While I fully expect, during the course of this debate, that people will be talking about funding decisions and the implications of those, I just wanted to have a quick look at the gap between the need for local decision making and the disconnect between citizens and those to whom they currently delegate those decisions. Because it seems extraordinary to me that it is much easier to have access to your Assembly Member, and even a member of the Government, than it is to your councillor, or a council cabinet member in particular. And, of course, we do have councillors who have an exemplary record of being available to residents, talking to them, working with them, and even resolving their problems. But, judging by the casework that comes through the door of my office on the back of the perception of a local councillor not doing anything, or not responding to them, this is far from a universal experience.

Assembly Members, and this Assembly as a whole, are acutely aware that we need to communicate our purpose and our work as individuals and the work and purpose of the institution as a whole to Wales—and it’s not easy; we’ve found that. But we do recognise that the odd self-congratulatory newsletter, press release, or survey on a labyrinthine website, is not the way to do this. And, with a disappointing turnout and so many uncontested seats at the last council election, I think councils have to ask themselves why the public has so little interest in them, and I think we must ask why that seems to suit them so well.

One of the things that’s really struck me during my time as an Assembly Member is how infrequently the public kicks off about a local decision. I appreciate there’s been a growth in social media armchair warriors, but I think there’s a real feeling, and a real perception, that public disapprobation has very, very little effect on council decision making. Now, as Assembly Members, of course, we are aware the obligations that this place actually places on local authorities. Planning, school places, recycling—even the Welsh language—are some of the issues that result in local authority proposals that can be unpopular. Many councils, of course, are wise enough to follow Welsh Government guidance to the letter, using process as a shield to protect their preferred response to those responsibilities. But, just in my own region, South Wales West, I just think of the effort it actually takes to get local authorities to look again at the way they want to try and achieve an objective. Sometimes, as with Parkland school, a solid well-made argument against a proposal is enough to prevent a silly mistake. Sometimes it takes a relentless long-term community campaign, as we’ve seen—that is needed to persuade the council to de-pedestrianise parts of Bridgend town centre, for example. Sometimes it means taking a bad council decision to the Welsh Government and getting them to change guidance for all councils, as happened with Swansea’s stubbornness on a safe route to school issue. Sometimes, of course, it means taking a council to court, as with Llangeinor school and the Catholic schools in Swansea, at colossal expense.

Part of this willingness of council cabinets to sit back and ride out the ructions comes, I think, from a complacency born of long-term domination of a council by a particular party or group. Scrutiny by opposition councillors, however good it might be, is pretty futile unless residents know it is happening. We could do with fewer council fanzines distributed at public expense and a wave of opposition councillors getting on social media and tagging their local press into the work that they do. Otherwise, this complacency and disengagement roundabout just keeps on spinning. That complacency extends to the observation that, after a while, the aggrieved will all get fed up and discover that, after all, the council was right all along.

But the thing is, so many of those decisions don’t turn out to be right. I’m just going to look at Swansea: bendy buses, the lethal Kingsway, the vainglorious boulevard, concreting over Castle Gardens and now replanting it, parking at Meridian tower—the spaces were too small—Parc y Werin, the installation of the Nowcaster machines that still don’t work, the sale of naming rights of the Liberty Stadium for 4p, bin bags banned from Garngoch tip and now having to be taken there after all, and, of course, buying recycling sorting machinery and then not being able to use it because of their own planning regulations.

Now, part of the purpose of localism, the right to bid, the right to challenge, local referenda, the growth of resident and community groups sitting alongside the council, with proper influence—not just the joy of ticking boxes in a web-based consultation—is buy-in: joint responsibility. Not mob rule, but an understanding of co-production and the creation of a new route of communication about complex challenges and the steps it takes to address them and why they’re a matter for everyone.

Now, I would have liked to have time to talk about partnerships with businesses. The fact that community groups and local authorities seem to occupy the whole territory for funding community capital, with no reach out to local business, for example, is a wasted opportunity, but time’s against me, so I’ll leave it with an invitation to councils not to fear your residents but get them to share the load.