A little piece of civic history was made last week when the first ever meeting of North West Localities Committee was held in the City Chambers on 9 February. It was at times a complex and complicated meeting but it’s set the council on a course of new ways of working with partners.
The city has been split into four localities to improve service delivery – and our own North West Locality is huge. It takes in five city council wards and stretches from Granton, Trinity and Inverleith westwards, taking in areas like Drylaw, Muirhouse, Clermiston and the Gyle across to Kirkliston and South Queensferry – an area and population (over 142,000) roughly the size of Dundee.
The committee is made up of all 18 councillors who represent the five wards, with a political composition of six SNP members, six Conservatives, five Liberal Democrats and a solitary Labour member. The members are:
Forth (4): Bird and Gordon (SNP), Campbell (Con), Day (Lab)
Inverleith (4): Barrie (SNP), Mitchell and Whyte (Con), Osler (LD)
Almond (4): Lang and Young (LD), Work (SNP), Hutchison (CON)
Drumbrae/Gyle (3): Aldridge (LD), Bridgman (SNP), Brown (CON).
Corstorphine/Murrayfield (3): Ross (SNP), Douglas (CON), Gloyer (LD)
Councillor Robert Aldridge was elected Convener as the committee’s first piece of business.
Accepting the convenership, Cllr Aldridge said: “This is a brand new venture, one which I certainly hope will operate as far as possible on a consensual basis from now on. We are in uncharted territory, which gives is opportunities to develop new ways of doing things and I hope involving more people in discussions, including young people.
“Actual decision-making relating to council services must by law be carried out by councillors, but I hope that we intend to ensure that other stakeholders like community councils are fully involved and continue to have as much influence as possible up to the point where a decision has to be made.
“We will have to find new ways of working in partnership and to recognise the different priorities of the different and diverse communities that make up North West Edinburgh Locality.
“There are exciting and challenging times ahead. We face a lot of hard work to get to a point where we have non-bureaucratic structures in place which let individuals and groups genuinely feel they have a real say in the services which affect them, and I hope all councillors and our partners will work together to achieve this.”
North West Locality Manager Peter Strong said: “I am also very excited by this new venture and I remain fully committed to that level of partnership working and involving communities in everything we do. Localities present an exciting new opportunity.”
‘Complex’ is perhaps the best word to describe the first meeting. The new committee is a small step into the unknown, and much of the 9 February meeting was dedicated to establishing where exactly Localities Committees fit in to existing community planning structures, what powers the new committee will have, it’s remit and how communities and local people can feed in to the new arrangements … and while some answers were forthcoming, other concerns can only be addressed by working with partners to agree a way forward.
The relationship between Locality Committees and Neighbourhood Partnerships is complicated. While the new Localities are full committees of the council, Neighbourhood Partnerships are advisory committees. After some discussion, the council’s Corporate Governance Manager Gavin King explained “there is no ‘parent – child relationship; it is more of a sibling relationship.”
As committee convener Robert Aldridge wryly remarked: “It’s as simple as that!”
Complicated or not, the future of Neighbourhood Partnerships was confirmed – at least for now. Neighbourhood Partnerships are part of the current community planning system and over recent years community councillors have sat on the boards of the city’s twelve neighbourhood partnerships. With the introduction of Localities, it has been unclear what the future of Neighbourhood Partnerships will be – are they still needed?
The answer is that they will remain in place until a review of community planning arrangements is conducted by the Edinburgh Partnership and a subsequent citywide consultation is undertaken. Realistically it could be some months before recommendations are made and decisions are taken.
In the meantime Neighbourhood Partnerships will continue to operate, not least because they offer a mechanism for community representatives to continue to influence decisions that affect their areas. And you can’t really have a community planning structure without community participation, can you?
Whether the Neighbourhood Partnerships will continue to operate after the Edinburgh Partnership review, or whether there will be ideas for new, more inclusive community engagement fora remains to be seen.
Another complication concerns the status of a Locality Improvement Plan, or LIP (see plan below). The draft plan was signed off by first the city council’s Culture and Communities Committee, and then by the Edinburgh Partnership, the overarching body which oversees strategic community planning in Edinburgh. This organisation is made up of a number of statutory and voluntary organisations, of which the city council is only one.
The meeting heard that for changes to be made to the LIP, those changes must be agreed not only by councillors but by the governing bodies of all the partners who make up the Edinburgh Partnership. As the well as the city council, partner agencies include Police Scotland, NHS Lothian, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, voluntary sector organisations and community councils.
This process doesn’t lend itself to quick decision-making, but Locality Improvement Plans do have a five year life so it makes sense to get all of the partners on-board and working to a common agenda. All organisations involved in community planning are going to have to learn to do things differently.
Teasing out the specific details of the action plan and putting ‘the meat on the bones’ – setting the SMART objectives so beloved of Councillor Kevin Lang – will follow over the coming weeks and months. Localities manager Peter Strong will produce a report for the next meeting, which will take place in eight weeks time. Clarification will also be sought on the process involved in making amendments to the live LIP.
“It wasn’t as simple a meeting as we might have hoped,” the Convener ruefully remarked at the end of the first meeting.
He’s right, but things will become clearer. We’re at the start of a long journey.
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