Dear Councillor,
I am writing to ask you to use the Powers given to Local Authorities by the Sustainable Communities Act 2007 to protect local public services.
Councils can use the Act to simply ask for more money and this may actually result in a net saving effect with regards to all available public money. Take the following example - a council asks for funds to keep a Post Office open and the CO2 emissions saved from people not having to drive further to the next Post Office etc mean that the government do not have to spend public money elsewhere in the economy to reduce those CO2 emissions.
Councils can also use the Act to ask for a transfer of public money spent locally that is currently under central control. An example is Business Link, a central QUANGO that spends about £500 million a year in Britain. A council could take control of the Business Link money spent in their area and use it to promote local businesses more efficiently (as local people know best how to solve local problems). If there was money left over they could use it to, say, keep more local public services open, or say, fund insulation in older peoples homes to reduce fuel poverty.
Finally councils can use the Act to gain new power to make their own money. For example the council could gain the power to charge a non-domestic local rate to the large car parks of out of town superstores. It could then use that revenue to promote local shops and more vibrant inner town areas.
At the Cabinet meeting of 24th November, Steve Maddox made the point that WMBC's assets have been a problem for many years, and that the right decision needs to be made for the next 20 years. There is no reason for the decision to dispose with these assets to be made in haste.
The residents of Wirral don't want to see the further decline of local communities. This Act gives residents and Councillors the power to protect and enhance our community, I urge you to use it.
Sincerely,
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