Local Government Minister Lesley Griffiths has set out a programme to promote open and transparent local councils, including measures to ensure elected representatives better reflect the communities they represent.
Speaking during a debate on promoting local democracy, the minister announced her intention to establish an expert group to consider how to encourage greater diversity in local government.
The expert group will consider the recently published results of a survey of successful and unsuccessful candidates in the 2012 local elections; take evidence from interested groups, and set out a plan of action for the Welsh Government and political parties to collectively encourage greater diversity in Local Government.
Ms Griffiths said: “More needs to be done to encourage women, younger people, those from BME communities and other minority groups to stand for election to ensure our county and community councils reflect the makeup of Welsh society, a view shared by many local councillors.
“If people can see their local councillors as truly representing their views and interests, there will be more dialogue and engagement with the process of democracy between elections – this strengthens democracy. I don’t just want elected representatives to say – ‘I was voted in’ – I want each to earn the right to say ‘I represent my community because I understand the people who live there and I know what their views are’.
The minister encouraged local authorities to make the most of the £660,000 over three years available to help improve scrutiny.
She added: “I encourage local authorities to make the most of the opportunities presented by the Scrutiny Development Fund, and the support on offer from the Centre for Public Scrutiny. These programmes will enable the scrutiny community, both members and officers, to share good practice and consider new challenges together.”
The minister also urged county councils to take advantage of Welsh Government funding to help them broadcast council proceedings.
She said: “This subject has generated much public and press interest recently and I welcome decisions by a number of authorities to move forward with this and allow the use of social media by members of the public attending meetings.
“This shifts council business from the appearance of taking place behind closed doors to something with which the whole community can engage. There is no legal barrier to Authorities taking a lead on this for themselves and I urge them to do so.”
The minister also called on town and community councils to embrace the opportunities which websites will offer to engage with their communities effectively.
She concluded: “Open, transparent and accountable democracy is something which is important to us all. This is a comprehensive agenda which will drive efficient, open, transparent and accountable local government. It will also ensure collectively we are making every effort to improve the diversity of local government.
I'm pleased the Welsh Government are looking seriously at this matter. Local councils should be put under scrutiny in this way and any effort to help re – dress the balance of political representation I would support.
If anybody studied the composition of councillors in Wales they would find that there is a deep democratic deficit. There are a lack of Women, younger peope and BME councillors. I beleive council decisions will be improved if the council chamber better reflects the community.
Recently the Youth Forum recomended a change to council park policy in which smoking would be banned in public parks in Caerphilly. The council sat up and took notice and became the first council in Wales to ban smoking. I'm not saying that members of the Youth Forum, many of which are in school, should become elected members of the council (yet). But this is an example of the authority listening and acting on the views of younger people.
This seems a progressive move which looks towards equalising representation. Perhaps if elected members are more in tune with their community then more people will come out to vote in elections. I'm sure we would all welcome that at least.
“Open, transparent and accountable democracy is something which is important to us all."
Isn't it just, pity it is merely a pipe dream
I have always campaigned for openness and transparency in local government but we still have some way to go. The recent pay scandal which awarded huge sums to senior officers whilst by-passing the majority of elected representatives is a case in point.
I took part in the survey referred to in the article and found the questions asked deeply flawed. It was all directed at party politics whereas we have many independents who stood for election to both borough and community councils. These were treated as non-existent by the survey questions.
There also seems to be an assumption that people can be neatly slotted into groups.
“More needs to be done to encourage women, younger people, those from BME communities and other minority groups to stand for election."
I believe this to be incorrect, black people have beliefs across the political spectrum, from Marxist views to free market capitalism. The same goes for women and young people. To suggest that an individual from a particular group is the best representative for the whole of that group is ridiculous.
I welcome more participation in local government from all creeds, political views and skin colours and I do so in the hope that they would do so with the view of representing all the people of their ward, if elected, regardless of whether those voters were of the same ethnicity, gender or age. The real challenge, as I have alluded to several times in these columns, is to get more people to cast their vote. This requires good candidates who are willing to move beyond the old fashioned two party system. It makes no difference to me , as a voter, what colour or religion a person is.
In forthcoming elections for assembly, Europe, etc I will vote for the candidate who most closely reflects my view. That she may be young, black and a woman will make not the slightest difference, despite the fact that I am middle aged, white and male. Let’s have substance rather than box ticking, it is the way forward for Wales.