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Agenda menders: Local authorities on the road from Rio |
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After the first Earth Summit, a decade ago, Agenda 21 set out the broad tasks that the world's nations needed to act upon to create a better future. These fell under the theme of 'sustainable development', which had three pillars: economic, environmental and social justice, or fairness. Local authorities in the UK and around the world were encouraged to produce local Agenda 21 (LA21) strategies, to show how they would implement in practice these policies. Ten years later, many citizens still don't know what the words 'local agenda 21' mean. But does this mean nothing has happened? No, it doesn't. LA21 regards sustainable development as a community issue, involving all sections of society, including community groups, businesses and ethnic minorities. Involvement of the whole community will generate a resource of enthusiasm, talent and expertise, which is vital to achieve sustainable development. Many local authorities developed schemes of co-operation to allow them to exchange ideas about sustainable development. Groups of local authorities have joined together to give themselves a louder voice to influence large companies. The core elementsAn effective LA21 strategy requires a few core elements, which have been outlined by the Local Government Management Board (LGMB) (now the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA)):
As part of Local Agenda 21 in Liverpool, for example, the public and the city council drew up indicators such as the number of parks and people living close to them, education standards and crime figures to discover the success of sustainable development. In Cheshire, the local authority set up a transport task group with commuter plans to discourage people from travelling by car. Kirklees council, in West Yorkshire, has been at it for longest, and is probably the most successful. With a varied population it has encouraged partnerships between themselves, businesses, charity groups and members of the public to help them to achieve a sustainable level of development. Belfast has done especially well in the area of procurement. Borrowing techniques from Rutgers University (in New Jersey) it has reportedly managed to apply sustainability criteria to all its purchases and found to its pleasure and surprise that this has cut its costs by 3.3 per cent. And Bradford has led in the area of scrutiny of governance, looking at all decisions to make sure they meet sustainable development criteria. The Prime Minister intervenesAt the start progress was patchy across the country, however, so in 1997, the Prime Minister Tony Blair challenged all local authorities to produce Local Agenda 21 strategies by the end of 2000 to outline how they planned to promote sustainable development in their area. 'Sustainable Local Communities for the 21st Century' set out the following six components of a Local Agenda 21 process:
Local Agenda 21, according to the Prime Minister, must also fit into wider Government policies. 'A better quality of life', the Government's strategy for sustainable development, published in May 1999, has four main aims:
Development cannot be sustainable if one of these strands is met at the expense of the others. 93 per cent of Local Authorities met the deadline, with varying degrees of comprehensiveness. Losing the plotA November 2001 survey by the Local Government Association found that "The most mentioned plans which authorities believe will not be needed, or will be subsumed within the community strategy are Local Agenda 21 plan, and the economic development plan. This shows that the principles underpinning Local Agenda 21 and sustainable development have been successfully mainstreamed into the community strategy and all that the council does." Many would disagree with this, among them Ken Webster, head of the Sustainable Development Unit at the IDeA. He says that although the term 'sustainable development' is now enshrined in the Local Government Act, it is losing its focus as it becomes mainstreamed. "Good leadership is essential. Sustainable development underpins everything a council does, and if it's not got a special remit then it will get lost." He believes Comprehensive Performance Assessment is a way out. This is one of the key planks of the recent local government White Paper, Strong Local Government - Quality Public Services. The Government's intention is that CPA will build on existing audit, inspections and assessments and "form the cornerstone of the government's performance framework for local government." Webster says that 'environment' currently is part of the Audit Commission's criteria here, but 'sustainable development' is not. So he, together with WWF, is working with the Commission to try to ensure that it does become embedded as part of their inspections. "Only if it it is, and because councils will want to be seen to be performing well, will it become part of everyday practice," he says. "LA21 works well with Best Value, Local Strategic Partnerships and the other recent initiatives." His Unit is developing training and resource material to help LAs meet the criteria and improve their sustainability. The new White Paper"Strong Local Leadership, Quality Public Services; The Local Government White Paper" sets out proposals to reform council services and enhance local democracy and community leadership. It proposes to subsume Local Agenda 21 strategies within statutory community strategies (which are required by law to promote sustainable development under the Local Government Act 2000). Part I (para. 4.22) says "The Government wants to see sustainable development become a mainstream issue for local authorities, their partners, and local communities. We believe that the most effective way to achieve this is to subsume Local Agenda 21 strategies within statutory community strategies. Many councils have already done this, and we encourage others to follow suit." A spokesman for the Office of the Deputy PM said "We are scheduled to have a strategy in place for subsuming LA 21 and community strategies by the end of this year." (see http://www.local-regions.odpm.gov.uk/sll/index.htm). The Centre for Sustainable Development (CfSD), a research network at the University of Westminster, is producing an overview for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation looking at examples of LA21 and local authorities in eight deprived areas, due to be published in November 2002. The European pictureMeanwhile, in the run-up to Johannesburg, the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) has produced its own global survey. It says that Europe is the only region in which climate change is reported as a top priority. More than 75% of European processes include stakeholder groups. The involvement of the educational sector is especially strong in Europe. However, the groups most commonly excluded from LA21s include ethnic minorities, trade unions and women's groups. As a result of their LA21 processes, European municipalities have noted improvements in addressing public awareness, waste reduction and biodiversity and increased inter-departmental cooperation. Generally, they want tax systems to be changed so that sustainable practices receive greater support and believe that LA21 should be further imbedded into routine municipal operations so that actions taken will have long term impacts. A 'sustainable development' approach is being followed by about half of municipal processes. The vast majority of LA21 processes worldwide are in Europe, where 5,292 LA21 processes, accounting for over 80% of the global total, were reported. Numerous national campaigns and regional associations have nurtured much of this growth. The European Sustainable Cities and Towns Campaign has encouraged over 1,400 municipalities to commit to sustainable develop-ment by signing the Aalborg Charter. National campaigns are also present in eight European countries and have been extremely successful. Moral: it takes a long time to turn an oil tanker, but it will turn eventually. More information:
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