What do people in East Devon want to improve?
East Devon District Council chose to take part in the Sustainable Communities Act and we have now submitted the proposal of ‘providing more affordable housing for local people’ to the Local Government Association (LGA).
The Act is intended to divert power and funding from Central Government to councils and local people to help them manage community issues at a local level and change things for the better. The idea is that local communities identify local issues and suggest changes in legislation, policy or a transfer of funding by Central Government that would help to sort out the issue.
In May we sent out information (letters, leaflets and proposal forms) inviting proposals from Town and Parish Councils, many voluntary and community groups, East Devon Local Strategic Partnership members, the local media, Elected Members and staff. The information was also put onto the Council’s website alongside an on-line proposal submission form.
We received over 50 proposals. We then checked that each of the proposals met Central Government’s strict criteria.
All the proposals had to:
•Improve the sustainability of the local community
•Require action from central government
•Be based within or have specific relevance to communities in East Devon.
We ended up with 26 valid proposals. Most of the invalid proposals fell down as they did not require action from Central Government, and were instead things that could be sorted out locally.
The next stage was to involve a panel of local people. All the members of the Council’s ‘Speak Now!’ residents’ panel were invited to a meeting to prioritise the 26 valid proposals. 49 members of the residents’ panel came along to give us their views by voting for the proposals they felt would make East Devon more sustainable as a place to live.
After voting the priorities were clear, the proposals about ‘affordable housing for local people’ received 54 votes, followed by ‘further limiting the size and weight of delivery vehicles allowed into town centres’ with 20 votes and also ‘stopping the closure of any more rural Post Offices’ with 20 votes.
At a meeting of the Council’s Executive Board on 15 July Elected Members decided to put all East Devon District Council’s weight behind submitting the top proposal, the one about providing more affordable housing for local people. This proposal has now been sent to the LGA for them to make the decisions on which proposals will go forward to the next stage.
The proposals from the LGA will be sent to the Secretary of State for final decisions to be made. The Act requires him to co-operate with the LGA ‘and try to reach agreement’ on proposals. The Secretary of State also has to publish reasons for decisions on the proposals.
At the moment there is no obligation in the Act for Central Government to ask for proposals more than once, which has now been done. An amendment to the Act has been proposed that will require them to ensure that it’s an ongoing process. Elected Members have recommended that we support this amendment by writing to our local MP.
To find out even more about the Sustainable Communities Act visit:
•Local Works- www.localworks.org
•The Local Government Association- www.lga.gov.uk/lga/core/page.do?pageId=1293641
•The Department for Communities and Local Government- www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/sustainablecommunitiesact