Parish councils may seem synonymous with retired colonels discussing the state of the village green, but they could bring new life to urban neighbourhoods. Paul Hilder and Saffron James explain why.

This autumn's local government white paper should create real opportunities for communities to reclaim their neighbourhoods, revitalising local democracy and civic engagement from the grassroots.

Based on research and practical work in areas around England, the Young Foundation has concluded that democratic ‘local community councils' - reformed parishes - offer a versatile blueprint, with fresh powers to make a real difference to things that matter on our doorsteps.

The rationale for stronger community governance is strong. Most of us share a frustration with the ‘power gap': 61% of people in England do not believe they can influence decisions affecting their local area, and 66% want local priorities to be set by locally elected representatives, not central government or quangos.
Our local authorities are big and remote by international standards. Communities often lack ways to challenge public agencies from the grassroots, and there is a growing body of evidence that neighbourhood working can deliver better results in some areas.

That is why 73% of us support changes that would give neighbourhoods greater control over some services and budgets, and 63% say they themselves would be prepared to invest the time necessary to influence change.

Community governance should be rooted in democratic processes that give people the chance to change what happens locally. This means neighbourhood bodies with the power to act on local priorities like grime, quality open spaces and facilities, community safety issues and youth facilities; and it means giving residents ways to influence a much wider range of decisions made by local government and mainstream service providers.

With over 70% of people saying they feel a real sense of belonging to the neighbourhood in which they live, it makes sense for empowerment to start from below.

For this vision to become reality, local consultations or multi-agency partnerships will never be enough: we need a real shift of decision-making power to communities. This is why we have concluded that neighbourhood councils are an essential tool for community empowerment.

A third of people in England are already served by parishes, mostly in rural areas, and another 23% say they want a neighbourhood council.
The 10,000 parishes currently in existence have limited statutory powers to address small community issues, raise funds from local people and deliver basic, low-cost services, often to fewer than 1,000 homes. In principle they are democratic bodies with links to local government, which could provide a solid foundation for stronger, more empowered neighbourhood governance.

It is true that parishes are often criticised for introverted parochialism, and are regularly dismissed as a model unsuitable for urban communities. In many places parish elections go uncontested because of low profile or cost, and the smallest often do little more than take care of cemeteries and allotments.
But this is mainly because of their limited powers, low public profile and lack of influence over other public agencies. The Young Foundation's work around England has identified widespread innovation in community engagement and service delivery already being driven by parish councils, and a set of simple reforms that could make things work better everywhere.

Parish planning is an exemplary case of citizen participation which every community could learn from. Led by residents and facilitated by parish councils and other agencies, a collaborative process is used to identify local needs and priorities, often succeeding in involving more than half of all local residents.
Over 3,000 parishes have developed such plans, with many smaller villages working together in clusters. Parish planning has proven a low-cost way to release local energy and renew interest in community life. This participatory, open process shows the way for councils more widely.

The next challenge is to create stronger connections between parish plans and local government's community strategies, and to build in opportunities for communities to influence wider plans. Authorities like Birmingham and Knowsley are already beginning to experiment with community charters or neighbourhood area agreements to underpin local area agreements, looking towards making LAAs the outcome of a genuinely local and participatory conversation about priorities and funding.

Elsewhere, parishes are demonstrating their flexibility and strength in delivering a wide range of valuable public services.

Steeple Ashton parish in Wiltshire serves a village of 800 people and raises an annual precept of £10,000. The council has raised grants to turn a derelict school site into a village shop, staffed by volunteers and providing a base for other services. These include a play centre and free IT training for older people, job seekers and young people.

A few miles away Trowbridge Town Council, catering for a population of 22,000, provides a wide range of cultural and community services. The eTrowbridge project has invested in ICT infrastructure at more than seven venues across the town to offer free broadband access to residents, and volunteers also offer free training for those unfamiliar with computers. Trowbridge is leading a major physical regeneration programme and has established a youth forum to interact with the various strategic partnerships in the town, which operates partly online.

Experience shows that parishes can provide a sound framework for community governance in urban areas too. Milton Keynes has been fully parished since the late 1990s, with councillors sitting at both levels and controlling delegated budgets.

Bradford has been encouraging people to set up parishes. This is already happening in the Trident new deal for communities neighbourhood; in parallel, it is putting serious investment into community empowerment through local action planning and trials of participatory budgeting. This is a bold approach in an area that has been troubled by community conflict. The BNP is already seeking a neighbourhood foothold. However, real empowerment can take the wind out of the sails of the politics of protest.

Community politics cannot be abandoned to extremists: the moderate majority of ordinary people must be supported to raise their voices and discover how they can change what happens on their doorstep for the better.

The current framework for parish councils provides a strong basis, but needs to be modernised to make it fit for purpose across today's England. The package of reforms we are advocating with government combines stronger powers with clear standards and safeguards, and better connections with local government and mainstream services.

Changes being considered include:

A general power of well-being to remove the shackles and give neighbourhoods the space, confidence and power to innovate across the board, although issues of community safety, grime and public space will remain at the heart of their remit.
Greater powers to influence a wide range of decisions, from planning to the way mainstream services like policing and learning are delivered at neighbourhood level; to call authorities and public agencies to account; to raise funds to meet local needs agreed by the electorate; and to deliver a range of basic liveability services.
Update the language - the term parish is misunderstood by many people. ‘Neighbourhood' and ‘village' as well as ‘town councils' should be permitted, and the umbrella term changed to ‘local community council'.
Streamline the establishment, abolition and merger of neighbourhood councils, and remove the bar to them in London - where columnist Simon Jenkins is already keen to set up one for Primrose Hill.
Join up neighbourhood democracy by encouraging frontline ward councillors to join neighbourhood councils, providing greater scope to involve people who might not otherwise stand for election, permitting neighbourhood representatives to join larger area governance or scrutiny processes as full partners, and encouraging them to work together in clusters.
Introduce a better quality framework recognising the variety of parishes, with new administrative and democratic standards, and tests for those that wish to take up new powers and responsibilities.
For local community councils meeting all the tests, new powers to take over some liveability services such as small parks, warden schemes, community centres, playgrounds, recycling or community safety initiatives, and to shape neighbourhood policing, extended schools and health services.
Opening up neighbourhood funding, replacing the £5.30 per household cap on general-purpose spending with a system based principally on local consent, and creating links with the larger system of local government finance.
Reform the parish poll framework for local ballots to introduce a wider framework for community initiatives which can trigger deliberation and, sometimes, referendums.
There have long been concerns that empowering communities would cause conflict with local authorities, and equality safeguards and risk management strategies will be vital.

We have learned the lessons from the neighbourhood governance experiment in Tower Hamlets in the 1980s, and some services should never be devolved. But there is a long history of co-operation between local government and local community councils, especially in the shires.

Creative proposals to strengthen this collaboration are being developed in places like Shropshire, where parishes may be set to play a role in wider area governance, and in Wiltshire, where a devolved decision-making structure will bring together county, district and parish councillors as equal partners.

We need to get over the barriers and suspicions that have held back grassroots democratic renewal, and commit to creating a strong framework for community governance in England in which reformed parish councils should play a central part.

They won't be the right vehicle for every situation. Each area needs a distinctive solution. Local community councils can sit alongside other recognised bodies - neighbourhood forums, community development trusts, village associations and partnerships - and work effectively with ‘frontline' ward councillors.

We will also need to strengthen strategic local government for it to be able to open up and share power. But what reformed parishes can offer is an established, democratically accountable system of community governance already flourishing in many places, and with massive untapped potential.

Finally, renewing democratic life requires us to reconnect politics with people. A practical ‘politics of the grassroots' could re-engage citizens disillusioned by the media circus. If the political parties are equal to this challenge, they may even find renewal in local leadership and neighbourhood action.
English local election turnouts hover around 35%; France's communes, with an average population of less than 2,000 people and considerable powers, regularly see turnouts of 65% and more.

This article is based on Local democracy, neighbourhood governance, a discussion paper published by the Young Foundation in July 2006. Written by Paul Hilder and Saffron Woodcraft.