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| Saturday, April 14, 2007 |
Why local government is a load of rubbishIt is not entirely fair or accurate to state that these days local government is not responsible for anything much beyond refuse collection. However, it is true that the scope and competence of local government has been greatly curtailed over decades, and it is true that refuse collection is an important local service for which local councils are still nominally responsible.It is therefore hardly surprising that local councils are taking a lot of criticism on the subject. As the Times has pointed out, some councils are proposing to reduce rubbish collections to once a fortnight (with obvious public health implications), while others are fining local residents for putting their rubbish out for collection outside specified (or even unspecified) times, citing the same public health concerns. In other words, refuse collection is a mess. Council tax payers are justifiably angry that while council tax bills soar, quality of service continues to fall. The quality of the refuse collection service is an immediate and very visible indicator of the performance of a local authority. If councils are cutting back on collections, it is understandable that they might not want to see the results left on the streets for all to see, and smell. The reductions in service and the introduction of punitive fines seem to be being pushed through under the general umbrella of environmental protection, as though all of this was something to do with climate change. It's not. What this is about is government and especially EU interference, and the drive to meet European landfill targets. If we are to bother with local government at all, it should have meaningful authority in its areas of concern, and it should be accountable to the views and needs of local people. Local government, if it is to be a prisoner of EU and Westminster diktats and targets in every respect, is not truly local government at all - it is simply a branch of central government financed by punitive local taxation. It's time for a proper review of the functions of local government: to improve services for those who need them, accountability to those who pay for them, and the competence of those who deliver them. Local government isn't working. It's time to find a better way. |
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