Public service at a crossroads
Grace Hill Library and the wider context of a democratic deficit:
Cllr. Jane Darling (Folkestone Town Council) sets out her views and appeals to Kent County Council to act now.
The Actions of KCC on Youth Provision Funding and Grace Hill Library.
KCC’s actions on both these situations can best be described as Cavalier- in other words, showing a complete lack of proper concern for the needs , wishes and priorities of the people of Folkestone, in the cases of the closure of Grace Hill Library and the closure of youth provision, both responsibilities of Kent County Council.
It would be superfluous to write about the place of our library in the hearts and minds of the people of Folkestone.
Enough has been written about what is has provided and what this wonderful building could go on giving to the town. Suffice it to say that to have let it fall into its present state, and to continue to allow it to deteriorate further, could be considered an act of vandalism and a dereliction of duty.
The youth centre in Hythe, should be celebrating its 75th Birthday this year, with a party attended by grandparents of current members who number over 800 from across the district. Instead, they should actually have closed their doors by the beginning of this financial year, as a result of the decision taken by KCC to withdraw all funding from youth provision across the county.
Funding is tight: imagination and transparency are also in short supply
As we know, Kent County Council, in common with all local councils have had their government funding systematically cut, until the Pandemic, when they were forced to give more financial support. The reduction in government funding resulted in rises in council tax funding by councils, and the law was changed to allow the bar on council tax rises above 2% to be lifted. So this serious hole in KCC’s finances has been coming down the track for years. And now the train has been derailed and our local services are disappearing before our eyes.
So the seemingly inevitable action, the choice that was made by KCC, like many councils across the country, was to do the obvious and make cuts to non-statutory services.
How much better would it have been if Kent County Council had been transparent, open and honest about this situation, and, long ago, had sought to work in collaboration with the district, town and parish councils, with stakeholders, business leaders, voluntary groups and charities looking at what could be done to remedy the situation.
We know that even the statutory responsibilities are not being met, and this is especially evident in SEND provision and Social Care, as we hear more and more reports of unavailability of services vital to the lives of the most vulnerable.
The background to this appalling situation our local services are now in, is laid out here:
Institute for Government: Local Government Spending:-
Local authority ‘spending power’ – the amount of money authorities have to spend from government grants, council tax and business rates – fell by 17.5% between 2009/10 and 2019/20, before partially recovering. However, in 2021/22 it was still 10.2% below 2009/10 levels.
The fall in spending power is largely because of reductions in central government grants. These grants were cut by 40% in real terms between 2009/10 and 2019/20, from £46.5bn to £28.0bn (2023/24 prices). This downward trend was reversed in 2020/21 and 2021/22 as central government made more grant funding available to local government in response to the pressures of the pandemic. Though even including Covid grants, the fall in grant income was still 21% in real terms between 2009/10 and 2021/22; without, the fall was 31%
IFS Report on Local Government Spending 2010-2024: June 2024.
“Core funding for English councils still 18% lower per resident than in 2010–11, and costs are rising
Increases in council funding over the last parliament have not reversed big cuts made during the 2010s, with spending on many services still down 40%.”
(Press Release | 7 June 2024)
Power and Responsibility involve making decisions and choices….
However, there was a different way, a different choice to be made as this document from Government Statutory Guidance, published on 8th May 2024 on “Best value standards and intervention: a statutory guide for best value authorities” illustrates –
“Local councils are the frontline of democracy. They play a vital role in our communities and are critical partners as we level up the nation.
The LGA has developed a ‘community action’ web resource. This provides information and case studies about how councils can involve communities in the design and delivery of services. The LGA works to support councils to better engage their communities in the design and delivery of services – something we call community action. As the sector undertakes a fundamental rethink of how public services are delivered in light of this and ongoing financial challenges, it is right that we consider the role of local people in designing, commissioning (or decommissioning) and delivering those services
Why are councils using community action?
Councils across England are recognising that their communities benefit directly from greater involvement in the way services are delivered.
The ultimate aim of community action is to improve public services and give communities more ownership over the services they use. Other key drivers for undertaking community action include financial, political and strategic need.
Financial drivers
- Generating savings through cost reduction
- Enabling more effective commissioning
- Reducing duplication between services/providers
- Reducing demand for services
- Enabling services to be provided within the community
- Maintaining or improving services/assets.
Community drivers
- Devolving power to a local level
- Engaging other people in service design/delivery
- Meeting community priorities, needs or aspirations
- Improving community cohesion
- Providing communities with the skills, tools and support to undertake activities themselves, on a sustainable basis
- Improving services/assets
- Reflecting changes in service delivery, such as developing technical skills within the community as council services move online
- Enhancing the wellbeing of local residents.
Political/strategic drivers
- Fulfil corporate/service objectives or political priorities
- The partnership agenda with local bodies/integrating public service provision
- An opportunity to redefine what services the council should provide and what it should facilitate
- Assessing need and identifying gaps in provision
- Changing the dynamic between the council and community to move away from a ‘them and us’ ethos.
Community Partnership is the critical choice
Driving local economic growth, promoting social cohesion and pride in place is increasingly dependent on the effectiveness of partnerships and collaborative working arrangements with a range of local stakeholders and service users.
Authorities should have a clear understanding of and focus on the benefits that can be gained by effective collaborative working with local partners and community engagement. Partnerships can maximise opportunities for sharing resources, achieving outcomes and creating a more joined-up offer that meets the needs of residents and local service users. Stronger and more effective partnerships can also lead to better community engagement, for example working through partners to engage more effectively.”
You may, quite rightly point out that this statutory guidance was only published in May this year, but I find it inexcusable that KCC have been riding roughshod over the campaigns, the events and meetings held ; the3000+ signatures on a petition asking KCC to reopen the building and to save our library; and the eminently sensible and creative proposals of Creative Folkestone (the clue is in the title!) and the Save Our Library Campaign.
The last straw of cynically releasing a badly constructed and misleading consultation document, which seeks to persuade the public that not only is their “preferred option”, the only one they are likely to go forward with, but that the District Councillors are ready to work with them on it, illustrates the cavalier attitude and creates the impression that it is a ‘them or us ‘ situation: little or no evidence of a consultative approach.
On the day following the publication of the KCC Consultation, Folkestone and Hythe District Council put out a statement in which it was made clear that the council have distanced themselves from the plan to move the library into the Folca building.
The situation with the withdrawal of the funding to youth club provision is very similar. There was no consultation with the providers of youth club provision leading up to the decision the cut the funding, A public consultation was published, not about how the closure of Kent’s youth clubs might be avoided, but about how the public would view the services across Folkestone and Hythe being replaced with a family hub in Folkestone.
Local political priorities
I am a Folkestone Town Councillor. On 14th May we had our Annual Town Meeting. Two of our County Councillors, the KCC cabinet member and Chair of the Local Partnership Group for Children and Young People (Folkestone and Hythe), and the KCC Portfolio holder for Education and Skills spoke to the meeting to give an update on the current position. The cuts to youth provision funding and the consequences were not mentioned, until I put a question to them.
I find it hard to reconcile these actions with the wording from the Localism Act of 2011, which provides the legislative framework for a democratic, efficient, effective, inclusive and accountable system of local government permitting local communities to manage autonomously, through elected local authorities, the economic and social well-being of their areas, which reads as follows:
“The Localism Act includes a ‘general power of competence’. It gives local authorities the legal capacity to do anything that an individual can do that is not specifically prohibited; they will not, for example, be able to impose new taxes, as an individual has no power to tax. The new, general power gives councils more freedom to work together with others in new ways to drive down costs. It gives them increased confidence to do creative, innovative things to meet local people’s needs.
New rights and powers for local communities
The Act:
• makes it easier for local people to take over the amenities they love and keep them part of local life
• ensures that local social enterprises, volunteers and community groups with a bright idea for improving local services get a chance to change how things are done
• enables local residents to call local authorities to account for the careful management of taxpayers’ money”.
From the Guardian 21Sep,2023:
‘About 75,000 public assets, worth about £15bn, have been sold by English councils since 2010, in part to plug holes in their budgets, research by IPPR has found.
An average of 6,000 council assets – such as playing fields, community centres, libraries, youth clubs and swimming pools – worth £1.2bn have been sold each year in the past 13 years, the thinktank estimated, through analysis of government data and statistics from a freedom of information request.
By contrast, the research estimated just 2,500 assets came newly into community ownership during the same time.
A change in the law in 2016 meant councils no longer had to buy new public assets with money made from selling them and instead could use the money to make up for shortfalls in funding.
The IPPR (Institute for Policy Research) is calling for fairer funding from national government to ensure areas that need investment get it, and “participatory budgeting” so that communities can decide how money is spent in their area. Currently, only 1% of budgets are spent this way.
It is also calling for common good property registers to increase transparency of public asset ownership to help to protect communities from continual losses. This would work alongside support for communities to regain assets.
Zoë Billingham, the director of IPPR North and report co-author, said: “People have lost far too much over the last 13 years. Communities have lost billions worth of public land and buildings in their areas, local safety nets are crumbling all whilst government plays fast and loose with major regional infrastructure projects.
“It’s time to rewire the status quo so that wealth, power and opportunity can be accessed and shared by everyone, in the places they live.”’
“In our landmark levelling up white paper, we committed to restoring a sense of community, local pride and belonging, especially in those places where they have been lost.”
Grace Hill Library: a direct appeal to Kent County Council
Speaking in my role as a town councillor, I am aware how important libraries and youth provision are to communities, especially in these times, when many are struggling to support themselves and their families.
But it is not just a library. It also houses a wonderful collection of artefacts and works of art, which are a valuable part of Folkestone’s story.
The townsfolk of Folkestone have spoken in large numbers. Over 3000 people have signed a petition to fight to save their library for themselves and their descendants. Surely this is sufficient confirmation that the library building and function as our town’s main library should be saved. Yes, the county council has got to save money, but a decision taken purely from expediency cannot be the right one, and, certainly not, the only one.
These situations give County Councils an ideal opportunity to create community cohesion and build pride and investment in our services and our people.
KCC has an opportunity here to show that it can take the imaginative and bold step of showing how a wonderful project could arise like a phoenix from the ashes and to demonstrate their commitment to the welfare of our young people, who have already had so much taken away from them.
I understand from members of the Save the Library group that a commitment has been given by KCC to consider all the options available. I hope this commitment will be honoured and that you will be prepared to demonstrate that you really are ready to respond to the challenge of working in partnership with the local community to save ourheritage and our future
I look forward to your response. Yours etc.
