Or rather Simon Parker over at the
Demos Greenhouse has a few thoughts on what the next year might bring...
"2006 will be the year of the community. All the new localism that's been sloshing round Whitehall for the past few years will finally start to coalesce into plans for devolution to local government and neighbourhoods. The rhetoric will be about 'putting communities in control'. No one will explain exactly what they mean by 'community'. That will be the problem."
If Simon is right and there will be an expectation from central government that power is devolved below the level of local councils, there will be a number of challenges that will need some clear thinking. Here are a few from the top of my head:
Developing mechanisms for accountability that really do engage with local opinion; working out what requires strategic decision making and what can be best developed at a very local level, and the relationship between the two; the tension between efficiency through developing bigger scale services and local service delivery; and the right level of regulatory burden.
None of these things are insurmountable, and in my view there are lots of positives to developing community led solutions to service provision. Take for example the work that the
Friends and Users of Staplehurst Shops have done improving the look and feel of that small part of Hither Green; or the level of community engagement that the
Blackheath Village Residents Group and
Blackheath Society have managed around the implementation of the
Licencing Act. Both of these local examples have ensured that residents in those areas have had a significant impact on issues that matter a great deal to residents in those areas.
Neighbourhood management provides another model for a more formal engagement between service providers and local residents, and again there are positive things being achieved through that route.
But, I think that anyone who's been involved in these things would say that while achieving their objectives has been hugely rewarding it has also been exhausting and more time consuming than they had anticipated. So the idea that community governance isn't going to be more resource intensive than what it'll replace needs to be knocked on the head. Bespoke always costs more.
The other thing that I think has made both of these examples so positive has been that they have worked collaboratively with councillors, the authority and other statutory agencies - Nick who occasionally leaves comments on this blog can correct me if I misrepresent the BVRG.
I genuinely feel that this could be a very positive agenda but lets not pretend that it'll be an easy one.
Cllr Andrew Brown
Joan