101 sexual assaults including rapes in one year in London alone from taxi and private hire drivers and the Tories with full support of the Lib Dems are relaxing rules.

source: Transport for London

The coalition government are so hell-bent on de-regulation there comes a point when we need to take a stand. What on earth are we doing putting women at risk in this way?

We know there are drivers who shouldn’t be in the role. Rather than tighten up the legislation, the Tories with the full co-operation of the Lib Dems seem so divorced from reality that they’re set on a shocking course that will encourage more of it. It’s appalling

Image source : Photo © Copyright Walter Baxter and licensed for reuse under a cc-by-sa/2.0 Creative Commons Licence.

Paul Wheeler poses an interesting question in the Guardian asking why Chicago has more influence?

Both Chicago and Manchester have about 2.8 million people yet Manchester still struggles to punch its weight on the world stage. Paul Wheeler poses the question as to whether this is to do with Greater Manchester’s dissipated local government with its 10 councils and chief executives all competing with each other, rather than the slim-lined single mayor of Chicago?

Interestingly, the BBC’s Evan Davis is raising the same issue tonight in his ‘Mind the Gap’ programme.

Both argue that we need to be less parochial. I think they’ve got a point, but a better comparison is with the single city council in Birmingham (the UK one). Can it really be said that Greater Manchester is faring badly compared to Birmingham, the UK’s largest council? We’re probably out-performing Birmingham on every single metric. The problem it seems to me is London, the imperial capital with its insatiable greed and self-regard.

Personally, as a person who’s always lived within the M60, I self define as a ‘Manc’, yet I’ve only lived two years of my life within the City Council’s boundary. I’ve never actually called myself a Traffordian; I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who does. I don’t have any sense of loyalty to a place called Trafford; largely because there isn’t such a place. It’s poignant that the place that calls itself ‘The Trafford Centre’ is the epitome of marketing insincerity with plastic columns and domes and an identikit retail offer to be found in every regional centre.

Emotionally, I can see no reason not to combine with Manchester. But until Greater Manchester is allowed the same independence as London, I don’t see us being able to exert our potential whatever the governance arrangements. Whilst we still have to doff our caps to Whitehall, we’re being held back. We won’t be allowed to organise public transport, highways, policing (perhaps a good thing considering the Met’s performance). If we ever are allowed to perform as a mature city region, there will be an argument for new local government structures, but let’s not kid ourselves the 10 councils are the cause of this.

It’s London, damn them!

Links
Paul Wheeler’s Guardian Article
Manchester Evening News Article on the Evan Davis programme

” Our cities offer people the biggest range of economic opportunities. They are home to the most productive parts of the economy and they are places where new ideas are generated, businesses are started and expanded, wages are higher and people’s ambitions can be fulfilled. Our 64 biggest cities are home to over half of the population, 60% of businesses, and nearly three quarters of skilled jobs.

Our task is to bring together the different interests in our country – business, employers and employees, the third sector, our democratic leaders – to build a coalition for national renewal from the bottom up and in the process transform how we govern the country.

Jon Cruddas Labour’s Policy Review
We will not solve our problems from Whitehall

Richard Townshend, CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Interesting and perhaps challenging thoughts from Cormac Russell below. Is it a license for councils to walk away? Perhaps it is, but only to do something of a greater benefit, rather than just to simply cut.

Frighteningly, if ‘walking away’ isn’t preceded with, and associated with letting go of reins it’ll be disastrous.

Trafford is showing how not to do it, by withdrawing it’s services and exerting total control over what the community does in it’s place:

• Park groups are being told what they can plant and where to plant them.
• The council are selecting and choosing its ambassadors from the communities to sit on partnerships. 

And it’s not just the Council – the same dynamic applies to health and housing, even voluntary sector professionals – and therein lies the dilemma;  it’s often a fight for survival.

Winning Bids

Why would a coming together of nearly two hundred local residents to determine which community groups receive council funding be controversial? The ‘You Decide Day’ last month at Stretford High and other places across Trafford was followed almost immediately by a negative dismissal from certain angles.

Historically, the Council grants to voluntary organisations took the form of “earmarked grants”, given to a limited number of organisations over a number of years for recurring expenditure.

For the past two years, the council has handed over the decision making to residents through a participative budgeting day.

Is it perfect? No, it’s not !

• It’s easier for some groups than others to mobilise support
• There may be clashes with holidays or other things going on on the day
• There’s not enough time to evaluate each bid more than superficially
• There’s a concern that people vote for their own area.

These are valid criticisms. By it’s nature not everyone will be able to attend or participate and judgement has to be made on a very brief presentation. 

But already we’re seeing far more new groups receive funds for the first time. And even If neighbourhood loyalties are playing a part, we’re still seeing a good geographical spread across Old Trafford and Stretford..

The previous system for allocating grants was not perfect either.

There’s improvements to be made to participative budgeting in terms of putting more into the Old Trafford and Stretford Pot compared to Altrincham. We are already receiving more per capita, but Altrincham was undersubscribed in terms of bids, so it should be tweaked further. Publicity can be improved and certainly more information about the bidding organisations can be made available. There did seem to be more than was necessary spent on gloss and refreshments. 

But, I really hope we can continue and expand this form of decision making. Lack of transparency and accountability from bureaucrats is a subject that fills my mailbox on a daily basis. So there’s scope to take it into many other areas of provision. We should be opening up democracy, not retreating back to cosy relationships behind closed doors.

VSG Events

Image is a screenshot of “ParticipatoryBudgeting.org“, one of the best resources for engaging the community.