Forty more communities have joined the Pride in Place programme, giving local people a say over investment and giving the bench outside the community hall its long delayed chance to become a stakeholder.
The Government says the new arrivals bring the main programme to 284 communities, after 244 existing communities were joined by 40 more. The notes then announce that the wider programme, including its Impact Fund, supports 379 areas. Even community renewal now has a headline number, a footnote number and the faint promise of a committee to decide which number looks best in a photograph.
Neighbourhoods can receive up to £20 million over the next decade, with residents choosing how the money is used. This is sensible. The people who know a place also know which shortcut floods, which youth centre is one cold winter from becoming a memory and which fence has acquired a local following.
The scheme backs locally led solutions, allowing decisions to begin close to the pavement instead of arriving from Whitehall in a glossy document that has never stood beneath the bus shelter while it leaks. The bench has been invited to contribute its views because it has been present for every consultation since 1998 and has never once claimed expenses.
The Government lists youth centres, playgrounds, empty buildings and after school activities among the possible uses. These are not glamorous subjects, which is often why they matter. A repaired playground rarely delivers a keynote speech. It simply gets used loudly, repeatedly and by people who do not need a lanyard to identify the outcome.
An empty building may return to community use. This is excellent news for the old shop front that has spent years insisting its peeling sign is a design choice. Soon it may have a second act, fewer pigeons and a funding application explaining why pigeons are not technically local partners.
Local investment cannot solve every problem with one cheque and a ribbon. It can give residents more influence over changes that affect them. That is a powerful idea, although the bench suspects that locally led will eventually require three forms, a steering group, a public engagement plan and a smaller bench to supervise the seating arrangements.
Still, the money is moving closer to the people who use the places being discussed. The bench is preparing its opening statement: it supports civic renewal, provided someone brings a fresh coat of paint and does not describe the peeling one as a heritage feature. At last, local democracy has found a representative with no campaign promises, no expenses and absolutely no intention of standing down.
Source: GOV.UK.
