…suggests Alan Spedding, commenting on my last post, and via Twitter:
@ruralise: have responded on the blog – not organisers – facilitators helping the community to get what it needs…and for how long?” perhaps the community will pay for the guy/gal long term if he/she is any good
I also came across an article by Oliver Reichardt on the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) website, who was also troubled by issues of perceived accountability at different tiers of Local Government. I pointed him at Ruralise and he commented:
Read your blog – interesting. The issue of national government seemingly passing over local government to some type of community accountability is definitely an area that needs thinking through in more detail and that I’m hoping to blog about. I imagine some local authorities are pretty annoyed that they are being sidelined.
The issue of who plays ‘honest broker’ in a Neighbourhood Plan or Community Right to Build project is crucial. I’ve been having some interesting discussions with two contacts on this point, and will report here when I can.