No frills? No thank you

By Gavin Hayes

You may have been shocked to read today about High Barnet Council’s plans to adopt a no-frills approach to local governance. But it’s not just in London where the Tories are cutting back – similar policies are quietly being road-tested in Conservative councils across the country and it’s truly frightening.

In the small West Country town of Bridgwater where I grew up they are taking exactly the same approach to the fate of the much-loved local swimming pool – the Sedgemoor Splash – which this Sunday, pending a judicial review, could close its doors for the very last time.

What’s worse about this sad and sorry tale, is the Conservative-led Sedgemoor District Council will then demolish this community asset and sell off the land to make way for a Tesco’s – this in a town that already has three large supermarkets and a town centre whose local shops are really struggling to get by during the worst recession since the 1930s. So much for standing up to big business and choosing to put society and local communities first.

The Tory council there has also shown scant regard for local democracy and local people – the entire process given for community consultation about the pool’s closure has literally been just a couple of months since the decision was first made in late June. This has now led to local community leaders filing a judicial review. The whole decision-making process has been at best incompetent – at worst it has shown an utter disregard and a despicable contempt for the community. So much for giving more power and decision-making to local people. But then when it comes to cashing in capital receipts as Tesco heiress Dame Shirley Porter learned all too well – every little helps!

Or not as the case may be, because even more disgraceful is the fact that the government has actually made extra funds available to local authorities for such facilities when this year it introduced the Free Swimming Programme and an additional £140 million of government funding. Councils who sign up can also apply for extra capital funding to renovate swimming pools. Despite this money being made available the local council has failed to enrol with the scheme and will now deprive the local community of a valued facility – all in the name of a no-frills approach to local governance. And where has the local Tory MP been on this issue? His silence on the matter has been eerily deafening.

This town desperately needs to cling onto one of the only facilities that can offer an antidote to boredom, obesity, and anti-social behaviour. So much then for the Tories calls to want to fix ‘Broken Britain’.

David Cameron has spoken about how he would like to empower local communities and thinkers on the right like Phillip Blond have labelled this thinking ‘Red Toryism’ or ‘Conservative Communitarianism’. Yet this example demonstrates the inherent flaws of Red Toryism – if markets have no limits then they will trample over communities and we all know that the Tories will never stand up to the market.

Taking a no-frills approach to governance by closing down a local sports and recreational facility to make way for an unwanted supermarket is surely no way of running a local authority and it is certainly no way of running the country.

The Conservatives, whether in High Barnet, Bridgwater or Westminster have a lot to learn. The no frills model of local government is much more cynical than it first appears – cost cutting is one thing, the further marketisation of public services and public spaces will leave the poor behind. No frills – no thank you!