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Hale Central Lunch – Sunday 15
th
March 2009Address by Cllr John Lamb
Mr Chairman, Councillors, Ladies and Gentlemen,Firstly it is a great honour to have been asked to say a few words. And I will certainly domy best not to disappoint those who thought this would be a good idea !!In the short time that I have to address you this afternoon I want to say a few things aboutthe future of local government. For those of you feeling the need to enjoy a niceafternoon doze after such a splendid lunch then this should do the trick! But you onlyhave ten minutes!!The government is busy publishing paper after paper, Act after Act on the future of localgovernment. The focus is on empowering local communities, the suggestion being thatwe as councillors don’t listen enough to what you have to say, what your views are andwhat you would like to see changed. There are of course notable exceptions to thisgeneral position and I for one would not dare to suggest that your three councillors for Hale Central fall into this description!! But I think it is true that councillors need to think about how they engage effectively with the people they represent.The Conservative party also has now published a discussion document called ‘ ControlShift – Returning Power to Local Communities’ and it sets out the problem in theseterms:“by making local government more accountable and bringing people closer to thelevers of power we can start to restore the trust that’s been lost in our politicalsystem. If voters want to see something done in their area, they’ll be able to forceit on to the agenda. If people are unhappy about council tax increases, they canclub together and vote them down”The report mentions the pitifully low voter turnout at local elections, across the countryabout 35% although in Trafford it is higher at some 38% in the 2008 local elections..However for Westminster elections the figure is not much better, across the country in2005 60% and in some constituencies as low as 42% (Salford).So, there is political apathy out there but people do know that by changing thegovernment at Westminster then there is likely to be change in policy in areas that affectthem most, taxation, the health service, education, law and order (an old fashioned termnow but most of us here know what this means) and of course the general running of theeconomy.
 
We also know that local politicians are willing to play a greater role. Through a nationalsurvey during 2008, councillors were asked about the importance of a greater role for councils in the accountability of key local services such as health and police - 63% or nearly two thirds said this was very important. Actually this shouldn’t come as a surprisesince in the same survey 88% of councillors became councillors to “serve thecommunity” and just over half said they came into local politics “to change things”However when 70% of local government funding comes straight from centralgovernment, which is a far and distant cry from the heyday of the great Victorianmunicipal corporations such as Manchester that brought water for its growing populationfrom the Lake district some 70 miles north of the city and built a ship canal whichestablished Manchester as an international inland port and yet today cannot even get holdof the funds to complete the building of a tram system! Is it any wonder that we have totwist the arms of people to stand as a councillor and any wonder that voter turn out is solow?But if we look at the proposals our own party has come up I have to say that I for one amdisappointed:1.On the setting of above inflation Council Tax bills the paper suggests endingWhitehall capping and giving local residents the power to veto high council taxrises via a local referendum. To many voters maybe this is initially enticing butwait a moment I thought that was why you elected people like me and AlanMitchell and Chris Candish and Pat Young into office in the first place? Surely theway the system is supposed to work is councillors are accountable for the settingof the Council Tax and if its too high and we re not able to convince you of theneed for it then you vote us out, don’t you?2.On the matter of the Police becoming more accountable the paper suggestsdirectly elected police commissioners to oversee the work of the police and beaccountable to the voters. To many voters maybe this is initially enticing butwait a moment I thought that was why you elected me and my ward colleaguesinto office in the first place? Surely the way the system is supposed to work is thatcouncillors are responsible for and accountable for the running of localgovernment services such as police, fire and waste disposal. Do we really needmore elected representatives to oversee these services? What is wrong withmaking Councillors responsible and accountable through the ballot box?3.On the matter of Health services – ah! now in the discussion paper there is, as far as I can see, not a single mention of health services – the paper is silent but wait aminute isn’t this one of the areas that really impacts upon people lives, here in thislocality, here in Hale Central? A service about which many people havesomething to say? A service that is run by boards made up of unelected nonexecutive members? So if we are serious about decentralisation of public serviceswhat about the role of locally elected, locally accountable councillors in thegovernance of health services?
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