1. © James Borne
Power to the parish
The University of Plymouth’s Dr Gregory Borne considers the need for parish council
engagement to move past ‘symbolic politics’ towards sustainable development…
T
here is little doubt that the idea of sustainable reinforce a global discourse that highlights the continuing
development is here to stay. The upcoming United problems of diminishing and inequitable distribution of
Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in resources. They demonstrate a level of commitment by
Rio1 will once again discuss what sustainable development world leaders to address these problems and motivate
means to the world as it takes as its primary focus the moral and ethical sentiment. This is an ongoing academic
institutional framework of sustainable development and a and political debate. However, the focus here is the
green economy in the context of sustainable development integration of sustainable development into local politics.
and poverty eradication. A counter on the website indicates Regardless of the positive outcomes of global conferences
the number of days left to the conference, with the slogan the term remains contested and ill defined, and it is little
‘days to the future we want’. And it is exactly this sentiment wonder therefore that national and local governments
that embodies the fundamental tensions within the idea have difficulty in articulating the concept into effective
of sustainable development. This tension is highlighted in frameworks and programmes aimed at addressing real
the simple question: ‘the future that who wants?’ world problems. Furthermore, this lack of definition is
Sustainable development is a notoriously slippery term – it compounded by the perceptions at the local level that
is difficult to define, and therefore difficult to implement. sustainable development is a top down imposed agenda.
It has been accused of being a contradiction in terms, an It is perhaps the perception of sustainable development
oxymoron, and a term so fuzzy that it means anything to that it is a top down, imposed framework that makes it
everyone and so is useless as a guiding principle. difficult to translate into the more local context.
With this said I am a strong supporter of the idea of In a time of austerity, where local problems seem more
sustainable development. Whatever the outcome of Rio+20, acute, policies imposed by the international community –
international events such as these raise awareness and the United Nations, European Union, Organisation of
1 Public Service Review: Local Government and the Regions: issue 20

2. Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) etc – the closest level of government to the community. Forces
seem far removed from the everyday lived experiences of are in motion to increase the power of parish councils
those people in local communities. It is exactly this in order to form direct community engagement and
communication barrier that needs to be overcome and consultation with community members on the future of
addressed and this will be the front line of integrating the their local environments. The Open Public Services White
principles of sustainable development into the local policy Paper (2011) and the recent review of this paper (March
framework. This is important because as well as being a 2012) emphasise the importance that town and parish
concept that has arisen from a global problematique, the councils play within their local communities.
concept, properly articulated and developed, encourages
holistic policy development as well as concepts of equity The advantage of empowering the town and parish level of
and inter-generational equity. An unfortunate side effect, local government is the visibility of the outputs of
or even a direct result of local government’s need to programmes developed. At this level the idea of symbolic
legitimise their own policies and programmes through politics with regard to sustainable development is dispelled
external pressure to integrate sustainable development, because of the immediate and direct impact of the policies
means that the end result can be cosmetic and ineffectual. developed. Research conducted in Devon and Cornwall
adds weight to this assertion. The research, amongst other
With that in mind, over the past decade national, sub- things, explored what sustainable development meant to
national and local government have driven forward members of town and parish councils, and what they say
significantly to embed sustainable development into their is the best way of integrating this concept into their local
practices. However, a review of policies and programmes communities. There was support for the principles of the
from an international basis suggests that policies based
concept, an integrated approach including environmental,
on sustainable development are more symbolic with a
social and economic factors, ideas of equity and community.
high level of political currency but little real world impact.
As expected however, there was confusion over how to
Whilst there has been significant progress, for example
translate these ideals into real outputs, as well as frustration
with programmes drawing on Local Agenda 21, there is
with principal authorities and national government at
still a lack of salience at the community level.
opaque and mixed messages with convoluted or non-
With the aforementioned rather gloomy assessment in existent lines of communication. As such, there is an urgent
mind, the UK has one of the world’s most well-developed need to provide guidance and support for sustainable
sustainable development strategies, and the challenge of development to this level of government.
devolution and the achievement of a Big Society in whatever
form that may take, will depend very much on its effective If handled effectively with the correct guidance and support,
transmission and integration with local government. with an appreciation of diversity, there is a real opportunity
to use sustainable development as a guiding principle, and
The recent Localism Act will also stimulate discussion on implemented at the local community level move past the
what sustainable development actually means to local idea of symbolic politics for real and positive change.
communities. A very visible example of this has been the
debates that have surrounded the changes in the National There does of course need to be a continued analysis of the
Planning Policy Framework. The framework document policy context for sustainable development; in other
uses the term sustainable development over 50 times and words, the framing of the policy and the structural and
emphasises the need for a ‘presumption in favour of societal context. The real danger is that without the analysis
sustainable development’. The final document has now of the context of the policy and the lines of communication –
been more broadly accepted but only time will tell the particularly between the principal authority and the
impact this will have on the built environment over the community level – there will be continued confusion, a
coming years. lack of coherence, and fractured and disjointed policies
and programmes that do not address community issues.
There are a number of other areas that may be directly
applied to sustainable development governance at the There is a real opportunity to make sustainable development
local level, but the crux of this discussion is how we work using the parish council as a conduit through which
overcome the idea of a symbolic politics, how we get past local communities can respond to the challenges and risks
policies that only pay lip service to creating a sustainable of the 21st Century.
development when in fact, they are continuing along the 1 www.uncsd2012.org
same ‘business as usual’ lines.
Dr Gregory Borne MRICS MIEnvSC FRGS CEnv
To this end I focus on the importance of one area to which Lecturer Public Management and Policy
I am able to bring my own insights from extensive University of Plymouth
research over the past few years. This is the devolution of Tel: +44 (0)1752 585727
power to town and parish councils that has been made gregory.borne@plymouth.ac.uk
www.plymouth.ac.uk/staff/gborne
explicit in a number of government documents. There are
Twitter: @gborne1
over 10,000 local councils in England and they represent
Public Service Review: Local Government and the Regions: issue 20 2