Council overhaul could shift decision-making power to local communities

Twm Owen, Local Democracy Reporter

A new way of working for a council could see neighbourhood groups and boards established to address common problems such as litter and anti-social behaviour.

A consultation, which has included a Citizens Assembly bringing together selected residents, has been running on the proposals to overhaul the delivery of council services since November with councillors updated on the process at a scrutiny meeting.

Torfaen Borough Council has branded the new approach ‘The Deal’ and its consultation asked residents what they valued about living in the area, what they most wanted fixed, what they were willing to do, the main barriers preventing them from being involved in the community or volunteering and the positive outcomes they expected if the council acted.

This proposal could see these groups deciding how and where council workers are deployed rather than rotas being set centrally.

Practical steps

Reform UK councillor David Thomas said the presentation “all sounds very lovely” but asked “what practical steps” would be taken as a result of the change in approach.

The Llantarnam councillor said: “Residents clearly identified litter, parking enforcement, anti-social behaviour and street cleaning as priorities. What specific operational changes will residents see in the next 12 months different from current service delivery? These are long-standing issues, what evidence is there The Deal will succeed where previous approaches have not?”

Chief executive Stephen Vickers said the “next practical step” would be engagement with communities in what he called “at place” meaning discussing how changes would work on the ground and gave the example of setting up local groups to make decisions on actions and spending.

He said The Deal has five key “missions” with the fifth being “empowered communities” which he described as “shared responsibility, shared power and shared ownership”.

Mr Vickers said: “It’s a clear opportunity for us to establish local community groups, neighbourhood boards and work with community councils and local members and local groups in those areas where they can work with our services to help set local priorities as opposed to councils working in a more traditional way which would include being on standardised rotas where we’re not necessarily guaranteed to be hitting the priorities for local communities.

“They’re some of the major changes where you’ll see we’re working much more closely with our communities rather than ‘doing to’, much more ‘doing with them’.”

The chief executive also said none of the council’s statutory duties would be devolved to community groups but said the change is intended to identify opportunities to change the way its discretionary spending works and gave examples of managing parks, cemeteries and managing the environment.

He said it would also help the council work with communities as part of its Marmot plan which is intended to take a holistic approach to tackling health inequalities.