Communities could be used to transform 'basic' Calderdale Council services to 'Rolls Royce' ones

In the future Calderdale Council could offer a “basic” service which communities could help run and improve to “Rolls Royce” level, councillors heard.
Clay HouseClay House
Clay House

Calderdale Council Place Scrutiny Board councillors were looking at how the relationship between an authority and its people might change in the future.

Head of Neighbourhoods, Andrew Pitts, said the traditional paternalistic view was that local government did things for and to people and the review aimed to look at how things could be done more in partnership with people.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

But councils were more limited financially in what they could do and better outcomes were often achieved when people were involved in deciding what to do, often they knew what worked best for their areas, he said.

“It is important we don’t just see it as working alongside voluntary organisations but moving beyond that, recalibrating the relationship between government and citizens to a new social contract with local authorities,” said Mr Pitts.

This could see local authorities providing a basic level of service where by becoming involved communities could “upgrade” this to something more of a “Rolls Royce” system, he said.

It brought rights and also responsibilities – for example if you saw a crisp packet pick it up yourself rather than ringing the council, said Mr Pitts.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

By thinking about how their behaviour impacted on others, not dropping litter or not allowing their dog to foul, for example, people could help generate pride in their area.

One way in which this involvement was being formalised were community asset transfers, where interested groups took over the running of some public buildings, though this needed certain levels of help and expertise, the meeting heard.

Coun Regan Dickenson (Con, Rastrick) said other options than sale of buildings, which resulted if no-one came forward to take over the running, should be explored, for example the possibility of leasing Clay House and Greetland and Coun Paul Bellenger (Lib Dem, Greetland and Stainland) agreed some of these buildings were hidden gems.

“Clay House, if it went, a lot of members of the public would be sad to see it go.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“It’s how are the decisions made on which buildings are going to go and which we are going to keep where we can probably do something with them commercially,” said Coun Bellenger.

Councillors ageed the council could offer its help and expertise to achieve asset transfers but needed to communicate better what it could do, and be more proactive than reactive.

With experience as a town and parish council clerk, one of the guest contributors, Colin Hill, outlined how working with these smaller councils could help achieve things for the community but solutions were not “one size fits all” and some financial help to “pump prime” projects made available to them.

The changes being discussed brought an opportunity to put in place a structure where councils and groups worked together to bid for larger pots of funding, he said.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Coun Sarah Courtney (Lab, Calder) said Hebden Royd Town Council provided examples of this, including Hebden Bridge Town Hall and Hebden Bridge Picture House cinema.

Coun Bellenger was concerned people would be arguing if they had a parish council which also had a precept they were paying for things twice.

“We need to be careful we don’t ask parish councils to do things that we as an authority need to maintain,” he said.

Coun George Robinson (Con, Greetland and Stainland) said care also had to be undertaken not to undermine the point of the mission – encouraging residents to do things.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mr Pitts said: “It’s not about double taxation, it is about added value – they are getting something else for their precept they would not get in a non-precepted area.”

Board Chair Coun Peter Caffrey (Con, Northowram and Shelf) was unable to be at the meeting, but Senior Scrutiny Support Officer Mike Lodge said Coun Caffrey had made his views clear.

Coun Caffrey thought “sweeping reductions” in red tape were needed and his view was that Calderdale as an authority could sometimes be difficult in fairly simple situations.

Coun Caffrey had posed the question: “Do we have enough of an appetite for things to be controlled elsewhere?” said Mr Lodge.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Cabinet member for Public Services and Communities, Coun Jenny Lynn (Lab, Park) said sometimes people did not always want to be a member of a fully formed community group and might want to take part in a “one off” event.

It was also a question of balance, she said.

“What we want to do is to be as flexible as possible, we will find a way to work with you.

“Having said that it is also important to recognise the average citizen of Calderdale would be the first to complain if we started to allow people on a voluntary basis to do something that affected them or someone got injured.

“We are trying to simplify it as much as we can. We have got the message loud and clear,” said Coun Lynn.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Coun Bellenger said the authority needed to set out what people could and could not do, putting guidelines in place including safety aspects and also needed to lead by example – some of

its green spaces were in poor condition and needed to be made more inviting to start with.

Coun Audrey Smith (Lab, Sowerby Bridge) said the availability of £500 ward forum grants should be better promoted to help groups wanting to do something

* Support your Halifax Courier by becoming a digital subscriber. You will see 70 per cent fewer ads on stories, meaning faster load times and an overall enhanced user experience. Click here to subscribe

Related topics: