Who would you shout at?
Listening to a podcast recently about Catherine the Great (obviously!) and someone said 'well of course you need local government, who else would you shout at?'
Someone said yesterday to me 'its nice someone is saying something positive about local government- we only ever get bashed and criticised'
Local government is precious and, believe me, local authorities are filled with brilliant individuals, experts in their fields and they have a passion for doing something that adds value to their community.
When it comes to local government why have we forgotten to be kind? Why have we forgotten to acknowledge they help support our whole community, our children, our parents, our friends, our place?
We need to inspire people to understand local government, inspire future talent and take a moment to consider the environment those members and officers in the organisation are facing.
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What do you know?
It's hard to deny that local government is facing huge challenges and that affects those within local authorities but also the world around us and our communities.
One of the reasons - there isn't enough money! That is well documented but the headlines don't seem to be really hitting home. Council leaders have been highlighting since 2017 (and before I'm sure) that by 2022/23 they would have about 2 years before they would declare bankruptcy.
Between 2000-2018, 2 councils issued 114 notices. From 2019, 11 councils have issued 114 notices.
The LGA did a recent survey which found that 1 in 5 of all of its members would need to issue a 114 by the end of 2025.
There is a lot of talk about councils having to cut back on services or just provide statutory services, but do you know what a statutory service is?
- Education services
- Children's safeguarding and social care
- Adult social care
- Waste collection
- Planning and housing services
- Road maintenance
- Library services
This does not include things like domestic abuse services, CCTV, events, leisure, museums, art galleries, markets, open spaces, swimming pools - the list goes on.
Now some of this will be done with local parish councils and across the tiers, however the point is that there is a lot that local government does for you - even if you don't realise it.
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