3 July 2024At the end of June, Ian Morris FSLCC, SLCC Director for the North region and Town Clerk to Spennymoor Town Council, took part in a VLOG with Helen McGrath, Executive Director of Policy & Governance at Lawyers in Local Government (LLG). Speaking as a local practitioner, Ian discussed the concept of micro-devolution of community-based services to local councils in England, stating that the local government sector is in financial crisis, with 48% of local authorities reporting cuts to parks and green spaces and half of principal local authorities warning that they are likely to declare bankruptcy in the next five years. In parished areas there’s another tier of local government which have the potential to take on and deliver the services. Ian begins the VLOG by saying that ‘we need a new way to deliver micro-devolution’. He urges town and parish councils to start thinking about how this can potentially be delivered within the sector regardless of current funding gaps.
Micro-devolution includes town and parish councils taking on community-based services such as street cleaning, litter collection, grass cutting, parks and open spaces, heritage and culture, amongst many other things, helping to relieve the financial pressures many county, district and unitary councils are currently facing.
