Daily Archives: 15 Apr 2024

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Planning applications validated by EDDC for week beginning 1 April

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local councils must meet the needs of communities, not just Whitehall 

Without much evidence, Whitehall has believed that larger councils are more efficient. The average size of English local authorities is now 10 times that found in comparable western European countries.

Editorial www.theguardian.com 

The phrase “all politics is local” is most often associated with Tip O’Neill, former speaker of the US House of Representatives. But such sentiments come to die in England, where decision-making is concentrated in Whitehall ministries. With English council and mayoral elections in May, local government is increasingly that in name alone. Westminster’s creeping preference for single-tier authorities and austerity has seen bigger councils and smaller budgets. Crucially, local government is losing its link to places that matter to local people. Fifty years ago, a more grassroots approach meant people would know their councillor. Now most voters couldn’t name them.

With budgets set by central government, local authorities are being drained of resources to safeguard and improve their area’s social, economic and environmental wellbeing. Years of shrinking finances have closed care homes, creches, youth clubs and libraries. Bin collections, bus routes and school crossing patrols have gone too. Councils are viewed in Whitehall as local service delivery agencies and expected to clean up any mess made in SW1.

In England, devolution and economic development are bound together, as if the former was necessarily conducive to the latter. Metro-mayoralties – the big devolution policy since 2010 – were conceived as ways of “agglomerating” workers around a big city. This model is a democratic improvement on the single tier of local government favoured for decades. The mayor handles strategic conurbation-wide issues and district councils deal with more local issues. But rural counties lacking an economic focus cannot adopt this template. Growth, rather than giving expression to a political community, drives mayoral devolution. By contrast, with London’s assembly and Scottish and Welsh parliaments devolution empowered distinctive political identities.

A looming financial crisis in England presents an opportunity for change. Since 2018, eight councils have declared themselves insolvent. None had done so in the preceding 18 years. Four in 10 authorities are at risk of financial failure over the next five years. Sir Keir Starmer has said devolution would be a major priority for a Labour government, the odds of which are shortening. He should use this moment to rethink local government.

A new report for Compass and Unlock Democracy, entitled Power to the People?, offers creative fixes for Sir Keir to reimagine local democracy. It proposes an English subsidiarity bill to provide a framework for councils’ power, responsibilities and funding to protect against institutional churn; a “fair funding bill” to “address the austerity-driven collapse” in frontline services; and for councils to get a statutory voice within Whitehall. These are big changes, but local government is in big trouble.

Without much evidence, Whitehall has believed that larger councils are more efficient. The average size of English local authorities is now 10 times that found in comparable western European countries. The US state of Wyoming has more than 170 units of local government to serve 580,000 people. The more populous North Yorkshire region, stretching 110 miles from Whitby to Skipton, is represented by one unitary council. The last royal commission to consider the future of local government reported in 1969. In their book The Strange Demise of the Local in Local Government, the academics Steve Leach and Colin Copus say it “struggled to balance its desire to recommend larger units of local government with its recognition that such units would have a damaging effect on voter engagement”. This remains a central question of governance. Democracy in England suffers without an adequate answer.

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Extinction Rebellion hits out at ‘plastic pitch’ plans for Exeter, fearing no worm food for birds

Extinction Rebellion has hit out at ‘plastic pitch’ plans for Exeter claiming the move to artificial turf could harm birds relying on ‘up to 2.5 million worms’ living under a rugby ground.

Local Democracy Reporter eastdevonnews.co.uk 

Exeter environmental campaigners have made another move in their ongoing protest against an artificial turf pitch planned at a city green space, writes local democracy reporter Bradley Gerrard.

The city’s Extinction Rebellion group has attached what it called a “hard-to-remove” banner high above Flowerpot Playing Field, near St Thomas, where Exeter College is planning to install a new playing pitch.

The campaign group’s banner reads “Save our green space from wildlife destruction and plastic pollution”, and marks the ongoing fight against the scheme that was approved by Exeter City Council in February last year.

The group in action, putting up a protest banner. Photo: Exeter Extinction Rebellion.

A spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion said the group feared the impact on local wildlife from an artificial playing surface.

“There could be up to 2.5 million worms under the Flowerpot rugby pitch,” the spokesperson said.

“The birds in the fields need these worms for food.

“For some species of UK birds numbers are just a quarter of what they were 50 years ago, and each small decision that makes their lives harder means more birds die.

“We must not allow their extinction.”

Exeter College, which has not yet started the implementing the scheme, said it is committed to “embedding the principles of sustainable living and development” across all its activities, and that the pitch would help ensure a healthy lifestyle for its students as well as the city’s residents.

“The Playing Pitch Strategy for Exeter has identified a lack of facilities for the local and wider area,” a spokesperson for the college said.

“This is stopping local rugby clubs developing more teams, particularly for women and girls.

“The new 3G pitch will help to address this concern, as it will be available when other facilities may be out of action due to the weather.”

The new facilities, once complete, will be available for local teams in the same way as the college’s existing facilities are, and available for hire in the evenings and weekends when they aren’t being used by the college.

Extinction Rebellion believes few people know the new scheme will be surrounded by a three-metre-high fence, and that public feeling about what it calls a “plastic pitch” are negative.

Exeter College said, however, that it is “taking every step possible to ensure the project would enhance wildlife” – including by planting new trees and a wildflower grassland.

Furthermore, it said the pitch has been designed using the “highest environmental standards and uses the latest materials and techniques” to minimise its impact in use and at the end of its life.

The synthetic turf will use a single polymer construction, which the college said is “fully recyclable”, rather than latex.

The pitch will use also 100 per cent natural wood pellets, which can be recycled, rather than rubber crumb, which is conventionally used on such pitches, and sand will also be used.