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David Sparks is the new leader of the Labour group at the LGA. He tells Heather Jameson about about his hopes and objectives for local government. David Sparks has a pressing engagement in Bournemouth, when he arrives for the LGA conference. Sparks: 'little rational reason for any young person in their right minds to go into local government as it now stands' There are, he tells The MJ, some Redwood trees planted in the park in the town centre during the year he was born. Each time he visits, he makes a pilgrimage to see them. They will go on for far longer than he will, he laughs. Annual conference will see Cllr Sparks take on the leadership of the LGA Labour group – after more than a decade with Sir Jeremy Beecham at the helm. He won his election back in February, after Sir Jeremy – who had held the post since the association began in 1997 – decided to step down. Cllr Sparks has two main objectives during his tenure. He explains: ‘The first is to revamp the Labour group, in part, to bring forward a new generation which is more representative of 21st century Britain. ‘The second objective, paradoxically, is to go "back to the future", to establish local government as it was when I came in as a very young councillor, where there had been little change in our powers since the days of [influential British statesman – 1836-1914] Joseph Chamberlain. We just got on with it. ‘Local government was exciting, and it attracted some really good people who found their activities as councillors rewarding. I actually witnessed, first hand, the erosion of local government power over finance, specifically under Margaret Thatcher's Government.' Councils searched for loopholes to be able to do what they wanted to do, while the Government of the day repeatedly closed the loopholes and ‘boxed them in'. According to Cllr Sparks: ‘The last government lifted the lid, but the box was still there. The question is, will [communities secretary] Eric Pickles put the lid firmly back in place, or just throw away the box with everyone still in it?' Cllr Sparks might have spent his working life as a careers adviser, but even he struggles to see how anyone at present could sell local government as a career to young potential councillors or their employers. Paradoxically, he claims the shape of local government lends itself better to the potential for career development than it did in the past, but the marketplace is more reluctant to release individuals to work for the council. He says: ‘The saddest experience of my time as a local councillor is the continual procession of good people passing through the council chamber.' ‘There is little rational reason for any young person in their right minds to go into local government as it now stands. And this is why I'm absolutely convinced that until we get control over our own finances, we'll never be able to attract or retain real talent.' Cllr Sparks knows Mr Pickles of old, from back in the days of the Association of Metropolitan Authorities – one of the forerunners of the Local Government Association. But his history with politics goes back a lot further. Cllr Sparks joined the Labour Party at the age of 16, and chuckles: ‘I tried to join at 13, but they sent me away and told me to come back later.' When he joined, he wanted to be an MP – and he stood as a candidate as soon as he was able in 1974. But, he says: ‘Once I experienced local government as a councillor, I soon realised that was were real power lies.' He laughs and adds: ‘People will think I'm a megalomaniac.' He first became a councillor in 1977 in the West Midlands CC's Spark Hill ward – ‘Sparks of Spark Hill, they called me!' By 1979, he was deputy leader in opposition, then he and his Labour colleagues took control of the council. As a councillor, he has always been involved in environment and regeneration activities of the council. When the authority was abolished in 1986, he became the Dudley councillor for Quarry Bank. He established an economic development department in the council – long before they were commonplace in councils – but it was later abolished, due to cutbacks. As for the change of government, he is sceptical, as one would expect for someone in his political position. He describes the new communities secretary as a ‘sharp operator.' ‘I've no doubt Mr Pickles really does believe in a localist agenda, but the question is whether he looks through the right end of the municipal drainpipe to see a microscopic management view rather than the big strategic horizon.' Cllr Sparks also understands there are some shortcomings within his own party, with its handling of local government at a national level. ‘I've always recognised that within Labour there's always been a strong, centralist tendency coming from those who believe in strong state directions, as well as resulting from the Whitehall centrifugal force. ‘The collapse of the Berlin Wall and the removal of the "Iron Curtain" show that approach to socialism didn't even deliver decent working conditions to the working class. ‘From that moment on, I became totally convinced that only a localist agenda could deliver a social approach that could eventually work,' he concludes.

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WHITEHALL

Let the Sparks fly

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