United we stand
Well it’s happened. The biggest local government shake up of the past 30 years is taking place as we speak and before close of play today 44 local councils will cease to be, having become part of nine ‘supersized’ authorities.
Whatever the pros and cons of the debate, one thing is clear – with or without a move to unitary, the relationships between districts and counties will never be the same again.
Partnerships built up inch by inch over the years are already wobbling. Political friendships are under pressure and press release wars are breaking out all over.
As someone who worked for an authority, I have to say on some levels I am not wholly opposed to the idea. For years, there has been potential confusion around the two tier system, with people not knowing who they should go to when reporting a faulty streetlamp or complaining about fly-tipping. I for one can see that having a single council could make life easier.
People do however need to be convinced that the change is worth it – something which has possibly been neglected a little despite the numerous blogs and column inches that have been devoted to the subject since the first white paper on this subject was posted over ten years ago. Instead of talking about the benefits that it would actually make to them as individuals, the focus has been on how these councils will now have ‘stronger lobbying powers’ and how it will ‘reduce current administrative burdens’ – arguably phrases that mean little to people who just want to know what day their bin is due to be collected.
Is this failure to communicate and connect with people then a failure for public relations as whole? If so what can be done to remedy it now that 44 have been reduced to nine.
The responsibility does not and cannot lie solely at the door of the councils’ communications officers. They have been charged with an enormous task and without clear guidance from the government many may have been left wondering what the key messages are that they should be relaying to their vast audience base.
Besides which, I feel that now is the time to stop covering the same old tired ground, embrace the change and move forward. Local government will only get the public’s support if it explains how it makes lives better. How will creating a new unitary council give us better schools and leisure centres at a price we can afford? How can councils on either side of the argument really talk with local people, rather than merely shout at them? Once they get this sussed, everything else will fall into place.
Is big always beautiful? Maybe, maybe not, but in this case only time will tell.