A healthy future in localism? Not for our rural town and parish councils
Vintage stuff this from my friend James Derounian of the University of Gloucestershire, setting out passionately the negative impact of the current cuts to funding on localism in terms of parish councils and small rural districts. He tells us:
“There’s an irony in all this, given that the two parties in power – Conservatives and Liberal Democrats – have their traditional heartland in the countryside. Financial woes are cascading down to the parish and town councils who, only a month back, communities secretary Eric Pickles lauded as localism’s “magic wand”.
How are local authorities across the tiers, or their communities, to run services such as libraries, planning and economic regeneration, on a rapidly withering budget? Take the parishes: one in Cambridgeshire reports that as a result of a reduced council tax base its precept (local tax) will reduce by £19,524. This is the result of central government “localising council tax” – it strikes at the heart of local service funding and there is nothing the parishes can do about it.
“Our borough council has confirmed that we will receive an amount as a compensatory grant this year but I don’t think there will be any grant forthcoming next year; this is the typical position in 2013,” said a local councillor. Other authorities have considered not passing on the government grant for small councils at all. Swindon borough council has taken on the ultimate anti-localist stance, failing to pass on any grant to their parishes. Stratton St Margaret parish council’s budget has haemorrhaged by £74,975.36 (or 9.10% of the tax base) as a result.
With the government’s own rural quango set to breathe its last at the end of March, leaving the London-based Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to deliver localism across England.”
Now notwithstanding James’ accurate portrayal of the problems facing the most local tier of local government I would still exhort those local authorities with unparished areas, even in their cities, to get on and fill up the gaps with new parishes. Ultimately they give real power and tax raising power at that to local people who want to do things locally.