What are Community Boards, and what is a City Board?

The Boundary Committee’s proposal envisages a neighbourhood empowerment scheme that would create 28 Community Boards based around the 28 Devon towns, together with a City Board for Exeter with broader responsibilities.

They would be the unitary council’s locally-based committees that would meet and where local concerns are discussed, the priorities for that community are agreed and decisions taken about what the unitary council’s local budgets should be spent on.

These local Boards could include town mayor, Town and Parish Councillors, Unitary Councillors and representatives from key public service partners.

Unitary councillors, working alongside elected councillors from Town and Parish Councils in their areas, would also be advised and supported by non-voting representatives from the police, health service, voluntary sector, education and the business community to make sure the Unitary Council is meeting local priorities.

The Community Boards would have special budgets to spend on the community and be given responsibility for commissioning local services.

An Exeter City Board made up of all of Exeter’s elected unitary councillors would reflect the city’s civic traditions and its status as the County’s capital.

It would be responsible for its own substantial city budget and the local management of services such as city centre management, libraries, youth services, community safety, leisure services and supporting the raising of educational standards.   

It would have a Charter Trust responsible for the Lord Mayoralty, and would work with non-voting representatives from police, health, the voluntary sector, business community and neighbourhood associations to help ensure the unitary council is meeting local needs and everyone is working well together to tackle common problems.

However, there isn’t an established system of neighbourhood committees or parishes in Exeter even though there are many communities such as Topsham and Alphington with their own distinct identities and needs.

We think a city of 119,000 people needs a network of local committees to ensure local needs and priorities are being met. But we also think the people of Exeter should be consulted before any decisions are taken about local community governance arrangements for the different neighbourhoods of the city.

Community Boards are a great way to involve non-voting representatives from Police, Health, voluntary sector, business community and education in an advisory role to get the fullest possible picture of the needs and priorities of each community, and to make sure everyone is pulling together to solve local problems.

Constitutional arrangements would have to be drafted and co-designed with Town and Parish Councils and other partner organisations to ensure there is appropriate and fair representation on the Boards.

Crucially, the Community Boards would assist any new unitary council to meet the Government’s new statutory Duty to Involve which comes into force in 2009 and requires councils to inform, consult, involve and devolve.

The main requirements of the statutory duty are:

• engaging the community in design and delivery of services
• developing a commissioning role for local services
• enhancing participatory budgeting – enabling larger ‘community kitties’
• securing decision making at local level through joint agency committees.

Community Forums would also be a good way to consult and involve local people in setting the budget priorities for the whole Unitary Council.

Are Community Boards a new idea?

No, in most of the current proposals for county unitary councils around the country there are plans to form local area committees or boards to provide a local focus to the work of the new council.

Cornwall, for example, which will have a single unitary council representing 560,000 Cornish people from April 2009 has plans for 16 Community Network Areas”.

Elsewhere in South Somerset, which is a District Council, the authority has set up a network of Area Forums each with its own community budget.

Here in Devon we have been developing the idea of local committees based on the 28 towns of Devon and a number of District Councils, such as Torridge, South Hams and West Devon Borough, support the idea of local community networks or boards in their unitary proposals.

Would the Community Boards replace Town and Parish Councils?

No. Town and Parish Councils are statutory bodies in their own right and will remain in place, retaining all their existing powers and responsibilities.

The Boundary Committee’s draft proposal includes an opportunity for Town and Parish Councils to play a substantially stronger role in running local public services and helping to decide local priorities.

How could Town and Parish Council play a stronger role?

The Boundary Committee’s proposal envisages a neighbourhood empowerment scheme that would create 28 Community Boards based around the 28 Devon towns, together with a City Board for Exeter with broader responsibilities.

Community Boards could include town mayor, Town and Parish Councillors, Unitary Councillors and representatives from key public service partners.

Town and Parish Councillors could in this way have even greater involvement in the delivery of improved local services in their communities.

What would prevent Community Boards from being ‘taken over’ by strong minded interest groups who may not have their communities’ best interests at heart?

The Community Boards would be chaired by unitary Councillors.  The chairs will ensure that local considerations are rooted in the development of policies and priorities that affect the whole county.

Although the Community Boards would have a cross section of elected and non elected members, only the democratically elected members – Unitary Councillors, Parish and Town Councillors – would have voting rights on which local decisions will be made.

Wouldn’t a single unitary council be too big and remote?

Actually, Devon County Council already provides 85% of local government services to communities throughout Devon so it wouldn’t be a big change for a county unitary council to take on the remaining 15%.

We believe the new Unitary Council should be close to the people and communities it serves and able to respond to local needs.

The Boundary Committee is proposing local Community Boards made up of elected unitary councillors in areas based on each of Devon’s 28 towns and their surrounding parishes, and an Exeter City Board with broader responsibilities. These unitary councillors would work alongside the elected councillors from Town and Parish Councils in their areas, and would also be advised and supported by non-voting representatives from the police, health service, voluntary sector, education and the business community to make sure the Unitary Council is meeting local priorities.

Community Boards would have special budgets to spend on the community and be given responsibility for commissioning local services.

What is a Community Forum?

Community Boards and an Exeter City Board would have budgets and responsibilities to commission some local services to them.

Devon County Council’s submission to the Boundary Committee recommended that Community Boards regularly consult with local people and listen to their views about the priorities for their area and how they would like to see part of the Unitary Council’s local budget used to improve their area.

This could be done through Community Forums.  These Forums should be well publicised local meetings held at times and in venues that make it easy for people to attend. They should be backed up by household surveys and questionnaires.

And to make sure the concerns raised during public consultation are acted on, Community Boards should agree and publish a Local Charter setting out the priorities raised and agreed through the Forums and stating clearly how and when the Unitary Council and partner organisations will tackle them.

To keep residents informed Community Boards should undertake to provide regular reports delivered direct to their doors about what progress is being made to meet the Local Charter’s goals.

Where will the money for these Community Boards come from?

There is potentially a lot of money to be saved from reducing the current bureaucracy created by having a County Council providing 85% of your local government services and another 8 District Councils providing the remaining 15% of those services.

A single unitary Council would not to have nine Chief Executives or eight different refuse collection services, or different computer systems. It wouldn’t need to have as many councillors or all the administrative services and offices necessary to support nine different councils.

The concept is that those big savings could be used to pay for the cost of reorganisation and free up money to be spent by the Community Boards on local priorities.

But won’t that take money away from existing services?

No, 85% of your local government services are already provided and paid for by the County Council. As long they are not disrupted by breaking up Devon into smaller unitary councils, the cost of reorganisation can be kept to the absolute minimum and make the best use of the savings made from cutting the number of councils from nine now to just one without damaging the quality of your services.

In fact, a single Unitary Council for the whole of Devon, excluding Plymouth and Torbay, with a population of 750,000 will be big enough to support all the current County Council and District Council services.

How much money will each Community Board have and what could it be spent on?

Ultimately that will be the decision for the new Unitary Council, but the best chance of generating real savings that can be spent on local priorities will only come from creating a single unitary council for Devon, excluding Plymouth and Torbay.

The County and District Councils currently spend £1.4 billion of public money each year. For illustration purposes only, we have said that a very modest saving of just 0.5% on that total budget would produce an average annual budget for local Community Boards of £200,000 for each of the 28 Devon towns and their surrounding parishes.

What the money is spent on will be entirely up to each Community Boards in consultation with local people. In one area they may decide to provide more facilities for young people, in another they may decide to improve their village halls or extend the library opening hours or provide an additional bus service. It will be for the community to decide.

Won’t these Community Boards become a new layer of bureaucracy?

No, these Boards are effectively the local committee and consultative body of the Unitary Council.  They won’t employ staff directly although they may choose to use their devolved budgets to commission services from others such as the local voluntary sector.

The Boundary Committee proposal envisages the Community Boards being able to call on the services of a core team of Unitary Council officers with special responsibility for supporting the work of the Community Boards and co-ordinating services with other organisations.

Would Town and Parish Councils be able to take on new responsibilities for some Unitary Council services and would Town and Parish Councils have to refer everything through the Community Board?

There are potentially great opportunities for Town and Parish Councils to have responsibility for some local services to be delegated to them by the Unitary Council providing that this is what they want and they meet agreed standards.

The success of the Parish Paths Partnership and the Parish Lengthsmen scheme, demonstrate what can be achieved.  

Delegation of local services is more likely to be achieved if the new Unitary Council provides funding to develop the capacity of Town and Parish Councils.

To develop the role of Town and Parish Councils, Devon County Council want to work with Town and Parish Councils to identify opportunities for delegated services and co-design pilot schemes to assess their potential.

Town and Parish Councils could make bids for such services directly to the unitary council – as happens now with the County Council.

The local Community Board would certainly be kept informed and consulted about any proposed plans for delegated services and in terms of local accountability it may be helpful if the Community Board were to act as the Unitary Council’s local scrutiny committee on the performance of such services.

Would the Parishes around Exeter be part of the City Board?

The Boundary Committee’s proposal is for a single unitary authority for Devon, excluding Plymouth and Torbay.  They have said however that they see some merit in an expanded Exeter and Exmouth unitary council although they yet remain unconvinced that this would satisfy their 5 key criteria.

In the event of a single unitary Devon, would the Parishes around Exeter be part of a City Board?  

No, the Boundary Committee is proposing a City Board to cover only the existing city boundaries.

Devon County Council wants to work with the parishes surrounding the city to co-design good community governance arrangements in their areas for any new unitary authority. That would include establishing where the centre or centres for their community board or boards might be based.  

Many of these parishes have already attended listening events organised by the County Council, and they would like to do follow up work with this group of parishes and will be writing to them all in due course.