Top ten community bright ideas to get government support

Cutting the carbon footprint of street signs and opening up empty business premises for community use, are just two of the radical new plans announced today by Communities Secretary John Denham in response to ideas generated by local communities.

Denham set out the Top Ten proposals to receive Government support as part of a programme of local devolution aimed at helping boost local economies and improve communities.

These have been chosen as the first ten because they offer the best potential to bring real benefits to the community. They address genuine local concerns and maximise their impact by building on existing Government initiatives.

Other proposals given backing today will:
•help communities develop renewable energy,
•boost local communities by ending restrictive covenants when pubs are sold,
•support a wider role for post offices in communities,
•give communities the right to buy disused buildings,
•promote allotments and allow gardeners to sell their surplus produce.

Denham said:

"I am excited by the quality of the ideas put forward. This really is local democracy in action and today's announcement is just the beginning.

"Local democracy starts with the citizens. The Government has strengthened the rights of local people to shape the area they live in, including increasing the power of elected local councillors and local authorities to represent their interests.

"These are great examples of community action to deal with big issues such as climate change and helping the local economy."

The Top Ten to receive the go ahead are:
1.Redbridge Borough Council proposed to relax the rules on the lighting of road signs to help cut installation and maintenance costs, energy consumption and light pollution. The Government is considering changes to lighting requirements since those it made in a 2002 review. Any changes will be tested to ensure that they do not compromise safety.
2.Islington wants to make it compulsory for owners of empty business premises (mainly shops) to talk to councils about possibility of premises being used by the community, if they have been empty for 6 months. The Government will consult with Islington and other stakeholders, looking at the challenges behind engaging with landlords and owners and ways forward.
3.Wirral and South Hams asked for communities to have the right to buy privately or publicly owned assets that are for sale in order to develop opportunities for community benefit. The Government will look into the challenges and barriers that a community right to buy approach would solve and what other solutions would help.
4.Brighton and Hove put forward proposals to allow gardeners to sell surplus produce to local and markets. The Government will clarify that there are no legal restrictions preventing gardeners selling genuine surplus produce.
5.Newcastle City Council, Ryedale District Council, and Darlington Metropolitan District Council all wanted action to address the problem of large pub and retail companies imposing restrictive covenants on pubs preventing them from continuing as pubs when sold. The Ministry of Justice will consult on removing the right of pub owners to impose such restrictions that are leading to pub closure.
6.Kettering, Redcar and Cleveland asked for changes in rules to allow local authorities to employ single teams of wardens capable of dealing with all civil enforcement issues. The Government will undertake a review of the current rules and any changes that may be needed to allow this idea to move forward.
7.Kent asked for funding to build a lorry park with 3000 parking places to address traffic problems locally which arise when the Kent Police implement Operation stack closing M20 in order to hold large volumes of freight traffic. The Department for Transport and Highways Agency are currently reviewing existing policy to find ways in which the Government can play an enabling role in the development of motorway service areas and other roadside facilities on motorways and all-purpose trunk roads.
8.Several councils pressed the Government to look at ways to encourage the development of renewable energy within communities. The Government is dealing with many of these through its household energy management strategy Warm Homes, Greener Homes: A Strategy for Household Energy, as well as through feed-in tariffs in April this year and the Renewable Heat Incentive from next April.
9.West Devon, Herefordshire and a number of other councils asked for a much wider role for Post Offices in communities including the provision of banking and financial services. A major expansion of the financial services offered by the Post Office - putting banking back into the heart of communities and making the Post Office network more sustainable, including £180million new funding was announced recently by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
10.The Government is also backing a call from Wiltshire for this process to be ongoing by giving its support to the Sustainable Communities (Amendment) Bill.

This initiative follows the passage of the Sustainable Communities Act in 2007. The Government has been considering a range of ideas from hundreds of councils from across the country. A total of 300 ideas were originally submitted to the Local Government Association. These varied considerably with some needing no Government action as local councils already have the powers to implement the changes themselves. The Government plans to continue work with the LGA to give all the proposals proper consideration.