South Lakeland Local Committee has decided to trial radical new community boards which will devolve power and resources to the local level if Cumbria County Council gets the Government go-ahead for a unitary authority for the whole of Cumbria.
Members of the South Lakeland local committee agreed to set up a pilot community board for the Grange and Cartmel area.
The creation of 20 to 30 community boards across Cumbria is a cornerstone of the county council's One Council, One Vision, One Voice document submitted to the Department of Communities and Local Government to make the case for a new, single, unitary council for Cumbria.
One Council, One Vision, One Voice proposes the creation community boards to devolve power, responsibility, resources and accountability to a truly local level. They have been described as the 'eyes and ears of the council' and will be responsible for listening to local communities and implementing local decisions. They will involve councillors as well as individuals and organisations from the community.
The two South Lakeland county councillors who will drive the pilot board forward are member for Cartmel Ted Walsh and Grange councillor Bill Wearing.
Mr Walsh, Vice Chairman of South Lakeland Local Committee, said: "We are pleased to be involved in what we see very much as the future of local governance with community driven boards. It should form an excellent model of how the area can run in the future whether or not Cumbria ends up with a single unitary council."
Mr Wearing said: "I think this is a great opportunity for the community to get really involved. This is devolving decision making down to the most local level possible and we need to get as many people as possible involved."
South Lakeland District Council and the parish and town councils in the new pilot boards area are being invited to take part.
The local committee decision follows the announcement that the Department for Communities and Local Government has approved the proposal for a unitary council for Cumbria to go to a consultation stage.
Pilot boards like the one agreed for Grange and Cartmel are being set up across Cumbria and will help decide exactly how the system of community boards will work if it is introduced as part of the switch to unitary local government for the county.
Running the pilot schemes will provide vital information on areas such as: size and resources; the work of councillors; how to engage marginalised and hard-to-reach groups; the relationship between community boards, neighbourhood forums and local committees; how to respond better to community action plans; and partnership working with businesses, voluntary organisations and town and parish councils.
Notes
Tim Stoddard, Leader of Cumbria County Council, said this about community Boards:
"Community boards are a vital part of our bid. They connect the council to people in a far more local way than the current two-tier system. Community boards will be responsible for taking the decisions which make sense in local communities. All too often councils decide something about services and facilities in isolation and without proper regard to how they impact on communities. These pilots will help shape the boards so they're ultra-responsive to local needs."
Joan Stocker, Deputy Leader of Cumbria County Council and Leader of the Liberal Democrat group, said:
"These pilots will help us evolve the community boards through a partnership approach. We want decisions to be made locally by consensus and it will be helpful for as much input as possible in shaping how this works. These pilots aren't prescriptive and this exercise will be a learning exercise on both what works well and what works less well. The existing set-up of the county council and district councils is too remote and leaves people feeling disempowered. Community boards will give people a proper voice in a proper local community."
Stewart Young, Leader of the Labour Group, said:
"For the first time in Cumbria, we will see double devolution in action. The pilot schemes chosen are a good reflection of the diversity of Cumbria - they represent urban and rural communities, varied social backgrounds and have different geographical spreads. The local partnerships also have different levels of capacity in terms of the number of organisations involved and the level of activity."
Jim Buchanan, Leader of the Conservative Group, said:
"There's no one-size-fits-all approach. Cumbria is made up of numerous different communities and we need to make sure that the community boards tie in with what people feel is 'their' community. Once you give people that sense of belonging, and the power to make decisions that really matter where they live, then hopefully it will trigger a new interest in local democracy."
ENDS
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