create a Youth Council

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child provides the framework for children's rights globally. Article 12 provides for the right of children and young people to participate in decisions that affect them. The UK signed up to the Convention almost 25 years ago. Each of the four nations has a Children's Commission tasked with ensuring implementation of those rights.

Across sectors agencies are on a journey; working hard to build a culture of youth participation and leadership in our organisations and in public life. On that journey we have had fun, insight, innovation, trials, tribulations and disagreements, learning copious lessons along the way. All the time trying to make sure that participation is meaningful for both young people and the organisations they are influencing to create better outcomes for individuals and communities.

The work of youth parish or town councils have  challenged some established organisational orthodoxies, habits and priorities. It hasn't always been easy or comfortable but it has always been constructive, rewarding and ultimately positive.

Managed well, putting young people at the heart of decision making in organisations and systems influences better outcomes. Participation and leadership has the potential to influence traditionally adult led structures, systems and approaches in ways that can really improve them for young people. Inevitably creating shifts in cultures will bring some challenges as well as opportunities. We must learn from the good, the bad and the ugly. But we have to make sure we learn the right lessons.

We all live and learn, we all make mistakes and we must all be allowed to learn from them. As adults we must search for and ask the right questions about how to make youth leadership work in order to take the right learning from this and other situations. Those questions that need asking may not be the obvious ones - they probably need to focus as much on adult responses as they do on recruitment processes.

Finally I hope that an aversion to risk does not limit creativity in this domain of public life. I hope that it makes us more determined as adults and young people to continue enjoying developing ways of working together to make a difference for all young people. And absolutely most of all I hope young people will not be put off coming forward to get involved because they think adults are hypocritical and worry we won't keep them safe.

 

Planning a victory in localism

The Government has finally got something to smile about with its localism programme. Upper Eden has become the first community to have a neighbourhood plan approved. Is it a victory in localism in action? Simple answer is yes.

Upper Eden, http://uecp.org.uk/, is the first community in the country that has passed all stages, including an independent examination and referendum, to put in place a neighbourhood plan to shape the future of the area and help improve the lives of local people.

The plan was approved by over 90% of the voters, with 1,310 votes in favour and 138 votes against. The naysayers are complaining that the turnout was low and hardly a vindication of the neighbourhood planning process. Yes the turnout for the referendum was 34% but this matches turn out local council election these days and smashes the turnout for Police Commissioner elections, which averaged at around 15%

The plan has been worked up by the Upper Eden Community Plan Group, which represents 17 Parish Councils across the Upper Eden area, and includes policies on encouraging limited new development to help local people meet their own housing needs, as well as policies on housing on farms, housing for older people and broadband connections.

Upper Eden is the just the tip of the iceberg with to date nearly 400 areas have applied to formally designate their neighbourhood planning areas, the first formal step in the process, while 20 draft plans have been published for consultation, before being independently examined and then put to referendum.

However not everything is perfect in these community planning schemes. A £20,000 neighbourhood plan for Dawlish has been rejected as "unsound" by a public examiner. For more information please visit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-18392014,  
 
Then in The Guardian on Saturday 9^th March, we heard about how Haredi Jews face off against other residents of Stamford Hill in London in a battle for control of planning rights. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/mar/08/hackney-planning-row-orthdox-jewish 
But in the same article we heard how in “some areas, such as the Somali area of Spring Boroughs in Northampton, the process of drawing up a neighbourhood plan has brought immigrant and indigenous communities together for the first time”.

This all goes to show how when there are properly local democratically elected bodies, like parish and town councils, you are hearing the true voice of the community in neighbourhood planning as opposed to those who shout the loudest and factional in-fighting.

 
 

Connected Communities

We all belong to communities - at home, in our neighbourhoods, at work, at school, through voluntary work, through online networks, and so on. Communities are vital to our lives and wellbeing. But their importance means we need to understand their changing place in our lives, their role in encouraging health, economic prosperity and creativity, their history and their future.

The AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) is leading on Connected Communities, a cross-Council programme designed to help us understand the changing nature of communities in their historical and cultural contexts and the role of communities in sustaining and enhancing our quality of life.

The programme seeks not only to connect research on communities, but to connect communities with research, bringing together community-engaged research across a number of core themes, including community health and wellbeing, community creativity, prosperity and regeneration, community values and participation, sustainable community environments, places and spaces, and community cultures, diversity, cohesion, exclusion, and conflict.

A growing body of work under the programme is exploring the temporal dimension to communities, while other clusters of projects are exploring issues such as cultural value in community contexts and 'community and performance'. Another strand of research is exploring the potential for arts and humanities to support approaches to engagement with communities to active participants in the research process, through the creative arts and media, narratives, crafts and by enhancing consideration of issues such as ethics, power and voice. 

For more information please visit: AHRC 

Hearing the voices of the unheard

Towards the end of last month, I attended a meeting of the Participatory Budgeting Network, hosted by the Centre for the Study of Democracy at the University of Westminster.

The PB Network is a newly formed body advocating for and leading new learning and innovations in PB. It takes over from the work of the PB Unit, which sadly was forced to close due to lack of funding in mid 2012. The PB Network has a small volunteer steering group and aims to put on learning events, publish policy related papers and stimulate debate on where PB might go next.

You can receive updates of the network via Twitter, Facebook or
LinkedIN

and find resources on PB on the PB Unit’s now archived website: http://www.participatorybudgeting.org.uk

These are my notes from the opening panel session, titled “Hearing the voices of the unheard”. The issues of inclusivity and equality in democratic participation are something that, like many others, we at Involve are very concerned with. The following thoughts from the panel, which I’ve recorded as faithfully as possible, include a range of useful observations, arguments and reminders for anyone interested in democratic participation.

Here are five things that particularly hit home for me:

Participatory processes can achieve as much, if not more, through their ability to bring people together to discuss, share and take action, as their impact on decision making (though the latter must not be forgotten). PB should be about building a democratic movement – not the distribution of small grants.

Process design is all-important for ensuring people are able to speak and be heard. Effort and resource is required to ensure that power imbalances are overcome.

It’s important to be aware of who the unheard voices are in different contexts. There may be some surprises.

We should be mindful of and challenge participatory processes that are being used to control and appease people, rather than hand over genuine power.

If PB, or any other democratic innovation for that matter, is to make a real impact on power balances, they must be focused on core issues (and budgets) – not scraps on the edges.

Professor Yves Cabannes

Professor Yves Cabannes kicked off the session. He has a large amount of practical experience of participatory budgeting, including as senior adviser to the Municipality of Porto Alegre, Brazil, where PB was first developed.

Yves began by noting that the vast majority of participatory budgeting processes are either thematically or territorially based, and advocated the use of actor based participatory budgeting instead, to hear the voices of the unheard.

Listening to the voices of the unheard, Yves says, can lead you to projects that are very different. For example, he spoke about his experience of a PB process with young people in slums in Brazil who identified that the short length of time school buses would wait at a stop for them to get on meant that the younger ones were pushed and shoved by the older ones to get on. Negotiating a longer stoppage time with bus companies meant the young people arrived at school in a much better state of mind – an outcome that could not have been anticipated before the process.

Yves also spoke about PB being a means rather than an end. For example, he spoke about PB being a pretext for bringing together migrants in Spain, giving them a place where they could speak to and learn from each other.

However, Yves noted that there are a number of ongoing challenges and issues relating to hearing the voices of the unheard through PB. For example, he noted that very little progress has been made on increasing women’s voices in PB, and suggested more effort is required to break the power imbalances.

He also noted that just because people are present at a PB event, does not mean their voices will be heard. It’s therefore important that we create the right conditions for people to feel comfortable to speak.

Another challenge, according to Yves, is to include the voices of the unheard in the implementation of a project as well as the initial decision. The risk is that in the transformation into a project eligible for PB, an idea becomes coopted by those with power. Too often, according to Yves, people are not empowered fully and others take over.

Yves went on to talk about the importance of deliberation in a process, arguing that one of the duties of PB is to open up an opportunity for people to speak and exchange their opinions. For Yves, the deliberative quality of a PB process determines its success. He therefore said he was reluctant about the use of electronic voting in PB and also commented that while technology can be useful, deliberations can be difficult, especially for the unheard, if not face-to-face.

Finally, Yves spoke about the risk that PB is used to keep people in “their ghetto”. PB can maintain segregation and just as well as it can lead to people voice and power. For Yves, PB needs to give people power in their city, not just in their neighbourhood.

Professor Graham Smith

Next up was Professor Graham Smith, a specialist in the theory and practice of democratic innovations at the University of Westminster’s Centre for the Study of Democracy, who responded to Yves’s remarks.

Graham agreed with Yves on the importance of how PB processes are designed; it’s not just an issue of wanting to hear the voices of the unheard, but also about how it’s done. It’s one thing to have people in a room, but it’s another for them to have a voice, and another for them to be heard. Therefore, for Graham, the issue of institutional design has not had enough attention paid to it.

He spoke about how the clever separation of different types of voice that can be found in the Porto Alegre process have been collapsed in the UK; for example, there is no separation between where demands and decisions are made. The best PB processes, according to Graham, are those where somebody has thought very carefully about what space they are creating and why. Asking the question, “how do we design this in order that the voices of the unheard will be heard?”, because it won’t happen by accident.

Graham finished by commenting that we still have a lot to learn from Latin America about willingness to take a risk on different types of institutions.

Cllr Simon Henig

Simon Henig is Leader of Durham County Council. He spoke about County Durham’s experience of implementing PB via its area partnerships.

Simon began by commenting that the formation of the new unitary authority in County Durham in 2009 presented an opportunity to change the way in which public engagement was done. He noted that, in common with other councils, there was a great deal of cynicism from residents about how decisions were made.

The newly formed authority set up 14 area partnerships based on geography decided by local people. Each partnership was given a devolved yearly budget to spend and some chose to hold one-off events with local residents to decide how it was spent. He referred specifically to one area, with a relatively poor population, in which they were surprised by the level of interest: 800 people turned up to the event in the first year and many stayed until the ballots were counted and results announced – something he noted never happens for councilor elections.

Simon also spoke about a process whereby local people were consulted on County Durham’s overall budget, including which services should be protected and which should be saved. While by law the decision has to be made by a full Cabinet, he highlighted that the eventual decision went with what the public had voted for. This, he said, effectively meant that County Durham’s £500 million budget had been allocated by residents.

However, he also noted that only 10-15% of the money spent within an area, is spent by the local authority.

Finally, Simon suggested that there currently exists a political opportunity to embed PB as all of the main political parties have expressed a desire to empower the public and acknowledged problems with the current political system. On the other hand, he recognised that getting politicians to give up power can be difficult and anyone with a budget at the moment will be loath to give it up. However, he also suggested that at a time of austerity, it is perhaps easier to get PB implemented as, for a politician, it is potentially easier to say “because we’ve got difficult decisions, let’s make the public make them”.

Shazia Hussain

Finally, Shazia Hussain, currently service head for localism at Tower Hamlets Council, spoke about her experience of developing and leading the UK’s largest PB process – You Decide! – in Tower Hamlets in 2008 and how they are continuing to develop PB now.

Shazia began by commenting that the unheard are often thought to include the young, BME communities and women, but in Tower Hamlets they had experienced the opposite: those not turning up were white men.

PB has achieved support from politicians across parties and officers alike in Tower Hamlets because it’s been shown to give people an opportunity to be heard. Shazia later commented that when people go into the room and see people engaging in the PB process, then they get it.

For Shazia, PB is not about consultation; it’s about people’s ideas and how to grow them. The question they are seeking to answer in Tower Hamlets is “how do you get people to influence and co-produce on core services?”, recognising that they need citizens to help tackle gritty problems. They are therefore moving from a large to a smaller pot of money, but one that impacts core services.

Finally, Shazia highlighted that working with councillors was key to success, in part because councilors have the networks into local groups and communities.

by Tim Hughes — tim@involve.org.uk

Tim leads Involve’s research into how and why citizens engage, and what participation looks like from their perspective.

Fancy Lunch?

As you will probably know by now, The Big Lunch  (http://www.thebiglunch.com) is a one day get-together for neighbours – a Lottery funded idea from the Eden Project, encouraging people across the UK to come together for a few hours of food, friendship and fun.  The initiative aims to create stronger, friendlier communities in which people start to share things, from conversation and ideas to skills and resources. 

Big Lunches can be big or small and take place in the street, back garden, park or local community venue – anywhere neighbours get together.  Since starting in 2009, thousands of events have taken place each year, with a staggering 8.5 million people participating in 2012 when The Big Lunch was an official part of The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations.  The Big Lunch is inclusive and welcoming; it’s a fantastic opportunity to start new conversations in the community, bringing people from different backgrounds, faiths, and generations together. And research shows it works, with 91% feel closer to their neighbours following the event.

There has been wide spread support from town and parish councils to date, but we’d like to see further engagement in 2013. We know that the initiative creates more cohesive communities and can help with your community and housing strategies -meeting objectives around community engagement and integration. Research shows us that 82% of participants stay in touch with the people they met at The Big Lunch and 61% get involved in further community activity. An interesting report, based on four years’ research by the LGiU (http://www.lgiu.org.uk) will be available to councils soon.

What will you bring to the table?

Devizes Town council  (http://www.thebiglunch.com/partners/star-councils-england.php) encouraged people to get involved with the Jubilee celebrations in 2012 by hosting a free event on The Green. This was a true community event with a real village green flavour involving games and stalls echoing those from Queen Elizabeth’s Silver and Golden Jubilees.
 

The council opened up this event to all local businesses, groups and entertainers and road closures were simplified with all red tape cut.

Church Crookham Parish Council  (http://www.thebiglunch.com/partners/star-councils-england.php) proudly supported The Big Jubilee Lunch, organising its own event where people where people were invited to bring a dish and join in the Best Dressed Teddy Bear competition and admire the home made bunting created by local schools of all their Royal Easter Egg designs. The council actively encouraged people to hold Big Lunches on their streets, and waived all fees for road closures.

The Big Lunch has continued backing from  NALC (www.nalc.gov.uk), LGA (www.local.gov.uk) , DCLG (https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-communities-and-local-government) and the Secretary of State Eric Pickles, who urge councils to support campaign, cut red tape around road closures and simplify the process as much a possible.

This year, The Big Lunch is celebrating the achievements of communities involved to date with The Big Lunch Community Awards. The winners of this UK-wide award will be selected and announced in April, and the initiative is set to generate lots of media attention in its fifth year.

Get involved! Please help encourage more Big Lunches in your area on Sunday 2^rd June 2013 by spreading the word to residents and local community groups and by supporting applications to close roads where possible. ‘Star Councils’ (http://www.thebiglunch.com/partners/star-councils.php) that go the extra mile to support the campaign are recognised on The Big Lunch website (http://www.thebiglunch.com/) and communications.  Council toolkits (http://www.thebiglunch.com/join-in/download-resources.php) with further information and promotional materials, including a ‘Little Steps’ workshop pack to help you organised meetings with the community to discuss the benefits of holding Big Lunches locally are available from the website. (http://www.thebiglunch.com/)

Anyone wanting to organise an event can order a free pack with invites, posters, a planner and much more online. There is also a short film to give you inspiration from the first four years of The Big Lunch. For more information please contact camilla.baker@thebiglunch.com or call 0845 850 8181.

Is it time to get angry?

The traditional view of local (parish and town) councils being cosy talking shops could be shattered by a decision made by the department of Communities and Local Government (CLG) late last year. We are talking about the dreaded CLG u-turn on the localisation of council tax support.

CLG has reduced the local tax base by taking income from council tax benefits away from local councils, requiring them to go cap-in-hand to their district, borough or unitary (principal) council for a share of the government's council tax support grant. There is the very real possibility that the princip council will say, "sorry, we need all we can get to deliver our own statutory responsibilities".

All this comes after CLG gave clear indications in the summer of 2012 that they will take local councils out of the equation on the council tax support grant and that they would receive funds as always. Then suddenly in the winter of last year the department changed their mind and left local councils with holes in their budgets.

Quite rightly local councils are astonished by the brazen disregard of the majority opinion on this by the Government.  On the consultation on this, 94% of respondents said that local councils should be exempt from the impact of localisation of council tax support, but CLG decided they should not. This has caused uproar among England's 9,000 local councils. Eric Pickles MP, secretary of state for CLG, speaking at NALC’s Larger Local Councils Conference in November 2012 (http://audioboo.fm/boos/1093989-eric-pickles-speech-at-nalc-2012.html) brushed off the questions, saying it was up to local councils to negotiate with principal councils. But why should local councils have to negotiate with principal councils on this, it is monies that belongs to them by right.

The new system changes over a hundred years of financial independence of local councils as they will no longer be in charge of their own destiny in setting their budgets and precept. For the first time ever local councils will be reliant on a principal council for an element of their funding. The risk of the new system is at best local councils will receive 100% of grant due, or they may only receive a proportion, and at worst no grant at all. Depending on the scenario, the impact may be mean local councils increasing their precept or cutting back on service delivery.

As practical example of this. In Milton Keynes, the five most affected local councils are Woughton, West Bletchley, Bletchley and Fenny Stratford, Campbell Park and Wolverton and Greenleys. Based on figures calculated in September 2012, the potential loss to these local councils would be £169,000 if Milton Keynes Council were to distribute grants at the cumulative level suggested by the Government. This would represent 68% of the total loss to Milton Keynes local councils and have a huge impact on service delivery in those deprived communitiesm

Now to be fair and balanced, it has not been all disastrous from CLG towards local councils.

In the same speech in Novemeber, Eric Pickles described local councils  as "localism's magic wand". This is very supportive but like in magic acts, sometimes you need to look beyond the 'smoke and mirrors'.

Since the Localism Act became law last year, the Government clearlys sees a role for local councils to be leaders of their communities. So we have had the recent announcement of more money going directly to local councils who have put neighbourhood development plans in place from the Community Infrastructure Levy, as well as the community rights to build, bid and challenge and the encouragement of more devolution of services to local councils.

But all of this new responsibilities and service delivery opportunities does not happen by magic, it needs capacity, skills building and resources. This is where there is a head on collision possibly between rhetoric and reality. This is a dilemna that the Government needs to solve as soon as possible. But at the grassroots level of democracy the anger towards the Government's recent decisions on local government is growing.

Can councils shape communities?

The National Association of Local Councils’ (NALC) Shaping Places conference  last week saw how new exciting opportunities are being presented to very local (parish and town) councils.

The conference showed how local councils can be an even better community leader, encourage communities and members to take advantage of the new planning, housing, community assets protection and development powers that have come their way.

NALC believes that now is a crucial time for localism and local councils have an important role to play in local community action, representation and service delivery.

Eric Pickles MP, secretary of state for Communities and Local Government, said: “Local (parish and town) councils are localism’s magic wand and that local services are at their best when they are run by local people.

“Localism requires local accountability and this is where local councils can provide this democratic mandate.”

He then issued a challenge to local councils by saying: “We are giving you the power, now we are looking for you to deliver.”

At the same conference Communities secretary Eric Pickles told parish councils to rethink average 3% hikes to their council tax precept - which he said are outstripping levies raised by the rest of local government.

Mr Pickles urged local councillors to make sure they are not overburdening residents with increased taxes.

"It hasn't escaped my noticed that, at a time when most districts are freezing their council tax, the average parish precept has gone up by 3%. And the trend is seeing parish increases outstripping the rest of local government," said Mr Pickles.

He added the DCLG (department of Communities and Local Government) was prepared to review principles governing council tax referendums, but demanded parish councillors 'square' any rises with their electorate. 'Can you really look your local folk in the eye?' Pickles asked delegates.

Elsewhere in his speech, the communities secretary said parishes should embrace neighbourhood planning to build proper neighbourhoods, asking them 'to choose activism not Nimbyism'.

Mr Pickles full written speech can be viewed at:https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-value-of-parishes and to listen to his speech please visit:  http://audioboo.fm/boos/1093989-eric-pickles-speech-at-nalc-2012

The secretary of state came under fire in the Q and A session over the Government's apparent U-turn over the localisation of council tax support.

Carolyn Downs, chief executive of the Local Government Association, said: ”The Community Rights legislation is not necessary to improve the relationship between different tiers of local government. It is about getting the culture right and this will led to more service devolution and the giving away of power to communities and local councils.” 

John Findlay, chief executive of NALC, responded: “Power still rest with principal authorities (county, district, unitary and borough) as they have the final decision on the devolution of power and services to the communities and local councils. If localism is really to succeed, then power should go to the local community to make the final decision and not be at the discretion of the principal authority.”

           

Cllr Michael Chater, chair of NALC said: “Localism represents exciting opportunities for local councils but there are many challenges that lie ahead because of capacity and resources issues for these community minded bodies.”

Getting ahead of the fire

Small is beautiful so that is local parish and town councils taken care of. But what if you are large. Well making the case for large local authorities was the County Councils' Network at their annual event.

They took their cue from St George's Park (Football Association's Centre of Excellence) and promoted good practice amongst county councils but they were in mutinous moods with regards the department of Communities and Local Government.

Ministers came under fire this week from county leaders who accused them of overseeing a ‘pro-district’ agenda.

In angry exchanges at the County Councils Network conference, the leaders accused local government minister, Brandon Lewis, and DCLG secretary, Eric Pickles, of failing to understand the impact of benefit changes, the council tax freeze and a late grant settlement.

In a question-and-answer session with Mr Lewis, East Sussex leader Cllr Peter Jones claimed MPs saw the world through the eyes of district councils because their constituencies were coterminous.

Cllr Jones claimed that the New Homes Bonus and business growth incentive bypassed counties.

Buckinghamshire CC leader Martin Tett said his county needed to find £2m to fund the shortfall in council tax benefit when payments were localised from next April.

There was applause when another county leader complained at the late grant settlement this year.

Mr Lewis, a former leader of Brentwood DC, said: ‘We’re very aware that counties have a hugely important role.’

He said the finance settlement, which he indicated was now due on 17 December, was delayed because of the late Autumn Statement on 5 December.

In the Conservative leaders’ group meeting, both he and Mr Pickles came under fire over plans to freeze council tax for two years with a 1% grant. Leaders warned it reduced their tax base.

Later, Mr Pickles told delegates he expected the 2013/14 settlement to be ‘moderately difficult’. He joked: ‘Think of a very low number and halve it. Next year we’ve got to get serious about joining up functions,’ he warned.

A dozen counties are considering pooling business rates with their districts to keep more of their business rate growth income.

NALC’s chairman, Cllr Michael Chater, at the conference said:  “Growth and economic prosperity is just about the biggest challenge facing our country right now, and as one of the themes for this conference will have been much discussed by councillors and officers alike.

“How local government at all levels can play its part in delivering the type of growth that our communities and nation needs, while balancing the protection and preservion of the environment, is a severe test. But is a test I know local government will not shirk. Furthemore it is a test where I know many parish and town councils are stepping up to plate.”

　

“Take Sevenoaks Town Council in Kent, who for the past four years have focussed on developing its local economy, with the emphasis on establishing Sevenoaks as one of Kent’s foremost towns to visit and enjoy. Activity has included:

- establishing a job club to help get people back into employment and through the Future Jobs Fund getting 13 young people into paid employment;

- taking over the Stag Theatre and Cinema leisure venue, resulting in 25,000 visitors per month who used to go elsewhere;

- setting up the Sevenoaks Town Partnership, bringing together key individuals and business representatives in the town, to work together, share resources and develop ideas and initiatives, such as a town wide website, listing and promoting all businesses and local venues/attractions, and the installation of digital promotional screens in large footfall areas;

- leading a successful bid to DCLG for Portas funding, with Sevenoaks Town Partnership being recognised as a Town Team and receiving a £10,000 grant towards the provision of a vintage bus operating during the summer on a circular route moving tourists through the town to and from Knole House, the National Trust property just outside the town centre, where at present many of the 100,000 tourists per year do not visit the town’s shops and facilities;

- in July the Town Council opened a youth café - in response to cuts to youth services in the area - as a great place for young people, open after school, weekends and during the school holidays, which has helped reduce anti-social behavious. But it is also helping to benefit the local economy – parents and carers can shop, eat out, go to a show or the cinema without paying for a babysitter. The youth café is also being used for a young person’s job club, via Connexions, and as a venue for monthly networking meetings for charities and third sector organisations where free legal advice is supplied by local lawyers.”

All in all it was another excellent County Councils Network conference but did witness the first signs of local conservative councillors anger at the Coaltion Government, well only time will turn if this continues or is just mid term blues. But we on the other side we know county councils are really interested in working proactively and positively with local councils to promote community well-being.