Socialists on Parish Councils?

Are the practically powerless, repetitious talking-shops that we call Town and Parish Councils really worth the time of a serious socialist tying to make the world a better place? The real answer will largely depend upon where you live, but the effects of ‘Local Government Reorganisation’ currently taking place across North Yorkshire could be turning hyper-local government into a political arena that socialists need to take seriously.

The removal of the borough/district level councils due to happen on 1st April of next year made it obvious to anyone possessing a map that concentrating all those powers and assets under the new unitary authority’s control (effectively North Yorkshire County Council) would be an unwieldy concentration of bureaucracy. Between the multitude of parish councils crying out for more powers and legitimacy and the cuts-crazy Conservatives running county hall wanting to save some quick-cash, the plan to redistribute these new-found powers and some of their existing ones down to the parish level was soon drawn up after LGR was announced.

Dubbed “Double Devolution”, the gifting of assets and services to Parish Councils across the county isn’t quite as simple as it might seem. Disregarding that a lot of rural parishes aren’t functional and the rest have to share civil service infrastructure and staff with a large number of other councils. The number of parishes with the capacity to run anything more than regular meetings is extremely low and rests near solely in the ceremonially jumped-up “Town Councils” of the county’s market towns. Alongside this bureaucratic shortfall, there is also a colossal lack of data regarding the costs of service delivery on a parish-by-parish basis making the handing down of assets extremely complicated and financially uncertain.

But don’t worry because they’ve come up with a solution. Before the new unitary authority (North Yorkshire Council) even comes into being or before any of the other various locality infrastructure supposedly planned can come into being, a pilot scheme looking to devolve a single asset or service to no more than a handful of parish councils will be run. This way they can get a practical understanding of the process of devolving assets whilst Parish Councils get a chance to try-out actually doing something for once.

“But what does this all have to do with us bothersome lefties?” I hear you cry.

If I might refer to a point highlighted in my first ever article, when analysing the successes of the Paris Commune and how it might indicate some requirements for the political constitution of a socialist society, Marx looks into the role of an elected representative. Things like being paid no more than the average worker’s wage and being recallable at any time by the electorate are features he takes a liking to. Also, the idea of how the legislative and executive functions of government can be combined in the duties of the representatives themselves and not a professional civil service is raised and it is this one which I find most notable. The vast majority of Parish Councils do not have competitive elections so the idea of being able to recall a councillor isn’t quite relevant, but as I mentioned at the start, the majority of Parishes don’t have a dedicated Clerk and in the ones that do the role (alongside other civil service positions) is extremely hectic and poorly supported. What occurs to me is that the opportunity for elected representatives to take on those practical, executive functions might be the greatest at the very bottom of the UK’s political structure.

This is made only the greater by the impending increase in powers these councils have. Parish councillors will soon have the opportunity to very seriously impact the communities they represent in a major and practical way. This includes the very imminent decisions over what kind of assets parishes will take on. Applications to the pilot scheme will be being made in the January-February period and the types of assets/services this pilot scheme covers will seriously impact the final list of assets/services it will become possible to devolve when things finally get underway.

Has your town recently lost social service infrastructure for young people? Are your local public toilets or car parks in disrepair? Will your local council be taking the initiative in solving any of these problems or will they take on the running of something like deck-chairs or beach huts?

There is then the issue of the currently unparished areas of the county. Not places where councils fail to meet, but places where there literally isn’t a parish. Most relevant to this journal would be the centre of Scarborough. These unparished areas are the most highly populated parts of the new unitary authority and are naturally the potentially most fruitful electoral options for socialists. For existing parishes, the possibilities for new powers are large but still limited. For new parishes being created, every aspect of how that council will operate is up for debate and the potential to create a hyper-local authority which has the powers to seriously make its community better is enormous.

Talking specifically about the issue of Scarborough, of course whether a new parish will even be created is currently uncertain. Public anger at perceived corruption at the borough council level and the endless election of crude egomaniacs calling themselves “independents” has been translated onto the creation of a new Town Council and many of the most vocal people are strongly against it. But not creating a new parish is practically unforeseeable. You can’t have a situation where on one street various services are run by the local parish council and on the next street over, they’re run from Northallerton. The doubling of service delivery is an inefficiency that won’t be tolerated by NYC. So what we’re likely to end up having is a Town Council consisting of wards which at the 2021 NYCC election returned 5 Labour Councillors and 1 Independent.

When Labour took control of SBC in 2019 it could be described as nothing else but a positive to see a tory administration which had torn down iconic landmarks and created a privatised tax on local businesses without their consent defeated and removed. Whilst a Labour-run council has been better by miles, so much of that private-based thinking (as is typified by the neoliberalism the party has recently re-embraced) has remained from the tory days. This combined with the appalling leadership of Cllr Steve Siddons (who became a councillor without the backing of his local party I might add) has shown that the party is not solely capable of manifesting the change needed in our communities. Not only would a Scarborough Town Council be serious electoral opportunity for socialists but it is also a necessity that socialists put themselves forwards when the time comes so Labour isn’t given a blank cheque over the running of the town.

If you haven’t already, look up your local Parish Council, chances are there will be vacant places and you could be able to join within a matter of weeks. Often, what limited power these bodies possess goes completely unchecked through the disinterest and lack of engagement. You only have to put in as much effort as you want at any given time, but it really is the first step towards creating serious practical change in your community. We socialists don’t have much at the moment, but we have to start somewhere.