PLEASE COME ALONG TO A LONDON PUBLIC MEETING ON THE AMAZING NEW SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES ACT!

The Sustainable Communities Act recently became law due to a huge campaign effort by the Local Works coalition (www.localworks.org) of which SIBA are proudly a leading member. Now that we have this fantastic new law a ‘bottom up’ process has been set up and can be used by you, your communities and councils to protect and promote local pubs, food, drink, shops, services, trade and the environment, devolve powers and potentially even trigger new legislation. However, councils must choose to use the new powers before communities can and in London so far only a handful of councils have done so.

Please come to our public meeting and hear how the Act works and how you can help ensure all London’s councils choose to use it!

VENUE CHANGE – LONDON SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES ACT PUBLIC MEETING – NOW IN THE GRAND COMMITTEE ROOM, HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT

Due to strong indications that a lot of people are going to be coming to our public meeting next week we have changed the venue to a larger room in the Houses of Parliament. See new details below:

Date, time: Tue 10^th Feb 2009, 7pm-9pm

Venue: The Grand Committee Room, Cromwell Green Entrance, Houses of Parliament, Westminster SW1A 0AA

Speakers:

Haze Blears MP (Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government) TBC

Oliver Letwin MP (Chairman of the Conservative Policy Review)

Julia Goldsworthy MP (Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government)

John Wright (Federation of Small Businesses National Chairman)

Hugh Lanning (Public and Commercial Services Union Deputy General Secretary)

Ron Bailey (Unlock Democracy Campaigns Director)

Chair: Mike Benner (CAMRA – the Campaign for Real Ale Chief Executive)

This is a free, public event and no booking is required. More information – www.localworks.org

Background

The Sustainable Communities Act’s process started on 14 October when central government invited all councils to choose to use the Act’s new process by submitting proposals to government for help and action.

The Act gives government a legal duty to “co-operate” and “reach agreement” with communities and councils. This is a wholly new form of governance – it is not the top down decision making we have always had.

In the words of Hazel Blears, when she launched the Act’s process on 14 October, this Act is about “turning power upside down in this country”, and she added that it is about “reaching agreement where you say ‘I can do this and I can’t do that’ and then have a dialogue about the final decision to be taken together.”

_________________________________________

Steve Shaw
Co-ordinator
Local Works – promoting the Sustainable Communities Act

a project of Unlock Democracy
office: 020 7278 4443

mobile: 07788 646 933
website: www.localworks.org

address: Local Works, c/o Unlock Democracy,

6 Cynthia St, London N1 9JF