Few people doubt the need for renewal of local government but the means to achieve it and the shape of a renewed and changed local government system can be less clear in people's minds. I must first declare my interest. I am a passionate believer in local government and I speak from experience as a former councillor. I know the system intimately and because of this I am in a position to separate the theory from the reality. I approach these commitments therefore as a realist in terms of local government reform.
Local government is different from other public sector bodies.
Often people tend to think of local government primarily as a service provider at local level but it is also much more. It is the democratically elected body closest to the people and it has a constitutionally recognised role of democratic representation for local communities but, for two decades or so, up until recently, local government was not doing well, often through no fault of its own. Its funding base contracted, it was by-passed by new local development initiatives and it began to lose its rightful place at the heart of local communities. Within the system the central policy role more often than not fell to the manager and full-time officials with the elected council relegated to the position of reacting to management proposals. Taken together, these developments devalued our democratic system and local government.