Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Localism Bill

The Localism Bill was introduced to Parliament on 13
December 2010, and was given Royal Assent on 15 November 2011. This
Bill will shift power from central government back into the hands of
individuals, communities and councils. Following agreement by both
Houses on the text of the Bill it received Royal Assent on 15
November. The Bill is now an Act of Parliament (law). For more
information -
http://www.communities.gov.uk/localgovernment/decentralisation/localismbill/
and http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2010-11/localism.html

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice to see the council gets a geberal power if competence.

Anonymous said...

".....geberal power if competence."

I look forwards to that!!:):)

Anonymous said...

too late I suspect to reverse the decision to allow Greggs a window shutter, which looks terrible in Station Road before they open.

Anonymous said...

Obviously.

David Furmage said...

Well with certain windows getting broken around town if I was a shop owner , I would install shutters.

So would this mean our local council would have more say on local issues that effect us ?

Anonymous said...

Have you ever been in a shopping street with all the windows shuttered? It is an instant way of making a town look like a high crime rate slum.

David Furmage said...

Yep let me think now , lived in Brussels , London , Glasgow and Edinburgh and all the shops had shutters and in some cities local artists paint them aswell. Some shop like a sense of security and there's nowt wrong with that.

So will this give our local council more powers ? ( 2nd time )

Anonymous said...

Window Shutters will be essential if ~ No, 'WHEN' Travellers move into Swanage, as will security fences round farmers fields to protect their livestock and produce.

David Furmage said...

Please that's is in another subject on here :) let's move on thank you:)

So will our council have more power ? ( 3rd time lucky )

Anonymous said...

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Nl1/Newsroom/DG_193140

I think that many Councillors are worried.

Anonymous said...

So will our council have more power ? ( 3rd time lucky )

Perhaps you have not had an answer because you have not asked the council who will doubtless have received departmental guidance on this. The item the last link pointed to suggests this Bill largely tilts at a number of windmills rather than addressing real issues. The term community is not defined. In the Swanage context does it mean the settlement of Swanage, in which case we are talking about the town council puffing itself up a bit and granting planning permissions, or is it something smaller, perhaps at ward level. Herston would seem to have a good case to be considered a community. As you have raised the question why not find out what the council thinks, if you can, and report it back to us.

David Furmage said...

Thank you for the info , I shall now look into this and report back , hopefully we shall get some answers;)

Anonymous said...

Thats a pointless question. First of all the marina was not something put forward by the community. It was a private company that tried to sell it to public opinion as something in the interests of the town. Not everyone believed this. When the Harbour Bill needed for the marina was before the Lords opinion in the town was split down the middle so their lordships declined to take a decision that would have been opposed by many. Had everybody been in favour it would have gone through and the marina company would have done well out of it. Since then it has entered local mythology as a missed golden opportunity.

This new legislation would formalise matters by requiring a local referendum which is better than having MPs and lords count the number of letters they receive for and against, so that is a step forward.

Opposition to the marina came from a range of sources, ranging from the effect on the beach of blocking the flow of sand round the bay to those who simply did not want an influx of wealthy boat owners for some reason.

I could find little evidence that the economic benefits claimed for marinas are in fact delivered. If anyone can point to such evidence I would very much like to see it. What seems to happen is that hotels and restaurants in the marina complex do well but drain trade away from other businesses outside the marina. Very few year round jobs are created by marinas as very little goes on in them out of season but the marina company has a steady income from boat storage.

David Furmage said...

And a missed opportunity it's was indeed , thou would not matter now to the beach if one was to be built anyway. The jetty has ruined the natural sweep of the bay:( funny how all those yachts in the bay during summer would not bring in money. Probably some of the best sailing around our coast is straight out of the bay and into the Solent. I would tend to disagree that it would make no money. So what if the community put forward the idea , instead of outside influence ?

Anonymous said...

LOCALISM BILL is I understand to enable ‘Local Communities’ to represent the issues which affect the Community within which they reside. Swanage had a perfectly good and active ‘SWANAGE RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION’ which fell by the wayside because of lack of ‘community support’.

I know I was on the committee and as such sat on the Task Group to put issues which were worrying the Local Community so as to liaise with those who also made up the Task Group, Local Government, Cliff Rescue, RNLI, Fire and importantly POLICE.

On behalf of residents I would raise various current problems, now for instance it would again be concern over the multiple fights and damage last weekend, (Sunday 27th NOV. 0100~0200 hours) in the lower High Street from those leaving the clubs. Although the police were there in good numbers, six or eight they were no match for the drunks. Where is and what happened to the CCTV taken at that time, not only in the lower High Street but the trail of damage and disturbance of residents as the drunks make their way home from the High Street.

I understand there is a meeting at the Town hall tomorrow Tuesday 29th where residents can table their concerns.

Rob Owen.

David Furmage said...

And how many residents all the way along the high street know of this I wonder?

Anonymous said...

The Localism Bill - Gives councils more power to do what?

The council represents the community. Attend meetings, interract, speak at meetings, let the council know what the community wants.


Localism means - Get active, either speak up at meetings or get yourself on the council.

If you sit back then don't blame the council when they do something you don't like.

Anonymous said...

"And how many residents all the way along the high street know of this I wonder?"

This implies you think fighting and causing criminal damage is accepteble if people do not know about it. What an extrordinary belief. Do you extend this to all crime or is it limited to acts committed late at night in Swanage?

David Furmage said...

I meant how many knew about the meeting , of course they know that crime is being done along the high street :(

Anonymous said...

Could anyone help. There is no budget for publicising PACT meetings unfortunately. Can you suggest anything that does not cost? Everyone who goes to these meetings would like more to attend but it seems to be limited to word of mouth. Do you look at the town hall notice board for instance? This is a perennial problem for small groups which meet informally and then have suggestions they are meeting in secret. Could you help by maintaining an email list?

The Postman said...

I've just written to the Chairman, Ian Brown, to ask if he can do more to publicise meetings/agendas.

David Furmage said...

Do the vans or cars the PACT officers drive in not have a kind of speaker system on them? Could drive around town promoting their meetings. Just a thought;)