Councillors Need the Power to Deliver if Local Democracy is to be Meaningful.

 

On 5^th May voters across the country will go to the polls to elect their local council, electing members to sit on 21 unitary authorities, 33 metropolitan boroughs, 66 non-metropolitan boroughs and 22 London councils [1].

 

Newcastle-under-Lyme will be one of the councils holding an election with seats up for grabs from Audley to Whitmore [2].

 

As they go into the elections research published by the Electoral Reform Society (ERS) shows that two thirds of councillors do not feel they have sufficient power to properly represent their constituents.

 

In an article published on the ERS website Acting Head of Communications Jon Narcross writes that councillors are in the ‘front-line of our democracy’ and deal with the ‘bread and butter’ issues that most impact people’s lives.

 

He adds that ‘for too long our local democracy has suffered at the hands of an over-centralised Westminster system where the ‘centre-knows-best’ mentality has left local democracy to wither – and councillors without the power to represent the needs of their local community’ [3].

 

The research conducted as part of the Democracy Made in England report written for the ERS was based on interviews with 800 local representatives from across England.

 

The researchers found that two thirds of the councillors interviewed (68%) felt they did not have the powers they needed to represent their community. Concerns were also expressed that key decisions about ‘levelling up’ were being taken in Westminster with local people having only limited input.

 

Data included in the report shows that 70% of councillors questioned believed decisions should be made in partnership between local and national government, with 65% saying that more should be done to involve communities in decisions taken about their area.

 

Jon Narcross writes that there needs to be a radical rebalancing of power in favour of local communities. At present the UK is one of the most centralised and any reform will require changing the outdated first pas the post electoral system and the creation of an elected second chamber with enhanced representation for ‘the UK’s nations, regions and localities’.

 

Adding that ‘only when our local communities and those that serve them have the powers, they need can we begin to address England’s democratic deficit’.

 

Local government after being battered by a decade of austerity and then having the pandemic deliver the sucker punch that landed is gasping on the canvas is undeniably in a poor state. Elected representatives have seen their role shrink down to that of having to endless limit the expectations of the people they have to try and convince they can change the world come election time, an unenviable and impossible task.

 

If the deep seated injustices afflicting most of the towns and cities that used to comprise Labour’s ‘red wall’ and turned Tory in 2019 in such numbers then decision making has to be collaborative or fail. Westminster driving them through hoops after crumbs every few years will only breed resentment and disengagement from politics. A vicious circle that makes the job of councillors at the sharp end harder still.

 

This has to be aligned with a genuine willingness on the part of councils to devolve power down to communities. The Civic Centre can be just as insular and distrustful of we the people as the Westminster village.

 

A prime example being the curious capers of Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Councils, where full council meetings are cancelled because there isn’t enough business to make holding them worthwhile and consultations are ‘spun’ to prevent the public from expressing views that might be inconvenient.

 

Anyone who has followed the battle to stop green spaces around the town being covered in concrete or observed the parlous state of the local market, to cite just two examples, knows there is no shortage of business to put before the council. What is lacking is a commitment to democratic engagement on the part of the leadership, along with a big dollop of humility.

 

Prising the dead hand of Westminster off some of the levers of power can only ever be a good thing. Unless it is immediately replaced by the grubby one of a council leadership that has got too big for its boots.

 

[1] https://www.local.gov.uk/about/our-meetings-and-leadership/political-composition/local-government-elections

[2] https://www.newcastle-staffs.gov.uk/elections-registration-1/local-government-elections-2022

[3] https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/for-local-democracy-to-flourish-our-representatives-need-the-power-to-deliver/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=ers-email&utm_campaign=blog-roundup&utm_content=Blog+Round+Up+12+March+-+Winner+Send