What are Community Councils for?

Last Thursday's annual meeting of the Powys Association of Voluntary Organisations (PAVO) was quite a success in spite of the absence of Brian Gibbons AM who had had to return to Ireland on the death of his father. Condolences to him at this difficult time. However, it soon became clear that Mr Gibbons was perhaps wise not to be in Powys immediately after having announced a revenue support grant settlement of just 1% for Powys, the lowest in the whole of Wales.

One of the other key speakers was Mark Kerr, Powys County Council's Chief Executive, who was focused and concise, and was clearly disappointed not to have had the opportunity to tackle the Minister on the issue of the settlement. Nevertheless, his message for the voluntary sector, or is it the third sector, no-one quite seems to know which is the correct terminology, was a good one. He firmly established that the sector would be an EQUAL partner in the context of the emerging Local Service Boards (LSBs).

Moreover, he had a clear message that the LSB would concern itself with implementation rather than policy issues, but one was left with the impression that , interesting as LSBs are undoubtedly going to be, their dependence on the Community Strategy for setting the agenda for the LSB remains problematic. As ever, the difficulty is ensuring that the community strategy does really reflect the needs and aspiration of the residents of Powys, and how to create a democracy that is both representative and participative.

The fact that, by and large Community Councils have failed to sign up to the Local Community Fora, seems to suggest that such councillors are content with their representative role but distinctly uncomfortable with their participatory role. They want the status and title of 'Councillor' but they don't want any of the responsibility that goes with that role, principally they don't want to engage with forum that challenges them to even think about how to take their communities forward. They are only too willing to let someone else do the 'thinking' bits, they will just sit back and and get ready to criticise whatever the genuine thinkers come up with.

Someone asked me this week, "what are Community Councils for?", and I am still trying to give him a cogent answer.