Appeal for review of local council powers

Appeal for review of local council powers

13 February 2019

A LOCAL politician is urging the government to “wake up” to the fact that the province’s 11 councils possess the entrepreneurial ability and solutions required to address the country’s economic, social and legislative problems.

Downpatrick area councillor Dermot Curran — who is the current president of the Northern Ireland Local Government Association (NILGA) — said local people and district councils had crucial roles to play in the current environment.

He said NILGA was seeking immediate action after the May council elections, including reviewing and strengthening the roles of local councils and giving them greater decision taking powers.

In addition, Cllr Curran said the Association wants an independent panel set up to take forward how devolution is progressed and funded below Stormont, to councils and communities.

He wants a Brexit Support Fund, currently offered to all councils in England, Scotland and Wales to the tune of over £60m, provided to all Northern Ireland’s councils.

Last week, Cllr Curran was part a NILGA delegation that met with NI Minister of State John Penrose to look at how councils’ additional pressures to deliver are funded, as well as forward planning how Northern Ireland’s £21bn public purse is given local, democratic scrutiny until the Assembly returns.

He declared: “Councils in 2019 are faced with huge expectations on their time and expenditure, in part due to the suspension of the Assembly, Brexit and the transfer of responsibilities like event traffic management, costing ratepayers around £900,000 this year, without being offered budgets to deliver.

“Similarly, senior management teams in councils are meeting weekly to determine how they can respond to diverse performance management demands of many government departments, despite calling for a so-called ‘single performance framework’ where all public bodies work to national goals and standards. “

Cllr Curran said Northern Ireland’s councils took performance management extremely seriously but sought to operate in a “citizen driven performance regime”, aligned to Scotland and Wales.

He continued: “During the continued political impasse, councils are delivering more with less, taking on major infrastructure work as well as substantial, community-led, preventative health work. Coupled with the burden of meeting arbitrary targets, councils, the smallest part of the public sector, are being asked to take on more responsibility as the only functioning level 

of government in Northern Ireland, without the offer of additional resources required.”

Cllr Curran said that with support from elected members and chief executives who were “deeply concerned about their ability to deliver against often outmoded targets, sparse funding and unrealistic expectations”, NILGA was calling for an immediate review of this and other legislative matters, alongsidea more effective and equitable rating system and clear guidance on standing orders of councils.

NILGA chief executive Derek McCallan said the 11 councils have been the only fully functioning democratically elected government in Northern Ireland for well over two years.

He said that despite not being granted any additional powers or proper resources in that period, they were under increasing pressure to deliver more.

“Due to the current situation, members and chief executives are becoming increasingly concerned about their ability to deliver on these targets, with the threat of tick box bureaucracy in the background. Enough is enough,” declared Mr McCallan.

“This is why NILGA is calling for devolved, political scrutiny of how we as councils are funded, what the deficits are, and enabling a piece of legislation to get us on a proper democratic and value for money footing.”

Mr McCallan added: “These aren’t political or ideological matters, so we can get them sorted. Local government elections take place in a matter of weeks and councils should not have to enter a new mandate over-burdened and under-resourced, trying diligently to deliver on many more expectations from a deserving public.”