Sustainable Communities: Time to 'opt-in'

This month the government will be asking Local Councils across the land whether they would like to opt-in to the Sustainable Communities Act.
(For more information on the Act please see previous blog dated 30/08/08)

Below is a sample letter to be sent from citizens to their borough/district/city/unitary councillors and also to their county councillors urging them to ‘opt in’ to the Sustainable Communities Act process.

The text below is a guide, please feel free to compose your own letters as they will be more effective. You could also email councillors; addresses and links can be found here

Please ask other people to write too – the more the better!

Note: You can find out who your borough/district/city/unitary and county councillors are by calling the respective council or going to their website.



Dear Cllr [your councillor’s name],

Re: using the Sustainable Communities Act

As a local resident I am writing to you to urge you to please do all you can to ensure that the council decides to ‘opt in’ to the new Sustainable Communities Act process when invited to by central government in October this year.

The Act is great news for all of us locally. For the first time we have a law that gives local government and local communities the power to drive central government policy on reversing community decline and promoting sustainable communities.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,
[your name]
[your address]

You can send copies of any replies you receive to Local Works Campaign Co-ordinator, Steve Shaw, at steve@localworks.org or
Local Works
c/o Unlock Democracy
6 Cynthia St
London N1 9JF

Not a lotta Allotments

There's been a lot of talk just recently about allotments, or rather the lack of them, in Glossopdale.

Tintwistle has it's own on the Arnfield Allotments site, Glossop's are just off Gladstone Street (and there used to be some along Shirebrook right next to Manor Park), and in Padfield along Platt Street and behind Post Street. For an area serving as many people as Hadfield now does it is a sad state of affairs that we have...erm...none as far as I know.

The waiting lists for Glossopdale sites are very long, stretching into years and this wont change soon unless more land is brought under community use.

The demand for allotment gardens is already high and is bound to increase as we feel the pinch in our pockets with the rise of the cost of living and the credit crunch, but also I think people are more savvy these days when it comes to the food they put in their mouths.

We all now know and worry about food miles, pesticides, the decline of nutritional values in foods, the rise of obesity levels and other health related issues, food safety and Genetic Modification, loss of biodiversity and climate change. Then there's the rapid expansion and take-over by the supermarkets and the decline of local shops and local food.

There are, of course, great benefits to tending an allotment; it gets us out of the house and into the community, it fosters relationships, it is both healthy and educational. It's time we called for Hadfield residents be provided with allotment gardens.

Thankfully there is a law which requires local councils to provide allotments to residents if asked:

"if a council considers there is a demand, it has a statutory duty to provide a sufficient quantity of plots and to lease them to people living in its area. If local people feel there is a demand for allotments that is not being met, they can get together any six residents who are registered on the electoral roll and put their case to the local authority to consider." (http://www.farmgarden.org.uk/ari/documents/plotholdersguide.pdf)

Glossop Wholefoods is carrying a petition at the moment asking for a greater provision of allotments in Glossopdale with well over 300 names already signed. It is worth signing it but I feel we need something that will ensure Hadfield doesn't get side-lined again - our own local campaign.

You can also phone Councillor Graham Oakley on 01457 866353 to chat about allotment provision.

Hopefully, if enough people are interested in pursuing this we can start the ball rolling for some Hadfield allotment spaces.

'Sustainable Communities' Anyone?

A new law was passed last year that should empower us, as residents and citizens, to ask for help from government to promote sustainable communities and fight back against the problems that we encounter locally. The government are then required by law to co-operate and to try to reach an agreement.

The Sustainable Communities Act has been put in place as an aid to combat community decline and by enabling 'bottom-up' decision making for the first time this Act could give our community more power over local issues. This Act defines promoting the sustainability of local communities as, "encouraging the economic, social or environmental wellbeing of an area" and social wellbeing is defined to include, "participation in political activity".

Local Works, who spear-headed the campaign to introduce the Bill 5 years ago, together with Unlock Democracy say:

"this is NOT the usual consultation everyone is so fed up with - government cannot just say 'no' to all the good proposals and ideas that local people have. This is new wording and precedent in law."

However, High Peak Borough Council must 'opt-in' to the Sustainable Communities Act when the government invite them to do so for it to be of any use to us. What's more, we have to ask them to opt-in or they might just choose to ignore their invite. If we would like our local community to be involved in this decision making process we must:

1. Write to our local council or councillors and ask them to opt-in to the process when they receive their government invites this September/October.

2. Get involved in the local panels the council will set up if it agrees to opt in either by taking part in the local panel or lobbying them.

If our council refuses to accept a government and community invite we will publicly challenge them and MAKE THEM ANSWERABLE LOCALLY.

One of the most pertinent subjects highlighted by Local Works/Unlock Democracy has been the threat of Post Office closures and the restriction of postal services but there are also many other wide ranging matters that are covered by this Act and to which Local Authorities must have regard.

Some examples of these are: local jobs, the provision of local services, measures to reduce levels of road traffic (including provisions of public transport), energy conservation, production and use of sustainable sources, the use of local waste materials for benefit of the community, planning policies (including affordable housing provision), product miles and using local goods and services, access to all for nutritional foods, and increases in social inclusion (which also includes an increase in involvement in local democracy).

In practical terms we can use these measures to address worries such as the closure of local shops, pubs, doctors, dentists and hospitals; reducing pollution and climate change; quiet streets being wrecked by traffic; older peoples needs; alleviation of poverty; devolution and the promotion of proportional representation.

If you have an idea for something you'd like to see change then use the links below to see how the Act could help you take action. In what Local Democracy call the '4 limbs of sustainability'- economic, social, environmental and participation- there is plenty of scope for suggestions.

Hadfield and Tintwistle seem, to me, to be suffering a myriad of problems caused by myopic councillors and government at large many of which can be addressed by government listening to and putting in place suggestions made by local people. After all, we know better than them what our communities need.

We have practically exhausted all the usual avenues for change dictated to us from the top and things are getting worse not better. I don't know whether this Act will enable a different style of decision making and my cynical head remains fixed firmly on. However to let this opportunity pass us by could prove to be a grave error of judgement.

For more ideas on how the Act could help our local community see the rather excellent information sheet produced by the Campaign For Sustainable Communities here or visit their websites here and here .