By Heather Jameson Communities and local government minister, Ruth Kelly, outlined her plans for neighbourhood devolution on a south-east London estate this week. In the third prong of the local government White Paper – after cuts to targets and voluntary restructuring were announced at the LGA conference in Bournemouth last week – the secretary of state said she would give people the opportunity to get involved in their communities, including forming parish councils. Ms Kelly said: ‘I want there to be a clear mechanism which allows community groups to register interest in taking over the management or ownership of some local services where they think they could do better.’ She added that the new powers would mean a ‘really big role for ward councillors’, including ‘a small budget’, or the powers to sort out problems locally. Ms Kelly also claimed the Government ‘didn’t give enough thought’ to the role of ward councillors when the 2001 Local Government Act reviewed political structures. Under the proposals, Ms Kelly said there would be a ‘menu or ladder of involvement’. The first ‘rung’ would be access to clear information for the local area, and access to ward councillors. The second ‘rung’ would be ‘a clear mechanism for triggering action when things were not going right and the ability to push for change when public service providers let people down’. Finally, the minister predicted that some communities would want to ‘form a strong community group or a parish council’, and the powers would be within the White Paper to allow that to happen. Ms Kelly was clear there should be no prescription, as different areas would want different things, but she said devolution from the Government to town halls should be followed by devolution to neighbourhoods. hr.jameson@hgluk.com
