Set Communities Free - say MPs

Manchester City Hall - MPs from all parties say Local Authorities should have greater autonomy over funding

I was most impressed to read that an influential committee of MPs have concluded a 2 year review of local governance by recommending devolution of funding to Local Authorities.

This is a most impressive report. It highlights the overwhelming need for power to be distributed from the centre to local communities.

We're attempting to do just this in Northenden by creating a Parish Council - the smallest unit of government. It would be a local council elected by only 5,000 voters just for the Northenden Village part of the ward. It would mean that decisions can be taken quicker, by people inside the community who are directly accountable to their neighbours.

At present planning decisions for Northenden are taken at Wythenshawe Area Committee, which is a collection of all the Northenden and Wythenshawe Councillors who meet almost every month at the Wythenshawe Forum. Unfortunately the Labour Councillors for Northenden are frequently absent (last year they only managed an attendance rate of 42% between them), and decisions affecting the ward have been taken in their absence.

This means that the rest of Wythenshawe is taking decisions over what happens in Northenden - which we think is a bit bonkers considering how different Northenden is to the rest of Wythenshawe.

We invited Labour to support the idea, but heard nothing from them for months until they rubbished the idea in the press- which is a bit odd as it was their legislation in 1997 that encourages communities to set up these sort of councils.

So much for putting differences aside for the good of the community!