Whatever Happened To Good Councils?

Like most parts of the UK, the one I live in has a bit of a beef about parking. More precisely, the lack of parking.

A residents’ parking zone was introduced during lockdown and widely regarded as successful - in that more residents can park their cars close by, although rarely immediately around their home. Now it’s being extended.

But now the small independent shopkeepers, already under the cosh with business rates and the threat of online retailers, are up in arms because their staff cannot park on the outskirts of town - the outskirts which used to be free until the residents’ zone was extended, meaning fewer spaces for non-locals and hefty daily charges for those who do not live in the town itself.

It’s the stuff of daily life in Britain but an example, dare I say it, of the changing face of local authorities.

There was a time when (perhaps nostalgically and romantically) councils were seen as doing things FOR communities. Now (perhaps simplistically) councils are often seen as doing things TO communities.

On a larger scale, the row over the expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone in London - thrown into the national spotlight by Labour’s failure to win the Uxbridge by-election - is about the very same principle.

Additional charges

In my little town, as I am sure is the case with London, the residents are not idiots.

They know that car use can be highly anti-social on occasion, and parking needs a form of regulation; all but the most ridiculous know, too, that climate change exists and needs policies to mitigate it.

But what they are unhappy about is the increasingly blunt tool being used by local councils of all colours - the tool of making ordinary people pay more, often for less in return.

You can think of many services which were once either free or more extensive than now: local waste facilities, loos, schools and many other services now levy additional charges where once there were none, or do less when once they did more.

Much of this is down to, of course, the relative starvation of resources to local councils from an outdated funding system (council tax) and a mean-spirited Westminster government policy (austerity). Some of it, too, is down to local government over-reaching and doing too much in times of relative affluence, leading to inevitable cutbacks in times of financial difficulty.

But let’s not allow councillors of all colours, and their officers, off the hook: much of this change in local government from doing things FOR us to doing things TO us, is down to unimaginative, short-term, knee jerk policy of introducing economic rationing.

So instead of, say, having the guts to implement a policy allowing 50 per cent of cars in to a city centre on some days, and the other 50 per cent on other days - thus reducing pollution and traffic volume in one measure - London, Bristol and other councils instead cannot be bothered and so want to continue the current free-for-all, but want to make people pay a congestion charge.

And if you’re wondering how this relates to property, look at local government licensing applying to the private rental sector.

As I pointed out two weeks ago, there is already a fantastic array of measures controlling rogue landlords, letting agents and tenants: no fewer than 168 pieces of national legislation and a lot of devolved government measures too.

Eco-friendly way

But rather than enforce these, licensing systems are imposed - with, of course, landlords expected to pay. It wouldn’t be so bad if tenants felt this was an example of councils working FOR them, but tenants do not - ask the lobbying groups like Generation Rent and Shelter whether they feel there is sufficient policing of problems in the private rental sector.

Let me tell you, as a recipient of their numerous campaigning emails, they do not.

Landlords feel they are paying for an intangible service which doesn’t even benefit the tenant; my local shopkeepers say they’re paying for parking which will ultimately drive them away to the disadvantage of local people; and I bet you feel a bit cheesed off when forking out to get rid of garden refuse or rubble from your weekend DIY in a responsible and eco-friendly way when you go to the local tip instead of leaving it by there roadside.

So what might the alternatives be?

A council which made a declaration that its Trading Standards and environmental health officers would enforce existing laws, without making tenants or landlords pay extra, would be a start. Councils giving more substantial incentives towards green behaviour, rather than blunt deadlines and fines, would be another. Changing the operatives who take the fees at the local tip and get them to do extra fly-tipping patrols would be another.

Might it mean that councils would have to do less overall because they wouldn’t be getting the massive income from fines, penalties and surcharges? Perhaps.

But it would mean that people would look more respectfully on our local authorities, and not regard them as the revenue-raising enemies that they have become, largely because of their own unimaginative economic rationing solutions to 21st century challenges.