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Cliff Robinson describes a visit to his council's twin in Poland, during local democracy week In June, I was lucky enough to be invited by the president of Radomsko, Poland, to visit the country and spend three days promoting local democracy matters, including Local Democracy Week, there. As a rural Lincolnshire district, North Kesteven DC's original link to the country was through the twinned towns of Lincoln in England; Radomsko in Poland; Makó in Hungary; and Voznesensk in Ukraine. I had set up our link through some charity work I was already conducting. The purpose of my visit was to talk about how democracy works in this country and our own Local Democracy Week, which North Kesteven has been taking part in since 1998, when it first started. The timing for the visit was opportune, as it took place shortly after the European elections. In 1998, the UK Government decided to address voter apathy, engagement and access to voting, so the LGA came up with the idea of Local Democracy Week. Of course, engaging young people is just one way to make a difference. North Kesteven has been involved in Local Democracy Week since day one. When I look back at the first letter I sent to schools inviting them to take part, I feel immensely proud. The council worked hard, and improved its offering year-by-year with activities such as political quizzes ‘speed-dating'-style events, where councillors talk informally to youngsters for a few minutes each. North Kesteven then decided to engage more directly with young people by going into schools. We put on events including an election in one day, staged a controversial planning application, where young people played the role of the councillor, developer, parish councillor, objector and someone who supported the application. What the youngsters realised was how difficult it was to make a tricky decision. But, of course, in this country, we are in the privileged position of having an established democratic system, which is sadly not the case everywhere in the world. The Polish people have been so brow-beaten by their former bureaucratic system, one gets a sense of weariness about them, but young people are more outward-looking, not least because they want to learn English. And, of course, if people want to make a difference, one of the ways to start is with the younger generation – which is what Local Democracy Week is all about. With this in mind, the Polish local authorities were keen to see how the scheme worked, with a view to rolling it out there. Two questions as I boarded my flight nagged me, however. Bearing in mind Poland's history, how much freedom have the people actually got? And were they likely to suffer from the same English diseases of apathy and disengagement? Happily, that was not the case, and I learned that Poland really does look to us in England to give them a lead and example. and the country is hungry for change. And, despite having an interpreter – my Polish is limited to ‘Hello' and ‘Thank you' – when you talk to the local people, they desperately want to speak to you – in English. The city of Radomsko has a population of about 50,000. Lots of the residents live in flats, and there is some 20% unemployment, which is higher than in this country. Despite that, there is a huge amount of new development. Radomsko City Council was happy to learn about how our democratic system works. I spoke to conference delegates about how we manage elections and engage with younger people in North Kesteven, as they were looking to do the same in Poland. We are hoping to have a Polish representative visit England in October, to see how North Kesteven DC's Local Democracy Week works. And who knows, maybe next year, Poland will stage its own version and we will help its people out. As I headed back to the UK, I was glad that the Poles were so desperate to get involved in the democratic process. This immediately floored my concerns over any voter apathy – only raising further concerns about the state of voter apathy in my own country, which I deliberated on my flight back home. Overall, it costs £57m to run elections in Britain, which is much less than most other European countries, and is possibly the cost of a football player. It makes me question what the price of democracy really is. But how do we turn the tide of cynicism? Local Democracy Week is a good start. Cliff Robinson is member services manager, North Kesteven DC

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WHITEHALL

When democracy week headed east

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