District councils have formed their own special interest group within the LGA to promote their case, it was confirmed last week at the conference. At a meeting of district leaders, outline agreement was made to launch the District Councils Network, replacing the existing informal body, the district sounding board. Councils will pay £950 in subscription fees to join the new network and its spokesman, Alan Goodrum, chief executive of Chiltern DC, said it already had commitment from 80 councils, with a target of about 150. He told The MJ: ‘The LGA executive is fully supportive of this and feel we ought to be on a proper footing with the same weight as the County Councils Network. We're still part of the LGA but will focus on districts within it.' He added: ‘We're certainly not in competition with the CCN and already work closely with it. Our next step is an inaugural meeting in October.' The all-party network's chair is Gary Porter, Conservative leader of South Holland DC, with three vice-chairs, Alan Sherwell (Aylesbury, Lib Dem), Sharon Taylor (Stevenage, Labour) and Keith Mann (Epsom and Ewell, Ind). Alan Goodrum will chair its chief executive support network, adding: ‘Our main issues are the recession, the place agenda and topics like concessionary bus fares and pools.' But he denied suggestions that districts faced financial collapse because of a fall in grant funding from 2011, saying: ‘It's a mistake to say that districts are somehow less able to cope. We've no fundamental concerns on that.' Apart from the CCN with 37 members, English metropolitan and urban councils also have their own LGA special interest group, SIGOMA, with 45 members.
