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| Lavenham, where the Neighbourhood Plan Referendum took place on Thursday. |
Last week we had news of how two very different sorts of
community engagement turned out, and the contrast is interesting.
On Thursday we heard that Lavenham’s community referendum
had approved the village’s Neighbourhood Plan. 91.6% of those who voted were in favour of the
proposals. The turnout was 36%, above
the average for such referenda, which to date has been 32%.
Earlier in the week we received some initial numbers from
the community engagement exercise on the Norfolk/Suffolk Devolution plans. The number of responses received was a little
over 10,000. Since the population of
Suffolk and Norfolk amounts to roughly 1.6m souls, even allowing for the fact
that some of these are children, this is a pretty paltry response, amounting to
well under 1%. This is a very small
sample by any reckoning.
Moreover a deeper look at the numbers show that of this
small group of people around 50% had any
knowledge of devolution within England, with just over 8% claiming to know ‘a
good deal’. In contrast, given the
length of time that it has taken for the Lavenham Neighbourhood Plan to evolve,
those who voted in Lavenham were well informed about the issues involved. Unlike the Devo proposals which were
handed down from on high, the Neighbourhood Plan was built from the bottom up;
an example of local democracy in action.
It is not too late to have your say on the Devolution question. However, if you are going to do so, do take
time to look at the actual proposals and don’t just read the superficially
attractive headlines.
You should the ask yourself:
- Is this really devolution or is it just another layer of Government?
- Is this really democratic? Do smaller parties, for example, get their say?
- Is the money on offer particularly significant in the overall scheme of things?
We will be voting at the County Council on these proposals
on Wednesday 2nd November. I am happy to discuss the issues with anyone who contacts me.
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