Is your council going to use the Act? - this map will tell you
You can only use the radical new bottom-up powers in the Sustainable Communities Act if your councils (district/borough/city and county) choose to use it too! See the map and list below for those who have. If your councils have not already done so please write to them (and urge others to write too!), this sample letter will help you.
The following councils have resolved to use the Sustainable Communities Act, meaning their communities will be able to as well:
Birmingham City
Blackpool Borough (Unitary Authority)
Bradford Metropolitan District
Brighton & Hove City
Chelmsford Borough
Hounslow Borough
Islington Borough
Lewisham Borough
Luton Borough
Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough
Norfolk County
Oxford City
Richmond-upon-Thames Borough
Sheffield City
South Somerset District
South Tyneside Metropolitan Borough
Southampton City
Trafford Borough
Warrington Borough
West Berkshire (Unitary Authority)
Woking Borough
Guides and Briefings on the Sustainable Communities Act
Tue 28th October 2008
Local Works have produced several 'easy to read' guides and briefings on how the Act works and how you can use it. View them and download them here.
Sustainable Communities Act's Process Starts! - Local Works Organisations Write to Councils
Tuesday 14th October 2008
Today the Sustainable Communities Act's process was launched by Hazel Blears. Organisations in the Local Works coalition have written a special letter to all English council leaders, deputy leaders and chief executives urging them to use the Act so that communities and citizens can then use it too. View the amazing letter here.
Environmental Law Foundation event on the Sustainable Communities Act
The Sustainable Communities Act 2007- How to involve your Community Group
Date: Tuesday 11th November 2008
Time: 13:00 - 16:00
Venue: London: Law Society, 113 Chancery Lane, London, WC2A 1 PL
Price: Free for members, £5 for non-members
Contact: Emma Montlake, 020 7404 1030
Local Works Co-ordinator, Steve Shaw, will be speaking at this event.
More information on the event are available of ELF's website here.
WORRIED ABOUT...
Are you worried about any of these?:
• decline of local jobs or businesses
• closure of the local Post Office, police station, small shop, pub, doctors surgery, dentist, hospital etc
• no affordable housing, local bus service or local, healthy food
• pollution and climate change, traffic wrecking quiet streets
• older people abandoned
Now you can fight back!
The new Sustainable Communities Act gives you, your neighbours and friends power to tell Government how to help you stop your community declining.
David Drew MP (Labour), Nick Hurd MP (Conservative) and Julia Goldsworthy MP (Lib Dem) that led the cross party campaign for the Act in Parliament. They say: “This is not just another consultation. This Act gives you power to protect and enhance your community, we urge you to use it.”
The Government Minister, Phil Woolas, told the House of Commons on 15 June 2007 that the Sustainable Communities Act was one of the most important such Acts in the last 40 years because, as he said: ‘I genuinely believe that it will change the relationships in British politics’.
NEW GUIDE TO USING THE SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES ACT
Local Works has produced a new guide for citizens on how to use the Sustainable Communities Act. The guide contains details on how the Act works as well as examples of what can be achieved by using it.
View it here or you can download a pdf version of it here.
ACTIONS!: please distribute copies locally - contact us and we will send you more. Please use the Act, for more actions click here.
