I've got a short opinion-piece in the local Newspaper today, on the issue of 'political culture change' - for those interested, I'll reproduce the main text below ...
I think you’d need to be inhabiting a wholly different world from the
one I live in, not to be aware that trust between the electorate and those of
us either elected, or employed, to serve that electorate, has broken down badly
in recent years.
And it was clear when we formed our local Labour/SNP coalition
administration in Edinburgh, following the last 2012 Scottish Council
Elections, that business as usual wasn’t an option; we had to change the way we
did things.
As an incoming Council Leader, I knew there was no time to waste in
ensuring that we had a clear, unambiguous programme for governance.
And not just as a Council Leader, but also as a ward councillor, and a
member of my local community, I understand the scale of the challenges that we
are all facing locally. Many communities are disengaged from local democracy;
Councils can seem like distant bureaucracies; and, as organisations, we
constantly struggle to manage significant funding reductions just as local
people are putting more and more demand on local services.
If Councils are going to survive in this context, and if communities are
going to thrive, then we all need to start doing things differently. We need to
work together, in genuine and equal partnership with local people, to make the most
of the strengths that lie in our communities. Most importantly, we must drive
real innovation, with local people at its core, if we are to face the
challenges ahead of us.
So – back in 2012, we agreed a clear set of some 53
commitments, in a new ‘Contract with the Capital’. That
contract was openly published, and within weeks, the ‘monitoring
against delivery’ of our promises was live and very visible via the
main Council website … and continues to be so, with six-monthly reports going
to Full Council Meetings.
And yes, Scottish Local Government had already changed
substantially, back in 2007, with the introduction of a proportional
voting-system: STV-PR with multi-Member wards. But that change was mostly in
terms of political make-up (structural change) … and deeper cultural change, in
the way politics was conducted, was clearly going to take a little longer; and
much more effort to instigate.
So, we also committed to becoming a ‘Co-operative Council’ – we wanted
to encourage not just local communities, but our many partners and those using
our services, to become more involved in how those services are planned,
managed and delivered.
That meant looking at new ways of delivering services but it also meant
co-operating with other agencies, other cities and crucially, the people of
Edinburgh: doing things with them and not doing things to
them.
And by way of example, that new approach to the way we
worked, and the way we engaged with others, has included some significant
actions in making the vision of a ‘Cooperative Council’ a reality:
We established the first Petitions Committee at the
Council. That Committee is chaired by a Member of Edinburgh’s Opposition, Green
Group. This has helped enable local residents to have an additional channel to
raise issues of concern, with their elected representatives, and directly with
the Council.
We completely overhauled our scrutiny function; and
established a new ‘Governance, Risk and Best Value Committee’; again Chaired by
a Member of Edinburgh’s Opposition, Conservative Group.
We also completely revised our budgetary process, which led
to the publication of draft budgets – for the first time in decades, in
Edinburgh – and further allowed several months of public consultation, each
year, all prior to setting any final budgets.
And last – but by no means least – we’re now webcasting (both
live and archived) all of our Full Council Meetings, and an increasing number
of our regular Committee Meetings. I’m now frequently challenged about previous
comments and commitments – and that has to be good for local democracy.
And I firmly believe that the co-operative principles of
empowerment, equal partnership, and collective action offer a positive route to
not simply survive through tough times, but to enable local communities to
thrive, supported by relevant and meaningful local public services.
The cumulative impact of all these considered-changes has been fairly
significant - and, I would argue, we have re-gained a renewed sense of
engagement with residents. There is a new political
narrative within the City Chambers here in Edinburgh; the political
culture (and not just the structures) has now, most definitely changed
--- and changed for the better.
Cllr Andrew Burns
Leader of the City of Edinburgh Council
No comments:
Post a Comment