Government ministers should face a performance indicator on how well the public can influence them, a leading local government figure has claimed. Writing in this week's The MJ, SOLACE director general, David Clark, says plans to judge councils on how well residents believe they can influence local decisions may be well-intended, but will not work in reality. Mr Clark claims the public think local authorities are responsible for a raft of issues over which they have no control. A performance indicator would therefore be ‘crude'. He says: ‘Decisions which may appear to the residents to be local ones are, in fact, no such thing, and to ask local authorities to be judged on their population's ability to influence them is daft.' Instead, he says the Government must give councils ‘genuine authority over far more local decisions', or it should introduce ‘a performance indicator of its own as to how much people feel they can influence government ministers'.