Cllr Peter Arnold, Newcastle Council
Central government too often sees councillors as part of the problem rather than part of the solution. But councillors have an important role to play. Most people don’t want to be councillors, they don’t want to be that involved. What they do want is to be kept informed of what is happening in their local area in enough time for them to form a view, and to have an opportunity to influence the final decision.
Local authorities are in a difficult position. They are over regulated, and there is a constant stream of guidelines, initiatives, rules and regulations coming from central government making it difficult to plan for the long-term, and to respond flexibly.
The role of local government is to create sustainable communities. Because each community is different, the detailed solutions relevant to each will also be different. One size does not fit all, and diversity is a strength not a weakness. The people who live in the different communities which make up each local authority know what the problems are in their area. The job of councillors and officers is to use their technical knowledge to produce the solutions people feel are appropriate for their community.
Newcastle Council is devolving more powers to ward committees, which bring together councillors, other public sector bodies serving the area and residents. A minimum set of powers is being introduced for each ward committee. More powers will be devolved on request and some communities are expected to demand more powers than others. A challenge here is that for legal reasons the ward councillors will still control the purse strings, which may put residents off if they can’t be involved in the decision-making process.
Genuine community engagement will require a fundamental and radical shift. We need to reinstate proper democracy and get rid of bureaucracy and quangocracy.